Game Play

Land and Space

Posted on by Ted

HarmoniousWorlds example play with star trek shipsWhen creating worlds we found it was fun to have different rules for land and space (or land and sea) because it felt different to be in a spaceship than on land.

You have to be careful when making HarmoniousWorld.com cards for both space and land because they are different.  When you are in space (or sea) your characters are on a ship so the card must reflex this.  Another difference is that in space battles you use the ship’s power as well as the character’s abilities to fight and on land, you use your character’s strength, weapons, and abilities.  So it is important now to mix up the cards between land and space.  Here are some example cards for land and space

  Land cards Space cards difference
Items/Supplies Heal + 1 each turn Repair 1 hull each turn Because you are in a space ship you repair the ship
Treasure Glowing gem 1D4 2< cursed else causes villains to flee  NA No treasures in space.
Quest/Mission Repair Civilization 10 spaces 20 gold Set up space station 10 spaces 20 gold There are no space station on land
Event/Situations Strange creature if communicate 1D12 5< shows next two cards else attacks Robot if communicate 1D12 8< shows next two cards else attacks There are no robots on land
Anomaly  NA Blackhole 1D20 12< moves you 1D12 spaces There are anomalies on land
Trap/Hazard Mines! to avoid 1D12 damage Asteroids! to avoid 1D12 damage There are no asteroids on land

HarmoniousWorlds using figures from Star wars mixed with star trekTry to make even the smallest detail reinforce that the players are in one environment other than another, For Example, in space, you are allowed to have more characters and pets because there is more room in the spaceship. Because players can carry lots of other NPC you can make pets that are more common in space and the sea.

To make it easier to find cards, you can make land and space cards of different shapes. Like land tiles square and make space tiles a hexagon.

Some cards don’t change like clues, treasures, and civilization. They are the same in both land and space but most cards are different. You also roll the same dice.

May the dice be in your favor.

 

Creating Treasures and Items

Posted on by Evy and Maddie

Using DND figure with HarmoniousWorldsWill that chest give me a beautiful gem or a book filled with dark magic and curses? When designing treasures and items you need to balance usefulness, fun, and mystery. They should have hope when seeing the card first flip over then a little touch of fear should creep in as they remember past times when they found treasures and barely survived. 

First, focus on something useful in gameplay but you do not want to give something all-powerful- that takes the fun away.  Some items players need a lot of, like arrows and shields.  Others like speed and extra rewards you do not need a lot of.  Here are some example items, see one card ahead one use only, gain ally 1D20 turns, extra parts, + 1D6 speed, 1D4 villains flee, double reward next two attacks, 10 health use one time, +4 attack, torpedo,1D6 teleport. 

Next, focus on the fun!  Weave a story into the treasure or make the reward unexpectedly strange, Here are some example treasures,  a mysterious trail of tiny footprints that has gold 1D4 gold for 1D6 turns, or a glowing gem cause 1 villain to flee.  A treasure can also be a living thing or Non-Player Character (NPC), like a plant that grows gems, a talking book, or a pet.  Usually the NPC does not last for the entire game but a set amount of turns.  Remember to try and incorporate miniatures into the gameplay. For example, when you have a pet you put a figure next to your character.   

But players should be on their guard when finding treasure! Some treasures can be cursed it could do worse.  A player might find they have a powerful magic book but, it is cursed unleashing terrible dark magic when used.  Or the player found a +4 sword that has a terrible lich guarding it.  Other ill effects can be harder to detect, like a cursed item that causes all initiative roles to fail or a pet who attacks when entering cities.  Another example is the reward is a trick, like leprechaun’s gold which dissolves into dust after a few turns.  

HarmoniousWorlds cardsIf you are playing in space then the items or treasures can not be magical, on land they can not be things like torpedos.  You can get items by going to a space station/civilization or by encountering a merchant.

Treasures can be used to just advanced the game plot like other cards. Also, as with all cards within HarmoniousWorlds, try and make the cards play out differently each time.  Every time a player gets a card the events that unfold and rewards should be different.  Take to make sure skill, as well as luck, determines the outcome. 

 May the dice be in your favor!

Making Missions

Posted on by Evy and Maddie

HarmoniousWorlds cards

Need to let your players get resources fast? Want to create a richer world? Try creating side missions.

Mission is optional so you do not have to use them in the game. They just make the game more fun and interesting and adding details to your world.  You can read the rules for mission cards here. We added the missions because it is a smaller goal than finding all the clues in the game also you get to add more details to the world you are creating in the side missions. For example, is the story about saving forest creatures or fending off an invasion of goblins?  Another reason why is that we were not getting enough gold in without mission and we needed a lot of the fun of HarmoniousWorlds.com is building up your character. 

How you make a mission card is you pick a challenge that can be achieved but that is not too simple.  Most of the time you get a reward once you completed the mission, for example, 20 gold, 1D12 gold, 1D20 gold, or 25 gold.  Some missions give the player helpers to help complete it.  Some missions are harder than others, usually, that affects the reward. Missions are used in both land and space but on land missions are called quests.

Here are some example missions, rescue research ship 10 gold, find hazards +2 gold for each hazard, find new creatures visit 2 new planets, find missing shuttle 20 gold, defeat 1D12 villains 20 gold, lift enchantment 1D20 gold,  explore new region reveal 12 cards, rescue get past 1D6 anomalies, find 2 clues 1D12 +20 gold, take a lost robot to nearest planet 1D20 gold, bounty find a villain on the planet, 20 gold set up space station 20 gold.

Mission cards make the game more fun. Try adding mission cards to the game. 

May the dice be in your favor!

Star Trek ship in HarmoniousWorlds game play

Epic Land Campaign!

Posted on by Evy and Maddie

Laying out HarmoniusWorlds cards for land play

Being properly prepared for a battle is essential!

Setting up the tiles can be random or you can make sure key cards like a clue are well protected.  You could also make a maze. For this game, we wanted as many cards as we could in a small play area so we created a simple gird design. We shuffled the cards before placing them face down. Some cards are double-sided like some hazards, islands, and space stations. In this game we did not have any.

 


All the cards arranged

We are using Pokemon cards for the characters and adversaries. Most card games we play use Star Trek or Transformer trading cards.

The player picks two top Pokemon from cards they have collected.  The adversaries deck is rejected or repeat Pokemon cards. This makes sure the player is seldom outmatched in attacks.  Players can not have more than three main characters at once.  

To make turns faster, we make sure all the cards, dice, and items are together. Nothing breaks the mood worse than hunting for a 1D4 die.  You want to make sure that nothing pulls you out of the Pokemon world when play begins.

It also helps to keep the board neat during gameplay.

 

Keeping track of hit points and gold is important but also keep track of moves in case someone lands on a time travel card.

If you have more then one character then you have to make the statistics clear for both characters. We recommend having two characters in case one of them is knocked out, the other character can flee during an attack.

This game did not have a game master so we flipped over the cards ourselves. We did the attacks based on the strength of our characters rather than using the dice play mechanics.

HarmoniousWorlds game in action

The game is all done! We found all five clue cards after nearly turning over every card! One of the players got very low on health in the game but she encountered several merchants and was able to buy enough health to get back to full health. 

Sometimes you find all the clues very quickly sometimes you have to turn over almost all the cards.

May the dice be in your favor!