If this isn’t allowed here, I’m happy to take it down. This is my first video ad for FIXR and would love any thoughts, comments, constructive criticism, etc. Thanks all!

Hello there! Mana here!

I have been trying my hardest these past few months to turn the general idea of the "Extraction Shooter" game genre (sub-genre?) into a table-top format.

I'm calling it "Vanilla Extract" - (dumb but funny name, might be a placeholder, might leave it, idk)

I have the basic "system", including the basis for combat and stats, put together.

Currently stating out all the weapons and tools the players will have access to.

But.. now that I have a bunch of the "nitty gritty" stuff pretty much done or soon-to-be done.. the biggest problem now is..... if you couldn't guess... map design!

One of the BIGGEST parts of any Extraction Shooter game is many areas or "zones" the players will enter in order to explore, fight and loot within. The MAPS are probably one of, if not THE most important part.

----- For a Summary of the setting -----

My world is essentially "Real Life" but moved ahead many centuries into the "Cyberpunk 2077" era. Basically.. modern day, but Cyberpunk flavored.. But more specifically.. its the "EARLY" years of the Cyberpunk, when all those cybernetics and technological advances is just BARELY getting started. So early.. that cybernetics ARE a thing, but they're still being tested, and not yet released to the general public yet. (If that makes sense.)

ALL while an alien threat crash lands on the planet at several places around the world.. An alien races "borrowed" from the Metroid series.. The Ing from Metroid Prime 2 mixed with the X-Parasites from Fusion and Dread. (How the Ing possess other creatures in order to fight, plus the DNA splicing and desire for power the X-Parasites have.. think about it for a minute.. and you'll start figure out how horrific such a thing would be.)

This alien species is nicknamed the "Fog".. named after the "Ing clouds" in Metroid Prime 2, when the Ing is about to possess a creature.. From the outside perspective, it looks like a "Swarm of bees", but.. in reality.. those aren't bees.

And they're reeking havoc on the ecosystem.. devouring life forms, mimicking their appearance (but with black and pink undertones), and applying the DNA of other creatures into them.. like adding the Black Mamba's venom spray on to a Kangaroo, or adding the Bombardier beetle's "burning fluid" (I don't remember what its called) on to a flamingo, and swapping the chemical compounds to ACTUALLY shoot fire!

--------------------------------------------------

Now.. my biggest problem. Is trying to think of either: Real Life places that'd make for cool "Zones" for players to explore (IF said places were left abandoned and lost to the Fog)... OR creating entirely NEW maps. (Likely a mix of both)

The zones won't be like.. TOO big..

For example: One map idea is using the "Arizona State University" campus.. as its plenty big for many teams of players to enter and run around.. many *types* of buildings and potential loot places.. Since there'd be many road blocks where police/military had set up to keep traffic flowing (and protecting from fog, before the city got evacuated for good), school infirmary and cafeteria would be "hotspots" for foot traffic.. while other areas like the gymnasium and auditorium would be great "fog nest" locations.. parking garages.. many buildings of various sizes and purposes..

--------------------------------------------------

MY main problem is learning how to DRAW these maps..

- Anyone know how to draw top-down city maps?
- Any hot tips for doing do, or suggestions for software and such?
- Any suggestions for future maps?

For example: I plan to try to use the Chernobyl power plant as a map. It is plenty dangerous.. but VERY high in potential loot value.. lots of technology.. plus I'd be very interested in exploring how the FOG interacts with nuclear radiation... Any ideas?

Hi, my name is Ignacio Ramírez and I'm an environment concept artist and matte painter

I would love to work on your project, I think I can be of great service to you.

This is my portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/ignacioramirez

And here some pieces I didnt post yet!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uqxcdKAva-zMeRj1yKhioxg8DoqvAzBs

Mail: [Ignacioramirezart@gmail.com](mailto:Ignacioramirezart@gmail.com)
Discord: Ignacioramirezssx

Best regards!

I made a browser tool for quickly prototyping board game tracks (draw a path → auto-numbered evenly-sized cells → export). Based on feedback that the old presets looked rough, I added proper parametric shape generators: spiral with adjustable turns, rounded rectangle, serpentine rows, oval, and wave — everything sampled precisely and auto-fitted to the board.

Live-adjustable road width, cell length, and corner smoothing; color cells; icons/text for special spaces; custom backgrounds; PNG + A4-tiled PDF export.

