Here's the ruleset as of right now. Keep in mind it's a WIP right now and that there's A, B, and C options in some of the spaces at the moment. I had to break it up so it would fit
Problem-Cause-Solution Basic Rules
At the start of the game, each player is given four cause cards and four solution/effect cards. Throughout the game, each player must have four of each in their hands.
At the start of each round, a problem card is drawn and placed in the center. Using one cause card and one solution/effect card, each player must construct a story detailing how the problem solved. For example, let’s say that the problem is killer robots. If player A put down William Shakespeare as a cause and An Infinite Loop as a solution, the rationale might be that “William Shakespreare, being the brilliant wordsmith that he is, constructed a soliloquy filled with paradoxes. He then snuck this into the folio the robots were using for their yearly performance of ‘Robo-Hamlet’ causing an infinite loop to occur in their programming”. Note: The term “cause” is used to refer to what causes the final effect/solution, not what causes the problem.
Scoring method (this is where we were in debate earler)
Method A: Each round, a player is picked as the judge. Order of judges goes counter-clockwise around the play circle. The judge decides which solution he or she likes best and awards the win for that round to the corresponding player. The grounds for declaring a win are up to the judge; it could be the player constructed the best story or that the solution made the most sense or that the problem, cause and solution fit together perfectly (some potential matches are designed, for example: Problem – King Claudius; Cause – Hamlet; Effect – Poetic Justice).
Method B: Players vote on the winning answer. If there is a tie, a tie breaker is decided by players restricted to voting only on the tied choices. Further disputes may be solved by rock paper scissors or coin toss. A player is not allowed to vote for him or herself, no matter how strongly they feel they provided the best solution.
Possible systems(I’ve put pros and cons here, but I would like everyone else’s input as well) :
System A: Each cause and effect card has stats which determine how feasible a match is between them. For example, blunt trauma as a solution/effect would require a character or an object with great strength in order to execute the move.
Pros: This could make match making much easier and eliminate ambiguous, arbitrary solutions. Also helps give players hints as to what good matches are, regardless of whether or not they recognize the item on the card itself.
Cons: This means that we’ll have to determine which specific stats fit each card and then which level each card possesses. In the case of historical figures, this might be up for debate. For example, you could argue that Ghengis Khan has high strength but low intelligence, but you could also argue that his intelligence is high because of his success as a military commander. There may also be situations in which characters have uneven stats. In some cases, this may discourage the story making aspect of the game.
System B: Each solution/effect and cause card has several attributes attached to it. These work similar to stats in that matching attributes make for better, more feasible execution, but don’t have numbers attached to them.
Pros: Provides most of the same benefits of the stats system without the problem of figuring out numbered stats for each card. Could pick three stats for each card out of a pool of perhaps ten constant stats.
Cons: May run into the same problems as the stats system. For one, it might be difficult to figure out a steady list of traits that could apply to virtually anything. Secondly, there may be debate as to which three words best apply to each character or card. What should also be considered is that words may get uneven use when we try to evenly distribute them among the cards. Also runs into problem with limiting story telling aspect.
System C: Each card would simply have a picture and maybe a brief description.
Pros: Very simple to make. Free association promoted. Wins depend more on player’s creativity and persuasiveness than on pre-determined matches based off of numbers. Also stops a player from being unable to make a move for that round
Cons: Random associations could be made. At times, this can result in solutions that are less carefully and insightfully constructed than solutions that are just too silly.
Finally, here's a list of what I've written down so far for cards. This should be added to and critiqued by everyone. It's only a working list and I'm sure there's duplicates in that there are things or terms that are very similar. There are some duplicates in some places because I felt the item could be both a funny solution and a good problem
Problems Zombies, Nazis, Zombie Nazis, Moriarti, King Kong, Nuclear Spill, Murderer, Killer Bees, Claudius, Darth Vader, Gengis Khan, Evil Ninjas, Robot Overlords, SCUD Missiles, The Russian Maffia, Cyber terrorists, sentient funcgus, The Final Boss, Caesar, Monkeys on Jetpacks, Bandits, Pirates, Chuthulu, Vampires, Demons, Heathcliff, world wide famine, pandemic, invading aliens, spontaneous combustion
Causes Sherlock Holms, Hunters, Shakespeare, George Lucas, lightsaber, lazer, Spentznaz, CIA rifle, grenade, hammer, Internet troll, Hamlet, Chuck Noriss, Cowboys, Clint Eastwood, Ninjas, flammable lemons, Jerry Seinfeld, flowers, Chuthulu, Prof. Van Helsing, priest, ghosts, Bruce Lee, the paranormal, knights, Sir Lancelot, Doc Brown, Stephen Hawking, Mythbusters, James Bond, UNCLE, John Mclaine, bomb squad, power tools
Effects Infinite monologue, infinite loop, poor reviews, tragic death scene, life sentence, assassination, broken bone, sudden heart attack, Rick Roll’d, explosion, shootout, duel, beheading, 404’d, crash, low self-esteem, nosebleed, algergies, turned to dust, turned to frogs, exorcism, poetic irony, time travel, black hole, debunked, (boom) Headshot, saved in the last ten seconds, disarmed, barricade
Here's the ruleset as of right now. Keep in mind it's a WIP right now and that there's A, B, and C options in some of the spaces at the moment. I had to break it up so it would fit
ReplyDeleteProblem-Cause-Solution Basic Rules
At the start of the game, each player is given four cause cards and four solution/effect cards. Throughout the game, each player must have four of each in their hands.
