dammit
11-11-2010, 09:02 AM
With me moving out and having general chaos this christmas season, I just wanted a place to put down this particular idea that was not on a piece of paper that would go missing. Also, I'm more likely to work towards finishing this if I've already put it down here. I'm also wanting to actually finish my TF2 boardgame before I start this one (given that working with that game is only going to help me when designing this one), so don't expect much from this thread for a good few months.
The board itself will be an image of the human body (guts and veins visible) with a number of symptoms listed on the side (symptoms that wouldn't be explained by putting a marker on the body - for example: dizziness, vomiting). On the other side of the image will be a number of blocks with tests available (eg: Xray, MRI, Stress tests).
Playing with 2 or more players, one person plays as House. There are a number of decks in the game. I haven't quite worked out all the categories, but they'll be based on the type of illness, eg: Infection, genetic disoder, poison etc. The person playing House will secretly pick one, two or three cards from any of these decks (number of cards picked equals difficulty). The cards will have the illness, the symptoms, necessary treatment and tests on them. House will need to make a note of all of these secretly and then put those cards back in their rightful decks.
House will then choose a number of symptoms to reveal by placing markers on the board indicating where the problem is and possibly explaining the symptom (ie: numbness in the right foot).
They other players now each get a turn to draw a card from one of the decks. They'll have to decide if they think they're looking for a poisoning, genetic disorder or infection. Once each of them have a card they can decide to run a test or pick up a treatment card (separate deck with cards with medications and what they might treat). Running tests and trying treatments will give them clues. You're also meant to get clues from the cards you pick up with the illnesses on them. For example, you may pick up a card with Huntington's Disease on it (genetic disorder). Knowing that none of the symptoms fit that disease lets you rule it out. You may then also choose to rule out that particular treatment option and opt for a different test.
If you choose a test or treatment that isn't on House's secret list for this patient, then House has to draw a card from his Vicodin deck. This deck has a limited number of cards and when it runs out, the patient dies. If a test is correct (matches the tests on house's list) then House must reveal more symptoms (if he still has more to reveal). If a treatment is successful, then the symptoms that belong to the illness that is being treated must be removed from the board. In both cases, the game is not over because the patient still has to be diagnosed correctly. Game is won by whomever correctly diagnoses the patient.
I also want House to have another deck with situation cards such as "new symptom appears in patient - if all symptoms already revealed, House may choose to add a new illness from those still available in the deck" or "House has ****ed off cuddy - no treatments or tests for two rounds and House takes another vicodin" but I'm not exactly sure how to work that into the play.
I also realise that I've set myself a huge research task for this particular game. I'll have to research diseases and medicines and the like, but it should be interesting. Also, I do realise that a person with a complicated set of infections (like 3 random infections picked by House in this game) would probably die within minutes, but the TV program is also about that close to reality so it's not really a problem.
Essentially, my focus wasn't on making a game that is exactly like the program. That would mean making specific cases and that would mean you'd remember the cases and know the answers. Here it is more random. But because none of us is medically trained, we need the information available to us on the cards we pick out of the decks. I wanted to give the players information but allow them to test ideas and to think (to actually need to solve the puzzle) by trying treatments and tests. I also needed to create some sort of urgency, which is what the vicodin deck is meant to do.
Again, this is a very very early stage idea that I'm putting here for safe keeping. Lots and lots of work still needs to go into this and I'm only going to get around to it next year.
The board itself will be an image of the human body (guts and veins visible) with a number of symptoms listed on the side (symptoms that wouldn't be explained by putting a marker on the body - for example: dizziness, vomiting). On the other side of the image will be a number of blocks with tests available (eg: Xray, MRI, Stress tests).
Playing with 2 or more players, one person plays as House. There are a number of decks in the game. I haven't quite worked out all the categories, but they'll be based on the type of illness, eg: Infection, genetic disoder, poison etc. The person playing House will secretly pick one, two or three cards from any of these decks (number of cards picked equals difficulty). The cards will have the illness, the symptoms, necessary treatment and tests on them. House will need to make a note of all of these secretly and then put those cards back in their rightful decks.
House will then choose a number of symptoms to reveal by placing markers on the board indicating where the problem is and possibly explaining the symptom (ie: numbness in the right foot).
They other players now each get a turn to draw a card from one of the decks. They'll have to decide if they think they're looking for a poisoning, genetic disorder or infection. Once each of them have a card they can decide to run a test or pick up a treatment card (separate deck with cards with medications and what they might treat). Running tests and trying treatments will give them clues. You're also meant to get clues from the cards you pick up with the illnesses on them. For example, you may pick up a card with Huntington's Disease on it (genetic disorder). Knowing that none of the symptoms fit that disease lets you rule it out. You may then also choose to rule out that particular treatment option and opt for a different test.
If you choose a test or treatment that isn't on House's secret list for this patient, then House has to draw a card from his Vicodin deck. This deck has a limited number of cards and when it runs out, the patient dies. If a test is correct (matches the tests on house's list) then House must reveal more symptoms (if he still has more to reveal). If a treatment is successful, then the symptoms that belong to the illness that is being treated must be removed from the board. In both cases, the game is not over because the patient still has to be diagnosed correctly. Game is won by whomever correctly diagnoses the patient.
I also want House to have another deck with situation cards such as "new symptom appears in patient - if all symptoms already revealed, House may choose to add a new illness from those still available in the deck" or "House has ****ed off cuddy - no treatments or tests for two rounds and House takes another vicodin" but I'm not exactly sure how to work that into the play.
I also realise that I've set myself a huge research task for this particular game. I'll have to research diseases and medicines and the like, but it should be interesting. Also, I do realise that a person with a complicated set of infections (like 3 random infections picked by House in this game) would probably die within minutes, but the TV program is also about that close to reality so it's not really a problem.
Essentially, my focus wasn't on making a game that is exactly like the program. That would mean making specific cases and that would mean you'd remember the cases and know the answers. Here it is more random. But because none of us is medically trained, we need the information available to us on the cards we pick out of the decks. I wanted to give the players information but allow them to test ideas and to think (to actually need to solve the puzzle) by trying treatments and tests. I also needed to create some sort of urgency, which is what the vicodin deck is meant to do.
Again, this is a very very early stage idea that I'm putting here for safe keeping. Lots and lots of work still needs to go into this and I'm only going to get around to it next year.