Like Jumanji, but with fewer lions

September 20, 2017 5:25 PM

I want to DIY a board/card game as a gift for my partner, based on a set of characters and world we have built together. I'm looking for already existing games to model off of or just reskin, rather than making a whole new game.

While I would love to sit down and create my own board game from scratch, that's a little out of my time/energy scope right now. I'm expecting a lot of art to be involved in the making of this game (after all, that's where all the personalization comes in), so I'd like to dedicate most of my effort towards that.

I can do digital art of any kind: people, animals, backgrounds (with a lot of groaning, but I can do it). So cards, boards, etc. I can decorate with ease. I have access to a 3D printer and have successfully sculpted a model of a fantasy animal in Sculptris and then also successfully 3D printed it, so I can make anything up to the complexity of an animal (don't think I could do a human figurine, though). I've also worked with Sculpey and know I could make animal figurines... maybe human ones, but I'm a little skeptical there. I may have access to woodcutting tools through my father, though I don't know exactly what he has.

I want something that will specifically involve our characters, so anything that is currently focused on characters/people of some kind would be good. Having places for bits of lore/text to be worked in is great too. I also have a variety of locations and fantasy creatures I can work in, though it's not a requirement. The world is urban fantasy, so a fantasy element would be best, but I'm sure I could work with games that don't have that as well.

Here are some games my partner and I have enjoyed:
- Ascension
- Magic: the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
- Ticket to Ride
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: the Perilous Parlor Game
- The concept of this hilariously bad LOTR board game (Seriously, it could have been so good, it was just... extremely broken)

What I'm not looking for:
- Monopoly
- Chess
- Deckbuilding games that require 50+ cards to work (There's only so much art I can do!)

We already own Ascension, Magic: Planeswalkers, and Werewolf, so I'm not looking to replace those. Anything else is fair game (heh), though! Tips for how to construct the game (how to make decent looking cards, how to build a sturdy board + attach art, etc.) would also be appreciated.

posted by brook horse to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

So you want to focus on the characters? If you wanted to focus on the places, you could do a cool Ticket to Ride game, maybe with a bit of lore about each place on its card.

How about Forbidden Island? The concept is an island that is slowly sinking into the sea while you run around trying to grab artifacts. There are a lot of place names and illustrations; each player has a role with a different skill (can move diagonally; can move another player on your turn--you could base these on your characters), and there are extra devices that make things easier (sandbags, helicopters). Instead of a board, it's got a set of cardboard tiles that you shuffle and lay out, so the "board" is different every time.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:48 PM on September 20, 2017

Love Letter is an easy one to mod. It's just cards, and you only need 9 characters.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:44 AM on September 21, 2017

You could add a number of additional character and crossroad cards to Dead of Winter.
In DoW you have narrative events which apply to individual characters (or which each player has several) so you could add in character cards and narratives for them.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 5:49 AM on September 21, 2017

CandyLand! You can pick a few different interesting "places" to design.
posted by jillithd at 6:48 AM on September 21, 2017

Yeah, I was going to suggest Love Letter too. There are already several official themes, and a ton of fan themes -- I did a Princess Bride one, and a friend has done Pokemon. Here's a Board Game Geek thread. I made a double set, so we can play with up to 8 people. (If you do this, look at Loot Letter rules for card counts and rule mods).

Fluxx is probably another good one, if you don't mind making enough cards. It's a light enough game that you don't have to worry too much about mechanics and balance as you tweak things. Star Fluxx might be a good place to start, even though it's sci-fi rather than fantasy (it's also the only themed version I've played, so there might be better ones to start from).

I'd also consider Munchkin (probably a really good thematic match, but might require more game mechanic thought) and Bohnanza (tough thematically, but you wouldn't have to worry about changing the actual game).

I've never played them, but The Resistance or Coup might also work?

Tokaido is a pretty simple travel-themed board game that might be easy to adapt

BGG has a whole DIY forum, and that'll be a great resource for you. I just did the Love Letter cards in Photoshop, but that would get unwieldy in a larger game, so you'll want to look for some sort of template based deck creator (I think Magic Set Editor is a common recommendation).

If you do cards, get them printed by PrinterStudio or ArtsCow, and check BGG for discount codes before you order them.
posted by natabat at 8:08 AM on September 21, 2017

If you can accept cards with no board, Butten Men is a terrific game for making your own characters. And while the original format would be cards (or buttons), there's nothing that prevents you from making figurines, potentially with space for the appropriate dice on their bases.

And there's always the option of a customized chess set with a board with artwork of your choosing.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:15 PM on September 21, 2017

(Ignore the bit about chess; I missed that you're not looking for that.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:16 PM on September 21, 2017

I love the game Bang!, and the fact that it exists as everything from "Wild West" to "Samurai" to "Walking Dead" and "Halo" re-skins (with slight rules variations) implies that it's not too hard to work with!
posted by Squid Voltaire at 4:23 PM on September 22, 2017