ÜMLÄÜT!- the Brainstürming!

[Dannyalcatraz]

ÜMLÄÜT!- the Brainstürming!

I have decided to design a board game dealing with the trials and tribulations of becoming a world-touring, platinum-selling Heavy Metal band. I will call it..."ÜMLÄÜT!"

I'm brainstorming now on what would make it fun, both visually and as a game overall. All ideas are welcome!

Visuals:
Hmmm...for the pewter pieces for the players...a guitar knob that goes to 11, a mic on a stand, a drum kit and...what the hell for bass players?

OK, maybe illustrated plastic tiles with things like a guitar & amp, a bass & amp, a drum kit and a singer screaming in a mic?

Maybe more abstract- no pieces at all? Something more like an AH boardgame?

Gameplay:

Clearly, the winner should be the "Band" that "makes it" first. How to measure? A physical "finish line" like classic games, or something like a $$$ threshold?

 

[Thunderfoot]

For Bass players - A stripper girlfriend??

Part of the problem with your visuals is going to be the board itself. Traditional colors for metal - black, red, gold and silver are not exactly great board colors. Though if you could back the board in a black "leatherette" vinyl that would be good. I would think that $$$ amount over fan base with a dark/light tendency. Most money + most fans over the most categories would be the winner.

Then you have instance cards like -

1. Sell out - change to boy band and make $100,000 lose 66% of your fan base.
2. Sell soul - Increase fan base by 33% but only with a dark tendency.
3. Hair Band - Make $100,000, increase light fan base by 10%, lose dark fan base by 20% because you are "wussing out".
4. Lose band member - Increases popularity across the board due to press coverage. You press on because your bandmate "Would have wanted it that way."
5. Rehab - lose $10,000 due to lost time away from tour schedule while buddy gets sober.
6. Producer screws you over (my personal favorite) - Lose 75% of your money and move back X number of spaces due to you producer embezzling your profits.

Just some ideas, hope this helps

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's some good, Monopoly-esque instance cards!

And it sounds like you're thinking- as I did- as more of a traditional board game layout, right? Spaces & "pawns"...maybe dice or some kind of spinner?

 

[Lanefan]

Disclaimer: I don't know thing one about in-depth board game design. You have been warned.

A few ideas leap to mind, though I've no clue how to put 'em into practice:

1. It's a two (or more) phase game. The first phase is the shorter, and involves somehow forming the band - maybe a card-based element here, where people draw and trade (or buy) cards that represent band members, each one with one or more strengths and-or weaknesses that may or may not have any relevant function in the main game. Some cards could be bonus cards - extra-good equipment, a better quality tour bus, an amp that goes to 11, something like that - that could become relevant later. You can't start the main game until you have a minimum number of card-based elements - say, at least 4 different band members and some form of transport.

2. The main game is turn-based, much like Risk 2210 or something, where each turn represents the release of an album. Each turn has phases - e.g. hype, release, tour, fallout - and after each full round of turns the game assesses who is winning. Players choose how many turns the game will go before starting play. Turn order somehow changes between rounds - I suggest randomly, possibly affected by bonus cards. The relative strength of your band (based on the cards you got in part 1) plays a role in how well you do. If you lose a band member you need to trade or buy another member card from someone else or else function at a severe penalty - this mimics nicely the constant recycling of the same guys between different metal bands.

That's all I got.

Lan-"Ozzy, Accept, and After Forever played while I typed this"-efan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Disclaimer: I don't know thing one about in-depth board game design.

Neither do I. I just had the idea and thought..."Cööl!"

I like the idea of a "draft" for bandmates. I don't know how that would work mechanically, but somehow it feels right.

Or maybe...just maybe...a boardgame isn't the way to go. Perhaps this should be a card game. You draw band members, groupies, corporate angels... It would look something like a combo between things like M:tG, Munchkin and Illuminati...or Nuclear War, the game would have cards you keep, cards you expend to hinder other players, and cards you expend to improve your status.

That way, I could see players stealing each other's gear...or even band members.



And as a card game, you could have the cards have a black "leathery" appearance with the game's name in red on the back, capturing the aesthetic.

 

[Baz King]

Or, you could just play this...

Umläut: Game of Metal from Lord of the Pies

It's by Rich Stokes, and it, obviously, rocks.

 

[Dioltach]

Hmmm...for the pewter pieces for the players...a guitar knob that goes to 11, a mic on a stand, a drum kit and...what the hell for bass players?

I like Thunderfoot's idea of a stripper for bass players, but speaking as a former bass player myself, I think a bottle of Jack Daniels would be more representative.

Or perhaps the players can choose at the start what direction they want their band to take -- hair band, glam rock, death metal -- and select their playing pieces depending on that choice? And then have to achieve various goals, like in Risk? Options during a turn could be a world tour, a marketing campaign, a movie role, an album or an appearance on a talk show. Roll dice to see how successful each player's move was, with modifiers depending on instance cards, previous moves, other players' moves (two players choosing world tours would clash, a movie role is more successful after an album or a tour, that kind of stuff).

