Lines of Fire (Bomberman as a board game)

[Erkki]

Updated: renamed to Lines of Fire, added an Aztec theme, rewrote the rules. See a later post.

I dreamt about a board game a couple of nights ago, but of course couldn't remember the details when I woke up. All I could conjure up was an image of a sort of maze, and it somewhy reminded me of Bomberman. And then I thought, why not try to turn Bomberman into a board game. I have some free time (vacation) and could use a project like this. Could be fun -- a bit chaotic like Robo Rally, but less random and quicker.

I sketched up some rules and drew a board, and did some test games with 4 players (all controlled by me), tweaking the rules a bit after each play. Seems ok so far, but I can't really test on myself, so I'll try to get some people to playtest during the next few days.

I was wondering though -- Bomberman as a board game somewhy seems a rather obvious idea to try -- do any of you know about any similar attempts, or actual published board games that could be considered similar to Bomberman? I did a google search, and that came up with a couple of descriptions of similar attempts, one even included the rules text.

A brief description of my version follows:

Components: board, wall tokens, power-up tokens, player tokens, d6

The board is 9x9, layed out like bomberman usually is, with indestructible walls forming a regular pattern. The destructible walls are placed as tokens.

Start & Goal:

Players start with 1 bomb, and with firepower of 1. Power-ups (+1 to bombs, firepower or movement) can be picked up from destroyed walls. The goal is to bomb the other players to death and be the last man-of-bombs standing. Choose a starting player, although it doesn't matter much in the beginning.

Rounds:

Phase 1: The Bombening

Players move (5 + power-ups), starting with the first player and then clock-wise.

- drop bombs to a square you are on while moving

- you can't voluntarily move so that you would be under fire when you stop moving (to prevent too early elimination)

Phase 2: The Narrow Escape (Optional)

- if any player is "under fire", they must "sprint" 1-3 moves (unless they are completely blocked)

- the sprinting player's own placed bombs explode after the first step (of the max 3). if the player lives, they continue moving.

- additional bombs cannot be placed, but power-ups can be picked up while sprinting

- players who were not "under fire" do not move.

Phase 3: Explode Mode or Ka-boom!

- Bombs explode, using the player's current firepower (e.g. firepower squares in each direction)

- For each wall the explosion hit, roll a die and place a power-up. Some walls guarantee power-ups, some have a 50/50 chance. The power-ups are:

+1 bomb

+1 firepower

+1 movement

- When all bombs have exploded, move the first player token clock-wise and start a new round if there is no winner

There are some more details, but this is the gist of it. If the wall in the center of the board is destroyed, it will go into end-game mode, where players automatically receive additional power-ups at the start of each round. This seems to guarantee that there won't be a very long cat-and-mouse game, as one player should eventually be able to surround the other with bombs.

I'm a bit concerned that the beginning is a bit boring -- every player starts in their corner and a few rounds are spent just exploding walls and picking up power-ups.

[Patters]

So a mod of robo rally? http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboardgamegeek.com%2Fboardgame%2F18%2Froborally&ei=O14BUKKjOeOj0QXuzq3ABw&usg=AFQjCNFCl3XzCXQ5acH2dEiS8dZy1cgWnA&sig2=8bnovl213GK9PKbx7d20Kg

[Twig]

(RoboRally was already mentioned!)

[Erkki]

Yeah, Robo Rally is somewhat an inspiration, but it's quite different - no simultaneous programming here. I think it works better as a separate game, but possibly some Robo Rally boards might work.

Just did my first play test with another player. 2 player was not so good, but when we each controlled 2 characters it was already quite fun and chaotic. Will try to get some real 4 player tests going in a couple of days.

[Erkki]

Here's a photo of the board when the setup is complete.

I'm using chits from Agricola, because that's what I had at hand. Orange things are +1 speed, yellow +1 range (firepower), black are bombs. The rest are walls and the first player token.

The darker brown walls have guaranteed power-ups, as does the one in the middle.

[Erkki]

Hmm... just had an idea to change the movement rules to make the game more like the real-time Bomberman.

Instead of everyone making a single 5+ step movement, players have 5+ 1-step moves, and they take turns resolving them. And there's no "narrow escape" phase. I tried it by myself, but I can't really trust what it seemed like since you have to react much more in this mode, and how do I react to myself? Slows the game down quite a bit as well, but on the other hand it is more like the real Bomberman -- now it's much more imporant how close you are to something instead of who has the next move. E.g. no matter if the other player goes first, I can get that power-up because I'm closer to it.

