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+--- Thread: DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) (/showthread.php?tid=18)
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-02-2026
road01.jpg (Size: 1.71 MB / Downloads: 34)
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-02-2026
"gravel road"
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-02-2026
I think the bottom texture there is really too busy. I need to swap it for something else. Im still just sort of seeing what works.
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Jim Rockford - 03-02-2026
Can I recommend reducing the corner radius on the squares? I do like that there is a radius, but with it so large, they look like bubbles (unless that is what you are going for).
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-04-2026
Here is what I think a map will look like, all put together. This is made up of 45 3X3 (actually 3.5inch square) tiles. It's pretty simple, intentionally. There are only 8 unique tile "types" here. You have the road tiles, which are "|" and "+" and that's it. You rotate them to draw the road however you want it to go. You have Building tiles, that are Corners and Straight walls and that's it, except for the tiny "shed" tile that is a 1X1 building. Then you have the "dock" tile (which may or may not look something like the one on the previous page) which is always the starting point of every map.
Obviously while the basic shapes are very simple, I'm going to actually draw floors and furniture and details on each one so Corner tile #3 will not look like Corner tile #12, even though they're the same shape. They WILL be interchangeable though. there will also be different "object" spaces on certain tiles. Like Corner #3 tile might have a space that could potentially contain a dresser, while corner #12 might have a space that could potentially contain a chest, or a desk, or some other container. Or several containers. When you place the tile, you roll a dice for each potential container spot, and depending on what you roll, you would place a container token on the spot, or not. The container token will allow players to roll to "loot" the container, after which they flip it over, (the other side shows the same container, but "open," indicating that it has been looted already.) I figure a tile will potentially have between 0 and 3 spots that a container could go on. Or an object. Maybe I'll have a quest object system. Not every tile will have spaces for objects. Interior tiles will have between 0-3 spots, and exterior tiles will have 0-1 spot.
Monsters will work similarly. When you place a tile, you'll roll to see if there is 0-3 zombies on the tile. They won't have actual spaces, I don't think, they just pop in on the tile wherever. Potentially you could get a whole map that has zero zombies and is covered in loot but the odds are very low that happens.
The green squares are door tokens. They just sit on top of the walls that are drawn on the card, which means you can put a door on any building tile that connects to a road tile. I'm considering window tokens too, but im not sure how they will work.
Example Map.jpg (Size: 329.36 KB / Downloads: 23)
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-04-2026
You also don't have to walk on the road, like any tile that connects to other tiles you can walk on. The road exists mainly to determine where doors are, as the spots where road-meets-wall are where you place door tokens.
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-04-2026
Also: The tiles are all double-sided so there might be a lot more buildings or larger buildings or more roads or many other different configurations. Im not sure how the construction rules will work but it'll be some form of randomness I think, rather than pre-built. Some tiles might contain outside areas on the other side too, so you could have big open areas with small buildings.
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-18-2026
thetimeforpostinghasended_small.jpg (Size: 21.02 KB / Downloads: 16)
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-18-2026
Okay, so I've been thinking about the generation rules and it has to meet three criteria:
- Easy. It has to be really simple to generate a map.
- "Realistic" in that it builds reasonably normal looking sea-side villages/towns/buildings.
- Adjustable difficulty, for the amount of players.
There are three "boards:"
The first is a static "ship" board, im not sure what kind of ship yet, originally it was going to be a ferry but really any big boat that you can put stuff in will work. The ship board will have spaces on it for specific tokens like there will be a "weapon bench" token (or card?), and you can "install" it on your ship by finding the token in one of the generated villages and then bringing it back to your ship. Once installed, each "bench" thing will give you bonuses or upgrades, and maybe allow you access to different equipment. So you actually don't move around on the "ship" board, its just where you slot in benches or other things that give your whole group bonuses and other effects.
The second board is a "boat" board which has spaces on it for player tokens and cargo. Im thinking maybe it has like a grid of 12 spaces to start with, but can be upgraded if you find the right upgrade bench and resources to spend on it. Each space can hold one token which can be player tokens, survivor tokens, or cargo tokens. Im not going to worry about actual weight. Cargo tokens are resources, or machinery/benches/upgrade things. Like one cargo token might be "food" and another cargo token might be "scrap metal," but they're each just one space. Player tokens are self explanatory, this is the piece you're moving around on the map. Survivor tokens are survivor characters you find while exploring and bring back to the ship. Right now im thinking survivors exist for when somebody dies during game play. If you have a survivor token (or multiple) on your ship, then whoever died can pick one of those and continue playing. If you don't have one on your ship, they have to wait until you find one to come back into the game. Survivors might also be required to run the upgrade benches, but I don't think so right now. That is getting a little too complicated.
The third "board" is the actual generated maps which is where you'll be spending most of the time. Each generated map starts with the dock tile, because the idea is that you are on your ship cruising around, and you see a village or town, and you anchor off shore and then take your boat (the second board) from your ship to the dock tile. So every map will start with the dock tile, with the boat on the water side of it. The players disembark onto the dock tile and then make their way into the generated town. The way the generation works, I think, is based on what tile gets placed as its being built.
- The unique dock tile can only lead to a road tile.
- A road tile can only lead to another road tile, until you randomly draw a road-to-door transition tile.
- A road-to-door transition tile can only lead to a building tile.
- Building tiles can only lead to building tiles, and only the ones that fit with the current building tile. So the walls have to match up, for instance.
Every tile other than the dock has a chance of containing a monster. road tiles have 1-3 designated spaces for monsters, and as the tile is placed, you roll to see if there is a monster on each space. Building tiles contain 1-2 spaces for monsters.
Every tile also has a chance of containing loot (cargo). road tiles have spaces for 1 cargo token, and building tiles have spaces for 1 cargo token and 1 "equipment" (upgrade bench) token OR cargo token. So on a building tile you might get 0 loot, or 1 cargo and 1 upgrade bench token, or 2 cargo tokens.
You can only take back however many tokens fit on your boat, minus spaces for the returning players. You can't make multiple trips because: At the start of play, with each player token on the dock tile, a timer starts. You have X number of rounds before the horde senses you and arrives, and it counts down each round as you move through the town. If you fire a weapon without a silencer, the counter ticks down 2 rounds instead of 1. Using Explosives cause it to tick down 3 rounds instead of 1. Im not sure how many rounds you will get, I don't want it to be a rush. Maybe 30 rounds? An installed radar upgrade on your ship might increase this number.
Anyhoo, after you have gathered whatever amount of loot tokens you can carry on your boat, you return to the ship, slot in any equipment tokens onto your ship board, and spend any resource tokens to use those equipment tokens to do "things." I think you will be required to spend 1 food token in-between maps.
DP's Projects: The Ferry (board game) - Digital Prophet - 03-18-2026
Im also thinking now that tiles will be cards rather than actual chipboard, and that they won't be double-sided. One side will be the tile, and the other side will just be a label, like "ROAD" or "BUILDING," so that you can flip them all over and wash them so its a random draw of each category. You'll know you're drawing a road tile, but you won't know what kind of road tile. You could draw a road-to-door transition tile as your very first road tile, which would mean the dock basically leads to one giant house, and thats it.