Dodge Maul: Creative Commons Boardgame

[Blaine]

Hey guys. Just thought I'd whore out myself with a link to my own material!

I've written and released a board game under the creative commons license (attribution, non-commercial, share-a-like). Which basically means you can do whatever you want with it so long as you:

-Give credit to everyone who comes before you (part of that would be emailing any changes or additions to everyone who has contributed before you).

-Don't sell it.

-Don't change the license.

That's it.

The game itself is a dice based combat game with basic and advanced rules. You can play it with little more than a sheet of paper. Personally, I recommend the 'advanced' rules as a standard rule set but a game or two of the basic rules will help anyone get the combat and turn orders down pat.

You can find the documentation here:

http://www.npoly.com/pivot/entry.php?id=38

until I get around making a proper repository for it.

Thanks!

[Juuso Hietalahti]

Heh, interesting! Have you tested playing the game how much? Was it fun? :)

[Blaine]

Heh, interesting! Have you tested playing the game how much? Was it fun? :)

I've played it for a few hours, enough to make sure everything was as close to balanced as possible.

Part of the reason I wanted to make it creative commons is I know that some games, when played for long periods of time, have bugs and niggles that occur.

It's a solid game design, I wouldn't put my name on it otherwise.

As far as it being fun, it's an absolute blast when played using the advanced rules in a tournament or league. I was surprised at how much team micromanagement really played a part.

Some people swore by having a larger number of players (to increase the chances of a successful 'tip drill') while others just liked to keep with the base 6 guys.

It's only after you play a good dozen games or so that the strategy elements really kick in. Let's say you're playing against a guy who is laying down a chain of 4 dice players. You should NEVER attack either end of the chain, since they can tip the ball all along the chain. Attacking the center of the chain is a good option if you have a powerful thrower. Likewise when using a chain, you should never throw with the middle guys - breaking the chain reduces or eliminates the 'tip drill' and it'll turn into a slaughter.

I never saw that coming when I wrote up the rules, it was just a happy accident.

Again, I'm sure there's room for improvement - I'm only one guy playing against a few friends, so there may be ways of breaking the gameplay that we over looked.

Again, all in all, I'm proud of it and think it's a nice way to spend some time with a friend or two.

[Blaine]

Just to explain the chains a little.

Going with the standard 18 point salary cap you can get 4 "Jacks" (which are 4 sided dice) and arrange them in a way that they become a very sturdy defense despite their lack of strength:

http://www.npoly.com/chain1.jpg

Now the two guys on the end are actually the strongest since even if the miss the ball, they can 'tip' it to the next adjacent guy down the chain. So even though the front man should be in a defensively weak place (close to the mid line) his team mates are backing him up.

Attacking the middle of the chain reduces the number of tips in a row (this becomes crucial if you bump the salary cap to 24, at which point in time you get chains of 6).

Even with 4 you can lay out what we called the 'death blossom' or just 'blossom' (and then "joey" and the "whoa"):

http://www.npoly.com/blossom.jpg

The blossom may be the perfect defense - the chain with no begining or end.

While fun, the anti-lame rule (first errata) was written to prevent this defense in which a team refuses to attack and simply defends, hoping to catch the ball on the first throw (to get the attacker out) or to save on subsequent tips (to keep their players in).

[Techdojo]

Seems like a fun idea - I'll print it out and see how it plays, thanks for sharing it.
BTW - Have you reserved the rights to a computerised version or would that be covered by your CCL as well?

Jon... / Techdojo

[Blaine]

Seems like a fun idea - I'll print it out and see how it plays, thanks for sharing it.
BTW - Have you reserved the rights to a computerised version or would that be covered by your CCL as well?

Jon... / Techdojo

By all means! Let me know how it works out for you guys and, obviously, feel free to tweak!

The creative commons should extend to all derivative works including software.

That said, CC does not recommend using a license like the one I have for software. They recommend using a CCL with a GNU wrapper like this. (http://creativecommons.org/license/cc-gpl) Now how that would interact with the CCL on the game manual is a question for them.

To my untrained mind - the Dodge Maul license is essentially this: Don't sell and give credit to everyone before you and use a license that is "compatible" (that is to say, you can't take it and make it public domain and then take the public domain version and make it a standard copyright).

But the short answer is: yes, CCL should cover derived software but if you chose to make a software version it might be a good idea to pick a compatible GNU/CC license to protect your new work.