I guess I will have to do play tests of the "real-time" mode as well, to see which one is more fun.

[Erkki]

Is anyone interested in play testing this? If I ever decide it's good enough to try to get it published, your name will be in the rules!

I have written a complete draft of the rules doc, and if anyone is interested, I'll also make a board that you can print out on an A4 paper. You would also need to use components from other games (I used Agricola's, but I assume some others would work as well).

Components:

• 1 9x9 board to play on
  
• 12 light brown wall tokens (50/50 chance of reward)
  
• 8 dark brown wall tokens (certain reward)
  
• 1 white wall token (certain reward + end-game trigger)
  
• 15 black bomb tokens
  
• 15 yellow range bonus tokens
  
• 15 orange movement bonus tokens
  
• 4 player tokens
  
• 1 6-sided die
  

You could also use single colored wall tokens (21 of them), as the board beneath them would have the reward info.

[Lu]

I'm hosting a games night at my place relatively soon. Would be fun to try it out.

[Erkki]

Ok, here's a PDF of the rules, I'll create a printable board tomorrow, and probably a post play test questionnaire.

[Erkki]

Oops, didn't get to that printable board thing yet. I had some 4- and 2-player play tests at a board game night today, it seems the game might actually be between average and quite good!

One additional idea I got was a hex board that would allow up to 6 players. I just tested this by myself and that seems even more promising and chaotic! Also more dangerous from the start, which is good, I think. And also yields initial power-ups faster*. The only concern is that it's more complex than the rectangular board, and even the rectangular board showed that at some point the game kind of slowed down due to excessive thinking time (but was still only about 30 mins). A sand clock was suggested.

* I also placed a lot more walls than in the original rectangular version. Actually, I might try a similar wall placement in the rectangular one to see how that changes things.

[Erkki]

Here's an in-progress hex board -- print on A3 if you can (and want to help play test). It can fit on an A4 too, but is a bit small (at least with Agricola components). It doesn't have the places for power-ups that the square one had, but those can be kept outside of the board. Maybe I'll introduce player sheets for those anyway.

Rules are exactly the same as the square board. The black hexes are impassable, gray hexes are destroyable walls -- light is uncertain reward and dark is certain reward. Yellow is also certain reward, and triggers the end-game automatic power-up get.

I haven't updated the rules doc yet (will do soon), there were a few minor changes:

• instead of getting all the killed player's stuff, the stuff is dropped on all free squares around the player (diagonally as well, as long as the square is connected to another free square around the player). Roll D6 for each space to determine what is dropped -- if the power-up rolled is no longer available, reroll or... if it's an odd number, put the lower-numbered available powerup, if it's an even number, put the higher-numbered available powerup. (this rule prevents someone from suddenly becoming too powerful, and also I decided that killing another player didn't require the additional motivation of getting all the power-ups, as killing others is the goal of the game anyway, and also makes the board safer for yourself)
  
• dead player's bodies are destroyed when hit by an explosion
  
• explosions pass through other players (this prevents a strategy provided a bit too easy kills)
  

[edit] actually I updated the rules doc (PDF) now, but it may have a few goofs in it

[Erkki]

Oh man, the game should become more fun once I get some new rules polished and some of the mechanics changed. If anyone wanted to play test -- wait a little bit. I will have a much funner version in a week or two (or even sooner).

[Roderick]

I have no board game paraphernalia at hand, but it seems like a fun idea. With Bomberman, the thing that ultimately gets you in a pinch is that you make a wrong move under time pressure. Is that aspect incorporated, or is it a purely strategic thing now?

[Erkki]

I have no board game paraphernalia at hand, but it seems like a fun idea. With Bomberman, the thing that ultimately gets you in a pinch is that you make a wrong move under time pressure. Is that aspect incorporated, or is it a purely strategic thing now?

I've actually made some recent changes to make it fast and hectic like that, including incorporating a time limit of 15 seconds for a movement turn! Earlier play tests showed there was a lot of thinking time, especially towards the end.

A problem with that is player elimination -- might be frustrating to make a wrong move under time pressure and get eliminated -- trying to get rid of that. Today if everything works out I hope some local people are willing to play test some new rules where there are a set number of rounds after the center wall is destroyed, and the one who has the most bombs wins (bombs are re-distributed on player death and then they respawn for next round).

