Our next idea was to go for something closer to a “ghost busters” vibe with the game itself. Something a bit more complex, so to speak. Instead of a 3×3 grid, we went with a mansion-like board that would then be used for a purpose similar to the original concept. We changed the name to Ghosts vs. Hunters, and chose to seperate the players into two groups: Ghosts and Hunters.
At the start of each round, the players from each team choose a room to go in. If there are more than ghosts than hunters (or vice versa) the team with the lowest players loses those people. The original goal was to eliminate either team, however after playtesting the game amongst ourselves and with other students, we chose to seperate each team’s goals into two.
- Ghosts would have to spread ectoplasm by claiming as many rooms in the manor, uncontested.
- Hunters would have to take down all ghosts by overpowering them in the room they currently dwell.
We added a movement restriction for the Hunters (they can only move to a room that is adjacent to the room they’re currently in), so that there is some critical thought in where players can go or not. If they must split to take down and anticipate the Ghosts’ positions.
A simple solution to ensure opposing players can’t tell where their opponents will be is to simply mute the Ghosts microphones during the Hunter’s moving turn, and vice versa, so that the opposing teams cannot metagame one another, and only surmise.
There was talk that this may end up being too random, and not allow for enough analysis or constructive thinking so we figured we’d try 3 methods and playtest to see which would be more interesting.
- 1 team chooses position, other is muted. The other does the same afterwards. Positions are revealed by mansion owner or another player. Points and events are then deducted accordingly.
- Each player goes one another the other, alternating between Ghosts and Hunters, closer to a game of chess essentially.
- Everybody shouts their positions all at once.