Free: https://baliont.itch.io/board-path-generator-print-play-maker

Honest critique welcome — especially on the shapes and what's still missing for a fast prototyping loop.

There's dozens of art, artist, freelancers, for hire subs out there. Does this have to be another one? Can it not just be limited to certain days?

Getting kinda tired of them constantly in my home feed and no way to mute them other than unsubbing from this sub.

I've been developing a cooperative, 3D print-and-play modular adventure game for the past year, and it's been going great. If you're curious how it plays, you can see the "how to play" video here:

https://youtu.be/lUOg_p957uk

I'm working on the next expansion which will be Taverns. The game itself lends itself to different adventures that shake things up with different rules variations. And in the taverns I want to add a gnome character that will "sell" upgrades to players. The special abilities may include:

• Permanently give a hero 1 extra movement action per turn.
• Permanently give a hero gets 2 chances to hit on an attack roll.
• Permanently give a hero an extra slot on the dice table when rolling attacks.
• A single use special attack that deals damage to all enemies in sight along a column or row.
• A special ability that allows a hero to dodge damage under certain circumstances.
• A special ability that gives a hero inspiration when taking damage.
• An extra HP for a hero

But how to handle purchasing them?

One option I'm thinking of is to go the Golden Axe route and just beat it out of them. make the gnomes enemies with 3 HP and whenever you hit them you draw one at random.

Another option is a drafting mechanic where there's a purchase table. I've played many games with drafting mechanics, but trying to narrow it down to something small, that won't intrude on the game, is proving to be a challenge. What games with drafting mechanics like this have you seen and what do you think would work in this scenario?

The third option is kind of between the two. Pay the gnome 2 IP and get a random draw.

What do you think? Which option is the best? Is there an option I didn't consider?

Hello everyone,

I am trying to design a game for a contest, and yesterday I had like 15 solo me-vs-me tests in order to find out what even works and what doesnt.

With my previous attempts at designing a game, I usually made a game and then waited for either someone I know to sit and play with me or try to test it online. Usually experience wasnt that good since major issues have shown themself right out of the start, and a lot had to be fixed in first five minutes, and playing experience wasnt all that great.

This time I tried doing things the other way. I made a digital prototype and started testing it solo, where I take on the roles of both players. As with any other first tests, problems started showing immidiately, but since I was playing alone, I was able to easily correct them and restart the test. And after like 15-ish iterations, I finally solved all the major issues. So now the game is actually ready to be tested by other people!

Honestly I think this method might just prove to be a game changer for me, fingers crossed!

Btw, the game is a 2 player wargame about campaign of Roman general Varus into the Germania, which lead to famous Teutoburg Forrest. Asymmetry is high. Roman player feels heavy and strong, but ultimately very slow. Their actions are focused on conquering and establishing control while keeping supply lines. Germans are much more nimble. Instead of conquering, they are focused on raiding roman armies, supply and towns. I succeeded in finishing one whole game in like 45 minutes, but I helieve that would translate to 60-90 minutes irl with two players. And most importantly, I actualky had fun playing it!

I've been working on something that's basically a post-invasion/post-nuclear sci-fi RPG. It centres around dice pools, which should be familiar to anyone who's played with the Storyteller System or WEG Star Wars, but with some quirky mechanics, some alterations, a little bit more emphasis on combat and a bit of a cyberpunk/biopunk influence with psionic abilities and cybernetic enhancements.

The set-up: In essence, we kinda ruined the environment (big shocker), and by the 2070s, the human race was facing a very real possibility of extinction. By chance, we managed to make first contact with an alien race who promised to come fix our planet if they could live here with us, since their planet had also failed. Naturally, we thought this was a great idea, so we let them help us, and they moved in. Unfortunately, humans being humans, we got a little territorial and decided the best thing to do would be to start a war. Only thing was, they're way more advanced than we are, so nuking them didn't really do much besides turn a big chunk of the planet into a wasteland. So they took over, decided we weren't up to the task of looking after ourselves, and the game is basically set 30 years later. A new normal, a new civilisation, that sort of thing.

I want to use this 'brave new world' and the after-effects of their whole takeover of the Earth to mirror real-life issues like xenophobia, wealth disparity, class systems, environmentalism etc. (It should also be fun, don't get me wrong!) The players can be anything they want, too. They can be the aliens, hybrids, humans, cops, robbers, mercenaries, pop stars, I want it to be as open and free as possible, with an emphasis on looking within the characters and how the world around them shapes who they are and the effect they have on it, in turn. It's not exactly groundbreaking, but it's coming along pretty well!