[Roderick]

Good luck! Once you get to publishing the game you'll need to avoid licensing conflicts. I suggest you call it "Explodeydude" from here on out.

[Erkki]

Good luck! Once you get to publishing the game you'll need to avoid licensing conflicts. I suggest you call it "Explodeydude" from here on out.

I use Bombarena as a code name. Will have to find something better -- apparently it sounds like Macarena. Hmm... maybe Bombarena of the Befuddled. If I use that name, it should be safe to use assets from the Bomberman games. (just kidding)

Anyway, I was playing Descent 2nd ed today and didn't find much time for play testing this Got 3 players to play the hex board, but it didn't seem very fun that way -- also they didn't want to try the time-limited / no-elimination variants, so they just played with previous rules basically (except for a few tweaks).

Also, I bought an A3 printer/scanner to help me produce prototypes with a quicker turnaround (actually wanted to buy a printer for years but needed that extra reason), but turns out the very thick paper I wanted to use gets jammed in it I may have made a stupid choice and should have gotten an A4 printer which can print on thicker paper instead. Oh well.

[Erkki]

Once you get to publishing the game you'll need to avoid licensing conflicts. I suggest you call it "Explodeydude" from here on out.

You know, unless I get the crazy idea that I should buy a license from Hudson, I actually want to take the game in a bit different direction than being as much like Bomberman as possible. I want the basic mechanics and the main trinity of power-ups to stay the same, but that's it. I think the hex board already makes it seem quite different from Bomberman.

Does an Aztec theme sound crazy? Six Aztec gods gather to play a game of ōllamaliztli, to determine who is going to become the sixth sun. But the trickster god Huehuecóyotl has played a trick on them and replaced the balls with bombs! With no way to play their game, each god decides to blow up the others and become the new sun.

[Erkki]

Seems the hex board was a temporary diversion. I went back to the square board because it seemed a lot more fun to players. Hex was too hard to figure out.

[jammbra13]

cool. nice board game. hm mind sharing more? hm. and try to make it a little bit harder and bigger.

[Erkki]

I suspect jammbra13 is a spammer, but I actually do not mind sharing more.

I've been working on this constantly, tweaking this way and that. Current main goal is to get the main game mode (with elimination) working really well on the square board. I found a few problems with the hex board which I also need to solve.

But the main elimination variant doesn't seem to work for all players. Working on a couple of alternative variants, but first I want the main game mode to be really polished.

If anyone wants to look at and comment on the new rules (PDF), I would appreciate it!

[Erkki]

Ran into a fucking hard balancing problem / design bug with the hex board. All solutions seem inelegant. If anyone wants to rattle their brains and help, I posted about the problem on the Board Game Designers Forum.

[Erkki]

Getting ready to start wider play testing, I've improved the graphics.

Square Board

Hex Board

Player Sheet

Also, here's a photo of the square board almost set up with some new tokens I made.

[Erkki]

I've been reworking the cards. Had mechanics for buying cards at one point, but that seemed kind of a distraction from the core game. Just tested with the new cards (by myself*), and they seem much better. You start with a High Priest card, each of which has abilities that can be used with the cost of power-up tokens (sacrificing disciples). If you get killed the first time, a lesser Priest replaces the High Priest (player chooses one that is left, or I might do it with flipping the card). If the Priest gets killed, you are eliminated. This is the middle ground I came up with between complete elimination and playing for points -- playing for points seems more boring than the elimination variant, but elimination after a single mistake might be tough for new players. I also didn't want to add another concept like "lives" as in Robo Rally or lives as power-ups like in Bomberman.

I think the variant with these cards on the hex board might be the best variant of the game. Tomorrow, I hope I can test it with some new players. Of course, it is perhaps not as fast and hectic as Bomberman. I've yet to test the variant that is closest to Bomberman.

* damn, but testing the game by myself is fucking tiring. One game takes me a couple of hours whereas with multiple play testers it would be 30-60 minutes (usually around 30, but with the hex board and 6 players I suspect it will be close to 60). It doesn't help that I usually test late at night. (right now it's 5:45 in the morning)

[Erkki]

I've been letting this project lay dormant for a while, as I decided it wasn't as good as I wanted. I'm now taking a bit different approach to iterating and testing and will write a program that implements all the rules and lets me test digitally. Later I will try to simplify & modularize the rules by simplifying the program, then convert the program into new textual rules. Blogging about it here: https://villane.wordpress.com/