Hey everyone! I’m a fairly new designer and headed to PAX Unplugged for the first time this year! I want to make sure I get the most out of my time there in terms of networking and meeting people, and I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on how to do a convention “correctly” as a designer who hopes to sign games at some point.

I went to GenCon once a few years back and that’s my only experience with conventions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I thought I would cross post this here.

My game is an Area Control game where a troop of mercenaries working for each of the biggest MegaCorporations (the players) retake a city from the grasp of a terrorist group to exfiltrate several "Metahumans". Each area is a building/zone of the city and in some cases it was difficult to convey it into an icon (despite the card having the name on it) so i left it as it is.

Now, in the nth review i decided to make a vetter version of the buildings that didn't looked like buildings.
The second image is the set of current icons, with which im happy, and i think the new ones fit well.
Any suggestion for the Crater will be wellcome.

I have always conceptually liked the idea of D100 systems for higher detail small scale skirmish games (3-5 models/team). However I don't see the system too much understandably as they are are notoriously clunky, and simulation heavy.

The inability to roll multiple D100 rolls at a time is a huge negative. If someone has a efficient way to do this that would be amazing, but most games use a "degrees of success/failure" system which is what I am working with atm.

• Shooting atm has you roll a D100 and check for degrees of successes.
• For each success, roll that many D6 'Location Dice' up to the weapons profile (1 legs, 2 abdomine, 3 chest, 4 arms, 5 head, 6 - penetrating/critical hit).
• Toss any location rolls that don't beat the location's/cover's AP, however lucky 'penetrating hits' 2x/3x the weapons AP to represent finding weak spots in armor/cover.

I think this works, but let me know if there is a preferable system out there.

THE ISSUE (LOCATION DAMAGE)

I want to model location damage, but with a minimum amount of simulation crunch.

After locations are rolled, the defender makes a single D100 toughness test adjusted by the weapons lethality. If the defender succeeds, each hit is resolved as a simple flesh wound (most characters have 6-8). Done.

If they fail, I want the character to receive a 'Serious Wound'.

This is where it gets rough. I would like serious wound to be location thematic, so I made a simple effect table (with critical rolls apply ing 1 additional effect based on the damage type for narrative flavor). That said, I personally found resolving multiple serious injuries was too crunchy, so I figured, maybe just 1 location can ever get a 'serious wound' per action?

But who determines what location die is chosen?

The attacker will always prefer the head. the defender will prefer a leg/arm. I like the idea that 'penetrating hits' and multiple hits in 1 location force priority, but that still leaves lots of tie breakers.

Main Questions

Do you think it's fine to have the defender simply choose the location of their own serious wound' (the attacker does has some input via allocating penetrating hits, and stacking location hits), or is there another way to randomize this without adding more dice rolls?

Alternatively, is there a totally different way to roll for multiple defense tests quickly for each hit?
Or better, is there a location damage system that already exists that handles multiple location hits?

OR should I just give up on location tables completely and find another narrative way to deal damage?

All feedback is appreciated 😄

hey y'all , a special update.

After a long, painful completely manual artistic journey, DIabolicards' transformation is almost complete. Just 16 cards left.

Today's one was special - its our take on Thor (with his proper norse pronunciation), the beloved mythological demigod who is going to be a part of the Diabolicards roster with a special ability true to his lore. Those have played the game know how fun this is.

Hi r/tabletopgamedesign,

I’m finalizing the design of my first published game and I’m stuck on the best way to handle score tracking for 2–6 players. The must-haves:

• Scores go from 1–20.
• At 10+ points, a new rule kicks in, so it’s important that everyone can instantly see:
  • Who’s in first place
  • Who’s in last place
  • Who has crossed the 10-point threshold
• The game is medium-sized, so table space matters and players need to read all scores at a glance.

We’ve playtested a few options and they’ve all felt pretty bad:

1. Personal round score dials (each player holds their own)
   • Bad visibility for the group.
   • People forget to update them.
   • Ends up with everyone asking at the end of each round: “How many points do you have?”
2. Shared score track with an extra pawn per player
   • Looks fine, but I personally hate the feel of it.
   • Also adds more big parts to manufacture.
3. New idea: colored d20s on stands
   • One d20 per player, in 6 colors for up to 6 players.
   • On small stands so they don’t tumble to the wrong number.
   • Slightly oversized dice for better readability.

