A fully functioning Resident Evil boardgame I made with a group of 5 others for the Games Design module “Analogue Games”
Some details:
Dice roll
Movement forwards and back
Equipment cards
Equipment for Humans e.g shotguns, keys
Traps for zombies.
Multi-level board
Based on Racoon City – different locations throughout the board
Board shape – square, spaces
Overall objective for humans – get to the helicopter
Different paths, collect things for overall objective e.g call the helicopter
Time limit – Nuke falls at the end of the limit, zombies win.
Objectives are placed around the board for each team, giving different effects depending on the team:
- Survivors can either find objective items such as keys to open locked spaces on the board, or pick up a Survivor Card containing a weapon or other helpful effect
- Zombies can either find a mutation item to turn into a more faster, stronger zombie, or pick up a Zombie Card that they can place (face down) onto the board. if a survivor lands on it, they have to feel the effects of the card.
Cards should have an image, effect and description. Similar to Magic: The Gathering cards but more basic.
- Players can move freely in any path or direction
- There are small buildings and major buildings (that lead to another board) containing helpful items/traps/objectives
- I think James said something about the river being of use, so I added a little boat path thing which might take a survivor to and from each end of the river
Players can enter the buildings from specific points on the board (here represented by a little red dot but that’s just a placeholder. There are multiple points of entrance because a Zombie player may want to camp an entrance and cause trouble.
As stated earlier there are major buildings that will probably contain more objective based stuff (Keycards, Documents, etc.)
Movement
Dice rolls indicate the potential maximum movement a player can make that turn, so if a player rolls a 6, this means that the player can move his piece forwards or backwards up to 6 spaces, this gives a chance for tactical movement and allows the team to stick together better.
Combat
Opponents need to be in adjacent squares to each other, a dice is rolled to see if combat is successful, we’ve decided on having to get specific numbers, but we will figure those out after a few play tests. If there are multiple survivors adjacent to a zombie or vice-versa a multiplier roll will be added.
The Players
In the game, there will be two groups of players, the Survivors and the Zombies.
Survivors
The survivors objective in the game is to get out of raccoon city before it is destroyed by a nuclear missile, the survivors will have a set time limit to finish the game by collecting objects to contact and get to a helicopter, which will fly them to safety,
the time limit is something we will decide on as we play test the game.
The survivors will a classic box inventory just like the games, the players will have room for one extra weapon as well as their default pistol which has unlimited ammo, the player also has space for medicinal herbs and lastly slots for ammo.
Equipment will be picked up from the ground by landing on face down “Equipment” cards.
Zombies
The Zombie players will control both a horde of zombies, numbering 7 and an avatar character, the avatar can be either: Nemesis, The Tyrant, William Birkin, a Hunter or a Licker, each avatar has a special ability, this ability is also passed down to the zombies the character controls, only in a weaker form. The avatar character is not always active however, the character will appear when: your horde is destroyed or the characters clear the Lab section, whichever way, the Avatar will spawn from the Clock Tower.
Rather than have equipment, the zombies will have access to traps, these will impede the survivors by either inflicting damage, causing the player to miss a go or infecting the player.
Humans
Health – 10
armor – + 3 health
Pistol – 1 damage
Shotgun – 3 damage (with spread)
Assault Rifle – 4 damage
Molotov Cocktail – 1 damage (sets fire to adjacent squares and deals 1 damage per turn)
Zombies
Health – 4 (this relates to the bog standard horde)
Attack Damage – 1
Nemesis
Health – 10
Attack Damage – 4
Ability – Starts Armored (+3 health) and all zombies under its control have + 1 health.
William Birkin
Health – 10
Attack Damage – 4
Ability – + 3 damage if the player rolls a 6, all zombies under its control do + 1 damage.
Tyrant
Health – 10
Attack Damage – 4
Ability – Every 2 turns the Tyrant will regenerate 3 bars of health and all zombies under its control will regain 1 every 3 turns
Hunter and Licker
Health – 10
Attack Damage – 2 (however they have double attacks, so if there are two survivors in adjacent squares, you can split the damage between the two of them)
Ability – Movement bonus of + 3 to whatever you roll, + 1 for the zombies.
Resident Evil Boardgame Rule Set
Teams:
There are a total of 6 potential players for 3v3, Survivors and Zombies. The Survivors control only themselves whereas, the Zombies control 7 ‘minion’ zombies as well as their avatar zombies. There can only be one of each available avatar zombies i.e. players are not allowed 2 Tyrant players.
Setup:
Survivors start at the college. Zombie players allocate their ‘minions’ around the board placing them no further than 4 squares away from the entrance of a building. Each team will then place the opponents item cards in buildings and on ‘sub-maps’. The bridge gets placed in the Restaurant.
Goal:
Survivors must obtain all objectives (placed in hospital, laboratory and police station) then make their way back to the hospital for rescue, with the progression of Hospital -> Laboratory -> Police Station -> Hospital. Survivors win as soon as all remaining players enter the hospital. Zombies win when all Survivors are killed.
Survivors play first with 1 turn consisting of a whole team completing their moves. Zombie players may not use their avatars (placed in the clock tower) until all of their minions have been defeated or the survivors have completed the ‘Laboratory’.
Movement:
Each player is given a ‘Movement Phase’ whereby the player rolls 2 dice which number then gives the player potential movement i.e. the player may choose to move less than the number rolled. Zombies first roll both dice for potential movement then again with a single die to determine how many zombies they may move (unless being played on, zombies on ‘sub-maps’ may not be moved until the map is in use). Zombies remaining after players exit a ‘sub-map’ may be moved off of the sub map and onto the main map.
On ‘sub-maps’ every 2×2 tile set is 1 movement square.
Attack:
After the movement phase is complete, an ‘Attack Phase’ may be initiated if two player’s markers are touching. Each player only has one attack per turn and if the attack phase is initiated before all desired movement is complete, remaining movement is forfeit. For each of the Survivor’s markers that are touching the zombie being attacked, a successful attack will add each survivors attack at base damage i.e. if 2 survivors are touching the zombie being attacked, 2 damage will be taken by the zombie. If the Survivor or Zombie holds a weapon or trap respectively then it must be specified before the attack roll that they are to be used or a normal attack will be used. To complete a successful attack, players must roll a 4 – 6. 1 – 3 are unsuccessful.
Items:
When a Survivor picks up an equipment card they must roll a die to determine what it is and can trade items between themselves (items found in appendix).
Likewise, when a Zombie picks up a trap card, it can only be used by the zombie that picked it up, use replaces attack and the player must roll to determine what it is upon use.
When a herb is used, if Survivors are stacked (all on the same floor tile) then the healing will affect all of them.
The Bridge can be placed during the movement phase of any Survivor that controls it. To remove it for later use, a player must sacrifice the entirety of their current turn (no moving, attacking or anything other than removing the bridge).
When a special weapon is shot, hit or miss, a bullet is used.