Cool idea for a game. I'd buy it.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Here's some good "bad luck" chance cards:

"Getting stiffed on the pay for a gig because no one showed up to the show and your band drank $400 worth of hard alcohol."

"Venue owner decides to shut down your gig because drunken bandmate decides to urinate (or expose himself) on the stage."

"Headliner act calls our band out and calls you a bunch of (talentless BEEP) when they begins their set."

"Bassist or Guitarest unable to play through entire act after every string on their guitar breaks... REPEATEDLY"

"All microphones break."

"Repeated Electric Shock."

"Mall concert."

"Bandmate who was unable to make the performance (due to illness) passes away. (Happened to someone I know).

"Venue owner refuses to let you pay your set because the venue closes at 12am (due to local regulations) and they conveniently forgot to tell that during your 7pm sound check."

 

[Thunderfoot]

Disclaimer: I don't know thing one about in-depth board game design. You have been warned.

A few ideas leap to mind, though I've no clue how to put 'em into practice:

1. It's a two (or more) phase game. The first phase is the shorter, and involves somehow forming the band - maybe a card-based element here, where people draw and trade (or buy) cards that represent band members, each one with one or more strengths and-or weaknesses that may or may not have any relevant function in the main game. Some cards could be bonus cards - extra-good equipment, a better quality tour bus, an amp that goes to 11, something like that - that could become relevant later. You can't start the main game until you have a minimum number of card-based elements - say, at least 4 different band members and some form of transport.

2. The main game is turn-based, much like Risk 2210 or something, where each turn represents the release of an album. Each turn has phases - e.g. hype, release, tour, fallout - and after each full round of turns the game assesses who is winning. Players choose how many turns the game will go before starting play. Turn order somehow changes between rounds - I suggest randomly, possibly affected by bonus cards. The relative strength of your band (based on the cards you got in part 1) plays a role in how well you do. If you lose a band member you need to trade or buy another member card from someone else or else function at a severe penalty - this mimics nicely the constant recycling of the same guys between different metal bands.

That's all I got.

Lan-"Ozzy, Accept, and After Forever played while I typed this"-efan

I LOVE your ideas - in fact I had a similar thought last night as I was lying in bed "trying" to sleep - I was thinking 3 phase (garage, semi-pro/bar circuit/pro touring) however, I was thinking that the first phase would be the longer version (do you know how hard it is to get signed), semi-pro the easiest to get "off track" so to speak, and pro straight forward but with the major set-backs like you described.

Also the "win" criteria is tracked on a separate "peg board" tracker like many of the Milton Bradly games of the late 70s early 80s. Money, records sold, fans (dark/light/neutral), with the whole thing being tracked as "chart placement".

Each phase you have to have a certain number of $, Fans and a record (demo tape for garage, independent, EP for semi-pro, and chart buster for for pro). As a nice bonus your personal tracking sheet could be a plastic covered cardboard sheet that you can use China markers on, so you can personalize it every time like so:

Band Name: FuT (since I can't get the umlauts to work)
Hometown: Dingleberry, Idaho
Garage Demo (check box) $20,000 (check box)
Semi-pro Independent EP (check box) $100,000 (check box)
Pro Chart buster (check box) $1,000,000 (check box) Fans # (D/N/L) (check boxes)

The nice things about a three part game are the board is easier to make (old style thin box cardboard with two creases (thank you MB for your game master series), it gets harder as you go, even thought the options are fewer (thank you Parker Brothers for Payday), the concept is unique and the visual are plentiful enough that major recording acts could release their own "version" like specialized Monopoly - (Metallica - the game, AC/DC - Highway to Hell, or whatnot).

 

[Thunderfoot]

I like Thunderfoot's idea of a stripper for bass players, but speaking as a former bass player myself, I think a bottle of Jack Daniels would be more representative.

Or perhaps the players can choose at the start what direction they want their band to take -- hair band, glam rock, death metal -- and select their playing pieces depending on that choice? And then have to achieve various goals, like in Risk? Options during a turn could be a world tour, a marketing campaign, a movie role, an album or an appearance on a talk show. Roll dice to see how successful each player's move was, with modifiers depending on instance cards, previous moves, other players' moves (two players choosing world tours would clash, a movie role is more successful after an album or a tour, that kind of stuff).

Cool idea for a game. I'd buy it.

Nah - all bass players have to have a stripper girlfriend, I mean one of them has to have a steady job... (sorry, old band joke).

The only problem with a bottle of Jack is the licensing of a Trademark we would have to contend with - yes it could be a generic square bottle with "Bourbon" on it, but really, we all know where that's going don't we.