18IA: Building Iowa's Railroads

18OE: The O is for "Oh My God, It's Enormous!"

2011-01-14T19:12:00.000-06:00

Wow, take a look at these pictures from 18OE(Orient Express).

Reportedly takes something like 16 hours to play, with people who know what they're doing. Has 18 major railroads.

I am considering doing something similar with track points in 18IA, to speed up the first couple of operating rounds.

Blank gameboards and boxes on the way from Tim Harrison at Games On The Brain

2011-01-13T10:27:00.002-06:00

Yay, moving forward in creating good-looking prototypes/test types.

Tile check

2011-01-02T11:07:00.000-06:00

Showed one of my new tile designs to 3 of the 18xx'ers at Kevin Nunn's Lone Star convention, and got some interested looks. I am definitely doing something that hasn't been done before.

I also have some blank gameboards on the way from Tim Harrison of Games On The Brain.

(I'm Notte Deade.)

Still working on any number of things.

Owlcon 2011 slots registered

2010-09-06T07:31:00.002-05:00

I'll be at OwlCon on Saturday, January 29, 2011, with another 18IA proto.

Current design is examining the following questions:
1. what if minor railroads had already left some track around (which they did, historically).
2. what if rail technology allowed companies to build more sophisticated tracks faster (which they did, historically).
3. can back-room dealings and special powers still come out mid-game and not derail, heh heh, the proceedings?
4. what if train purchases also followed supply and demand?

I inspired someone (also I am still alive)

2009-05-20T07:41:00.002-05:00

Very neat. Dave Berry is working (and blogging) on an 18xx game titled "Britain Under Steam." Looks like he's got a lot of interesting blog posts up already, including some provocative thoughts on speeding play of his game.

18IA appearing at OwlCon at Rice University

2009-01-13T21:56:00.002-06:00

Running playtesting at OwlCon in a few weeks, just a post to let you know I am not deceased.

No news is... no news.

2008-07-26T10:17:00.003-05:00

Summer's been a busy time. I've been playing with map variations of 18IA and am trying to get more playtesting in. I've also had a board game event at my house, learned two new games (Pandemic and Glory To Rome) and gotten diagnosed with "complex regional pain" in my right foot.

Thanks to everyone who has given input so far. I have gotten one preliminary quote for printing and have been using those numbers in my estimates. Still plenty of time to preorder.

Good reasons to preorder 18IA now

2008-06-12T06:44:00.000-05:00

Why preorder now?

You get my best discount, guaranteed. I will never sell copies directly for less than the preorder price of $37.75.
You'll be the first to get 18IA. I will ship all individual preorders that pay for shipping prior to any distributor commitments being honored, guaranteed.
You want a special bonus that will ship with your copy of 18IA, available only to the first 100 paid preorders. Those of you that have already pre-ordered, don't worry, you're automatically registered for your bonus!
You want your copy's cover signed and numbered with a particular number (this is a Houston Gamers tradition).
You'll be in good company with the others who have already pre-ordered.
You'll get exclusive pre-release access and information.

Not ready to preorder yet?

Don't want to give the full amount now? Donate or sign up for a reminder email!

2008-06-05T21:16:00.003-05:00

Donate random amounts to move the printing date forward with this button:

If you would like to add your name to the "I'll definitely preorder, but only when you have enough people to print 18IA" list, just send your name and shipping information to derscheid@gmail.com - I'll send you a reminder ONLY when significant signup milestones are reached. Once I have enough people for the final push, I'll send out a "Last Call For Preorders" so you can send your money in! This list will only be used for train-game-related emails, no spam.

Preorder 18IA today- Pick your copies up in Houston, have your games shipped to a US or Canadian address

2008-06-04T21:41:00.009-05:00

Preorder now to reserve your copy or copies of 18IA after it goes to press (currently I expect the game to go to press in Q4 of 2009, and retail for $75, though neither item is set in stone). Note that game is still in testing, so if you love or hate what you read in the designer entries, speak up!

