5 Sets of Mix-and-Match Puzzles
There would be 5 sets of Terrain Puzzle pieces, 1 for each of the 5 brands (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, plus a Kingdom Hearts expansion). Each puzzle piece would be in the shape of a slanted Infinity-style hexagon, with connecting nubs on the 3 longest sides for game board stability holding the puzzle pieces together. Each set would have its own Team Color for Gameplay toys drawn onto various Terrain tiles, and the typical board shape would be a 19-piece Infinity-shaped hexagon. Each kit could be used independently to play many games, and combining multiple kits could extend those games, mixing those brands together just like the Toy Box video game. With just two kits for example you could create a larger IN-shape with 37 tiles. With four kits you could have a really large IN-shape board of 61 tiles, or a different board shape altogether. You could stay with the 19-piece Hexagon, but have combinations of your favorite Gameplay Toys across multiple Team colors. You could have a pair of Teleporter tiles that connect 2 separate boards as part of one game. Or like the new "Infinity puzzles", it could even be an abstract shape - connecting puzzle pieces as you go as part of your game turns.
Edging
There would be about as many edging pieces as Terrain tile pieces to accommodate maximum flexibility (unlike Catan for example, where the edging spans the length of multiple tiles) and provide a better feel that the entire game board is a puzzle. Unlike the consistent terrain tile shape, there would be 12 different edging shapes - bottom, top, lower left, upper left, lower right, & upper right edging, along with 6 outer corner pieces. They could be labeled on the back side to simplify setup. All 5 kits should have a single consistent edging "theme" (maybe the blue "star-burst" style used on the 3.0 IN screen for example) - so that expanded board sizes from multiple kits put a uniform wrapper around the multi-patterned terrain tiles. There could also be 6 inner corner edge pieces with each kit as well, providing further flexibility on game board creation.
Gameplay Toys
Each set of 19 Terrain Puzzle pieces would consist of the following Gameplay devices drawn onto them (and each set would have its own Team Activator color of Blue/Orange/Purple/Green/Red to group the set):
- 1 Friend Generator - for obtaining a Sidekick card
- 1 Enemy Generator - for obtaining an Enemy card
- 1 Object Generator - for obtaining a Tools/Packs card or a Key card
- 1 Vehicle Summoner (variant hexagonal design) - for obtaining a Vehicle/Mount card
- 2 Teleporters - as alternative board movement, with the Team color pairing them
- 1 Trigger pad - typically to generate Sparks on Locator toys
- 6 "Locator toys", numbered 1-6, used for player starts/restarts, and for Spark generation off the Trigger
- 1 Power Switch - Team color / gray toggle - powering the Trigger & Kill Switch (with a Power Switch card to show state)
- 1 Kill Switch - this tile can only be safely traversed when the corresponding Power Switch is off
- 1 Gated Terrain (variant hexagonal design with lock super-imposed) - can only be traversed with a color-match Key card
- 1 Stopwatch device - this "stops time" for opposing players, granting an extra turn
- 1 "Wild" Gameplay device - 4 types (see below)
- 1 Logo - i.e. the Disney logo, Pixar logo, Marvel logo, Star Wars logo, or Kingdom Hearts logo ("wild-card Terrains")
The idea is to have 5 kits that provide lots of combinations for lots of different games that provide a board game experience that reflects the spirit of the Toy Box and utilizes collections of figures as premium game tokens. Just as the Toy Box video game provides the ability to design & play games of various genres, these kits would provide the ability to design & play board games of various styles - where in all cases, with the combination of theming, arrangement, & game mechanics, provide a unique game. This post focuses on various game mechanic options for these board games...
Movement
Movement would typically be a single space. The figures are much larger than typical game tokens, such that the number of spaces on the board would need to be smaller. This provides a novel game mechanic - for random movement across these 6-sided Terrain tiles, a 6-sided die roll would determine direction! A hexagonal "compass rose" diagram can help illustrate the direction each number designates. If the character is on the edge of the board, the movement "wraps" to the edge on the opposite side of that direction. When a Mount/Vehicle card is acquired, that movement would typically be increased by 1. Some characters (esp. Marvels), like Web-slingers, Flyers, & Cars could have a movement 2 on their own (not to be increased by a Mount/Vehicle). A Sidekick card (or in some games, a Villain's Enemy card) provides assistance, yet minimizes the character's movement to 1. The Gameplay toys on the Terrain tiles provide further variety, such as the Team-color-paired Teleporters, chosen BEFORE the die roll instead of normal movement. There's a Gated Terrain tile blocking movement until it is opened by Object Generator provided Key. The Stopwatch toy allows the player character to move again. Plus, a collected Spark of ANY color can be used (again, BEFORE the die roll) to "enter Spark Mode" and land on any space. Some games involve multiple characters per player, where typically just one of the characters moves. In the case of a die roll for random direction, the player can choose which character to move in that direction, and in the case of a faster character, the player can choose whether the character moves 1, 2, or in some cases 3 spaces. If a character's movement is blocked by another character, resolution depends on the particular game - for some, the movement attempt triggers Melee combat and for others, the movement is blocked. Characters with movement greater than 1 do have the option to hop over an adjacent character. Also note that for some strategy games, the movement isn't random; the player is given choice of direction, where the remaining movement rules still apply.