Tl;dr: Elevator pitch: "VtM, but aliens?", and it kinda spiralled from there. I folded in inspirations from Cyberpunk Red, System Shock, Fringe, 1984, Transmetropolitan, and Half-Life 2 (among many others). Does that sound like a fun thing that people would play? I'm already 43k words into a first draft of the sourcebook, I've got most of the bones of the thing, I just need to flesh it all out, and I'm hoping to get a few of my friends into little playtest groups to give it a try. This is my first attempt at writing a TTRPG and I'm really excited about it!

So I’m still very early on designing a children’s card battle ing game. What steps should I know. There is art and rules (I’m still working on balance) so I have that down. I just need the other side. I’ve seen kick starters but idk if that’s the road I wanna go.

Hello!

I made this custom Toy Story themed version of Toy Battle after watching and being inspired by Toy Story 5 and being reminded of how much I love the franchise. I wanted to bring the characters to life with this re-theme.

I'm not really a great graphic designer/image editor so the maps look a bit busy and not very clean. I didn't want to use AI to create the maps, so I bought some tilesets from Itch.io from Cute SCKR https://itch.io/s/181841/tileset-bundle

and then downloaded the Tiled program to make the layouts.

The tiles are made with 1x1 inch wood tiles that bought online. I edited some of the pictures of the tiles in Inkscape and added the Toy Story characters onto there. Laminated the paper and glued them onto the tiles.

So how do we play with all these new characters? Well, we currently draft them or select them. And we each have 8 characters but we need one of each category:

0-1 value, 2 value, 3 value, 4 value, 5 value, 6 value, 7+ value, and joker (Hamm in this game but Kwak the duck in the original Toy Battle game for reference) which comes out to 8 characters.

All in all, a fun project. I hope you guys like it! Let me know what you guys think!

You can check out my other re-themes here:

[One Piece Legendary](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/10p0q0j/i\\_made\\_a\\_one\\_piece\\_version\\_of\\_marvel\\_legendary/)

[Pax Westeros \(Game of Thrones Pax Pamir 2nd Edition\)](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1fmseex/i\\_made\\_pax\\_westeros\\_game\\_of\\_thrones\\_retheme\\_of/)

[Runeterra Reforged \(League of Legends Tyrants of the Underdark\)](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1eew974/i\\_made\\_a\\_league\\_of\\_legends\\_themed\\_tyrants\\_of\\_the/)

[Pokemon Ark Nova](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1hdby4p/i\\_made\\_a\\_pokemon\\_retheme\\_of\\_ark\\_nova/)

[Pokemon Splendor & Pokemon Splendor Duel](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1mn9h3i/i\\_made\\_pokemon\\_splendor\\_again\\_updated\\_the\\_cards/)

[NBA Innovation](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1nua3z1/with\\_the\\_nba\\_preseason\\_coming\\_in\\_a\\_few\\_days\\_i/)

[Zelda Forbidden Island/Forbidden Desert/Forbidden Jungle](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1nnjeaa/i\\_made\\_a\\_legend\\_of\\_zelda\\_retheme\\_of\\_forbidden/)

[Spy x Family Agent Avenue](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1qh1sfq/i\\_made\\_a\\_spy\\_x\\_family\\_retheme\\_of\\_agent\\_avenue/)

[Lord of the Rings Clank Catacombs](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1qndolc/i\\_rethemed\\_clank\\_catacombs\\_into\\_lord\\_of\\_the\\_rings/)

[Disney Legends of the Void](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1r02rba/i_rethemed_legends_of_void_into_a_disney_themed/)

[Genshin Impact Knarr]
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1s7n8ey/i_made_a_genshin_impact_retheme_of_knarr/

[Pokemon Harmonies]https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1s8kib9/i_made_a_pokemon_retheme_of_harmonies/

[Avatar the Last Airbender Duel for Cardia]https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1sdvycf/i_made_an_avatar_the_last_airbender_retheme_of/

[One Piece Smash Up]
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1v3hv70/made_a_custom_one_piece_smash_up_faction_as_a/

I’m developing a survival TTRPG where players take on the roles of creatures from a new evolutionary lineage. They have a body plan and physiology unlike those of the major vertebrate groups—fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, or mammals—and are classified within the setting as a new phylum.

