🛩️ Jet Lag - Couch Edition

tldr; Ideated a group team game inspired from “Schengen Showdown” played by Jet Lag : The Game team.

Setup

1. Requires at least 4 players and 1 Game Master (GM)
2. Participating players would be split into 2 teams.
3. Before start of each game, both teams would be provided following details by GM - a. A random city in any state / country.
   b. A random start time in near future.
   c. A geographic restriction, like a state, country or continent.
   d. A virtual time limit in days.

Terminologies

• Region - A region could be a state or nation anywhere in world.
• City - A city in above region.
• Claim a Region - Reach any city within a region and stay there for X amount of time, in order to claim that particular region. A claimed region can be stolen unless locked.
• Lock a Region - Go to any popular tourist spot in a region, stay there for X amount of time, in order to lock that particular region. A locked region cannot be stolen.
• Steal a Region - Fulfil above locking condition on a claimed region in order to steal the region from them. You cannot steal a locked region.

Goal

Plan a trip (only using public transports) to claim / lock as many regions, within the given time limit.

Gameplay

Play happens in multiple turns, each turn equals planning for 1 virtual day.

Here’s how a turn might look like -

1. Both teams start from a given city at the exact same time.
2. Players have to look thru public transport timings, and plan a route for that entire day, player can Claim, Lock, or Steal a region.
3. Each team must plan their day, without other team knowing of their plan.
4. At the end of planning, both teams would reveal their plan to GM.
5. GM would go thru the plan, validate and declare who claimed / locked / stole what region at end of turn.

This would be repeated for each consecutive days (turn), till end of game.

Whoever has claimed + locked most number of regions at end of game, will win the game.

Rules

1. There will be time-limit to planning. Both teams have to plan their day trip within this limit.
2. Transport Limitations :
   • Players cannot use cabs, or private hired cars.
   • Players can use flights exactly Y times.
   • Players can use trains, trams, buses, ships, ferries, or any other form of shared public transport any number of times.
3. Play is only considered between a FROM & a TO time. Players are allowed to travel outside this time period but cannot Claim, Lock or Steal. They can only perform these actions once play resumes next day. At end of turn, GM would only reveal current
4. To claim a region they started with, they need to leave that region, halt in another region’s city for X amount of time and return back.
5. Since there would not be any real world unexpected events like delays and cancellations, let players choose random penalty events in a turn -
   • Delay : Use N times in a game, choose and delay a particular mode of transport by 30 mins. If a player was going to catch this for the day, he/she will be given extra 3 mins to re-route his plan.
   • Cancellation : Use M times in a game, choose and cancel a particular mode of transportation. If a player was going to catch this for the day, he/she will be given extra 3 mins to re-route his plan.

Notes For Player

1. Take screenshots as proofs of transport timings, this will be used by GM in case there is a conflict resolution or dispute. A team can help GM validate other team’s plan, once they have submitted their own plan.
2. Player should plan from FROM time of current day till FROM time of next day and submit to GM.
3. Penalty events are interesting way to hinder other team’s progress, choosing one would depend on guessing what your opponent’s next move would be.
4. Penalty events would apply to a particular mode of transportation and would affect both the teams. So if you are boarding same transportation, you would also be affected irrespective of city of boarding.

Notes For GMs

1. GM has to do basic checks to see if transport options provided by players are correct or incorrect. A team can validate other team’s plan, as GM might be orating the same to them.
2. If in a single turn, both teams try to claim same region - GM would have to check who reached the city first, region would go to that team.
3. If both teams reach at the same time (mostly using same transport), GM would give out a trivia specific to that region, and whoever is able to answer first claims the region. Note: this will not be required if one of the team later locks that region in same turn and other team doesn’t.
4. Planning time-limit and total number of turns in a game ? , Tweak it to adjust total play time, a good value should be around 5 mins of planning time for 10 turns. Which would have a total play time of around 1 & 1/2 hour.
5. X = ?? , a good value to choose should be based on average halt time of a transport in a city. It should be long enough so that player’s would not sit inside a transport to claim a city while being short enough to not make it a hindrance. A good value should be around 30 mins.
6. Y = ?? , should actually depend on total number of turns being played. If 10 turns are being played, Y = 3, is a good value.
7. FROM & TO = ?? , a good value should be from 7AM to 7PM. If going across timezones, this should be adhered to local time, making players loose or gain time. GM should choose not to reveal a team’s plan beyond To time to other team, making it hard to guess the next move of a team.
8. N & M = ?? , again N being around 1/2 total turns and M being around 1/4 total turns should be good. e.g: For total turns = 10, N = 5 & M = 2.
9. All the above rules / restrictions are present to make players make interesting choices, they are not strict and you may modify the rules to play as you see fit.