40k Outside da Box: Question #2

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**KnuckleWolf**

Welcome to the "Design Creative Thinking" thread! I always enjoyed these little exercises and a forum seems like a fantastic place to host them. Here I will post questions that stimulate creative thinking in game design terms, specifically as if we we're working on some form of game for Warhammer 40k, and then attempt to moderate the discussion loosely. A few things to plant in your mind before we continue...

1.) THERE ARE NO WRONG ANSWERS! Think it, say it. This is important. Off the wall is welcome here. It will help stimulate the creative thinking of the group as a whole. The questions are posed in crazy ways and with incomplete information to help this too. Explain as much or little of your answer as you want. Loose ends start new questions!

2.) BE OPEN TO EXTREME POSSIBILITIES! Try your best to come up with something completely different from other posters. And be respectful of the other posters, this should go without saying. Remember that their answers aren't wrong either.

3.) THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

Note: Since question one seemed to be a little too abstract to use as an intro to these type of exercises, question two was designed to be a little more concrete then they usually are. I am confident though that it will be a fantastic exercise none the less!

Okay, ready?
QUESTION 1 (Inactive) :

Spoiler:

QUESTION 2:

Spoiler:

**Lanrak**

The tokens could be..

If next to each unit .
Status indicators.

Shaken, Stunned , broken/routed.

OR
Order counters , (like epic/BA etc)Advance , First fire,Charge.

OR
Action point markers,
One , two or three action points to be spent this current game turn.

OR
Leader /character re rolls .(Heroic action markers with 1 ,2,3 re rolls per game turn.)

OR
Sequence of activation , (numerical OR oders tied to action phases, like Epic SM.)

Those are the most common ideas I could think of.I am rubbish at arty stuff , so I would get some other person to design the counters markers.

Simple colours work well for fast identification, so definately different coloured backgrounds to start with!(RED YELLOW GREEN for example.)

Cool thread mate!

**KnuckleWolf**

Not a bad start. I'll take a turn, and then lets see who can come up with something different. Lanrak already swiped a bunch of potential answers so this question is going to get ahead real fast and become quite challenging. If it helps, I always find it easier (like Lanrak kinda did) to start an answer with "Maybe they are..." or "Maybe it is..." or heck just "Maybe..."

Maybe they are... Supply tokens! So like at the start of the game each unit gets a number of 'Supply' tokens that they can use to re-roll a die in the game? Maybe you roll for each unit, like 1d3 tokens? Or maybe objectives give you a token? It could be a mission thing or maybe a core mechanic? Maybe a number attached to codex entries? So like a Master of the Forge always has two extra supply tokens?

I think they would look cool like a ammo box just stuck on a infantry base? Maybe use old shell casings like a buddy of mine does in Magic: TG?

Who's next? Really think outside the box, push yourselves into unexplored territory, break molds! These tokens are unlimited in potential in reality, it is only in our minds that they are not. For this answer I just grabbed a wargame-ish commonality and ran with it. Maybe try grabbing a word to assign to them and seeing where your mind takes you?

Try these words out if you need inspiration:
Courage........Honor
Help.................Rage
Fart...............SNAFU
Intensity........Victory
Moral (NOT Morale)
Fluffy Bunnies...Hit
Or of course your own word of choice! Have fun!

**SkavenLord**

Interesting idea! Here goes nothing...

Maybe they are black holes, slowly growing with each and every turn. At the start of the game, anything whithin 6" suffers a wound. At the start of each turn, increase the black hole's range by 6" and resolve who loses wounds.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Interesting idea! Here goes nothing...

Maybe they are black holes, slowly growing with each and every turn. At the start of the game, anything whithin 6" suffers a wound. At the start of each turn, increase the black hole's range by 6" and resolve who loses wounds.

**CthuluIsSpy**

Oreos. Too many people use the gaming table to keep food

**Lord Arturius**

They could be a mission-related set of tokens. They serve as handicaps for the unit

So at the beginning of each game turn you gather all tokens on the board (there are 5 different colors) you and your opponent then randomize and put 3 tokens by each unit on the board, a unit does not have to have 3 different colored tokens, just 3 total. The combination of colors do different things.

For example:
-Red tokens effect movement so 3 red tokens means the unit moves 3 inches less each turn.
-Blue tokens effect range of fire each token means you can shoot 3 inches less. So 3 blue tokens means you shoot 9 less inches a turn.
-Green tokens mean you lose attacks in close combat, 2 attacks per token.
-Purple tokens mean that the unit takes a S5 Ap- wound per token
-Black tokens are the only boon. The do not effect you whatsoever.

There can be any combination of the above colors.

If a unit is destroyed the tokens are taken out of play.

**KnuckleWolf**

Yeah! Now your getting it! Great!

