Accessible Games

Monster Kart Monday #14: Alpha 6, Optional Rules

By: Jacob Wood, February 24, 2014 News

Introduction

A lot has been happening on the Monster Kart Mayhem front lately. In case you  missed last week, we’re running two Play-by-Forum games simultaneously at RPGGeek. We’ve also been working on a new Alpha release, which changes/adds a few things to the game.

What’s New in Alpha 6

Goodbye, Starting Player

The Sandman has come for the Starting Player mechanic. If you recall from Alpha 5 it was marked for deletion, and after additional testing I’ve decided to get rid of it.

There were two major issues with the Starting Player mechanic, as I saw it: first, even though the race isn’t officially over until the end of the round in which the first racer crosses the finish line, it was hard to ensure everyone received a fair number of turns; second, some people felt that their turn would never arrive again because they would occasionally get “skipped” when the Starting Player shifted.

Because the Starting Player mechanic was removed, I had to alter the Cause a Complication mechanic. Cause a Complication used to affect “the next player to act,” which used to shift based on who the Starting Player was. Under the new rules, the “nex player” will always be the same, so isn’t very effective to do things that way.

Cause a Complication now allows you to pick your own target. The downside is that it’s now possible to gang up on one lead player, so I may still have to implement some safeguards to prevent that. My initial thought is to not allow more than one person to complicate the same player’s action in any given round, but that seems a little heavy-handed.

Optional Rule: Power-Up Limits

Many kart racing video games impose limits on the number of Power-Ups a racer can hold at any given time. This new optional rule imposes such a limitation.

The rule is optional because it’s more advanced. People who prefer a more tactical gaming experience are welcome to use this rule, but it’s not necessary — especially when playing with young children.

The rule states that only one Power-Up of each type (Attack, Boost, and Pass) may be held at any given time. For example, if you have a Mud Pie and pick up a Piranha Launcher, you must choose which one to drop and which to keep. The same goes for Passes. Since Boosts are automatically activated and you don’t hold them, they work differently; if you have an Invisibility Cloak, for example, and you pick up a Speed BOOst, you must choose whether you want to activate the Speed BOOst and deactivate the Invisibility Cloak, or if you want to forfeit the Speed BOOst to remain invisible.

Optional Rule: Endorsements

The other new optional rule is that of Endorsements, which are rewards for winning a race. All players must agree to use the Endorsements rule before play begins.

If a player wins a race, he or she may choose from a list of Endorsements to acquire and use in the next race. Each Endorsement offers a small in-game effect. The down-side is that the user is likely going to be the target of attacks because they have the special goodies.

A few of the endorsements included are: Count Vanilla’s Cereal, Dome Defender, Invisible Man’s Donut Holes, Hamburguesa de Cabra, Sasquatch Soles, and Transylvania Tires.

Typeface Change

I changed the typeface for headers in Monster Kart Mayhem. The previous typeface, called “Face Your Fears,” was simply too difficult to read. I replaced it with one called “Bloodgutter,” which still has that horror theme but is much more legible.

Download Alpha 6

Interested in seeing all of the new features? Download Monster Kart Mayhem Alpha 6.

Series Navigation

<< Monster Kart Monday #13: The ReturnMonster Kart Monday #15: Layout Changes >>