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March 08, 2005
Troubled Teen (Clue)
Troubled Teen
Objective:
By elimination, identify the Delinquent Activity (DA) Timmy the Troubled Teen engages in while Shirking a Responsibility (SR), all because of a Probable Reason (PR) (some sort of traumatic event in Timmy's youth). Such as “Timmy is Huffing Pledge instead of Washing the Polo Ponies, because he was Rejected in Kindergarten for Drawing a Round Square.” Additional objective: the guilty party wants to escape before being accused.
Change from Clue:
The primary change from Clue involves associating Timmy's condition with a player character and introduce an additional goal for the “guilty party” (escape). Each person is affiliated with a Probable Reason, completing the narrative of cause and effect, and thus associating a player character with Timmy's state.
Rules:
Similar to Clue--movement into a new space offers the player the opportunity to make a suggestion, with the players revealing the information they hold in accordance with the Clue rules. Only the DA associated with the location may be guessed, which encourages movement about the board. At any time a player is adjacent to another player, they may ACCUSE and “ADMINISTER A BEAT DOWN”. If accusing an innocent player or misidentifying the SR and DA, that player loses and is eliminated. If a player ascertains he/she is guilty of the Probable Reason, they may exit the board via the Bus Terminal (Street Loctation plus rolling 4-6 on die). The other players, when seeing a fellow player making a bee-line to the Street will know to move adjacent and accuse.
Discussion of Changes:
Our group considered a wide range of game mechanic changes to assist in the development of a more fully articulated story.
A proposed change but unincorporated: Associating each player with a location on the board. Dad would be associated with TroubleTown S&L, Mom with the home, Teacher with TroubleTown High School, Grandma with the Nursing Home, etc. If a player moved to his/her special location, they would be allowed to ask two questions. To counter the special ability of asking two questions at the special location, there would be twice the number of Probable Reasons (2 per character). Numerous additional spots on the board (3 Main Street spots, the Bowling Alley, TroubleTown Cinematechque) would complicate the movement mechanic and add excitement to the flight/pursuit of the responsible adult.
2nd Place: In addition to the winner solving the Shirked Responsibilty, Delinquent Activity and Probable Reason combination, if a player ascertained they were the correct Probable Reason, they could escape the game board (via the Bus Terminal location in the Street Location) to secure 2nd Place. Once the players have determined the character responsible for the Probable Reason, they would move to block his/her exit by occupying all the spaces adjacent to the Bus Terminal.
Play-test observations:
One item that stood out was the clumsy movement mechanic inherent in Clue. There is too much incentive to merely move back and forth between two adjacent rooms. Perhaps having extra clues located at various locations could motivate players to keep moving across the board.
Posted by sruston at March 8, 2005 03:48 PM
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