Ideas for a potential multiplayer board game island?

[TN4U]

Mods, hopefully this is the right place to post this thread. I don't think it belongs in the Airport thread as this is only for brainstorming and I'm not sharing any Dodo codes at this time.

So, I had an idea strike me in a recent NH thread. In it, several users had a common complaint that the game's multiplayer lacked minigames compared to NL. As the official online service for NL will be shutting down in a couple months, this will leave the minigames unable to be played online. So, what else are we supposed to do on players' islands other than sell turnips?

Play Animal Party.

No, this isn't National Lampoon's Animal House. We're not here to get crazy and do whatever we want without the professors looking. I think it may be a cool idea for me to create and host a board game island that's Mario Party-esque. There's been some Twitch streamers that have attempted something like this before: sometimes it goes well, other times it's not as cool as it seems. Not to mention, it would possibly take a little bit of time to create a board that will visually please many. However, when it comes to doing something different and interesting in NH's online, I think this would be a cool idea to do something fun in the game for entertainment value alone.

Unfortunately, in order to follow TBT rules, I wouldn't be able to hand out prizes as easily as I'd like to. As much as I'd love to give the winner a ton of in-game bells for doing well, there's a fine line as to what is considered acceptable and unacceptable to be advertised on the Airport thread, and winning may only lead to simple bragging rights on the forum. This would be a game you'd play to win, yes, but everyone has to come out feeling like a winner somehow. The easiest way to do this would be a leaderboard on the main thread of how many wins a user has, alongside records set and things like that. It'd mainly be in-game sessions to get to know others and have fun doing so.

My current Mario Party-like rough draft of an online multiplayer board game island would be this:

Spoiler: Rules Draft

• Due to the nature of the game and to make it more fun for small talk, microphones would be required. This would be a once a week session on Friday nights lasting about 2 to 4 hours depending on how long turns take or if players lose connection. If invited, you'd have to be committed to completing the game unless issues on my end arise or you have to attend to a real life emergency.
• I might try and stream the game on Twitch if the players consent to see my point of view. If that's the case, all players would also have to be at least 18 years old.
• The player picking process would go like this: One would enter their TBT username and a number from 1 to 499 on a Google form posted the day after the previous game ends. When the entry deadline hits the night before the game, I would then pick a randomly-generated number from that range. The three (or four) players who are closest to my number would then be invited to play and be sent a Dodo code come game time.
  • In the case of ties, whoever submitted their number first gets higher priority.
  • If for whatever reason an invited user suddenly cannot make it come game time, the next user on the list gets invited.
  • First place winners automatically earn a spot in the next game as a returning champion, making this a four-player game excluding me. If they cannot attend the next game due to schedule conflicts, they'll be put on a waitlist and can join whatever upcoming game they are able to attend next without submitting a random number. Players put on this list earlier have higher priority, and are removed once they play their next game or after a certain amount of time goes by with no activity. Only one player on the list can use this opportunity per game.
  • The other three losing players have to sit out the next three games to allow other players a chance to get in and play.
• The goal to win the game is to make it to the treasure at the end of the map with the highest bell score. For the sake of following TBT rules, I would keep track of the pretend amounts myself and not physically give bells to anyone for an advantage.
  • There are bonuses for how fast you get there (i.e. first place would earn a 10,000 bell bonus; second 5,000 bells; third 1,000 bells; fourth earns nothing and automatically loses).
  • As the main goal is to have the highest bell total and not simply to get to the end first, you can for example earn a ton of bells on the main board, get there second and still have a chance to win the game outright.
• Players would take turns rolling a die. I'll open up a random number shuffle webpage, and let it cycle until the user says "STOP". Whatever number is shown is the amount of spaces the player moves. At the end of each turn would be three multiple choice trivia questions. These would mainly be AC or Nintendo related, and getting them correct would add points to a players' total bell score. It's basically Mario Party but trivia instead of minigames.
• Some of the spaces you can land on include blank spaces, "earn X bells", "lose X bells", "move X spaces", "shop", "scenario", and so on.
• Items (having up to three at a time) you can purchase and use on turns include:
  • Double Die: Roll two dice.
  • Triple Die: Roll three dice.
  • Picky Die: Go any amount of spaces you want from 1 to 5.
  • Net: Once obtained, the next player you pass "nets" you 500 bells from them. Can span multiple turns; breaks once used.
  • Golden Net: Similar to the plain net, but lasts for three players passed before breaking. You'll also net 1,000 bells from each player passed.
  • Rod: Allows you to steal a random item from the nearest player before your turn starts. Breaks once used.
  • Golden Rod: Allows you to steal up to three random items, one from each of the other three players, before your turn starts. Breaks once used.
  • Beans: Rolling two dice, you'll earn 100 bells for each space you hit. Costs more to purchase than the double die.
  • Pipe: Swap positions on the map with a random player.
  • Beekeeper: Summon wasps to a chosen player to steal a random amount of bells from.
  • Medicine: Lasting for three turns, prevents wasps from attacking you.
  • Resetti Lock: Don will give you this if you land on his space. When obtained, you immediately lose the ability to use or shop for items in the next two turns.
• Special spaces:
  • Wisp Lamp: Summons the ghost to either gift you a random, high-valued item to your advantage or a random amount of bells.
  • Resetti: One of Sonny and one of Don. If landed on Sonny, you lose half your bells. If landed on Don, you'll be given the Resetti Lock.
  • Police Badge: You automatically lose all your items. Bells are left intact.
  • Blathers: You'll have the ability to wager any amount of bells you have. Blathers will then give you a museum-related trivia question that only you can answer. If correct, the bells you wagered will double. If incorrect, you'll lose the entire wager. You'll also have the option to not wager anything if you so choose. If you land here and don't have bells, you'll earn 1,000 bells if you answer the question correctly.
  • Redd: The shady fox tries to sell you four tickets to pick from: three are duds, one is a winner. If you happen to pick the winner, you'll automatically earn a large amount of bells. Duds give you nothing.

Again, these are just ideas, and I'm not entirely sure if something like this can be done on TBT. So, what are your thoughts? Anyone think this can work somehow?

 

[danmokun]

That's a cute idea, though frankly, I have little faith in the ability of players all coordinating together to make a session like this happen. From my experience, you'd have to try this on a small scale with friends you're already close with. I'm afraid I don't have any images to share, but I did once make custom designs in the design of board game spaces and in lieu of rolling dice, players plant weeds. Why weeds? Because NH doesn't have items to simulate Random Number Generation other than maybe that spinning game show wheel. Don't be fooled though, that piece of junk does not yield the same number for everyone when playing online, for whatever reason. Planting weeds has RNG to it as to which variety will pop up and that shows up the same on everyone's screen. Also, instead of everyone crowding around on custom design tiles, (and since you need to walk to go plant your weeds) I used dropping crafting items as game pieces. Someone can be a rock, someone can be a piece of wood, etc.

This indeed is a cool idea, TN4U, but I would advise getting creative with rules and setup so that you utilize less external sources as possible. It keeps it simple and reliable and less hassle for players, in terms of having to join a call or watch someone's screen or open up apps/webpages on their phones/PC. Oh, I did find some picture I could share. I made a little logo for that game I had and also had it as a custom design, split into two halves, placed next to the board. It's a parody of the Fortune Street logo. I basically made an Animal Crossing version of the game's objective.

 

[Pentagonyx]

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival


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