Saturday, 23 November 2013

Blog Quest: Designing the Demon's Scythe



Hello internet people, today I decided to design another game item. Yet again, I was contemplating which game deserved a strategic new item that would improve but not change the core gameplay.  I was lacking ideas as to anything simple yet revolutionary, like my grappling hook for DDo. So I decided to think less “Obvious” and more imaginative.

Why not a demons scythe? Yea, that sounds nice and fancy.

Oh, I got it; why not a demons scythe, in Mario party! Got item!

Now I see that palm, and I see you contemplating covering your face with it- but hear me out. When you think about, a demons scythe fits perfectly fine in the core of the game. Demons Scythe can appear in many forms in video games, whether it through actually having the weapon, or a spell book that casts it, or an item you can acquire through gameplay. Yes, I’m referring to the koopa store or item mini game. This way, it isn’t necessarily Mario decapitating his competitors in an overpowered fashion, it’s just another item. That turns you into a demon. Yup.

Now I see you nodding, yea, you dig it to amiright? Well, let me tangent before I further explain what the item does. Let me give a quick recap of the Mario Party premise so we’re on the same page.

Mario Party is a party game series featuring – you guessed it – Mario, and his franchises characters.  There are up to nine in the series whilst I’m writing this blog (it wouldn’t be farfetched to believe there’s more to come), and all of them are essentially the same. It’s a turn based virtual-board game, where four human – or computer – controlled characters race to collect the most stars. Every round, each player has a turn, that turn consisting using item (if you have one), rolling the dice, landing on a tile, and that tile then affects your character in one way or another. The main goal of the players on the board is to reach the unique star tile, getting you a star. At the end of each round the players compete in a variety of mini games.

That pretty much sums. However just as a disclaimer, I’ll be referring to Mario Party 3 if I need examples, as that is my most played Mario Party game.

Back to the item at hand; the demon’s scythe is an item you can only acquire through a unique tile that spawns in on the “5 rounds remaining” mark, and will change spaces every round until the end of the game. It will not spawn under a player, but CAN spawn on a star space, or baby bowser space. If this occurs, those tiles get placed elsewhere on the map. To acquire the Demon’s Scythe, you must land on the tile. You cannot teleport to this tile using any item. Essentially; you have to land on it.

Due to how late-game this tile spawns in, I assume players have movement aiding items to help them get to the square. If the item is acquired, the tile will not respawn next round and the player has the item until the game ends.

The Demon’s Scythe item itself has multiple effects, but essentially it’s a charge that lets you turn into a demon-model of your avatar. This changes the dice you use during your movement phase. It lets you roll a 1d6 + 4 dice, and turn every tile you cross into a red tile. Every single tile. If you pass a star-toad during this charge, you get it without pay, and the star tile resets to elsewhere on the map. If you pass a player while using the demon’s scythe, you steal a star.

This item can be combined with any of the other items for nefarious and friend-ending purposes.

This item is different from the other items by changing the board dynamically, in game. No other item allows the player to alter the board tiles, and therefore I feel this item adds a cool new feature.

A few ways I’d have to test is how to maybe balance its power. Though I think this item holds its value for how RNG it takes to get it.

So that’s my item. Hope it amused me so!

-Jordon



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