Gear World

Tzolk'in has a very similar board layout to a game I was working on last year called Gear World. Here are my notes from my design journal:

Map Board

  • One large central gear interlocked with four smaller gears at the corners
  • Placing a token on a building area or a farm, forest, mine, etc shows who owns it
  • Smaller gears could have 13 teeth
  • Each small gear would have its own “personality”
  • They would have 4 settlement locations
  • Winner is first person to have at least one settlement on each of the four small gears
  • Each settlement location would have a separate cost: cheapest to costliest.
  • Cost would be different resources for different gears: 16 combinations in total
  • Ownership of each settlement would grant different benefits at certain times/phases in the game.
  • The other 8 spots could be mines, farms, etc. These could produce resources as well, but player would have to have an adjunct settlement first
  • Resource might only be received when ending on a mesh occurred between player’s owned teeth. Resources would accumulate on the gear until the mesh. Could end game without ever collecting the resources.
  • A player could attack other player’s gear if they end on a mesh.
  • A lake in the middle?
  • Larger gear could have 24 teeth
  • 24 gears (8 Settlements and 16 Building sites)
  • 24 gaps (Farms, Forests, Mines, etc.)
  • 16 spots that share a gear with a building site
  • 28 spots on the spokes and around the center hub
  • Grand total of 92 spots on the Main Gear
  • A lake in the middle an between each spoke: 5 lakes in total

Player Boards

  • 4 circular spots at top, one for each small gear
  • When resources are accumulated, they are placed on the spot and cannot be used until the gears mesh.
  • Can be stolen by another player when their gears mesh
  • Zeppelin track for keeping track of number of zeppelins: 0 - 6
  • Can move goods off small gears x the number of zeppelins
  • Once per turn you can move goods from small gears to main gear (lower part of player board)
  • Zeppelins cannot be used for attacks, only for moving goods between a player’s settlements)