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Author Topic: New WWBP Variants  (Read 1500 times)
GrumpyHumbug
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New WWBP Variants
« on: November 07, 2006, 02:50:32 PM »
Flying Buffalo is looking for new variants of WWBP.  Who would be interested in a new variant, and what ideas are out there?  It can't be TOO far off the normal gameplay scenario, unfortunately, since reprogramming FBI's system can be something of a sticky wicket.

I've been thinking about a no-missile version, perhaps based on World War I. 

Also, maybe a 19th century variant with no Air Force, perhaps substituting Cavalry for Air Force, with appropriate restrictions (i.e. land attack only, different multipliers, etc.). 

Ideas?  Opinions? 
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Ian
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GrumpyHumbug
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2008, 04:49:53 AM »
What about an anonymous psychic variant?  We could add a message for just that game, i.e. "I think ## is the psychic". 
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Ian
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jwiewel
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2008, 05:59:34 AM »
Quote from: GrumpyHumbug on July 31, 2008, 04:49:53 AM
What about an anonymous psychic variant?  We could add a message for just that game, i.e. "I think ## is the psychic". 

You could have a random psychic.  One possibility would be that every turn the psychic opts to randomly choose a player to reveal things to.  Another possibility would be that the players could bid for the psychic (maybe add the bid game dollars to 10x the percentage those dollars represent of the player's income, so bidding $25 on a $200 income would be 12.5x10 + 25 = 150 while bidding $100 on a $2500 income would be 4x10+100 = 140 and bidding $30 of a $20 income = 1530 while bidding $1000 on a $2000 income = only 1500).

The low income players could still have a chance to get the psychic, but they could only change their own orders and thus would be less likely to be able to benefit from that.  That might result in one big player first using forces to do the bulk of many attacks and having an alliance with a much smaller player so that the big player could regularly give that small player some key forces and a little money, and then depend on the small player to use the money to buy the psychic for the following turn and use those key forces to put multiple attacks just over the edge from failure to success.  If this was a partner's anonymous game then the obvious strategy would be to have the smaller partner (in countries and income) with the great bulk of the forces.
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GrumpyHumbug
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2008, 06:12:48 AM »
The Psychic variant is an equal-forces game, so the "big player-small player" issue wouldn't be a factor. 

Bidding to be the Psychic also doesn't work for me.  Flying Buffalo might not want to risk that kind of responsibility for a successful game to chance.

Not sure about the whole "reveal info to another player" idea, seems like that would make it impossible to determine who the Psychic is as the game goes on.
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Ian
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jwiewel
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2008, 06:17:21 AM »
Quote from: GrumpyHumbug on July 31, 2008, 06:12:48 AM
The Psychic variant is an equal-forces game, so the "big player-small player" issue wouldn't be a factor. 

Bidding to be the Psychic also doesn't work for me.  Flying Buffalo might not want to risk that kind of responsibility for a successful game to chance.

Not sure about the whole "reveal info to another player" idea, seems like that would make it impossible to determine who the Psychic is as the game goes on.

Big player/small player can happen in equal forces also.  The players don't remain equal after the start.  in WW-A197 the CMA player ended up with 5 majors to his partner RYA's 1 and CMA also had about twice the number of minors that RYA had.

The random psychic idea would be that the player that was aided by the psychic would be randomly re-selected every turn (possibly weighted to reduce chances of people getting the psychic multiple turns while others get the psychic zero turns - also possibly to include a chance of no psychic that turn).  The goal would no longer be to find the psychic, but rather to prevail even if your enemy turned out to occasionally be aided by the psychic.  It wouldn't be my cup of tea, but it might appeal to some people.  To avoid people getting mousetrapped at the beginning the psychic probably wouldn't kick in until turn 3.
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GrumpyHumbug
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2009, 06:15:27 AM »
Sent an e-mail to Rick Loomis regarding the Random Psychic idea. 

My premise, based on previous comments here, was that one active player each turn is randomly chosen to get the psychic printout, otherwise it's a regular equal-forces game.

Rick replied and said that Chuck suggested a bidding process each turn for the psychic printout. 

What do people think of either or both?
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Ian
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jwiewel
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2009, 06:29:27 AM »
My first thought was that a larger player could bid every turn for the right to the psychic.  However, an opponent could simply save money and bid for it on a critical turn.  An alliance could probably send money one turn to the critical player and have that player make the bid on the following turn.

I wouldn't be that bothered if a close-by opponent won the bid on turn one as that would mean that the intervening minors would mostly be mine.  Turns two to four could be quite damaging.  In the later stages, a player would make the bid part of a surprise attack/backstab so that the greatest brutality could result from the attack.  If the result of the bid is not given until after the turns are sent then a player counting on buying the psychic may end up shocked if another player bid higher that turn.

Without bidding, a randomly awarded psychic may end up in more unheralded backstabs.

As I said in an earlier post, a random psychic wouldn't be my cup of tea.  I also doubt if I'd be that enthralled with the idea of a bid-upon psychic.
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GrumpyHumbug
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Re: New WWBP Variants
« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2009, 06:48:27 AM »
Another idea Paul Balsamo brought up from a prior StarWeb game was that of a "time travel" variant, where once in the game, every player gets to re-do their orders and have the turn re-run.  Each player would only get to do this once per game, and the consensus was that every turn should only be allowed a re-run once.
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Ian
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