Game Concept - Caravan

Wow, so, I just had a really good idea. This kind of ties in with my other blog "The Way I Play" which has essentially died a death before even getting off the ground.


See, the aim of TWIP was to have a blog that discussed my characters from games. But short of writing every little thing that occured in the game with a few screenshots, I couldn't think of a decent way of delivering that narrative experience. After-all, they're my character, only I really understand what I'm trying to do. A few paragraphs summarising this doesn't quite deliver the full narrative experience or evolution of what I myself have experienced in the game.

One idea I had was to do wikipedia-esque biographies of my character, talking about their life as a set of retrospective paragraphs, highlighting the big moments for them. This could work, and is actually something I'm still toying with, potentially with small extracts from their journey expanded on, though I'm loath to do anything too "fan-fiction" like.

Anyway, for quite some time I've been thinking about using my new actionscript skills and working on a flash version of the card game Caravan from Fallout: New Vegas. Overall, I feel NV is a good game, but inferior to its predecessor Fallout 3. Ironic as Obsidian (FNV's developers) have some of the old Interplay employees that worked on the original fallouts, while Fallout 3 was entirely done by the new license holders of Bethesda.

Anyway, Caravan is a little mini-game, best described as a mix of poker and some form of competitive black jack, but you get to build the deck. The idea that I can derive is that in the post-apocalyptic future of Fallout, a full deck of cards might be difficult to come by, so instead Caravan works on any card you can get.
This is a beautiful marriage of Thematic cohesion and player-mechanic, where it actually makes sense to be scavenging and trading for cards to strengthen your deck. Plus Caravan can be one of the most rewarding money-earners in the game if you do it right, not to mention fun.

I won't talk about the rules too much, but essential you and your opponent are each trying to build 3 stacks of a value between 21 and 26 (including those numbers). Each stack rivals an opponent, so my first stack rivals theirs, my second their second etc. You do this by playing either number or face cards to affect the stacks.
Number cards have their value and suit and can only be played on your stacks, but face cards act as modifiers and can be played on either your or your opponent's stacks. These "modifications" can be things like changing suit (Queens) or removing the card (Jack). For the purposes of the game "Ace" counts as a 1 card, except when a Joker's played on it... but we won't get into that.

In short, it's a surprisingly well balanced game, with enough going on to be genuinely fun. I've played it with a few friends (often using one standard deck between the two of us) and we've all agreed that it really could be an actual game.

My game concept was one in which you traverse the Mojave (the setting in FNV) playing some familiar faces at caravan to get enough money to progress to the next area. This would all be done with text over screenshots and an interactive map, and nothing other than the games themselves would need to be played.

Now, the idea would be that the setting is shortly after my playthrough of New Vegas, with all of the resulting situations because of that. This way I get to deliver the narrative story in a highly engaging way, as well as the game I've always wanted to make!

Some ideas...

Cards
Cards should be buyable, but also winable. Winning a card should have a fruit-box style interface, where the value, the suit and the casino are randomly chosen.

Limits per day
I want to make this game in the style of a Facebook game, where you have limits on how much you can do a day. Some ideas on these limits...

AP - Action Points - Have to be spent to play games, move around the mojave, and other actions
NPC Plays - NPC's will only play so many games a day, this can be increased by some means.


Stats
I want to use a bastardised version of the SPECIAL system to give characters something to spend their hard earned caps on.

S - Increases the number of items that can be carried, decreases the cost to "Labour"
P - Some merchants and players will travel, this will allow you to "see" where they are or might be. More perception increases the range.
E - Decreases the AP cost for travelling, could also increase certain aid items or the amount that can be drunk.
C - Increases the number of games you can play with characters per day, might also get a slight discount at stores
I - Decreases the AP cost for games, as they're less of a mental strain!
A - Increases maximum AP, increasing the number of actions that can be done a day.
L - Affects various aspects of Luck OUTSIDE of the caravan game. Could give a better chance of receiving certain items, getting better cards after winning, more likely to survive certain encounters etc.

Perks
I've also had an idea for a Perk system that ONLY affects the ability to move around, etc.
These would be based off of original Fallout perks, but modified to make more sense within this game. I'm unsure whether to award these for completing objectives etc, or to have a level-up system, which would also require experience etc.

Some ideas...

Home on the Range - Allows the player to gain an AP regen boost when resting in a non-town spot (ordinarily they'd need to hire a bed).

Heavyweight -

Old World Gourmet - increases the effect of certain aid items

Long Haul - Decreases the multiplicative AP cost of moving through multiple zones, or maybe eliminates it entirely.

Strong Back - Increases inventory size further per point of Strength

Pack Rat - increases the number of items that can be in a single stack

Travel Light - Increases move speed, taking less time to reach new areas.

Fortune Finder - While travelling or labouring, gives a small chance to find a small number of caps.

Scrounger - While Travelling or Labouring, gives a small chance to find items, and even cards!

Ferocious Loyalty - Increases the effectiveness of Guard and Escort companions by a percentage based on Charisma.

Retention -

Fast Metabolism -

Solar Powered - Perform better during the day - Possibly a slightly faster AP regen?

Night Person - Perform better during the night - Cuts out some of the

Mysterious Stranger - Free companion for a while?

Miss Fortune -

Deep Sleep - Gives a slight bonus to AP gain from all resting.


Items
Caps - Wasteland currency, is actually a mix of NCR dollars, caps, Legion Denarius and casino chips.
Star Caps - Used to buy games with Festus, in which (if you win) you get a random card. Faster than Caravan but without the ability to get caps from it.
Sierra Madre Chips - Found along with other currency, used to buy sierra madre cards at the vending machine in the abandoned bunker.
Sunset Sas - Restores a small amount of AP, and rewards a bottle cap, can have a chance of giving Star Caps
Nuka Cola - Restores slightly more Ap, rewards a bottle cap, but doesn't have a chance of giving star caps.
Jet - restores even more AP, no bottle cap, can have a chance of addiction (unsure as to what addiction will do as of yet).

Companions
I also love the idea that the character you play as isn't neccessarily a complete badass, and only really plays cards.
As such, certain hostile areas should be unavailable unless you hire a guard or a certain individual.
They would cost a certain number of caps daily while they're with you, and when the caps run out, so do they! Obviously, certain guards are better than others, and so cost more successively. Additionally, they would only increase the chance of survival, so only more powerful ones would have 100% success rate.