ÜMLÄÜT!- the Brainstürming!

[Thunderfoot]

Or, you could just play this...

Umläut: Game of Metal from Lord of the Pies

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

THIS could be a problem. Of course, Umlaut is a non-copyrighted word (thank you German language) and this game is an RPG, vice a board game.

Still, it could prove problematic, wonder if we could co-license and sell as a sister product? Danny, you are the legal guy, that's your department.

I realized something though.. We have a lawyer, a record producer/former pro musician, several fans and we are all gamers designing this - this could be awesome!!! We need an artist for box design and board layout graphics.

 

[Janx]

I see 2 different concepts for this game:

1) each player represents a band, thus recruiting musician cards makes sense

2) each player represents a member of the same band. And they are not necessarily working together. The guy who wins survives the band.


I like the idea of using real items as tokens. Volume knobs come in a variety of styles, and would be some really nice tokens. Guitar picks would also work. Representing a drummer or vocalist would be a little harder to find a real world item (drum sticks are too big). Just using guitar knobs would get the spirit across, and hopefully not be too costly.


A track board game could be fun. With each square being a venue, toward the finish line would be all the more famous places to play, like The Whiskey, Madison Square Garden, etc.

Chance cards or whatever could convey all the setbacks and joke problems the band experiences like guitarist thinks the drinks are free, and drinks the nights pay, move back 3 squares...

If you decide to use character cards (cards representing band members), remember that the drummer gets all the girls and drummers are dumb.

and I don't have a stripper girlfriend. It's probably because I don't use a pick.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Wow!

Lots of good stuff- too much to go over at this minute. But I do have these points:

1) I'm leaning back to a design with a board- "The Tour"- and cards. Victory conditions would be first "band" to 10M fans, with a "fan" deck which is just a bunch of identical cards with a stylized crowd scene (maybe a surfer) with denominations of 10K, 50K, and 100K, maybe more. (Think Nuclear War population cards.). Cards played will let you draw, force you to discard or redistribute fans to other bands- possibly combinations of those!

2) Good ideas on the pieces! A bottle of burbon it is!

3) Keeping the draft: you can't go on "The Tour" without a complete band- and losing a band member (through various means) while you're on "The Tour" means you can't move. A "complete band" consists of a Drummer, a Bass player, a Guitarist and a Vocalist. They come in all kinds- "Trained Musician", "Prodigy", "Self-Taught" "Satanist", "Urban" and "Glam"- with each category having effects on other cards effects. The game will also include cards like "Power Trio" which will let you have a "complete band" without a Vocalist, or "Twin Guitar Attack" which lets you have an additional guitarist, and wildcards like "Keyboardist" and "Turntableist" who are also band members...with both affecting your fan base directly.

4) The RPG would be a problem. I could try to negotiate a deal, but if it comes down to it, I can just change the name. All suggestions are welcome, but...The Thread Remains Unchanged.

 

[Lanefan]

3) Keeping the draft: you can't go on "The Tour" without a complete band- and losing a band member (through various means) while you're on "The Tour" means you can't move. A "complete band" consists of a Drummer, a Bass player, a Guitarist and a Vocalist. They come in all kinds- "Trained Musician", "Prodigy", "Self-Taught" "Satanist", "Urban" and "Glam"- with each category having effects on other cards effects. The game will also include cards like "Power Trio" which will let you have a "complete band" without a Vocalist, or "Twin Guitar Attack" which lets you have an additional guitarist, and wildcards like "Keyboardist" and "Turntableist" who are also band members...with both affecting your fan base directly.

I was thinking of something a bit more variable with the cards - you'd have access to more of them such that you'd have the option of starting with a 3-piece band and loads of equipment (with inherent advantages and disadvantages) or starting with a 6 or 7-piece band and not so much equipment (again with built-in pros and cons), there'd also be cards you'd get at the start but could keep hidden until later in the game when they become relevant and-or used as trade bait to help replace a lost band member, and so on.

I like your musician levels "Prodigy", "Self-Taught", etc. There could also be some cards in the mix that can increase or decrease a musician's abilities, with corresponding consequences to the band.

One place you might want to kind of push reality aside is the focus given to start-up vs. big time. Yes, in reality most bands spend years never quite getting anywhere and then quit, but for these purposes we want to sort of assume everyone will hit it big; the main focus of the game becomes who is biggest, along with the events in the life of your band on tour. Thus my suggestion of the card-based formation phase being shorter and the touring/competition phase being the main game.

Lan-"in the 'never quite get anywhere' phase since 1987"-efan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I think he base level assumption of the game is going to be that the band has already been signed, and they're just trying to "make it big."

Perhaps instead of a hard and fast "first to 10M fans" victory condition- which could take a long time- the game should end after 4-5 trips around the board. The "Start" square would be "Record Released!", and you'd release a new album every time you land on or pass that square. After one band has had 5 record releases, you total up your number of fans to determine the winner. That might keep the game's pace up and the duration of a typical game under 90 minutes.

