Making a Board Game

For one of our modules this year we have to design a table-top game as a piece of coursework.

We were asked to design a board game around a current social, political or economic subject which can be played by two or four players.

For the theme of our game we took influence from the various movements and news features campaigning for restrictions on alcohol.
Our game is set during a prohibition and the players play as rival black market alcohol manufacturers. The aim is to make the most money before the game ends.

Setting Up

  1. To start the game two cards will be drawn from the event card deck, to randomly set up the conditions of that game.
    Event cards affect all players for the whole game and control elements such as how many cards a player has each turn or how much alcohol can sell for.
  2. Each player draws up to their hand limit from the action card deck, and starts with three workers by default.
    By default the hand limit will be 5, but this can be changed by event cards, there are also event cards which change the number of workers with a player starts the game.
  3. A player is recieves a set amount of money for the start of the game.
    We haven't yet decided on a starting amount of money, a reasonable amount should become evident during prototyping and testing.

Playing the Game

  1. An event card is drawn from the event deck. Unlike the cards drawn at the start of the game, this card will only affect this particular round and will be replaced by the card drawn at the start of the next round.
  2. The five dice are rolled to determine the 'risk' of selling a particular type of alcohol for the turn, the higher the risk the more the alcohol will sell for.
    There will be five types of alcohol in the game with unique ingredient cost and sell value, each one will have a different coloured die to represent it.
  3. The players will take turns to perform their 3 actions (Sometimes the number of actions will be changed by the event cards in play)
    The actions a player can take are:
    • Buy ingredients
    • Sell alcohol
    • Play action cards
    • Trade with another player
  4. Once all players have taken their turn they all choose which of their ingredients to manufacture into alcohol.
    Each player has a machine that determines how much alcohol they can make per round. They can buy machine upgrades at certain stages of the game.


Buying Ingredients

The ingredients for a type of alcohol are bought as one item (eg. 'Beer Ingredients' is an item a player can buy), these have a fixed cost and can be bought for an action


Selling Alcohol

When a player chooses to sell alcohol they choose a type of alcohol and they roll a die, in order to be successful the player must roll at least that alcohol's 'risk' for the turn.
If successful, the price they recieve for the alcohol is determined by the risk of selling that alcohol and whether an event card is currently affecting that alcohol's price.
If unsuccessful, one of the player's workers goes to jail. A player with no workers cannot perform regular actions. A worker can be released from jail in exchange for two actions or a fixed amount of money.


Action Cards

Action cards have two uses, they can be played by a player for an action, and they will have an effect printed on them which will then be carried out.
Examples of action card effects include:

  • Sabotage another player's machine
  • Re-roll a die
  • Keep the risk of an alcohol for next round


Trading Between Players

The other use for actions cards is that each one has a number printed in the corner.
When making a deal each player agrees on what they are putting up for the deal and plays an action card face down.

  • If both players play a card with a 0 then they exchange the things with one another.
  • If either player plays a number higher than 0 then whichever player has the highest number takes what the other player was offering without giving them anything.
  • If both players play the same number and it's not 0, then neither player exchanges anything and they both lose a worker.


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Ending the Game

The game ends when the event card for legalising alcohol is drawn (this is shuffled into the bottom half of the event deck at the start of the game).
The player's count their money, and whichever player has the most is the winner.