The 12 Towers

Hello Veeky Forums, 12 Towers guy again.

I'm hoping I can get a long thread going, and possibly start building a base following to get my game relatively more noticed. Obviously I don't want to spam and cram this down peoples throats, so I'll provide updates on progress and hope this catches on.

This is an in-dev board game I've been working on for almost a year. By next year I'm hoping to have a Kickstarter going, and a boxed prototype version ready. For in depth info on the game and how it works, check these links.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202491/12-towers

boardgamegeek.com/thread/1580236/wip-12-towers-sandbox-rpgpvp-game

If you're in the Buffalo, NY area, and you want to see the game in action, I'll be at the Fan World convention at the end of August, and Queens City Conquest beginning of September.

fanworld.us/
live.queencityconquest.com/

-Current Events and other crap-
I'll be starting the 3rd Edition of the game this August, but I'll still be demoing the 2nd for the time being.

3rd Edition will have better art, and much more solid mechanics regarding combat, Campaign Rules, and Tournament Rules.

In another post later on I'll explain how Campaigns work in this game, it's a nifty system I designed that basically records history (previous games played) and gives the winner a Generation Bonus.

Another project I'm working on is a Damage Scale system. The biggest mistake I made with the 2nd Edition cards is having both even and odd numbers for damage. I'll be keeping everything in intervals of 5 now, rather than waste time trying to do shitty math equations.

The Damage Scale will have a range of 5 (minimal) to 300+ (epic). Not that it really effects anything in the game, but it'll be a fun way to say "Oh snap 100 damage, that's a critical hit!".

I'll be providing some more images of some updates coming today and the following week. If you have any questions just ask!

A few days ago I cut up my spare board into tiles. Now I'm 50/50 on this decision, whether to keep the board whole, or make it a tile laying game.

I'm not a huge fan of tile games, but hot damn they sell pretty good. It would also allow for an insane amount of customization, but the setup/tear down would take some time.

A full board (or at least a quad cut) would keep things simple, but little to no customizing, and the board would always be a standard size. (current one is 32x32). If you have an opinion on this, I'd like to know.

I'll be working on board art as well for the 3rd edition, but I'm at a crossroads whether I should go full hexagon grid, or keep it as is.

This is the current card artwork, all my original work.

Working on some ideas to add symbols, rather than a shit ton of reading.

If you have suggestions, by all means, I'll take what I can get. Next gen artwork will be a lot less cartoony.

Good work, you are on a glorious path that few fa/tg/uys ever tread.

Thanks, I'm not expecting this to be the "next big thing", but I have some ideas that'll build on the core idea of the game.

I figured while the game is young, get some fa/tg/uys involved in it's creation.

Looks good man. I know you included links in your OP, but perhaps include a brief summary of the gameplay in the OP or 1st reply.

Not sure how good of an idea this is, but I know a lot of people who try various games on tabletop simulator. Think it would be worth adding this to the workshop and asking for feedback?

No prob

The 12 Towers is my attempt to create a Sandbox RPG game. This game can be play by 2 to 12 players (12 Players is more geared towards professional team tournaments).

The game is a mix of some familiar elements;
DnD (Figurines, Dice rolling)
MtG (600 cards with the core game)
Risk (Strategic placement, movement)

The 12 Towers is a heavy PvP game that has an insane amount of weapons, armor, magic spells, siege engines, etc to destroy your opponents. As confusing as it looks, the rules are very simple;

Each player has a list of actions they can do in any order:
- Move their Keeper (character)
- Cast 1 spell
- Attack with a weapon/siege engine
- Equip/Replace an item (weapon/armor)
- Take an Event card (if you land on an orange space)

Events are what give the game some life, and depth. There are 200 event cards, ranging from massive cities, small secret passages, even dragons. The point of events are to give players some incentive to explore and search around. Events (if taken, or "controlled") gives you a new ability, whether it's a one time use, persistent effect, or even an ally. There's a wide range of what these cards to.

Now to keep things simple, the core focus of the game, is Power. Power is essentially everything that you are; Wealth, HP, mana, etc etc. It's all boiled into one number. The objective of the game is to keep your Power high, and drop other players Power to 0. Almost everything effects your Power, whether your casting spells, controlling events, even taking damage. There are a lot more effects that reduce your Power, rather than add, so it's a game in itself to manage that number.

