Have at thee!

So our final project is to fully design a game. The challenge part was to not have a roll-and-move mechanic.

My three main ideas to pursue were:
- a spaceship race game - giving energy each turn to speed/shields/weapons. This would involve a board or set of tiles to make various boards. Each player (2-6/8) would control a craft. They would have a control panel that they would have to adjust each turn that would affect how much they could move. They could also assign points to either front or back shields or weapons to try and damage the other crafts.

- a giant robot battle board game (having read a bit of MechWarrior and Battletech - plus being a RoboJox fan). The giant robot game (2 – 4 players) would be a very simple version with the robots having various weapon types and being able to damage each other. Enough damage would render the various weapons inoperable and finally destroy the robot.

- a gladiator-type board game. The Gladiator game (2 – 6 players) would allow you to equip with various weapons that could do different damage. Armor would be minimal. There would also be the capacity to be pitted against animals – lions, tigers, boars, bulls, wolves.

The giant robot and the gladiator are based around similar concepts. With a board for the arena and the players controlling 1 or 2 figures. I was thinking I could use the battle mechanics as a test bed for my Jugger game rules.

I had also toyed with a western gunfight card game (which seemed to play too fast) or a fencing/swordfighting game (but would have to make different from En Garde or Highlander).

After further thought, I decided to pursue the fencing game. It would involve a board for the piste, markers for the fencers, and cards for the target moves. Being forced off the end of the piste would score as would an attack to an area that the opponent couldn’t defend. The various weapons – epee, foil, saber would all have different target areas.
I have solidified the rules, and had a few test games to ensure it works. The game has the flow I was hoping to achieve as well as capturing some of the unique terms (balestra, riposte, etc).
I have focused solely on Foil fencing to start. After the course I will come back to it and finish sabre and epee.

I have arranged some blind testing - I just have to get the rules from my head to fully realized on paper before that can happen though.