One of the unique "features" of Amulet is that the parts are easily obtained. One of the required pieces is not made here, Dominoes. I played with these as a child with my grandmother who was a 3rd grade teacher. I was playing a game, she was trying to teach me math.

In the Belius rules the player takes a tile at the start of the game. When its their turn they can either use this tile, or take a new tile. If they take the new tile they must use it. At the end of their turn they take a new tile to contemplate their strategy for the next turn.

There are a number of options here and really it could go either way. You may use these for your game, or make up something completely different. No matter which you do, please do share your thoughts in the forums.

Option 1: The player puts the used tile back into the pile for the next player to select his tile. The down side about this is that these tiles become their own game of "concentration", if the player wants the same tile again they need only remember where they put it in the pile. The fix is that after each turn the pile is mixed up again... which delays the game.

The up side to this is that the players have all of the movement options open to them, as they do when using dice for movement.

Option 2: The player puts his used, or exchanged tile into a "used" pile and that pile can not be drawn from until ALL of the "draw" pile tiles have been used. This is much like the real game of Dominoes. The down side here is that slowly, the players exhaust all of the movement options.

In Belius I took option 2 with the idea that using the last tile triggers an event. The exact details of the event are in the rules so I won't repeat them here. I also added the wrinkle that the player could choose not to move. They still discard the tile, but they are subject to the effects of the square they're on again as if they had just moved there this turn.

If none of that makes sense... well, comment here and maybe it will start a discussion that we'll move to the forums.

One question I am BOUND to be asked, and so I'll answer it here, is why don't I just use dice for movement. The concept behind Amulet is that movement is not random. We want Amulet games to be more than random luck games, we had to bring in a new strategy element and eliminate some randomness.

Have you ever played a game that required you to land on a specific square to end the game, so you kept rolling and rolling waiting for that luck number. Well, we have eliminated that random dice roll and replaced it with something with a little more strategy. Yes, you are picking a random tile, but you aren't forced to use it and sometimes, you can gain an advantage by using it anyway.

Those are my thoughts, your turn.

Mac

Amulet is for the people. I have taken the basic files and created a game called "Amulet of Belius" but you can take these same files and create any game you like. Or... you could take MY game and make improvements on it.

I'd love for you to play my game, and suggest rule changes that we can talk about int eh forums. You'll find a link to the forums in the top left corner of this blog. In the forums people make suggestions, comments, and post their own versions of everything from rules to art.

As a community this is OUR game and we can make it anything we want. I have created a game but I want you to think of it as a starting point, not an end. So right now... go and download my game and see what I did with the basic set, then tell me what you think... good or bad.

I have some ideas for movement and the game board, so we'll start with those and see where it takes us.

Its our community, its our game. Come on along!

Mac

Way back in the spring of 2008 I had an idea. It was simple, why not develop a community of people that love board games, who want to contribute to the design. I have a blog about game development, board and video, but its more of a discussion than actual game development.

My concept is simple, I'll develop the beta, the rules and the board. I'll make the file avialble for free under the same license that open source software uses. You can use the files in way you want, you just have to give credit back to this project.

For game players, you'll have many options. You can download the file of the completed game, Amulet of Belius, and just play that. Or you can download one of the community develop games... or my favorite option, download the base files and work with the community to make your own game.

I had a chance meeting with Jeff Jarvis the author of "What Would Google Do?". I bought his book, as I suggest you do by clicking the link on this page, and waited for him to sign it. I came late to his talk so there was virtually no one left in the room. When I asked him to sign my copy of his book he asked me what I was planning on doing. I told him Ihad this crazy idea that a community could develop a board game given a strong starting point. He looked up as if he was aligning stars, and then right into my eyes and said: "That's brilliant"

So take a short walk over to the forums, download files and lets play some games!

Mac