More in a sec, my apologies for the jumbled mess.

>>daru'de
sandstorm

I've heard both good and bad things about TS, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm assuming there's a shit ton of coding to do?

Part 2 of the game explanation.

Now i've gotten a lot of questions about this, so I'll explain it as best as I can this time.

What Sandbox means in this game, is that players are not limited to any order or direction, they are free to make their own decisions and improvise.

The point of the game is to control all Active Towers, or eliminate your opponents. However, that's not the only way to play, I'm working on an additional section of the rules that adds starting/ending conditions.

Overall, The 12 Towers is all about being yourself, and playing how you want, even if that includes being a dick to everyone! I'll give a few user examples of some play styles and tactics I saw in a few text games.

-user kept quiet and defensive, then cast Temporal Grabber to switch places with the lead player.

-user controlling the Fire Tower rampaged straight across the map to utterly destroy the Ice Tower, removing it from the game.

-user controlling the Gold Tower farmed his Royalty Coffers and Gold dragon to gain 3 item cards per turn, game ended with his victory and 160 cards in hand.

Not only do you bring a strategy to the game, you bring your personality as well.

lol, 1 of 2 parody cards in the game.

>emord'ni'lap

Except it's not. This triggers me.

Also, before I forget. Movement is based on a standard space amount, that's decided at the beginning of the game. Vanilla rules is 5 spaces per turn (for easier/faster games, it's increased)

Movement used to be based on a D6 roll, but I got a lot of heat for that.

There are a TON of cards in the game that effect movement, whether you're riding a Dragon that gives you a +4 bonus, or casting Iron Caltrops that reduces everyones roll within 6 spaces by 4.

It's one of those things that I try to make known as much as I can. The game may start slow, but as players gradually gain more and more cards, they can move further, and hit harder.

Giving ya a bump

Thanks!

Right now I'm working on the Damage Scale system. Basically it's a list that goes from 5 to 300. Sections are broken down into different types of weapons, spells, armor, etc.

Here's an example

10-15-20 dmg: Light ranged weapons
25-30-35-40 dmg: medium melee weapons
40 dmg: Heavy Melee/Ranged Staff
40-50: Light Ranged Siege Engine
60-70: Medium Melee Siege Engine
80: Legendary Weapon

One thing I noticed during play testing, is that players relied a lot more on Ranged Weapons, which I figured should be more damaging.

My plan for next gen weapons is to reverse that, making Ranged weapons weaker, and Melee weapons stronger. ranged has limited risk and allows for safe damage, while melee puts you in harms way, but deals more.

I'll have an image for this in a little while.

Rochester area. Come up to Just Games sometime, it looks cool as heck, and I'd love to try it.

Oh snap, I was there a few months ago. I'm on the FB page I think.

Q: Are there always 12 towers? do you need 12 players? do you remove towers if there are less players? do the towers stay and are controlled by NPC player rules? What do you get for destroying a "tower"?

>Indie game dev posts thread
>People actually ask questions
>Dev abandons thread

1.) You can play with as little as 2 players, and as many as 12. I've play tested with a wide variety; 1vs1, 2vs2vs2 team deathmatch, 6 player FFA

2.) The Towers can be Active, or Dormant. What this means is, when you start a game, you can place as many Towers as you want. When a tower is Active, it can be controlled, or destroyed. All players start with 1 tower under their control, and as they progress through the game, they can take over other ones. Controlling Towers gives you a series of benefits and abilities, but it's a heavy cost on your Power.

3.) There are some NPC rules, but nothing substantial yet. I'll go through my notes and get back to this one.

4.) Other than the satisfaction, there's no real bonus to destroying a Tower. But it IS fun to completely ruin someones plan. Towers have a Power amount as well, and if it's reduced to zero, it's off the board. This includes all the bonuses to it's card types.

Here's an example pic. I did a play test at a local store called Dragon Snacks a few months ago, and we set up a 4 player free-for-all, with only 4 Towers. And we customized the rules for this game to put more focus on player PvP, rather than tower controlling. So we basically turned some rules "off".

That's the big thing about my game. My rules are meant to be bent and twisted to accommodate situations, whether players want a fast PvP game, or a drawn out Lore Friendly campaign game.

Before I call it a night, I'll explain how I'm working the Campaign rules for this game.