This button is for picking your copy of 18IA up in Houston whenever it's done (include all your contact information, please). Preorder now to lock in a price of $37.75 + tax:

This button is for having 18IA shipped to you to a US address via USPS Priority Mail. Preorder now to lock in a price of 37.75+ shipping (scales a little with multiple copies) + tax (yes, you still have to pay Texas use tax even if you're not in Texas. I am not a lawyer.):

The following button would not exist if Dan Corban wasn't such a great guy to trade boardgames with: It's for preordering 18IA for shipping to Canada. One copy at a time, sorry. Yes, you pay for shipping and Texas use tax. I will fill out customs forms with the preorder price, following Andy Looney's lead on the subject. All Canadian preorders will ship in a separate (and later) trip to the post office, since it will require customs forms.

So that's it. Preorder away! Email me if you have questions at derscheid@gmail.com.

Again, this is a PRE-order. Can't ship it because it's not printed yet, and won't be sent off to print until October 2009 at the earliest.

Not ready to take the plunge? Email me at derscheid@gmail.com and I'll add your name to the 18IA preorder list.

Punchy

2008-06-04T08:45:00.004-05:00

I'm researching punch dies. You know, for punching stuff out of paper/cardstock with a mallet.

Also, Paypal merchant fees.

Also, Texas sales and use taxes.

Decisions, decisions...

2008-06-03T21:49:00.002-05:00

I have been pricing out printing, and it should come as no surprise that there are a wide range of vendors who sell the same thing at a wide variety of prices. On the bright side, there's nothing like calling a place and having them tell you, "Oh, yeah, we have a hundred thousand 1/2" flat head furniture plugs in stock, how soon do you need them?"

Sorting through the mess, I think when I pull the trigger, I am going to be able to create enough copies of 18IA, without having too many. We're still probably 12 to 20 months away from printing at this point. I'd like to get in at least two or three normal playtest sessions prior to opening it up to blind playtesting, as well as figuring out what the final dimensions of the project will be, reworking all my art, rewriting and proofreading the rules, etc.

At this point, I know how big my print run is going to be, and about how much it'll cost for me to make. Now the fun question: How many people can I get to pre-order 18IA, how many should I get before I print, and how much do they need to pay for this entire project to make sense?

I also have at least two other options for publishing: Z-Man Games and JKLM Games. Both of them were jointly responsible for 1861, which sold out 600 copies quite handily in spite of the high price tag.

Right now, there is no decent introductory 18xx game that is fully-finished and available to order today and get by the end of the week. Mark Derrick's single-state games 18AL and 18GA are out of print (though still available as print & play), and Deep Thought Games, which publishes the reportedly-excellent 1889 and 18TN, and the reportedly-decent 18FL, has a several-month backlog. As in, you order it now and you get it in, oh, a few months. This is unacceptable - a huge gap in the market. Although Deep Thought Games' products have earned respect in the gaming community as excellent examples of a quality production effort, they're also fairly expensive, depending on what options are used to buy them.

18IA fits into the single-state 18xx category nicely, and although I am still working on some of the chrome, it's clear that the introductory/newbie-friendly 18xx category has room for one more, especially if I can get the price point right.

Quotes submitted

2008-06-01T07:38:00.002-05:00

I submitted two quote requests to see what my current design would cost - one as a mostly assemble-it-myself affair after I get the boards printed, another as a full they-do-it deal.

The full they-do-it deal had some numbers that made me grin. Here's my guesses as to my market size:

Gamer friends I can count on to buy anything: 5
People who immediately buy everything train-, 18xx- or Iowa-related, God bless 'em: 45
18xx people looking for interesting games and will jump on 18IA as a new game: 50-250
Newbies to 18xx looking for immediately-available introductory games since the Deep Thought backlog is always several months long: 10-200
18xx people who research carefully and will eventually decide to buy it: 200-600.

This supports my tiered-release concept quite well (solicit pre-orders for first tier, then have first tier sales fund second tier's printing). I'm getting quotes for several sizes of print runs. If 18IA is my flagship game, I don't want it to go out of print, but I also don't want one billion copies in my house, either.

The back of the envelope, part 1

2008-05-31T08:57:00.003-05:00

For fun, I've been putting together estimates of what it would cost to print decent copies of 18IA.

I am getting a quote for a board from a couple of companies, just to see how it'll shake out.

