Hawk & Badger Railroad Forum

Game designers creating new games using historic events should roll the dice at the begining of the game and use offsets for the events.

For example: everyone knows qwhen the stock market crashed in 1929, Planning for it takes little effort and actually destroys the fabric of the game. Creating an offset when the game starts of +/- 4 years would keep the player more or less honest.

Example 2: WWII breaks out ... Pearl Harbor is bombed. Blow the heck out of San Diego, San Francosco or Seattle. Capture Hawaii, The British Ilses are captured, etc. ... Randomize everything. Nothing happens the same way from game replay to game replay.

Just an idea.

Shamough/Hans

Shamough,
You have a good idea. Now you mention 1929 as the great disaster. However, in playing in the 1880s, there are a number of such occurrances which seem to be random in different scenarios. Everyone should know that economies don't run smoothly on a continuous basis, hence, I was surprised when they did occur in the 1890s, as well as in an earlier decade. It did make the game more interesting and more of a challenge. Let's see if user creators "take the hint".

Randomization no doubt helps in re-playability. I know Ned in some of his TM maps randomized a variety of things. (ex. duration of the winter which effects track costs) Although I don't think any of his were specifically historically based.

I don't necessarily think the randomization has to be confined to just historical scenarios though. Any scenario could probably benefit from some slight randomization of major events, otherwise on a subsequent replay of it (whether for fun or an attempt to get a better medal) you'll know what and when to expect something and you can better plan for it.