There might also be cards that make "record releases" not count towards ending the game- "Best of...", "Bootleg!" "Masters Destroyed!", "Shelved" and other cards might nullify a release, lengthening the game a bit...

Meanwhile, "Double Album", "Charity Benefit EP" "Supergroup Side-Projects!" and others might INCREASE "releases" and speed the game up.


On band members: one would be designated the "Founding Member", and would be immune or resistant to cards that would cause that member to be discarded (which, as mentioned before, would cause you to lose turns until he was replaced). There would also be a "Co-Founder" card that gives another bandmember that protection.

 

[Aeolius]

And the official breakfast cereal is of course:

 

[Janx]

I would recommend the goal being to get signed. There's a lot more bands trying to get signed, than are signed, and the scale of the game numbers is smaller.

It can stil be the same concept, but rather than "being signed and getting 10M fans" it's "get 1000 fans to be signed and win.

Plus, with smaller number,s you could actually contemplate making each member card unique (with a joke about each).

Let's assume there's a deck of musicians. each one has keywords or stats to signify the instruments they play, and their extra contribution. Most musicians will be single instrument, but there will be a few that double up, thus enabling a power trio.

To start play, everybody gets dealt 4 members. They can trade with other players or discard/draw. Any member they end up with that they did NOT draw for, gets credit as a Founding Member, which presumably has some benefit. The game starts when everybody has the roles for drummer, bass, guitar, and vox filled.

the board represents all the venues the band rotates through on the schedule for. Bands are always trying to influence things to get to the better venues, and get out of the crap-holes. They also might get bad-mouthed or banned from a venue.

So, instead of a circle like monopoly, imagine a series of levels on the board. The bottom level is where all the 4-band whirligigs where each band plays a set, and all the coffee-house "free" gigs are. The top level is where the A Rooms are, that pay good money, and the good bands play at.

A band needs a following (fans) to play a higher ranked room, so there's your meter for moving up the ladder (presumably getting out of an A room means getting signed, and doing arena tours).

Playing a gig means playing some action cards (and maybe countering some action cards by other players to sabotage the gig). The final outcome being get more money and/or fans.

I think you could just use a # of fans as synonymous with money, for bands, it's pretty much the same thing.

The action cards are where all the funny art, quotes and stereotypical band problems and such get drawn out.

Things like:
break a string
spent all the pay drinking "free" drinks that weren't
yoko kills the band, lose half the members
drummer turns flake and drops out
singer gets arrrested on the way to the gig
covers vs. originals argument stalls the band

In real life, band members are always trading up for a better band, so having some mechanism like that makes sense that you would trade out members (or steal).

Not saying this is how Danny's game has to work, but the core topic puts a game design to my mind.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are some good ideas in there, and some echo what's brewing in my mind!

I really do want the bandmember selection to be pretty big- like the "Yoko" card, I want there to be a number of cards that force you to shuffle your lineup- possibly even "thefts" or trades with other bands...maybe even one like "Side Project" that lets multiple players share one bandmember. At least one "Creative Differences", "Arrested" and a "Death by Misadventure" as well.

But I also want there to be a benefit to keeping your band's lineup intact. Perhaps a bonus fan card draw per tour circuit completed with the original lineup. Maybe even an additional bonus for finishing with your classic lineup (regardless of whether there were lineup changes in the interim) and one more fore a constant lineup throughout the game.

 

[tuxgeo]

I really do want the bandmember selection to be pretty big- like the "Yoko" card, I want there to be a number of cards that force you to shuffle your lineup- possibly even "thefts" or trades with other bands...maybe even one like "Side Project" that lets multiple players share one bandmember. At least one "Creative Differences", "Arrested" and a "Death by Misadventure" as well.

But I also want there to be a benefit to keeping your band's lineup intact. Perhaps a bonus fan card draw per tour circuit completed with the original lineup. Maybe even an additional bonus for finishing with your classic lineup (regardless of whether there were lineup changes in the interim) and one more fore a constant lineup throughout the game.

As long as you're Brainstürming, you're still collecting ideas rather than ruling ideas out; and that means to me that you're open to references that aren't intrinsically Metal, such as the Yoko idea.

In no particular order:
Multiples can work: Multiple singers (John, Paul, George, and Ringo all sang -- and wrote songs!); Multiple instruments (Jimmy Page started on bass, switched to guitar, but laid down some mandolin tracks); Session work can boost reputation, and possibly enhance the chances that some other musician would work with your band, so it might need to be separate from a "Side Project" card.

Mixed genders: Wait, in a Metal band? Maybe not, but Fleetwood Mac had divorces boosting their publicity and media awareness.

Family connections: Really far from Metal; but I have seen videos on YouTube of Scottish folk group Capercaillie with (alternately) Donal Lunny or Manus Lunny on Irish Bouzouki (and it confused me initially, because one plays left-handed and the other right). So, if your brother plays in a band, you might stand a better chance of getting an in with them after your brother marries and moves to Okinawa, or whatever.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I had thought about something similar, but in RPG form.


Here's a link to the thread...maybe you can mine it for boardgame ideas.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301639-does-game-exist-rockstar-rpg.html