Week 7 - Howl's Moving Castle V0

Concept and Storyline
The concept for this board game was taken from Studio Ghiblis production of Howl's Moving Castle which is based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones. The game takes place is the fantasy war torn land of Ingary and its different locales. The wizards and witches are honour bound to support the leaders of their respective countries and use magic to gain advantage over their enemies. Howl is a powerful wizard who has been possessed by a demon. The key to stopping the war is entwined with the saving of Howl before he is permanently transformed into a monster.

Genre and Target Audience

The genre the game takes on is more than one it can be classed as a role playing action adventure board game with a hint of territorial acquisition. The audience which is being targeted for this game is those of age above 13.

Goals and Objects

Race to find Howl's heart which has been lost and return Howl back to health by returning his heart or alternatively you can set out to destroy Howl by destroying his heart. Objects in this game will include such things as doorways which act as entrances and exits for players who are going through portals, chests which are scattered around the map one of which holds Howl's heart. There are also a number of special board positions from which the players can access and retrieve the spell and challenge cards. Dice and specialty cards such as spells which damage the opponent or challenge cards which hinders the opponent or can make you prone to attacks.

Characters and Environment

You can choose to either play as the heroine Sophie or the villain Madam Suliman. The board game will resemble places which the characters have visited during the course of the movie including The Waste, the coastal town of Port Haven, Folding Valley and the capital Kingsbury.

Game Play

1. Players must roll die to see how many spaces can be moved, players must move the total amount of spaces which have been rolled (players roll 5 they must move 5 spaces), players are not able to back track until they have rolled again and must move around obstacles which have a permanent place on the boards different maps.
2. Players are free to access the entire map at any time as long as they have the right cards in play or portals have been opened.
3. Players are limited to how many steps they can take at a time.
4. A player can have two challenge cards down at the same time; but with spell cards the player needs two cards to make up one spell.
5. Each player has a different types of spells for the Protagonist the spells represent love and kindness and as for the antagonist the spells will represent darkness and hatred.
6. Each variety of cards will have a different time limit on it (number of moves before the card wares off or a time limit for how long it can be in play).
7. Players also have a health system which can only be affected by spells and for both players the less health the slower you become in your movements, becoming slower is also to simulate you growing older and if players lose all of their health they reset there characters (give up all cards in play, in hand return to start of board).
8. Though players can resupply on health by picking up cards which regain their health.
9. There are set mechanics which this game uses to maximize to players experience.
10. Players are only aloud to hold 5 cards at a time not including those which are in play.
11. Players are able to move in-between “levels” if that “portal” or “doorway” has been opened otherwise players cannot access that part of the board.
12. To cast a spell or a challenge cards they must be active on the board, to finish the game the players must return the heart to designated place.

Core Mechanic
On each turn each player rolls a dice to determine where they move on board. Depending on board position they may pickup additional cards which can enable extra actions or improve their attributes such as spells, health, strength and experience. The player can also choose to attack other players using their spell cards.

Challenge

Most of the challenge is derived from player health, experience and strength attributes developed and then used during dueling. Game unpredictability is created through the rolling of the dice. Not knowing where Howl's heart card is located also creates a certain element of unpredictability.

Overall Impression

Still more development of design required in order to be able to rate more accurately however early prototype game concept was interesting to review.

My Rating
8 out of 10 stars.