A New Idea

I’m working out the idea of a new board game I’m planning to create. It’s a game I call “Battle Royal The Board Game”.

                For those of you who don’t know, Battle Royal was a 1999 Japanese novel written by Takami Koushun. It takes place in an alternate universe style Japan (called the Republic of Great East Asia) where, after the World War II, the government became a fascist dystopia like society that pretty much is like 1984’s Oceania. Rock and Roll, homosexuality, foreigners, and anything exported from other countries are completely outlawed. You can’t speak, write, or say anything against the government and people are executed daily. In fact, the National Baseball team is forced to commit seppuku if they lose to the American baseball team (They really hate America, seriously they never stop telling you that). However, the worst of it is the Program.

The Program is when 50 third-year high school classes are isolated every year and each class is required to fight to the death until one student remains. Their movements are tracked by metal collars around their necks which contain tracking and listening devices. If any student should attempt to escape the Program or enter declared forbidden zones a bomb will be detonated in the collar, killing the wearer. If no student dies in any 24 hour period, all collars will be detonated simultaneously. They are all given weapons, food, and water and are then are sent out like animals to kill one another. The winner gets their face on TV, along with all the reported deaths, a card from the leader saying “Thank you for playing” and they leave…..wow, what a rip off. Officially it's meant as a military research project,but it's actually a means of terrorizing the population.

The story follows a class of 42 students, 21 boys and 21 girls, who are forced to go through the program. The point of view follows everyone of the class, but the main characters that are focused on are Nanahara Shuya, the main protagonist who wants to find a way out peacefully, Nakagawa Noriko, who is a friend of Shuya and was the crush of Shuya’s best friend Yoshitoki, Kawada Shogo, a mysterious transfer student who’s hardcore and awesome, Kiriyama Kazuo, a sociopathic gang leader who is perfect in every way as well as the most active member of the game, Souma Mitsuko, a psychopathic girl who uses her body to seduce other players, Sugimura Hiroki, a martial artist who searches for his best friend and crush, and Mimura Shinji, a genius who searches for a way to escape. I suggest you read the book if you want to find out what’s going to happen or you could watch the movies or read even the manga since they are somewhat similar all around.

So anyway, an idea came to me about how to make this into a board game. A map of the island is used at the start of the book (Which I have) so that can be my starting spot to draw on. I can get the photos of the players, the weapons used; have something like a combat system. Put the real rules of the Program into the game and continue from there. I’ll report more of this later on, but it’s good idea to start thinking up game ideas and try to follow them if you can. Board games are some of the best ones to start because as a Game Designer, you should be thinking about all kinds of games and not just electronic ones.