I really like my current game called Noblemen. It’s a game about physically building your estate with different flavored land tiles and buildings like palaces, churches, castles, and follies. Its fun, in my opinion, because you can race each other under a slightly unpredictable clock to finish your goals.
What the game doesn’t do is feel like you are plotting and scheming to manipulate the powers of the day. Much of that is abstracted out. You are only trying to outmaneuver them to win the various physical races.
I have always known this and I have tried to mask the absence of this scheming with the scandal cards in the game. The Scandal cards do that some, but not enough. Others have echoed this too.
From all this I have thought about what would I have to do to change the game. The short answer is I cannot add something to the game to do this for several reasons. The biggest reason is it would change the game too much.
It did get me thinking though about a new game that would have this goal from the start.
I think the game would be a card game at its heart. Each player would be assigned the roll of a fictional yet similar to one from history noble. One player would be the current monarch. When the game ends the current monarch will be the winner.
From the beginning there are several schemes or plots in play that players can get behind or take over.
It would take most of the game for the plots to resolve and at some point the players would not be able to hold them back.
Plots would start resolving or getting canceled and go away resulting in potential shift in powers. Some people may be eliminated from being caught committing high treason or from being murdered.
Also at all times there is a current chain of order of who would be next on the thrown after the current monarch. Some plots would involve changing this. I think needs to have:
- elimination
- Hidden influence
- trading
- negotiating