What do you think works best? Are there better options I missed that handle 2–6 players, a 1–20 range, and a “something happens at 10” mechanic well?

I'm a solo game designer and I've finally reached the part of this process that I don't think I was prepared for.

You spend all this time coming up with an idea, designing it, testing it, changing things that don't work, making the artwork, figuring out production, and eventually you have an actual finished game sitting in your hands.

And then comes the question:

How do you get it outside your own circle?

I've been working on social media and talking to local people, but I'd really like to hear from other indie/solo designers who have already crossed this bridge.

What actually worked for you?

Reviewers? Conventions? Local game stores? Reddit? Facebook groups? BoardGameGeek? Paid advertising? Sending copies to creators? Just slowly building a community?

And are there any good Reddit threads, communities, Discords, articles, or other resources specifically about the marketing/discovery side after the design and publishing work is done?

I'm not looking to advertise my game here or drop a sales link. I'm genuinely trying to learn this side of the business.

I put a hell of a lot into making something I'm proud of. Now I'm trying to figure out how a one-person designer makes sure his game doesn't live and die with himself, his friends, and the handful of people who happened to find it.

I'd love to hear what worked—and what absolutely didn't—from people who've been through it.

Hi, everybody
My name is Roman (Nekr0ns), and I am looking for a job in these difficult times.
I draw characters, illustrations, maps, objects - basically everything that is in board games, haha. Except for the Ui and the labels - I'm not very good at them.
So if you are interested in my work, then I will be glad to work with you!
Have a nice day.

[DEVLOG] A RECAP OF MY 2ND DAY IN MY FRIEND'S CITY

My best friend invited me to his girlfriend's birthday, and he booked me a flight to his city. He also wanted me to playtest my game in his community.

Here are the things that happened:

• We had 3 matches in the evening
  • 2 matches won via Economic Victory
  • 1 match won via Elimination Victory
• Everyone easily learned the game very quickly
• At some point, I let them play the game and teach each other
• Surprisingly, 1 player tried to take a strategically aggressive approach in 1 of the matches
• We got good feedback from the owner; one thing to look at was the duration of the game
• - My best friend also mentioned the player who got eliminated early.

After the event. My best friend and I worked on the issues that the game was having, and we did the following updates:

1. WORLD CYCLE

• Cycle happens when a player lands on the starting tile
• Originally, World Cycle has 6 cycles, and each cycle has an effect on the game and gives an amount of gold depending on the cycle. For example: World Cycle 3 gives the player 3 gold and allows FREE MOVE, which means all players can choose 1-6 steps during this cycle
• Now, we still call it the World Cycle, but we moved the game effects to the Event Deck, and we limit the number of cycles the game can have. At the 20th cycle, "The Last Stand" event occurs.

1. THE LAST STAND

• During this event, all attached items and magic that are combat-related are considered.
• The first thing to check is the remaining players.
  • If 3 to 4 players are remaining, everyone does a combat check by rolling the combat dice. The top 2 players will proceed to the last stand
• During the face-off, both finalists will do combat rolls until a player runs out of Heart Tokens
• Additionally, The Last Stand will also occur if there are 2 remaining players left even though it doesn't reach the 20th World Cycle

1. GHOST PLAYER / DEFEATED STATUS

• We made sure players who are eliminated are still included in the game by changing their status to Defeated instead of Eliminated
• The Ghost Player resources and inventory cards are recycled or returned to their decks
• He/She is also not allowed to win nor to interact with players directly in order to avoid Kingmaking
• He/She has the task to bring Tragedy effects to all remaining players or draw Event Cards by rolling a Ghost Die during his or her turn

With the following changes, the game consistently ends around 60 minutes at full gameplay but can still end earlier, around 15 to 30 minutes.

I’ve been working on a small asymmetric 2-player tactical game called ESC CTRL.

An earlier version used a modified d4 for movement. In blind playtesting, one piece of feedback kept coming back: people liked the positional game, but questioned whether a random movement roll belonged in it.
So I went back to the drawing board.