Clearly, the answer is pre-selling some magic number of units first, at a significant discount, to pay for printing and so on. GMT's P500 system has been doing this for years, with great success.

This estimate also includes no provision for storage, and that's pretty unrealistic. Chances are, I could get APE Games to take up the sales end, so I wouldn't need to do all that from scratch.

Provided I set my Fund-The-Game-Preorder numbers correctly, I'd have enough starting capital to buy any equipment (like a die-cutter and custom dies if I so choose), print everything, assemble the pre-orders, ship the pre-orders, and then be able to sit back and assemble games at a reasonable-to-leisurely pace, as orders flowed in.

Next playtest at Kevin's birthday

2008-05-10T21:47:00.002-05:00

Kevin Nunn's got a birthday party coming up, gaming from 1 pm to whenever, so I'll be using my finest whining voice to get my draft of 18IA to the table.

To consider: is there a corn bonus? A pig bonus? A cow bonus? I'm not satisfied because it feels like I may need to make my map a little bigger to be happy.

I also need to work out how the off-board map areas will pay out. After more thought, I need to increase them, and possibly increase route bonuses in some way.

18AL Play-by-email game has begun

2008-03-19T18:46:00.000-05:00

Awesome, I'm in a 3-player PBEM game of 18AL, "The railroads come to Alabama." We quickly ran through an auction for the private companies, and are now entering the initial stock round.

Second big playtest

2008-03-03T05:47:00.002-06:00

Larry and I got a chance to play another game of 18IA. As it happened, I won bids on almost all the private companies, and he used his cash to float more railroad corporations than me in the beginning. I almost immediately raided cash and used it to float a corporation for $100 a share.

We had a good time, even though it was taking too long. I did make a change mid-game and remove several of the 3 and 4 trains to try and speed things up.

The other thing that happened that was interesting is that the pool of shares disappeared into the companies' treasuries, and didn't come back out again. Larry ended up in a position where two of his companies were trading a single train back and forth, rather than have to pay for it out of his own pocket. While legal, I'm not sure it was the best move for him, since it meant the two companies were always alternating between running.

In this game, the option to lay a second tile for $20 was almost always used, which means the price was almost certainly too low.

We also got to a position where every single corporation was constantly withholding dividends to race for another train... and both my corporations were at their train limit. I'm not sure what we could have done to break the deadlock. Do I want to offer a trade-in for trains? I'm not sure what the best approach is. At the same time, we were basically built out on the map, and we were only on the first 5 train, I believe.

I don't know. I am also not sure that having only 5 corporations is enough.

1861 got me confused.

2008-02-17T07:31:00.002-06:00

I got in about half a game of 1861: Rails of the Russian Empire at OwlCon, and have to say it's a fine game indeed. I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head.

Stuff I liked:

lots of companies can be started.
good graphics on the train cards show you what's going on.

Stuff I didn't like:

stock market doesn't move down much when shares are sold, so no dumping takes place.
other than location, there's nothing to differentiate the companies.

Of course, it's crazily unavailable, with the cheapest copy I can find being 55 euros plus another 13 euros shipping.

Getting a copy of 1870 in Math Trade on BGG

2008-01-29T06:18:00.000-06:00

I am trading off some old GURPS books for a copy of 1870 on BGG. I'm excited to add another 18xx game to my boardgame collection, even if it's unlikely to be played anytime soon. I also am getting Navia Drapt and Starship Catan, both of which include some unusual mechanics.

Other than that, I am still looking at a long list of design choices. Are red off-board hexes really necessary? I am considering a second map. Naturally, this would cause the payouts to go down and the board to be more crowded, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

Map draft almost done

2008-01-24T22:12:00.000-06:00

The new map drawn in Inkscape is looking pretty sweet. Vector graphics make for tiny file sizes, and the quality is superb. My only regret is that Cedar Falls doesn't fit nicely into my grid format, so it's a bit north on the map of the actual location.

I'm hoping to get together a better rough draft than my current one, so I can do a limited web playtest release. My current trains are just numbers drawn into rectangles, I don't have any money, and my tokens are just numbers with colored circles.

