Reviewing how Turtchester changed from a multiplayer TTRPG about city building into a board game about rats sailing ships and fighting for control of islands. And you can try it at Unpub this week.
Usually with games I have a very clear idea of the theme and then build the mechanical game around that. That's been the case for EZB, Eleventh Beast, Caveat Emptor, and Tollund.
This is the rarer case where I started with the city theme inspired by Beak, Feather, & Bone but then realized I had a really interesting mechanism. That didn't really allow for travel and adjacency things, so when mapping it out as a pointcrawl map... it looked like islands! Realizing I needed a theme for Unpub testing and having Ratsail on the shelf, that was the obvious solution.
I remain uncertain because if it changed once, it can change again!
Thanks for posting this! It's so cool to see someone's process playing out.
Thanks! ☺️
First time encountering this....actual rats? Sailing ships??? Could I get a summary rules for this as reader/tester?
Thanks! I may release a rules test in the future, but definitely not before Unpub this week.
I'm curious about your theming process. How does it work in your design process and what makes you uncertain about the theming of Turtchester/Ratsail?
I wish I had clear answers for that! :)
Usually with games I have a very clear idea of the theme and then build the mechanical game around that. That's been the case for EZB, Eleventh Beast, Caveat Emptor, and Tollund.
This is the rarer case where I started with the city theme inspired by Beak, Feather, & Bone but then realized I had a really interesting mechanism. That didn't really allow for travel and adjacency things, so when mapping it out as a pointcrawl map... it looked like islands! Realizing I needed a theme for Unpub testing and having Ratsail on the shelf, that was the obvious solution.
I remain uncertain because if it changed once, it can change again!
Thanks for the question!