There's a bit of back story, but nothing too extravagant.

For an example campaign, we'll say there are 6 Anons that play 1 game everyday, for 9 days.

Every game they play will be recorded on a timeline. And each game progresses the timeline by 100 years, or a Generation. As I stated above, players take the role of a Keeper. These Keepers control their Tower, and watch over the lands, maintaining or disturbing the balance of the elements.

Every 100 years, the next generation of Keepers venture out and seek glory, domination, knowledge, etc. Think home schooled kids getting their first taste of freedom to do fuck all they want.

Now, when a game is over, and a winner is decided, the player that won can name the Generation. For example, user that controlled the Black Tower eliminated all other players, thus he names the Generation "The Age of Damnation".

At the beginning of their next game, the player that won the previous game can choose a special perk, that permanently assists him.

So now we're back at the beginning. Another 100 years has progressed, and it's onto the 2nd Generation of Keepers.

At the end of this Campaign, 900 years has passed, Towers have risen and fell, Keepers slain and conquered, but ultimately there is one Keeper that reigns supreme.

So describe the various towers. Are they only different in theme, if so what's the theme for all of them? I get some but not all. And if there are different strategies per tower (like M:TG) what are they?

Good question, always forget that section.

The towers are broken down into 3 sections, and each one has a series of themes that follow into the cards and it's effects.

I'll whip up a quick chart

Element Towers-

Fire Tower
Themes: Orcs, Goblins, Volcanoes, hell
Focus: Melee Damage

Ice Tower
Themes: Snow, Tundra, Yetis, Wolves
Focus: Ranged Damage

Undertower
Themes: Dwarves, Mountains, Mining
Focus: Defense

Sky Tower
Themes: Dragons, Clouds
Focus: Speed, Movement

Material Towers

Iron Tower
Themes: Mazes, Thieves, Shadows
Focus: Stealth

Gold Tower
Themes: Royalty, greed
Focus: Card gaining

Emerald Tower
Themes: Glass, prisms
Focus: Defense

Brass Tower
Themes: Sand, Desert, Snakes, Aladdin
Focus: Offense

Black Tower
Themes: Vampires, zombies, disease
Focus: AoE Damage

White Tower
Themes: Knights, Holy, civilization
Focus: AoE Defense

Shadow
Themes: Time/Space, alternate realities, tentacles,
Focus: ???

Tower of Life
Themes: Elves, wildlife, animals, forests
Focus: Gradual enhancement/strengthen

You don't really have a "fuck shit up" focus. Shadow seems like a good fit for it (although you should really rename it to something like rainbow, chaos or cosmos).

Both the Undertower and the Emerald Tower both focus on defense - what's the difference? Also, the Shadow Tower seems a good candidate for Entropy effects - not so much gaining strength as it is making everyone else weaker.

I was more thinking random or luck-manipulating effects.

Before I forget, these focuses are part of the Tower Cards, the larger cards on the OP pic.

When you control that Tower, you gain it's benefits. There's 1 Passive ability that has no cost. 1 Active ability that has a cost and cooldown, and 1 Event ability.

Undertower allows for multiple armor items to be equip, while the Emerald Tower boosts your armor, and makes it more durable.

Here's some examples of Armor. Note that each one has a different boarder and color, that coincides with a Tower. When you control the Tower with the matching color, you get a TC bonus (Tower Controller).

Will this be avaiable on tabletop simulator, it looks really fun but the chances of it being available in my country are slim

I do hope one day you'll find someone who'll offer to make a better looking board than the one you have now, especially since you can probably streamline the movement rules further (though bumping up movement amount to make games faster is pretty neat). No complaints if it works for you however. Wishing you the best in your endeavours.

Small input, the small 3 dotted tile could probably be kept together with the main board since it seems unnecessarily small. As for turning it into a tile laying game, I'm not sure if the benefits outweight the increased setup time. At the moment you can already do plenty of customization by blocking certain paths, or placing the towers in different locations.

Seeing what it's on the opposite side of the board from, I'd go with "Tower of Death."

Last thread I saw we established that player elimination is not something any fa/tg/uy thinks is excusable, and some vacillation over alternative win conditions. I'm sure you've got it mostly figured out at least by now, but in the last thread I would have directed you to the game Rex for inspiration: all alliances are enforced by game mechanics (it's really cool because you trade cards that give each other watered-down versions of the race's special power, but I digress) and every end of round victory is checked: one player can win by controlling three strongholds, a two-player alliance by controlling four, and a three-person alliance by controlling all five strongholds.

