Hello residents of Scoville! In recent entries on the blog, I’ve re-introduced Doomsday Peppers, and talked about the theme behind the game. Today I thought I’d get into some of the game’s components. Well, one specific component. The piece that puts the “board” in “board game,” the game… board. It’s going to be your first detailed glimpse at the current state or the game and while it can DEFINITEY still change during development and play testing, this will give you an idea of where our heads are, and how far along we are in the development process.
So here it is! The board on which the fate of the (fictional) WORLD will be decided! <dramatic music> Like some other “modern” board games, a board isn’t ABSOLUTELY necessary to play Doomsday Peppers. We decided to design and include one for a few reasons: It keeps things organized and makes it easier for new players to learn the game, it reinforces the theme, keeping players “in” Scoville, and hey, I’m a visual person. I’m an illustrator and a graphic designer, so there’s no way I’m passing up a chance to make a board! Let’s move around the board (referring to the annotated sections above), and I’ll tell you more about them.
Starting in the upper left corner with “a”, this is the Corruptionometer®. This handy device tracks the amount of cult-ish dark magic in town. When enough of that cult-y goodness piles up, SOMEBODY gets corrupted and joins the bad guys. Maybe they had a winning strategy in mind for this situation? Maybe not. Oh, and if the cult’s corrupting influence reaches the top of the meter before the relics have been used to close the Book of Capsicum? The Cultist among you wins!
Just below the Corruptionometer® at “b”, you’ll see the place marked for “The Wild.” “This is where you’ll place a tall stack of small cards. On your turn, one action you can perform is “gathering.” Reach out and forage in the Wild, and you’ll find either seeds (the new currency in your community) or…. DOOMSDAY PEPPERS! Get too many of those, and you’ll be ensnared by their influence (kind of like a Nazgûl, but without the jewelry)!
Moving to the right at “c” is the Stores. You Scoville residents may have missed the boat on all the real survival gear, but you’re nothing if not innovative and community minded. When you’ve gathered seeds from the Wild, you can bring them here to trade for some rustic, artisanal, home-made equipment. True, a shiv carved from a carrot isn’t as threatening as a gun, but hey… survivors can’t be choosers.
If you look immediately below the Stores at “d”, you’ll see a large “box” labeled “$eeds.” This is, obviously, where you put seeds when you trade them for equipment. Easy enough.
All the way on the right, we find our last two spots on the board, labeled “e” and “f.” The larger space, “e”, is labeled “The Book of Capsicum”. Just as this implies, this is where the Book sits. It sits, and it waits. Waiting for the evil corruption of the peppers to dig into an innocent resident of Scoville. Once someone turns on their neighbors and becomes the Cultist, they open the Book and release the Harvests within. This is when the second phase of the game begins.
The three small “bowls” under the space for The Book are labeled “f.” This is simply a small tracker to show how many Harvests have been ended by the Neighbors. The number needed to win the game varies depending on the number of players, but their successes can be tracked here (perhaps by fancy little “flame” tokens, available as a stretch goal for the funding campaign?).
So, there you have it. A walking tour of Scoville. The board for Doomsday Peppers, as it currently stands. This is by no means the first iteration, and it’s quite subject to changing again, but this version is very promising, and we’re excited to keep playtesting it!
If you’re still reading this, then thank you for patiently sticking with me through that, and let me know any thoughts you may have!
