Fun With Fire

One of the fun things about boardgamegeek is the geeklists. Now normally, these are generally useless drivel, however, they do occasionally spout out a game that I had never heard of that suddenly captures my interest.

And through just a list, I've found my new, what-a-fascinating-concept-for-a-game-mechanic game: Waldschattenspiel.

The use of a candle is inspired. Aside from setting a cool mood, making the shadows an actual part of the game is pretty great.

How does it work? Sounds pretty simple, one player controls the candle, all other players move elves, trying to hide in the shadows. If an elf falls into the light, it is frozen and captured. Game ends when all elfs meet up in one tree shadow, or if all elves are frozen. It's pretty simple; it's designed as a kids game.

And so, now I want to play with candle shadows in a game. But I want to reverse it. Like many horror movies, the characters that get killed are the ones that get seperated from the group, and who fall into the darkness. So, like a classic slasher/haunted house film, players are trying to stay in the light; pawns that are moved into a shadow, without a neighboring pawn to watch over them, are killed. Players can move pawns, walls, and candles (there are multiple candles), and can snuff out candles, until there is only one candle left. The player with the most pawns left in the final light wins. Or something like that.

Guess I have to add it to my Half-Baked list. Additionally, time to hit Hobby Lobby.