BP3: Paper Prototype

When we were told to make a paper prototype of a game, I knew I wanted to use the "randomly generated playing field" mechanic, like in Betrayal at House on The Hill. I also wanted to use an element of lying/deceit, so that the game relies not only on luck but on user involvement and participation. This aspect was later scrapped due to unnecessary complication, but it's there for the first part.

Since I never titled this game, I'm going to go ahead and call it:
SUPER SEXY TOTALLY FUN CARD GAME (S.S.T.F.C.G. for short. I did not run this name by my partner before writing this post. Sorry Michael.)

We used a standard deck of cards, with J=11, Q=12, K=13, A=1,14 (depending on circumstance)
Joker is a wild card, but that is not discussed until Version 3.


Version 1 of my game worked well for a group larger than two. 9 cards are laid out in front of your game pieces, face down, representing the "playing field." The goal was to start from the first card and make it all the way to the end card. Each player has 5 cards in their hands, and must draw a card at the beginning of their turn and discard a card at the end. The discard pile is FACE DOWN. You may only flip over the next "tile" on the playing field if it is directly in front of you, otherwise it is to remain a mystery. This ensures that the victor cannot "plan" their hands too carefully, and that the loser has an advantage while catching up, because they can see the playing tiles that have already been upturned.

Please ignore the booze on the desk.

In order to advance, you must play either the same suit as the card in front of you OR the same number. If it is the same suit, you may advance one. If it is the same number, you may advance two spaces. You will place your card face down on the discard pile and announce the exact suit/number of your played card. At any time, you may lie about your card. If nobody calls you out, you may move forward. If you ARE called out, you must move backward the amount that you were claiming to move forward. If someone calls you out and they are wrong, they must move back the amount of spaces you claimed.

At any time you may also sacrifice two cards in order to move forward. These cards are permanently lost from your hand, meaning your hand will always have less cards than the starting number.
If you cannot play (and don't feel like lying or sacrificing two cards) you may simply discard and hope the next card you draw is applicable.

Since you have the ability to move backward OR forward, you start close to the middle with 4 cards "behind" you, in case you get a stroke of bad luck.

The game worked well enough but with only two people, calling them out or lying was really just a stab in the dark; there was not nearly enough information to go off of. Also, the games were kind of short since the "playing field" was not very long and you could move two spots in a turn. So we modified it.


Version 2 of the game still involved a face-down game board, but with totally different rules.

Bicycle calls this their "Pandamonium" series of playing cards. Get it?

 In this version, six cards were ahead of the players. You had six cards in your hands at all times. There were three discard piles, the main pile with one discard, and our two individual discard piles. You still had to draw as many cards as it took to get your hand to 6, but you were able to take from top of the discard piles as long as they were not your own.

In order to advance, you needed two cards that would exactly equal the sum of the upturned card. The suit of the cards you play does not matter. There was no lying or deceit. First to the end wins.
This version worked out alright, it was definitely better for two players, but still felt a little clunky. I came up with a solution that would make things a little harder in...


Version 3 is the final version of the game. In this version there are only five main tiles, and one discard pile for everybody. You begin with six cards. You draw a card at the beginning of your turn, and if you can play, play two cards, if not, discard. Jokers are wild and can count as any number. If a joker is upturned as a game tile, it is replaced by the next card in the stack. Also, jokers cannot be drawn from the discard pile once played.

In order to advance, you must play the sum of two cards for a red suit, but the difference of two cards for a black suit. The suit of the cards still does not matter. This adds a whole new element to the game. Since advancing means playing two cards, your hand gets smaller every round until you only have three cards to work with for the last tile. This made the game very challenging and made people extra careful about their discards. 

3+2 is 5, so we would be able to play these two cards and advance. Isn't math fun?!

The last version was much less convoluted and after altering it with my in-class teammmate and playing it with my roommates, it was the one we ended up with. It is not too challenging for adults, but I could imagine a parent playing this game with their child learning how to add/subtract. Hope you get a sense of the game now! Thanks for reading!

Love,
Maaike

BP2: Betrayal at House on the Hill Session Report

Game: Betrayal at House on the Hill

Players and Characters (left to right)

Maaike Scherff: Missy Duborde (Age 9)

Jerika Ramirez: Jenny LeClerc (Age 21)
Daniel Gonzales: Madame Zostra (Age 37)
Andre Thompson: Darin “Flash” Williams (Age 20)
Devon Powers: Peter Akimoto (Age 13)

It was a cold, cloudless Saturday night. I found myself wandering around a steep, forested hill with four friends of wildly different ages. I loved my friends dearly, and as I explored with them I hoped that no situation would arise where any one of us would betray each other. As we pushed through the dangerous forest brush, we stumbled upon a clearing. In front of us was an incredible, dark mansion. Cobwebs hung from every conceivable corner, the window panes were cracked, and vines and weeds grew around this almost definitely haunted house. “Let’s explore it!” shouted everyone eagerly. Before I could protest, they had run up the steps and flung open the front door. 

Though I was the last one in the house, I was, for some reason, nominated to wander first. As I seriously reconsidered my friend choices, I hesitantly moved into a room on the right. I saw the vision of a frothing madman in front of me. As I felt my sanity slip, I felt somehow empowered by his presence, and surmised that if my mental and physical states could be manifested visually, my sanity would have just moved down one notch and my might would be bumped up a couple notches. My friends all followed in after me, choosing different rooms and paths throughout the house. The pattern of seeing horrible, nightmarish visions pursued. It seemed like with every new room, I experienced a new, traumatizing event.

 As the night progressed, and after five or six rooms of seriously disturbing sh*t, I decided to round everybody up. “Enough is enough, we’re all shaken and miserable, let’s leave.” I pleaded. Everyone seemed in agreement except...

 Peter. He stayed quiet. And as my eyes adjusted to him in the dark, I realized something was wrong. Peter was scratching at his arms and legs with unnaturally long fingernails, his eyes darting from corner to corner. He was pale in color, and his skin seemed to have grown a thin layer of hair. His twitching and moving was unnerving, and as I stared at him in silence, I heard it. Scratching, skittering, from the walls.

 “What is that?!” I cried, taking a step backward. I heard a squeak beneath my foot and a huge, black rat darted across the room and stopped by Peter. Peter stooped down and picked the rat up, stroking its head and grinning so wide that it felt like his face would crack. Suddenly, his voice rang loud over the house…

“FEED!!!!!!!”

Swarms of rats came towards me and my friends while Peter ran off. I recalled a large oil painting in one of the hallways, of a rat like creature in a Pentagram Chamber, performing some rat-god ritual. “He’s looking for the Pentagram Chamber!” I yelled out to my friends. I stomped and kicked and smashed all the rats around me, moving from room to room to destroy them. I knew that if they were all dead, it would be okay.

My friends did the same, and after what seemed like an eternity, all the rats were dead. Our shoes covered in tiny rat blood, we went to find Peter, who was crumpled up on the ground, defeated, having never found the Pentagram Chamber.

 “I would have been invincible…” he sputtered. I reached down and placed my hand on his shoulder, and whispered to him softly “but you’re not. You’re vincible.”

I stood up, walked towards the door, and watched three of my four friends filter out. As I closed the door to the scary mansion, I shed a single tear for my fallen friend. Even if he did turn into some crazy f*cked up rat thing.

As I walked down the hill, victorious, I couldn't help but smile, thinking about my next adventure, and what story I might discover, and how excited I would be if I just so happened to stumble upon another house on a hill.....