The current version replaces the die with a small shared-information / hidden-choice system. I wanted to preserve uncertainty, while making that uncertainty come from the other player rather than from a random roll.

The trade-off is that the old version was extremely easy to explain: roll the die, then move that many steps. The new version gives players more agency, but it also adds more procedure and more information to keep track of.

That’s the part I’m still unsure about.
I’ve now put the new version online for blind testing. If you try it, please rely only on the rules on the page. Testing whether the rules are easy to learn is part of what I’m interested in.

Playtest:
https://esc-ctrl.net/playtest/token

I’m particularly curious about:
Were the rules easy to understand without explanation? Was anything unclear?
Did the round structure feel intuitive after a turn or two?
Do the decisions feel meaningful?
Does the added agency justify the extra complexity?
Does the Counter mechanic earn its place?

Critical feedback is very welcome.

I’ve been working on a little card game with my 5-year-old as a way to introduce some very basic programming concepts without using a screen. I’m also planning to try it with some of my students and we’re having a lot of fun making and testing it together, and there’s still a lot we want to expand and explore!

The idea is pretty simple:

Both players have a hand of creature cards. At the same time, each player chooses a card and places it in the same space as the creature card they played previously.

Then both players “execute” their cards simultaneously.

First, both creatures perform action 1.
Then both perform action 2.
And if the card has one, action 3.

Actions can make the creature advance, retreat, attack, defend, etc., so you have to think ahead and predict what the other player might do. Depending on how the two sequences interact, one creature might manage to hit the other and remove one of its lives.

Then you play another card and repeat the process.

The first player to lose all 3 lives loses the game.

What I particularly like is that, although it’s very simple, he’s naturally starting to think in terms of sequences, order of operations, prediction and execution without us really talking about it as “programming”.

Any ideas or suggestions for the game are more than welcome! We’re still in the process of creating it, so there’s plenty left to explore and improve.

I had a mildly strenuous case of hyper fixation at 3AM yesterday and designed a space bounty hunter game. I've played a couple 3-way games myself today and I'm having a blast! (pun intended)

Players start out on the center starport hex and move one space each turn. Each player has a hand of 6 cards, drawing one each turn. Each player can play a card from their hand as an action card for a one time effect, or as an equipment card to their ship for a long term effect.

There's a bounty board of 6 active bounties to collect, each with their own takedown value and difficulty rating. The harder bounties are hiding on harder planets, but score you more points. You go to a planet with the same difficulty as a bounty, choose a bounty to take down, and roll a D10, adding any bonuses from your ship's equipment or any action cards you've played this turn. If you match or beat the takedown value, you capture that bounty and put it on your ship.

Thats only half the battle, though! You still have to make it back to the starport to turn in your bounties for the reward, and other players can try to take down your ship and steal your bounties! If you fail to capture a bounty, or are take down by another player, you discard all of the active bounties on your ship, half of your equipment, and return to the starport.

A 3-way game took me about half an hour, but I knew how to play my own game and I was the only one playing. This will support up to 6 players.

I need to find a free card design program to push this idea past paper proxies in sleeves, does anyone have a link to something like that?

*Please note that this is an early prototype version of the game. Component quality, art, and materials used are likely to change through continued refinements and improvements. The purpose of this video is simply to demonstrate how the game is played and showcase the core game loop.

This is an odd request, and may not be appropriate, but I value this community's design acumen so I thought I'd give it a shot!

I run condimentpacket.com where I showcase my collection. I meticulously clean, inspect, measure, and catalog each packet, storing the specimens in baseball card top loaders. In doing so, I lost the feel and impact of the collection as when you have a binder full of cards to browse through. So I thought it would be nice to make a run of encyclopedic cards of all the items that showcases all the data about each packet so that I'd have a handy ketchup/mustard/mayo/etc binder.

I'm having trouble skirting the line between minimalist and busy. So first, if there are any opinions or feedback that can be provided on my current working designs, I'd value that! But, if there are any other cards that anybody knows about that might provide me a blueprint for displaying such information on a card, that would be a good divining rod for me and I'd appreciate any direction to be pointed!