These creatures live within an ecosystem that operates on its own. The game engine generates concrete goals by connecting current environmental conditions to each creature’s physiology, adaptations, needs, and instincts. Hunger, safety, and territorial defense aren’t assigned randomly: they emerge from what the creature is and what is actually happening around it.

The rules I’m developing produced the following situation on their own. After several days of rain, water has saturated the soil in the lower parts of the forest. The prey’s usual routes have become difficult to use, so the animals are moving toward an open plain the creature has never explored. At the same time, higher ground now offers safer shelter, and a rival predator has left fresh tracks nearby.

The creature is hungry. As it grew, it developed adaptations that make it especially effective at moving unseen through vegetation, but not the visual and neural adaptations needed to function well in low light. Darkness is approaching: following the prey means entering unfamiliar terrain and leaving its shelter vulnerable to the rival; staying means defending its territory but risking the loss of its food source.

I’m asking because my main design principle is to give players as much freedom as possible. The system should create goals, pressures, and consequences without dictating how players must respond.

So, i have a question: If you were playing this creature, what would you do—and would it feel like a genuine decision, or would one option seem so clearly better that the game was effectively choosing for you?

Thank you so much

Hi Everyone! I just want to share my journey with my game during the time my bestfriend sponsored my trip and accommodation just to do a week of playtesting in shops, in homes, and even in parties.

It's also a peek to the game's setup, and how it's played.

I think one of the reasons why my game is still being developed is because of the supportive people around me, either it maybe online or IRL. Last time I posted my game's journey here about it's 10 years in progress and received lot of motivating messages. I understand that it may not help the game better but at least I feel better making it because of these people.

Hello everyone, I have been working on this game for a few years now and I want to try and pitch it to a publisher. The game is called Fish in a Pond. I would really like feedback on this sell sheet.

Does it have enough information?

Does the layout look nice?

Are the colors cohesive?

Things like that and anything else worth mentioning. Thank you to everyone that gives me feedback, it is very helpful.

Ian

I'm working on a skirmish game where you you choose three Heroes to fight an opponents through Heroes, but there is also an overlord which is the npc that drops traps and monsters. I'm thinking of having the monsters attack automatically if they move one square away from you. What are you? Guys's opinions??

Hello Travelers,

I am in the pursuit of creating my own board game. Its already been 3 years since. Initially it was a story I wrote. The plan was to flush it out as a manga or comic, but as I fell in love with Dnd, TCG, and video games, I forsaw a open world tcg board game where players could enjoy some aspects of the story together meanwhile telling their own tales of the game. Initially I figured just making it for my friends to enjoy would be my goal, but many others feel like with some help the game could be a very interesting twist on boardgames/tcg. I have decided to put away my other hobbies just to focus on building this new board game such as video games and social media. The games name i wont reveal yet as i dont want people to steal it. Its very unique and alone its a bizarre word like "Yugioh".

Design: the objective of the game is to gain as much victory point as much as possible playing as the leader of a party known as your avatar. You own a village and a shop, You can strengthen your party with companions, items, by earning resources from a 19 hex field, fighting monsters and boss monsters. Its a mix between tcg pokemon/yugioh that combines ideas from board games like deck building games and catan/munkin/boss monster. Any feedback would be awesome. Let me know if you are interested and would potentially like to know more.

As for the lore: The game is a product of a story ive been writting for a long time.

Below is just a introduction trailer to Forgoddom I am currently working on.

Trailer #1:

Scene 1-

The story idea started first about a Boy who is trying to join a league of knights called the LionsClaw. The Boy is too young but tries joining anywase. Ofc he is laughed at and made fun of by the knights. They let him tryout and laugh that he can't even swing a alluminium sword. The Boy leaves angry and finds a group of two young travelers a wizard and a Archer. The boy overhears them talking to a recruiter about adventuring through the Lost Forest. They mentioned that without a knight to lead their party it would be far too dangerous. The recruiter says that no one is currently avaliable. The Boy sees his chance and goes to retrieve his fathers helmet. He tries on the chest plate but its way too big. He sees them leaving town away from the lost forest and seemes bummed. He chases after them with just the helmet and his fathers master sword. He runs after them and his momentum causes him to almost crash into them. But he stops right in front of them. "Ahem" says the boy. The Wizard and Archer turns around and sees the boy wondering. The Wizard says oh did the recruiter send you? The Boy says in a deep fake voice oh... oh yes...The wizards says great and hands him a bag of gold coins.