I'm making good progress so far and haven't gotten too hung up on anything... I was getting frustrated about lining up hexes but have figured out how to use the coordinate system to align them much more precisely. Definitely fun stuff.

After tokens and trains, it's back to tiles.

Inkscape work proceeds

2008-01-20T16:14:00.000-06:00

I've re-created most of the map in Inkscape, and just need to put some labels on the towns for it to be ready to chop up and reprint as a PDF.

Next up will be probably be tokens.

A promising first playtest with Larry

2008-01-14T06:16:00.000-06:00

Larry and I had a good time playtesting 18IA. He's never done any 18xx game before, having been turned on to Eurogames by me a few years ago. We regularly play Power Grid and we've done Caylus before, so he's got the chops for train games.

We actually managed to spend about two hours on the testing. Remember, this is having to learn all the 18xx concepts up-front, including basics of an 18xx stock market, my novel auction system, how corporations actually operate in an operating round, and so on. He was a real trouper, and had a good time learning the basic framework.

We made it through a simplified setup (dealt out the private companies 4 for him, 3 for me), and then tested my overbid system on the railroad corporations. Larry ended up with 3 presidencies, and I ended up with two. Of these, 4 out of the five companies floated during the first stock round, although I think I could have edged Larry out of one with a little work. By the luck of the draw, he had the two "best"/most expensive private companies, and I had 3 token-placement companies, including Iowa State University.

We ran through one operating round, where Larry sold off a couple of private companies and I sold off one. He had floated one corporation at $85, and had the last corporation's par value set at $100, but easily had the cash to float it. (In fact, I started us with $1200 each, which may be too much.)

I'm very happy with the auction process for the corporations, which I will describe in a later post. It worked exactly as designed - the results were a little random, but overall, the player most interested in running a particular corporation set the par value, and in some cases, the other player got an additional share. I am curious to see how the mechanism works in a 4 or 5 player game, or if the results are almost totally random.

So far, I've also spotted that one of the tokens, as written, is almost entirely pointless. It was written where it only gave a bonus for trains running through the town. It also went away after the first 4 train was purchased, making it only really useful for perhaps half the corporations for one to two operating rounds. I'm considering just dropping the token and making it a no-power dividend. Not everything has to involve extra chrome all the time...

Larry and I finished the evening with a lively discussion of the auction results. He was happy with them, and felt that they are well-integrated with the rest of the game setup, without feeling tacked-on. He was enthusiastic about trying again in two weeks, to see how far into the game we can get. We also trimmed and cut out a few more station markers and trains.

I also have been following with interest a discussion on the Houston Gamers website about the merit or folly of the entire existence of private companies. Lewis Wagner and Ray Mulford are both experienced gamers, but Lewis is against private companies, and Ray is stauchly for them. Iowa has a rich history ripe with smaller railroad corporations, so there's historical precedent for a game involving 6-7 major and almost any number of minor companies. My problem there is setting up mechanisms for acquisitions and mergers. If I get this version to the point where I like it, I might consider a reworking, but I'm trying to stay close to vanilla 18xx as possible; For me, network-building is fun, so maybe to incorporate Lewis' idea, I see a game where building with minor corporations is made more interesting, perhaps by scaling the building costs based on distance. Juggling shares back and forth in multiple mergers isn't my goal at this time.

First two-person playtest later today

2008-01-13T15:10:00.000-06:00

I now have a full home playtest version of 18IA and will be trying it out later on with my friend Larry. We've got enough time for a short game session, so I'll haul the draft version over to his place so we can stomp on it and see if it breaks.

The trains look particularly half-baked, and I don't have the stock certificates color-coded yet. My map is half-done, and so on.

Once I've given Larry a chance to give me feedback, I think the Houston Gamers is the next step. There are several avid train gamers who are drooling at the prospect. My regular Thursday night crowd is on hiatus until mid-February until we get the hang of having 3 kids in the house. The new baby's thrown off 18IA development, among other things.

Iowa State University - the private company, the token, and the influence

2007-12-30T19:25:00.000-06:00

Iowa State University is a private company in 18IA. Yes, a corporation's investment into founding a land-grant college produces income, just like a normal private company. The ISU token can be placed on any town to increase the route's value by $10. Beyond that, it is the token in the game removed the last, after all other influence tokens are removed. Best of all, at game's end, the last player to have owned the ISU certificate gets an additional $400 added to their final score.