Skaven Lord made a really outside the box move and decided heck, who said they were attached to the unit? Why aren't they terrain that the units just happen to be standing close too? In a creative thinking excercise like this, one really great move you can make is challenging the questions information. I just said that their were three tokens next to them, not where or why. This is that 'incomplete info' thing I mentioned in the OP. Great Work!

Cthululs Spy went way outside the box with...Oreo's? Heck Yeah! Why not? It is now a beer and Oreo game! Would be a great start to something unique if you want to expand on it! Maybe only Black Templars get Oreo tokens? Maybe they have half a half step reduction indicated by eating the creme filling and returning the two cookie sides to the table? Nice one!

Lord Arturius gave us a fairly well detailed idea that captures some randomness and throws in some tactics too! A great start to a potentially very engaging mechanic! Its practically playable right out the gate, and simple to house rule around with. Maybe you grab out of a hat three tokens for each unit before the game but the token colors in the hat match a mission scenario for a campaign? So like one night there's just 20%blue, 30% red, and 50% black to account for a rainy battlefield condition? This one is my fav so far, but the surface is only scratched just yet.

Think outside the box....

**SkavenLord**

Actually, this is getting a lot done quickly, I'll give it another go.

The tokens are switches. One's red, one's blue, and one's white.

When the red "switch" is pressed, the player may call an orbital strike 48" from the token. It uses the large blast template and causes an S8 hit to all those beneath the template.

When the blue "switch" is pressed, it sends out a shockwave. Any model whithin 24" of the switch takes an S3 hit and is blown back D6". If a blown back model comes into contact with another model, they both take an S4 hit instead (S4 instead of S3 for the model that was blown back).

When the white "switch" is pressed, the unit teleports up to 24" away from the switch as if arrived from a deep strike. Does not scatter.

**Lanrak**

They could be event timers..
Red , Yellow, Green.

Events like supply drop, artillery bombardment -air strike or natural events , like flooding , landslide etc.

Red , no event, Yellow event pending , Green event imminent.(Happens on a X+ of an event dice roll.)

**KnuckleWolf**

SkavenLord sent us another great one with them being an interact-able game object which was really cool, and Lanrak tossed out a timing mechanic interpretation too! Great work.

Of course I couldn't just pose a question, I had to come up with my own solid 'final' answer: Battle Fury

Spoiler:

Lets move on to QUESTION #2! See the OP soon!

**Lanrak**

Well laser fences could refer to a few things...

The most literal interpritation could be anti infantry fence.Eg hi tec barbed wire! Models passing through the fence could take damage if their armour is below a set value.

Another would be a close in anti missile defence for armoured vehicles , lasers trace out a close net fence type pattern above the vehicle to detonate Air to ground missiles before they can do any harm..

Those are de ..fence ideas, (I know its a bad pun but you knew it was going to happen...

)

A couple of characters could fight out a challenge with laser swords , in a 'laser fencing ' duel!
(Another pun...oh dear.)

And finally from the addled brain of a G.O.F.

'Laser fence' refers to the break down in weapon efficency vs set target types.(Using lasers as the reference weapon type.)

Eg 'Small arms' lasers are only effective vs light and medium armoured infantry.
'Support' lasers are effective against larger heavily armoured targets.
And 'heavy ordnance' lasers are used against massive targets with huge amounts of armour. (Eg defend planets from orbital attacks.)
So the most numerous weapons are effective vs the mosr numerous units , and the rarety frequency of weapons and targets reduce proportionally

**SkavenLord**

Well first thing that came to mind was laser chainswords, laser-shaped beams, and but darn it Lanrak! You beat me to it!

Alright, so say a rogue AI has possessed a planet. Because of this, there's a sort of cybernetic storm, quite like a warp storm. One of the effects of this cybernetic storm is that fence shaped laser lightning (I WILL have a fence shaped laser thing!) periodically hits the planet's surface. At the start of each turn, place the large blast template at the center of the map. Roll to scatter. If it scatters, move it in the direction of where it was scattered until it comes into contact with an enemy unit. That unit suffers an S9 hit with no armor save.

Another thing could be to make them giant laser walls. At the start of each turn, the walls close 2D6" (and by close, I mean move to the center of the board). Anything that the lasers come into contact with is destroyed immediately.

**AnomanderRake**

Laser fences....hrm...A piece of equipment, perhaps, that deploys a bubble-shaped laser dome? Your guys have to hold still to keep it going and the bubble is hard to shoot into or out of, but they get to block off a zone.

**Peregrine**

KnuckleWolf wrote:
QUESTION 2:

Spoiler:

You've been playtesting your latest 40k universe game when you hear a playtester mumble something about "Laser Fences". Being a good designer you make a note of it and come in the next day with a prototype mechanic that looks like...Think outside the Box

A laser fence around each player's case of models so that when anyone tries to touch them without permission the high-powered lasers burn their hand off.