The Harvest - A LEGO Strategy Board Game

Update 1.3- I have started a blog to further elaborate on this project and to post more pictures. It is still a work in progress. Thank you all for your support.

Update 1.2- I have done a less chaotic rendering of the board game with LDD [due to a lack of bricks of the right colors] and have posted the picture at the bottom and on my Flickr page. Enjoy! Will be working on the cards next.

Update 1.1- I have finally materialized the set in bricks. Am still working on the cards and waiting for my fruit pieces and customizable dice to arrive. Have relegated the older photos to my Flickr page. Thank you for your support and suggestions.
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Abstract: An epic adventure board game that allows you to control four characters per player and race to fill up your your fruits store before the onset of winter. Fruit can be collected from the completing of quests, opening of event cards, picking from the tree of fruits, defeating other players' characters, purchasing with gems and trading with other players. The multiple alternative paths that you can take to obtain your goal allows a wide range of strategies to be employed; from diplomacy to open warfare. The customizable nature of LEGO also allow you to recreate a unique experience every time you play. So, create your own quest, determine your own fate and live out your own epic adventure.
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Thank you for taking the time to read and support my project. I am still in the nascent phase of developing it and am in the midst of conceptualizing it. Do forgive me if the images are not up to standard, hopefully LEGO can spice it up further if this goes into consideration. Do take into account the design and idea behind this project. I will appreciate any comments and suggestions. For all you AFOLs out there who are fans of Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico and other board games, do support my project, I will do my best to keep improving it over time. Thank you.

This game hopes to bring out the customization qualities and versatility of LEGO where the players can modify their characters and change the positions of the structures, creating a unique experience for each game. It will also reach out to audience who may want more depth and strategy involved in their LEGO boardgames. Players can add their own quests with their existing LEGO elements. Each micro-figure character will also be uniquely designed in such a way that they can be identified as a tribe and as an individual.

Children can learn decision making, diplomacy and priority-tasking skills, exploring different paths to reach their goal . They can also allow their imagination to run free by creating their own quests and set out on an adventure of their own making.

More images can be found on my Flickr page under the set the harvest. You can find samples of quest and event cards and a picture of the winter chart.

Title: The harvest
Genre: Board-game
Story: Winter is coming in 30 days and the tribes have to stock up their food supplies in preparation or risk starvation.

Objective:
Collect 5 bananas, 5 apples, 5 cherries
The player who has a complete store at the onset of winter [i.e when the winter chart hits 30 days] survives.

Box contains:
16 character minifigures
16 Character cards
30 quest cards + 10 blank quest cards
40 event cards + 10 blank event cards
68 bananas, 68 cherries, 68 apples
120 gems
128 red health points [hp] markers
96 blue attack/defence [atk/def] points markers
4 Dice [2 red and 2 white]
1 customizable LEGO die
Winter chart depicting 30 days of winter
LEGO elements to construct structures and quests

No. of players: 2-4
For ages 12 and above
Estimated play time: 30mins to an hr

How to gain fruits:
Collect from the tree of fruits [limited, 15 fruits on tree]
Buy them [5 gems per fruit of choice]
Obtain a fruit of choice when an opponent's character is defeated
Complete a quest
From event cards
Trade

What does each player have?
4 character cards
4 character minifigures
2 gems to start with


What happens in a player's turn?
1. The player decides which of the 4 characters he/she wants to use first and throws 2 dice to determine the maximum number of steps the character has.
2. The player can then choose to move that character up to the maximum number of steps and then choose to, attack another player, carry out an action or end that character's turn.
4. Characters that have exhausted their turns will be turned sideways to indicate this.
3. This will be repeated through all currently living characters the player has.
4. The player's turn ends when all living characters has made an attack/ action or when player declares end of turn.

At the end of all the players' turns for a round, the customizable die is thrown.

Sides of customizable die: 1 day towards winter [3 sides], 2 days toward winter [2 sides], 3 days toward winter [1 side]

The days towards winter [as dictated by the customizable die or events during the round] are accumulated on the winter chart and the game ends when it reaches 30 days.
Winner: The one who stored the most fruits
Survivors: The ones who acquired the predetermined quantity of fruits by the onset of winter.
Losers: The ones who had all their characters defeated and have no gems to revive them or the ones who failed to acquire the predetermined quantity of fruits by the onset of winter.

Figure 1.1. An example of 4 character cards

Character:
Each character has 8hp and the player has to pay 1 coin to revive character if defeated.
Each character starts with 8hp, 2 atk and 0 def points
Each character has only 4 equip-able slot [head, body, left hand, right hand]
To initiate an action, your character has to be on an action tile
To attack another character, a character has to be within range of another character to attack [depending on choice of weapon].
Every time a character is damaged, a hp marker is placed on his hp bar - 1 marker = 1 damage.
When a character is defeated, the defender has to offer a fruit of choice to the final attacker.

Figure 1.2. Illustrations for movement, fighting, harvesting and mining.

Movement:
Throw of 2 dice to determine maximum steps.
Player can then choose the number of steps he/she wishes to take for that character within that maximum number of steps.

Attacking:
Use dice to decide if attack is successful.
Both attacker and defender casts two dice each. The higher number wins the attack.
If draw: Frontal assault - defender wins ; Back/side assault - attacker wins.
If defender wins, attack is negated.
If attacker wins, damage = attacker's akt points - defender's def points
Attacker obtains 1 fruit of choice if the defending character is defeated.
Turn ends after an attack/action regardless if character had moved.

Figure 1.3. Close up pictures of some of the structures

Structures provided in the board-game set:
- 2 weapon caches, containing:
swords [+2 atk, melee/range1],
shield [+1 def],
helmet [+1 def],
healing potion [one use, full heal/ up to 8hps, can revive character on the spot]
[Can only acquire 1 equipment per action]
- 1 tree of fruits [1 fruit per trip, only 12 fruits on the tree for the game]
- 2 Quest piles [cards]
- 2 Event piles [cards]
- 2 Gem mines [Gather 2 gems per action]
- 4 trading posts
- 4 starting/revive points [where characters begin, and return if defeated]

Trading
When there is a consensus between players to trade, each of the players has to send a character to the other player's trading post to initiate an action and to receive the agreed upon goods.

Questing
Characters that initiate an action at the quest pile will receive a quest card.

Events
Characters that initiate an action at the event pile will receive an event card.

Figure 1.4. Close up pictures of some of the quests

Examples of a quest:
-John aspires to be a cook, but recently he misplaced his saucepan. Help John find his missing saucepan.
-Defeat the evil droid!
-Set out on a quest for the holy grail.

Examples of an event:
-A hailstorm occurred, all characters not on a purple tile lose 1 hp each!
-You found a stash of gold, you gained 5 gems!
-You stumbled upon a fruit bar, you gained an apple!

FAQs
I will be happy to clarify any doubts and queries.

1) Will you be constructing the game with real bricks?
Yup, I will be constructing the game and running some trials with my friends to troubleshoot any fault and to improve the game further. Will be uploading some non-digital photos of it as soon as I can, thanks.

2) What constitutes a round?
A round is when all the players had a chance to execute their turn.