PnP Game Deconstruction: Gods

Summary:  The summary of the game goes a little something like this: after the great Flood, the Gods recreate the Earth from scratch. They then populate the Earth and a race to see who's religion wins ensues.

Goal:  The goal of GODS is pretty simple...obtain the most points by converting tribes to your specific God's religion, or creating a nation, before the "game end" card is drawn. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Core Mechanic: Expand your God's religious following.

Space: Continuous and contains multiple dimensions as it is built around expanding your religious hold on the tribes populating the newly made Earth, and will change only slightly depending on when you pull the "game end" card.

Objects: 

1.) Tribe pieces: represent four different Gods (yellow, green, red/pink, and blue)

2.) Religion markers: represents a specific God's religion, which you place on a converted tribe token

3.) Wasteland pieces: used to block your opponent from indoctrinating tribes to their God's religion; also yield one energy crystal

4.) Temple pieces: used to help convert adjacent tribe pieces

5.) Energy Crystals: currency for performing different actions in the game

6.) Victory Point Cards: gives +2 points to the player who founds a nation

7.) Nation Cards: gives +3 points to the player after founding a nation with three tribes of their religion; can be taken away

8.) Whirlwind: allows you to relocate one wasteland piece without using energy crystals

9.) Extra Action: allows you one extra action during your turn

10.) End Game: when pulled from the deck, ends the game immediately


Attributes of each piece:

1.) Tribe pieces - are red/pink, yellow, blue, green; shape of hexagon

2.) Temple pieces - are red/pink, yellow, blue, green; shape of hexagon;

3.) Religion markers - are red/pink, yellow, blue, green; shape of a square; has a eyeglass/mirror; bird/crow; eye; axe on it

4.) Wasteland pieces - desert; bones of animal on card; energy crystal on card; shape of hexagon

5.) Energy Crystals - triangles in shape; light blue

6.) Victory card - are red/pink, blue, green, yellow; laurel on card; #2 on card; square shape

7.) Whirlwind - tornado on card; shape of hexagon

8.) Nation card - are red/pink, blue, green, yellow; have three temples on each (image changes dependent upon each God's religion); rectangular in shape


States of each piece:

1.) Tribe pieces - In Deck; Display; Settled; Atheist; Converted; Discarded
2.) Temple pieces - Stock; Built
3.) Religion Markers - Marking Tribe(s); Stock
4.) Wasteland Pieces - Display; in play; in Deck
5.) Energy Crystals - In play; Stock
6.) Victory card - Stock; Display
7.) Whirlwind Card - In deck; Display
8.) Nation Card - Stock; Display
9.) End Game - In Deck; in play

Operative Actions: (are not limited to) placing tribes and placing temples to expand your religious following.

Resultant Actions: gaining extra tribes to convert to your God's religion and indoctrinating tribes when placing temples adjacent to the tribe hex cards.

Notes about the Rules: You can only perform 2 actions when it is your turn and are only allowed to have 2 hex cards in your display at one time. If your display is full, you cannot draw from the deck until you have either:

a) used at least one hex card

or

b) discarded the card

Additionally, you can only have 12 energy crystals in your display; if you get any extra, you must forfeit them back into the stock pile.

It is important to note: if you are the player with the most temples built, you will receive an automatic -4 deduction to your overall point total. So sometimes it's better to just keep playing until the "game end" card is drawn.

Strategies learned while playing: Comes down to how you use the cards you pick from the deck, as well as where you decide to place your tribes, temples, and wasteland pieces. You want to make sure the other player(s) can't get more tribes converted before you, and you also don't want the other player(s) to block you out of any chance at converting their tribes (or even yours), either.

Role of Chance: Only when you draw from the deck. With more players you have a smaller chance at pulling out your tribe's color card, therefore making it much harder to settle and indoctrinate tribes to your God's religion. However, this applies to all players, which may give you an advantage if you end up pulling a lot of your opponents cards, as you can then use one of your turns to discard them, permanently removing them from being used in the current game and possibly handicapping your opponent.