Retheming a Game – Part I: Components, Rules and Mechanics

 Retheming a Game

 What are board games but a collection of components, rules and mechanics wrapped up in a theme. And if such a collect works for one theme, then why not for another?  There have been many board games that were initially released with one theme, only to be republished with another to reach a wider audience, or perhaps for other reasons. Werewolf is a retheming of the game Mafia, Rex: Final Days of an Empire is Dune but set in the Twilight Imperium universe, and there are currently 25 versions of Seiji Kanai's Love Letter. Controversially, Bang! from dV Giochi was re-themed as Aiko Games’ Legend of the Three Kingdoms. The components, rules and mechanics may be tweaked in the process of retheming, but generally the core of the game remains the same.

A number of years ago I designed a solitaire board game. Can you guess the theme of the game from the components, rules and mechanics below?

• Components
• 16 resource tokens with 5 different icons: A set of 6, a set of 4, a set of 3, a set of 2 and a set of 1
• 28 target tokens:
• 6 sets of 3 copies each, composed of 3 assorted resource icons
• 4 sets of 2 copies each, composed of 4 assorted resource icons
• 5 sets of unique tokens, composed of 5 assorted resource icons
• 19 power cards that the player can acquire throughout the game, which grants them special abilities
• 31 event cards that alter game variables every turn
• 2 markers for tracking action points and game countdown tracks
• A 6-sided die
• A game board had the following features:
• A 5 x 5 x 5 hex map where randomly drawn target tokens are placed
• An action point track: 0-20
• A game countdown track: 1-10
• A 4-space resource collection area where randomly drawn resource tokens are placed
• A target area displaying each of the 15 targets, showing their composition of resource icons, where resource tokens can be placed in order to eliminate target tokens on the hex map
• Rules and Mechanics
• Draw an event card, which may add randomly drawn target tokens to the hex map
• Draw 4 resource tokens and place them on the resource collection area
• The player may:
• Spend action points to obtain a power card
• Use a power card to gain a special ability that turn
• Spend action points to obtain resource tokens and place them on targets in the target area with matching icons
• When a target has all icon spots populated with resource tokens, the matching target tokens on the hex map are removed, and the player gains action points determined by the value on hex the target token occupied.
• Player actions may be affect by the event card.
• When the player completes their turn, they roll the 6-sided die to determine if they must advance the game countdown track, then receive bonus action points if applicable. The roll can be affected by the event card.
• The game ends when:
• The player eliminates all target tokens from the hex map before the countdown track reaches the 10 spot on the countdown track, and the player wins.
• The countdown track reaches the 10 spot before the player eliminates all the target tokens from the hex map, and the player loses.

Obviously you could just look up my name and see my only currently published board game, but I think the descriptions above can be pretty generic.

Thank you for your time.

John "That Cowboy Guy" Gibson