I am trying here to make a private company that's functional even after private companies are removed from play, and again, to make the role of towns distinctive and appealing in the early-to-mid game.

As a side note, both my parents and one of my sisters are ISU alumni. It may appall some that I'm leaving Ames as a town on the map (while still allowing the formation of ISU in other towns on the map), as it was created for the purpose of supporting Iowa State University in the first place. That's the beauty of historic re-creations: the joy of the what-if?

Cedar Rapids & Missouri private company - first thoughts

2007-12-30T19:15:00.000-06:00

The Cedar Rapids & Missouri private company currently provides for a half-price token in Cedar Rapids, and a free 1+2 train. This is a novelty that I haven't seen in any 18xx game before, although the 1876 (Trinidad) 1/2 trains are close. The train's route must include a city with a station marker, and up to two towns.

With the token-placing powers of some of the other private companies, it's likely that most of the railroads can upgrade their income on the first few turns just by reaching the closest town.

The corporation that owns this company may even be able to avoid buying a 2 train, and go straight to a higher-level train, while still being able to float and run immediately.

This private company is intended to increase the initial push toward towns, and represent the role of acquiring existing local railroads as a way of increasing the territory a corporation covers.

Des Moines and the playtest train count

2007-12-30T19:01:00.000-06:00

There is no corporation with a starting station in Des Moines.

I have the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railroad as a private corporation thus far, as it's a relatively-local outfit. I have given this private corporation two special abilites that I think are going to result in heavy bidding:

1. second yellow-only track lay during each yellow operating round, possibly costing $30-60.
2. half-price station placement in Des Moines. This is naturally worth either $20 or $50.

My experiments with the second track placement show that it's useful in cutting off opponents until you are clear. It also makes it possible for more railroads to run during the first round; by placing a second yellow track to reach a town or city, a viable route is created. If a viable route is present, the railroad is forced to buy a 2 train on the first turn.

My current playtest train count is as follows:

five 2 trains
two 2+1 trains
four 3 trains
two 3+2 trains (yes, better than the 4 train if you've got the towns on your routes already)
four 4 trains
two 4+2 trains (yes, better than the 5 train if you've got the towns on your routes already)
three 5 trains
two 6 trains
three 7 trains
unlimited 8 trains

In actual practice, I doubt that most corporations will be able to run any routes more complex than 6, maybe 7. It could happen, though, if players can mutually agree to keep stations clear, or if one player controls several railroads. Indeed, this may be an excellent reason to own an under-performing railroad in the late game, as it could well double the payout.

I am also hoping to stop the so-called train rush - the push to upgrade trains immediately regardless of board position. In actual practice, individual corporations probably can force a jump upwards to green tiles almost immediately if they want to buy trains that are likely to rust without paying for themselves. I'm hoping that this mix creates meaningful decisions for players, rather than railroading (har har) them every game.

Railroad corporations' starting stations

2007-12-30T18:43:00.000-06:00

My draft board has 5 corporations starting on the northwest, northern, northeast, east, and southeast borders of Iowa. There is a single off-board (red) location in the southwest corner. I'd post a picture, but I'm still adjusting colors and so on.

Until I get in a true playtest, I won't know for sure how their interactions will really go. Of course, which corporations float in the opening stock round, and what their order will be, is of utmost interest. I have tried to design it so that players that crave cutthroat tile-laying can float the eastern companies, and the less-interactive players can float the northwest company and hope for the best.

In my experiments, the company that makes it into Des Moines has a decided earning advantage, but this is offset by 1. the private companies' powers, 2. the bidding necessary to be in the position to take advantage of a Des Moines route, and 3. the double-station space existing on the map at the start of the game. As more track complexity becomes available, there are more options, and ultimately, there are 3 spots for station markers in Des Moines.

I am also considering an optional fast-start rule where corporations can lay a second yellow track as close as possible to their starting station marker for $30-50. This would result in more balanced development, rather than a single-minded push to Des Moines.