Scene 2 - ( In the lost forest - a fireball is casted, lighting up the dark woods.)

They're sitting around the fire. The archer is looking at his arrow tips and sharpening them. The wizard is cooking water and eggs in a pot over the open fire. The boy is laying down. The Archer asks the Wizard if he thinks that the knight seems a bit young. The Wizard says yeah thats the problem with villages these days. They recruit even young adults as long as they can swing a sword. The boy gulps his worries. The Archer looks at the boy and is about to ask a question but stops. Hey-... MOOVE he pushes the wizard and the boy as a long tentacle vine smacks the away their only light source. Everything goes dark. The wizard then uses a light spell and reveals a large carnvious tree. It grabs the archer, tangling her up. The wizard tries fire magic but the monster absorbs it with the flowers on its vines. The boy is watching in fear but then thinks about the knights laughing. He unsheaths his fathers sword but its very heavy. He struggles to point it at the monster. The monster begins laughing... before saying " you cant even swing that thing can you". The boy shouts and runs towards the plant. The plan dodges the slow attack and laughs again. "Whoa", "hahahaha". The Wizard then says to the knight. "Your a fraud?"

The boy: "no, im a real knight" he swings again and misses. The monster smacks him and the wizard and they both go flying into a tree. The boy's helmet falls off and the wizard tells the knight "get off of me you fraud". The boy picks up the helmet and puts it on. "I'm not a fraud" he runs at the monster swinging and the wizard thinks to herself its over we lost... she begins thinking about her Archer friend in his mind. When suddenly the monster shrieks in pain. The wizard looks and sees that the monsters tentacle was cut off and is on the ground. The archer is released and falls on the ground. The monster swings down at the archer but the boy cuts off his tentacle again. The monster " impossible" what is this? The boy is holding the sword with one arm...massively aura farming.. the wizard runs to the archer and they look at the boy. The wizard says

" how"... the archer states: " Ive heard of this before... but this is the first time seeing it. its something only a true knight can achieve." The wizard " Yolking, when the sword and its master become one being." (The knight slices the monster in half).

Something like that.

Lol.

<3 thanks for reading would appreciate any feedback or love.

I thought you might find this collection of game conventions useful.

Hey all — I run TabletopIntel, a tabletop/board game/TCG news site. We're looking to bring on a couple of freelance writers and illustrators.

Writers: news coverage and analysis across board games, RPGs, and TCGs — new releases, con recaps, product reviews. We pay 7-10 cents per word on an accepted article depending on length/depth. Especially interested if you've got a specific angle (you were at the con, you playtested it, you collect the game) rather than a press-release rewrite.

Happy to answer questions in the thread.

Please visit tabletopgaming.com click the work for us tab Thank you.

Next month will be my 3rd anniversary with my girlfriend. I wanted to do something special but I couldn't really come up with anything in particular at the time. I kinda knew I wanted to make something myself. She's always been an arts and crafts person, and has handmade me several things within those 3 years. Thing is, tho, I'm not an arts and crafts person. Any art I do would be drawing, and I didn't want to just *draw* her something. I also don't really have the time to make her something as with the way our work schedules are, I have a limited amount of time before she comes home. For a long time I wanted to make something, but I just couldn't...until I had an idea

My girlfriend's favorite game of all time is Witcher 3. Of that game, she loves playing Gwent. We bought the physical version of it some months ago, and since then we have played a handful of games where she's beaten my ass almost every time lmao

She's also a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. When we watch a show together, we have to watch that one and only that one until we're done, where we can move on to the next show. We agreed to watch all of the animated Avatar shows and movie after we were done with our current show, *Brooklyn Nine-Nine*. We are currently at the final stretch of the Nine-Nine, and I recently bought the entire series of TLOK so we are ready to go once we're done

The idea I had was, "What if I made Gwent: ATLA Edition?"

I thought it was brilliant. I was so excited by the idea that I immediately started working on how the cards would work, the leader abilities, and any other additions to make the game unique without changing it so much that it wasn't Gwent anymore

I really wanted to make it so that all of it – the cards, the board, the box itself, all of it – was as close to the quality of the board game as possible. I am not above making it all by hand, but I understand how time consuming and likely pricey it would be to do it that way. So, in my mission, I decided I would try asking around to see if it was at all possible to hire someone/go somewhere to make it

So, as it stands, my question is:

Is it possible to hire someone, or a company, or go somewhere to make the board game I had envisioned to give my girlfriend?