High Level
I am designing an asymmetrical secret objective game (each player is trying to win with different objectives that other players don't know).
I want to introduce an element in the game which will let all the players participate in determining the outcome of specific events.
The players must be able to influence the outcome of an event without other players knowing in what way.
Additionally, Players would have different amounts of influence they could use towards events.
Main Questions in implementation:
- How can the player choose which outcome they are influencing?
- How can the player determine how much influence to use?
- How can this information (1 & 2) be kept secret from other players?
Abstract Example:
An event has two outcomes RED and BLUE.
- Players can influence events towards the outcome they want
- Players can choose how much to influence (1, 2, or 3)
So lets say there are 4 players, and they vote/bid as follows.
- Player 1: RED 2
- Player 2: RED 1
- Player 3: BLUE 3
- Player 4: BLUE 2
In this example, BLUE would be the outcome of the event.
Attempted Non-perfect Solution to the Abstract Example Using cards:
If each player has cards that represent their influence (1, 2, and 3) and they have such cards in each of the possible outcome colors (RED and BLUE). so that each player then has 6 cards. When an event is being voted on, each player would choose one card to use.
Why this is a problem:
After the vote/bid each player would need to reclaim the cards they spent so that they could use them again next time they need to vote/bid, and that would reveal who had used which card.
Possible Solution:
We could redistribute all the cards each time. So that no one would know who had used which card since they are all discarded each time
The Problems with this solution:
- Lots of work to re-distribute cards each vote/bid, especially if there will be lots of voting/bidding
- Requires all players to always have all the same influence all the time.
Some more details:
I want there to be a variable number of outcomes to events, such that some events could have 2, 3, or more outcomes.
I want the Player's influence to be generic, not specific to outcomes, so that the influence could be used for any event and outcome.
There would be multiple event voting/bidding rounds throughout the game. Most of the time there will be multiple events to be voted/bid on.
Players shouldn't be required to spend all their influence when voting/bidding and should be able to preserve it for layer votes/bids at a later stage in the game.
Other possible implementation using influence chips:
Players accumulate influence chips throughout the game and spend them when voting/bidding. When it is time to vote/bid on an event, each outcome is voted/bid separately using a bag which is passed around the table and each player can use as many chips as they want to vote/bid for that outcome by placing them in the bag.
Why this is a problem:
voting would be slow. It would be hard to hide which outcome the player is or is not voting for and also how much influence they are using. It is prone to cheating with players peaking into the bag, or being able to feel if there are any chips in the bag already or even how many.
As you can see I can not think of a good solution for this. Games with similar mechanics:
[Players] need to collect skill cards ... Each turn also brings a Crisis Card, various tasks that players must overcome. Players need to play matching skill cards to fend off the problems; skill cards that don't match hinder the players success. Fate could be working against the crew, or there could be a [traitor]
... players are working together toward one common victory condition — but for each individual player to achieve victory, he must also complete his personal secret objective. This secret objective could relate to a psychological tick that's fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or (worst of all) vengeance against the colony! Certain games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing. Work toward the group's goal, but don't get walked all over by a loudmouth who's looking out only for his own interests!