Design Diary for 18XX Solomon


18XX Solomon is about ghost knights dungeon delving on the purgatory to free hope back to the world.

In here I've disclaimed my current game design process. I'll use that as a frame work to keep things organized here

SPARK

Like I said in 18XX Ragnarok, tropes are out the window now. I had twist and turn so certain any could fit in 19th century theme. And I REALLY liked this one. They could be crusaders and there's the whole line of thought regarding the holy grail. The halls also reminded me of the Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings, so there would definitely be dungeons now.  Anyway, all knights would be long gone by now...unless they were dead but not gone. The blue light gave me this ethereal feeling, so ghost knights were a natural outcome, one may say.

Why would there be ghosts here? Is this afterlife or somewhere in between? They are not chasing the holy grail, so what treasure? What if they would be staying here indefinitely and time just pass here unnaturally? So there COULD be a connection to the 1800s when needed? Maybe demons are involved so they could escape and the knights would need to go to the living world?

RESEARCH

My starting point was actually a boardgame about crusades (Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done). It has short summary of a lot of knight orders. It really eased up my search for orders, what happened to them, sigils, etc. So character wise I was covered.  The rest I had some ideas how to tackle

For the GM tables, I have many dungeons and dungeon procedures material so I had many references. 

For the demons, I arrived to Ars Goetia (as I believe most people do). I focused on the presidents there just because it was a neat 12 list hahahah.

WATERING

I wanted the ghost knights to have influence from their lives and from what happened afterwards. So life determined skills but after death determined powers.

Do ghosts have possessions beyond their self image? Maybe only if they meant something, so know items NEED a bond. 

I decided for purgatory being the place they're stuck. And, if they're stuck, their destiny could be a good one or a bad one. So I added the mechanic of slaying a demon taints you but the goodness shards improve the world. So they don't keep on just on faith, they see little flashes that they are actually doing good.

The format + theme + threat+ lord for creating dungeons ended being easier to write than anticipated  Maybe I'll use this for something else in the future.

Demons were a little tricky to give them form, but after my exercise on 18XX Ragnarok,  the visual + abilities + themes made it pretty straightforward. Many references here (Castlevania, League of Legends, memes...)

CUTTING

So easy to make the dungeons this way, they don't end up having  map details but 2/3 zones seemed enough. Themes helped in this too. instead of having multiple themes in a room/zone, I started at one, a merged one than other. Felt good. You could go this many ways. I'll definitely provide more guidelines in 18XX almanac.

Combining with other 18XX games

There could always be a portal from purgatory to living world. Maybe that's how demons get goodness shards (a wild IDEA appears). That could change the appearance of the knights, maybe still knight but less...dead? Or take from Pirates of the Caribbean and make them show their dead form only on certain circumstances, like under moonlight.]

  • Muramasa a demon caused the event causing a cursed blade to hurt a hunter
  • Outlaw a city is now worshipping the demon as a messiah
  • Locker a demon defeated 2 escapees and now is wielding both of its powers
  • Night a demon is also involved in the threat but it's an enemy from the Night Lord
  • Victorian an important figure is now possessed by the demon
  • Ragnarok a demon wants to help the heros, it doesnt want competition with the elder gods
  • Richelieu a demon is asking for asylum to the king, what it has to offer?
  • Rail Way the demon was captured and is now hostage of the conspiracy

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