As I said, you seem to have the game mostly figured out, I just regret not putting my two cents in that thread.

Thanks for the input anons, at 3 I'll be getting out of work and I'll post my current sketches of Icons, as well as the updated version of the card layout.

Perhaps some more variety in the stats, break limit and TC would be nice instead of just changes in the break effect, for example Emberstone Armor could have a higher Armor Value but a lower break limit.

I was thinking about that for a while, and I might do that. my original design was for armor and weapons to have a equal counterpart, and the players would have to use their skills/abilities/spells to boost it, putting odds in their favor. But I do like the idea of more individual and unique items

How do we play test?

Apart from being in the local Buffalo NY area, no other options for now.

However, if I could get a group of serious Anons to help out with getting a game setup on Tabletop Simulator, that would definitely boost productivity.

Here's my e-mail btw, meant to post this earlier.

If you're interested in doing artwork, writing, or just have some ideas that'll help, let me know! As of right now this entire project has been done by one person, so it's basically Me vs. The World.

I'd love to get a solid group of people interested in it's development. And in time, become part of the Company that'll be producing this game.

[email protected]

Crosswinds Gaming (DBA)

people react positively to symmetry. are those 12 random elements? Or is there a system of relations between them?

Honestly, these twelve towers seem like a lot of bloat.

You should cut them down, unless they are all truly essential to the game.

If you ever find yourself trying to come up with things to suit the tower, rather than towers to suit the things, then you need to cut it out.

There's a system, and it's easy to follow.

Each Tower has an opposing element, for example, Fire is directly across from Ice, and the Black Tower is across from the White Tower. Here's the full listing

Fire vs. Ice
Under vs. Sky

Iron vs. Gold
Emerald vs. Brass

Black vs. White
Shadow vs. Life

A lot of people get confused about the material Towers, so I'll provide some explanation and background for them.

In the Iron Tower lore, it's surrounded by a massive maze (Mazerunner rip, I know). The inhabitants are stealthy creatures that lurk in shadows, among the ruins and steel beams.

The Gold Tower is protected by a massive thriving city, full of royalty and riches. The kings and queens are forever greedy and suspicious, keeping their piles of treasures close.

The Emerald Tower lies in a massive open plains landscape, with giant prism and crystals jetting out of the ground. If you look close enough, it appears that everything in the landscape is made of glass.

The Brass Tower looms over a small ruined village, deep within a massive desert. The winds tear across the sand dunes, hiding bandits and marauders. Workers are constantly seen scaling the Tower, adding new pillars and sections to it.

TL:DR
Iron is common, gold is valuable.

Emerald is strong, brass is malleable.

At the point, there's really no going back. I've tried cutting it down, but 12 Towers pretty much covers all the stereotypes and elements.

Plus, as far as I've seen, it's great for replayability. I loaned my 2nd edition game to a few friends when I went on vacation a few months ago. They played 14 games total between 6 people, and tried every Tower.

The Emerald and Brass names seem undescriptive to me. I wouldn't be able to work out what they meant on their own.

You could make Emerald into Diamond -- or Crystal. Unless emerald is well known for being hard and I just missed it, that is.

Clay's a better name for Brass, I think. More obviously malleable.

Of course, you could just go with "the Hard tower" and "the Soft tower"...

What does Black and White represent?

Do you have a Chaos faction?

Black and White follow the Chaos and Order theme, while Shadow and Life represent Life and Death.

While that does seem kind of backwards, The Shadow Towers theme gears more towards alternate planes of existence, with spirits, temporal disturbances, etc.

The Tower of Life is as stereotypical as it gets; Trees, forests, elves, and so on. Seemed to fit well with opposing Shadow.

The Black Tower has a lot of cards that have "Plague, Sickness, Vampire, Dread" in them. White pairs with "Knights, Priest, Holy", you get the idea.

Here's a pic of the highest level AoE Spells in the game, should provide a little guide to the themes.

OP again, I just purchased Tabletop Simulator.

I'll do the best I can in getting a game working, but don't expect miracles lol.

My main focus is the 3rd Edition of the game, so I'll update when I can.