At the start of each round, a problem card is drawn and placed in the center. Using one cause card and one solution/effect card, each player must construct a story detailing how the problem solved. For example, let’s say that the problem is killer robots. If player A put down William Shakespeare as a cause and An Infinite Loop as a solution, the rationale might be that “William Shakespreare, being the brilliant wordsmith that he is, constructed a soliloquy filled with paradoxes. He then snuck this into the folio the robots were using for their yearly performance of ‘Robo-Hamlet’ causing an infinite loop to occur in their programming”. Note: The term “cause” is used to refer to what causes the final effect/solution, not what causes the problem.
Scoring method (this is where we were in debate earler)
ReplyDeleteMethod A: Each round, a player is picked as the judge. Order of judges goes counter-clockwise around the play circle. The judge decides which solution he or she likes best and awards the win for that round to the corresponding player. The grounds for declaring a win are up to the judge; it could be the player constructed the best story or that the solution made the most sense or that the problem, cause and solution fit together perfectly (some potential matches are designed, for example: Problem – King Claudius; Cause – Hamlet; Effect – Poetic Justice).
Method B: Players vote on the winning answer. If there is a tie, a tie breaker is decided by players restricted to voting only on the tied choices. Further disputes may be solved by rock paper scissors or coin toss. A player is not allowed to vote for him or herself, no matter how strongly they feel they provided the best solution.
Possible systems(I’ve put pros and cons here, but I would like everyone else’s input as well) :
System A: Each cause and effect card has stats which determine how feasible a match is between them. For example, blunt trauma as a solution/effect would require a character or an object with great strength in order to execute the move.
Pros: This could make match making much easier and eliminate ambiguous, arbitrary solutions. Also helps give players hints as to what good matches are, regardless of whether or not they recognize the item on the card itself.
Cons: This means that we’ll have to determine which specific stats fit each card and then which level each card possesses. In the case of historical figures, this might be up for debate. For example, you could argue that Ghengis Khan has high strength but low intelligence, but you could also argue that his intelligence is high because of his success as a military commander. There may also be situations in which characters have uneven stats. In some cases, this may discourage the story making aspect of the game.
System B: Each solution/effect and cause card has several attributes attached to it. These work similar to stats in that matching attributes make for better, more feasible execution, but don’t have numbers attached to them.
Pros: Provides most of the same benefits of the stats system without the problem of figuring out numbered stats for each card. Could pick three stats for each card out of a pool of perhaps ten constant stats.
Cons: May run into the same problems as the stats system. For one, it might be difficult to figure out a steady list of traits that could apply to virtually anything. Secondly, there may be debate as to which three words best apply to each character or card. What should also be considered is that words may get uneven use when we try to evenly distribute them among the cards. Also runs into problem with limiting story telling aspect.
System C: Each card would simply have a picture and maybe a brief description.
Pros: Very simple to make. Free association promoted. Wins depend more on player’s creativity and persuasiveness than on pre-determined matches based off of numbers. Also stops a player from being unable to make a move for that round
Cons: Random associations could be made. At times, this can result in solutions that are less carefully and insightfully constructed than solutions that are just too silly.
Finally, here's a list of what I've written down so far for cards. This should be added to and critiqued by everyone. It's only a working list and I'm sure there's duplicates in that there are things or terms that are very similar. There are some duplicates in some places because I felt the item could be both a funny solution and a good problem
ReplyDeleteProblems
Zombies, Nazis, Zombie Nazis, Moriarti, King Kong, Nuclear Spill, Murderer, Killer Bees, Claudius, Darth Vader, Gengis Khan, Evil Ninjas, Robot Overlords, SCUD Missiles, The Russian Maffia, Cyber terrorists, sentient funcgus, The Final Boss, Caesar, Monkeys on Jetpacks, Bandits, Pirates, Chuthulu, Vampires, Demons, Heathcliff, world wide famine, pandemic, invading aliens, spontaneous combustion
Causes
Sherlock Holms, Hunters, Shakespeare, George Lucas, lightsaber, lazer, Spentznaz, CIA rifle, grenade, hammer, Internet troll, Hamlet, Chuck Noriss, Cowboys, Clint Eastwood, Ninjas, flammable lemons, Jerry Seinfeld, flowers, Chuthulu, Prof. Van Helsing, priest, ghosts, Bruce Lee, the paranormal, knights, Sir Lancelot, Doc Brown, Stephen Hawking, Mythbusters, James Bond, UNCLE, John Mclaine, bomb squad, power tools
Effects
Infinite monologue, infinite loop, poor reviews, tragic death scene, life sentence, assassination, broken bone, sudden heart attack, Rick Roll’d, explosion, shootout, duel, beheading, 404’d, crash, low self-esteem, nosebleed, algergies, turned to dust, turned to frogs, exorcism, poetic irony, time travel, black hole, debunked, (boom) Headshot, saved in the last ten seconds, disarmed, barricade