October/November Lite Challenge: Donner's World

[timallen]

Donner's World is a miserable ball of ice, water, snow and rock. A virtual frozen desert good for nothing but mining, which is what the Corporation has been doing for the past two years. But over the past several days deep space transmissions have become erratic. Reports of the discovery of a mysterious "artifact" followed almost immediately by confused (and often garbled) transmissions ...then silence. A special Imperial Marine Commando has been dispatched to investigate.


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[EricPoehlsen]

Nice idea and execution - You could consider having the trails follow the terrain, some of the 'roads' cross steep inclines, in remote/barren areas it is better to follow the terrain contours.

[timallen]

Good point. Actually I was thinking of redrawing them anyways, as strait line "ice tunnels".

[timallen]

Played around a bit more with Donner's World. I showed the map to some friends of mine who are game designers and one of them jokingly said he liked it so much he would have to design a game for it! Well I rather liked that idea so decided to try to make up a game for it myself. I envision a game with an Alien or Aliens 3 theme. A relatively small number of civilians stumble upon an alien ship which suddenly spits out ... lets say mechanical monsters (berzerkers?). These machines move along the surface- the squares. The humans can move in the "ice tunnels" very rapidly Or on the surface very slowly. They need to gather supplies and build defenses while falling back. And ...well thats all I got right now. The map would print out onto a single 11x17 sheet. I think it should be a card-driven solitaire game. The cards would function as the "game engine", telling you which aliens move where and what the humans can do that turn. That is, in part, what the extra space on the right is for. Holding the cards, a turn track, and um...other stuff. Hey I'm not a game designer; I am just making all this up as I go!

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[Savannah]

I really like how you did those ice tunnels -- they really look like they're under the ground.

[Diamond]

I like where you're going with this.

[timallen]

The psudo-game is now called "Ice Storm" and has a new backstory:

Backstory-
Donner's World is a miserable ball of ice, water, snow and rock: a virtual frozen desert good for nothing but mining, which is what the Corporation has been doing for the past two years. United Geoholding Corporation had sent an exploratory and scouting mission lead by William Donner to Wulf345 in the year 2426. Donner found Wulf345 was devoid of life but rich in REMs (Rare Earth Minerals). The Donner party was later lost during one of the raging storms that periodically move across the Northern Hemisphere, but the information they gathered allowed UGC to set up several mining operations on the planet.
Things at Mining Site 5 (MS5) have been routine for the past 6 months. The largely automated mines turn out a steady supply of ore, which is shipped up to the processing plant in orbit. MS5 has 3 scout teams which have been slowly searching for more REM deposits. This has to be done on the surface due to the tremendous thickness and density of the glacial ice that covers 90% of the land mass.

Now-
While a major storm shut down most communications outside of MS5, Scout team 3 reported finding an alien artifact, which they thought may have been part of a ship. Shortly after, all communication with ST3 was lost. Sensors have now detected very large objects moving towards the mine sites. These objects appeared to be robotic in nature, with no organic life forms on board. Presumably, these originated at the alien artifact. All remote scanners sent to investigate further were destroyed shortly after contact with the robots. All MS5 personnel have been placed on alert. Admin personnel are trying to regain contact with the orbital processing plant, which should be able to either evac any personnel in danger, or send a security detachment down to deal with the aliens.

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