Breanna and Jackie and I went to GameTime in Nordonia and to my surprise they kept busy the four hours we were there!  I played a lot of games with them including my most recent purchase, Railways of the World:  The Card Game.  Much to my surprise, they liked it and when we brought it home for Mom, she liked playing it as well which I was shocked at.  So, from that, I was motivated to get out By Iron and Steam again and take a second look at it.  I think the game plays a little like the 18XX system the way RotW:TCG plays to its heritage as well.  I'm about to give it a few more rounds of playtesting.

I set out over the weekend to come up with a physical set for my SimCity game and after I got it done I realized there were way too many cards and etc for what is a simple game at heart.  The more I thought about it though, I realized I stay away from games that have a large numbers of varied stacks and types of components.  Part of my draw to cube-driven train games is that besides money, the cubes can be used for shares, etc.  But they are still cubes, no matter what.  Sure, there's money and shares, but there's only so much to keep track of.  The problems are compounded when a game is print and play or something you publish on your own.  The more bits, the uglier it gets.  And the game had too many bits.  I also didn't like the fact I would need a lot of different bits for the R/C/I zones.  So, it is shelved for now.

As for original designs, I've got yet another one brewing and yes, it's another train game.  I'm also thinking of it as a Bindle Rails Revisited, but it's more like Pocket Civ style mechanics with dice and a train theme over top of it.  The game will run over 5 turns and your mission is to make the most money.  The bits and pieces I've melded into it include majority/minority shares changing every turn, the automatic loss condition from Bindle Rails, the variable map ability from Pocket Civ with its general game and mechanic structure, Silverton's market model for goods, 18XX's trains.  All of this in a solitaire package.  It sounds like a total cluster but I think the final result will be a game that's relatively easy to pick up with interesting win conditions and a new feel to it almost every time.  The devil's in the details.

More later, as always.