Combat
Some Toy Box board games would not use Combat at all. Some might use Melee combat but no Missiles or Special attacks. Some simply cause a character figure to be revmoed from the board whenever another character attempts to move onto the same space. It depends on the game design and home rules. See the respective games for details (the Battlegrounds game uses the more complex format).
The Roll of Locators
The Locators can be used for random placement of player characters on the board & destination of sparks generated by the Trigger. When a character lands on a Trigger, three sparks are generated. The player rolls the color-matching pair of 6-sided dice to determine the destination of 2 sparks (rolling the same number means both sparks appear on the same location), and the third spark is generated on the Trigger itself, automatically collected by that character up to their spark collection maximum. Each kit has a different color for the set of 6 Locators & the Trigger. If less than a full set of Locators are used on an alternative board, re-rolling is used for character & spark placement. If any character is already standing on the destination Locator tile, that character automatically acquires the spark, up to that character's maximum at that time (remaining sparks due to character maximums remain on the tile as best as they can fit).
Power Switch Breaker
Both the Trigger and the Kill Switch Gameplay toys are tied to the Power Switch of matching color. The Power Switch is On at the start of the game, and toggles (Off or On, depending on its earlier state) whenever a character lands on it. Note that each Power Switch has a "circuit breaker" property, such that it flips Off after the Trigger or Kill Switch is activated. When the Power Switch is On, the Trigger can successfully generate sparks at two random Locator tiles; when Off, the Trigger does nothing. When the Power Switch is On, the Kill Switch defeats any character landing on its space; when Off the Kill Switch has no effect. The current state of each Power Switch is denoted by a special color-coded, two-faced card shown at all times next to the game board - one face for On, the other for Off. In the case of multiple kits & alternative board designs, when a Power Switch a given color is not used in constructing the board, the Trigger & Kill Switch of that color (if used) are always active.
Dropped Sparks
When a character is defeated (from Combat or from a Kill Switch), any remaining sparks that the character still holds drop to that game tile. In the case of an attacking character moving onto the space, that character acquires all of the sparks, up to the maximum. Otherwise, sparks remain on the game board tile until some character lands there. Red sparks, up to the maximum, cannot be avoided, and can therefore defeat a character acquiring them.
Gameplay Toys Interaction with Cards
The game mechanic of landing on an Object Generator, Vehicle/Mount Summoner, Friend Generator or Enemy Generator would typically be to immediately draw a card of that type. There would be a colored Key card that could be drawn from the Object Generator, and subsequently used to open the Gated Terrain. Tools/Packs typically increase Melee or Missiles stats by 1 (or by 2 if the theme of the gear matches that of the character). Vehicles/Mounts typically increase Movement to 2 (with some restrictions per the Movement rules above), and for princesses, even increase the Movement to 3 when it's her particular steed. An Enemy card typically attacks the character and is discarded regardless of that attack's outcome (in simpler Melee-Combat-always-wins games, the Enemy Generator operates like a Kill Switch that's always On). A Sidekick card provides addition attack and defense for a given character, with +1 to those stats when the Sidekick matches the theme of the character. A given character can only hold one of each of these card types at a time (i.e. one Tool/Pack, one Vehicle/Mount, and one Sidekick), but has the option to discard one in favor of a better one when landing on that type of Gameply tile a second time.
Wild Gameplay Toys
Across the 5 kits there would be 5 "Wild Gameplay Devices" that work across all Team Colors. They would be:
- Wild Trigger: dependent on any corresponding Power Switches, this Triggers all Locators on the board (up to 10 dice rolled), and deactivates all Power Switches, including the Wild Power Switch if used
- Wild Locator(x2): in addition to whatever numbers are rolled from a Trigger (regardless of color), this locator attracts an additional spark of that color (from the Wild Trigger it attracts 1 for each different Team color used on the board).
- Wild Power Switch: this Power Switch toggles all other Power Switches at once (some may go Off while others go On, depending on their earlier state). Note that single-colored Triggers/Kill Switches do not flip this breaker as it does not directly power anything and therefore it doesn't need a corresponding Power Switch card.
- Wild Teleporter: the character can teleport to any Teleporter from this one, or teleport to this one from any other
These kits would be used to create & play a different style of board game - where the setup is part of the experience, to complete the puzzle of your own design, or to meet a chosen set of specifications - where the number of board game spaces are relatively small (or the board is uncommonly large) to accommodate the size of the Disney Infinity figures. The tactile nature of toys-to-life figures would be extended into Terrain tiles & a variety of Toy Box cards that would distinctly reflect the visual themes & storylines of the Disney Infinity Toy Box.
(Video game side-note: it would be cool to get Team Color functionality for Triggers, Action Buttons, Power Switches, Keys, & Gates in the actually Toy Box video game through new Team Activator connections - their Properties could work a couple different ways - the triggers would only work for characters of that team color, or would simply provide a visual representation of which set of Gameplay toys they collectively corresponded - and perhaps that correspondence could change if their color changed, say with a Diffusinator - and it would also be VERY cool for the Power Switch & Logic Gate toys to have a "Breaker" property that caused it to close after a single usage that could still by dynamically re-opened later).