Wasted The Game: One Page Dungeon Contest 2015

I started working on an One Page Dungeon Contest (2015) entry and wanted to create a fake board game. I created a city map and then added some hexes, created a mission card, and a "monster" counter card to be placed "on the board". Once I had completed the flattened board, my plan was to use 3d post card effect in Photoshop to tilt the board and give it some depth.

I like the idea, but short of making fake "post-it" notes to give some sort of story, it remains stuck as what I think is a neat idea, but not a very good one page dungeon. As usual, and particularly challenging with the One Page Dungeon format, I ended up with lots of ideas that I really couldn't make use of. That is where my current project, a card game, came from.

The concept is a simple one. Players choose between four character cards, each representing a different "faction" in my make believe post apocalyptic ruined city. The city itself is an abstraction, and unlike some games I have played (and enjoyed), a "game board" is not created by laying down location cards. Players progress through the ruins by drawing encounter cards on their turns. Some of these cards are opponents (monsters, mutants, robots, zombies, hostile survivors, etc.), some are NPC's, and others are "key locations" in the city. The location cards are not discarded, but are placed on the table, and put into play. Any player can choose to visit a discovered location on their turn as opposed to drawing from the encounter deck. Bosses and mini-boss opponent cards work the same way. They remain on the table until they are defeated. Upon defeat, they are placed upside down next to the winning player's character card, featuring the "loot item" that is indicated on the bottom of the card.
These loot items (relics) do not count as salvage and are more or less permanent unless otherwise stated on the card.