Threw in the towel on ps18xx PostScript tile work

2007-12-30T18:17:00.000-06:00

After much fiddling, I posted a request for help to the Yahoo group to see about making print-ready tile sheets. Several people, particularly the old hands, already have scripts that make this a breeze. I had hoped to figure it out on my own, but the sheer number of "Magic Numbers" inside the ps18xx files threw me for a loop. I'd also like to create and release to the public a script or front-end that makes this easier to generate.

I worked out how to adjust the scale, how to increase/decrease space between tiles, change/remove the page header, change font sizes on the tiles, add/remove tile numbers, change orientations, change labels, and so on. BUT I can't figure out how to adjust the number of tiles per row/column. I suspect the key is in the main drawing loop, but how precisely to do that (to make for exactly 4/5/6 columns of tiles instead of the normal 8, I couldn't work out.

Also eluding me was how to cause my edited file to be a multi-page document. I'm not sure if it's a defect in GhostScript, or in my own edited files, but all the pages after the first were blank.

The frustrating thing is that this could be so much easier. It would be fairly simple for a better web designer than me to generate a frontend where one checked boxes to select all the desired tiles, then chose where to put them. It would also be moderately challenging to create a graphical frontend for manipulating these files. Marco Rossi's Tile Designer readme files and webpage hint at the creation of an entire tileset generator, which would also create print-ready maps.

I've been experimenting with Inkscape, and that seemed interesting. I don't know how much work in it I want to re-create, but within 5 minutes of downloading it, I was creating perfect hexes, combining them into single objects, and so on. The tough part is going to be the roads, etc.

What works against everyone is the fact that most people don't inherently "get" the idea of vector versus raster graphics. My friend Larry and I were brainstorming yesterday when he came over to see the new baby. Earlier this year, I got him hooked on Paint.NET for raster work, but he still needs to flip over to Corel's stellar, $300 program to do vector work. I know that several of the train game experts use Corel Draw 10 as well. I've seen that at least one uses Visio, which I hadn't considered before reading that.

The final issue with file creation is that web users and playtesters, for the most part, need PDFs to print, rather than the original .ps or .eps or .svg files used to create the PDFs; PDFs are universally understood, and the original file-types are not. Lowering the barriers to trying your game makes it more likely it'll be playtested, and ultimately, that determines whether the game's a success.

I just keep thinking, "If I could create a good-looking map and good-looking tiles using a better, faster, automatic method than hand-drawing everything from scratch, I could halve the time it takes to create a working prototype. That'd also make it so much simpler to release a good-looking prototype, rather than a mediocre-looking one. The reduction in time to create a commercial print version would probably also be halved, though never having done so, I can't swear to that."

The home-grown tools used by the designers aren't new. They take what works, and add on new bits incrementally, but there are still major holes in the creation process.

Is this bad? Maybe. I read that Steam Over Holland, formerly known as 18IR, took about a year to go from prototype to final version. Interesting stuff.

So close, and yet, so far

2007-12-27T04:14:00.000-06:00

I've been poking around with Marco Rossi's Tile Designer, and also with ps18xx, both of which are designed to create PostScript files. I have the free GhostScript viewer installed now.

There is no one-click map solution, and until someone comes along who doesn't think a command-line solution involving perl & postscript is awesome, there won't be.

To do list: tiles

2007-12-24T09:56:00.000-06:00

I've got a rough map, know the names of the railroads and private companies involved, have a rough draft of the list of trains, and have the special powers of the private companies down. Map work is being done in Paint.NET, and I'm looking into vector graphics programs as well.

The tile mix is still in development. I'm trying to get a good mix of tiles that still has some competition involved. I am trying to get a no-stocks, no-money, no-real-trains playthrough each night to see how many tiles I can eliminate from the playtest set I created.

This has definitely been a fun project so far, and I feel like I'm almost ready to find a group of playtesters to see how my game plays out.

How much do I want to tell you?

2007-12-05T18:01:00.000-06:00

Well, I have an idea: in the style of Mark Derrick and John David Galt's 18AL and 18GA, why not a railroad game about Iowa?

I'm working on a prototype for playtesting, and that's as much as I can say for now. Comments, thoughts, or suggestions are welcome.