TOPOG: A Dice & Hike Game
A downloadable game
This is an entry in the One Page RPG 2023 Jam.
Topog is a 1-5 player game in where players are rolling dice and exploring the wilderness with the knowledge that a child may be missing in the area. Players chart the area using a unique topography map generator. They'll use dice to explore the area, and inch closer to solving the mystery. The player with the most points in the end wins.
- Each player will need a map to draw on. (There is a bigger map included in the zip file)
- The group will need 5 dice (all D6, 3 white, 1 blue, 1 green).
- Each player will need 1 white D6.
- Each player will need 4 different colored pencils to mark their maps.
The game is played over 24 rounds. Roll dice. Arrange them in order. Chart your map. Draw your lines. Score your points.
This is game that probably wasn't meant to be contained to a single sheet of paper.
If there's enough interest, I'll explore making a bigger game with it.
Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for playing!
- 1.1 - Fixed some typos, and adjusted wording/labels for better clarity.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- New Game!Aug 18, 2023
Comments
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Any chance you can do a video overview of this? Or anyone who has done it?
When I find some time I wanna revisit this! But haven't done a video or anything like that with it yet sorry!
sweet looking forward to that!
Can only echo that a video would be massively helpful.
I really want to play it because I love the design and I very much enjoyed Miru, but I can't seem to figure out how to play this.
This is so incredibly cool but I'm really confused on the flow. I can't really understand the mechanics- what page am I meant to read first, and in what order? I love the concept though :)
Ah sorry for the confusion. It's formatted to be a trifold brochure. The ' front' side is the title side with the sign. The back side (page 2) is the side with the mechanics.
I tried my best to fit all the 'rules' on one side of the sheet. With the rule page, read left to right.
ohhhhhh thank you so much!!
Hey I'm really intrigued by this, but in the directions when marking the lines to connect, you demonstrated dice 3,4,5 & 6, noting that 1 & 2 are spacers. Which dice is #6? the memory dice?
Does the diagram in the instructions of the first filled tile match the numbers rolled on the arrangement dice (that's also copied here on this page)?
and when drawing a line form 1 edge to any other edge....is this done before rolling the dice for the next tile?
if you are always mapping the dice from left to right, then how do you complete concentric circles? (You'd have to map them the opposite direction for the next parallel row of tiles).
Thanks for any clarification! I'm really imprressed with the thought you put in to this.
ok sorry for the late reply, hoping i've read your question right.
1. The memory die is a separate die that stays in front of you. The pool of dice is 5 shared dice in the middle of the table (especially so if you're playing with more than 1 person). When I'm talking about numbers, i'm talking about the faces on the dice. Dice with results of 1 & 2 aren't mapped. Only faces with 3-6.
oh i pasted an image, hopefully it shows up after i hit reply. In the example above which is found in the rules, the dice pool rolled a 6, 4, 2, 3, & 5. Only the 6,4,3& 5 are mapped, where the 2 is in the arrangement acts as a spacer, and you essentially skip over that line. (You can see in the middle of the chart above, there's a space where the 2 would be)
The memory die is just the one in front of you, think of it like a hand of cards. but it's only 1 die and it always sits on the table. occasionally you can exchange it with a die in the pool or with your neighbor if you're playing multiplayer.
2. Does the diagram match the instructions? It should! The images/instructions in the rules are essentially a complete turn. If there's any deviation it's because i missed a mistake.
3. Do you draw a line from one edge to another before rolling the next dice? Yes! after charting the dice, draw the lines, (that's step 5) and then you'll do some scoring in (step 6) before you begin the round over again (back to step 1) by rerolling dice.
4. concentric circle puzzle. The only criteria for drawing your map lines, is that your lines for that height have to pass through where it sits in the chart and lines can't cross each other. a big part of the puzzle is trying to figure out how to complete circles within circles and attempting to plan ahead there. I believe the example in the rules displays a few completed circles. But maybe i don't understand this question.
Thanks for playing! Happy to attempt to answer any other questions or hear any feedback!
This look really fun, I'll take it for a spin tonight!
oh good to hear from you! Yes let me know!
Pretty fun, actually.
Took me a minute to figure out the chart - I had printed it in black and white, but I realized after seeing the colours how the elevations work.
There were a few things I'm still not 100% clear on;
Overall I really enjoyed the puzzle of trying to match my rolls to connect elevation lines, while trying to minimize the amount of backtracking and missed connections.
I think this definitely succeeded as a one-page RPG, and the rules are clear enough that I was able to play and enjoy myself.
Additionally, I could definitely see this being a bigger game, where you're following/creating an overarching story across multiple map pamphlets.
hell of a review! Thanks for playing!
1. Dice Pool, it's arranged in an alternating patter. The highest number in the far left position. The lowest in the middle.
The far right position is the 2nd highest. The position just left of middle is the 3rd highest, and the position to the right of middle is the 4th highest. It's much easier to show than it is to squeeze into a sentence ha!
2. Fill the negativity bubbles 1 at a time, from left to right as they occur. You'll total up your negative points at the end of the game. (So if you fill in 6 bubbles, I believe that's -10 points)
3. For backtracking, you just mark 1 negativity bubble and pick the empty tile for the round.
(And when you mark all your negativity bubbles, you max out)
4. Error Fixing, I think you've got it. 'leftover' would be, after you've filled in a category box (all the 3 dots), you can't fill any more in, so if you have any leftover, you can spend them on error fixing (as many as you want, as long as they match the colors). It's not a rule, i ran out of room, but in general, once you start to fill in a box in a category, you should finish it before doing the error fixing option.
But thanks for the review and the time to write and play! I'll see if there's a way I can rework the instruction to be clearer in this small format.
The Dice Pool pattern will certainly make things a bit more challenging, but it makes sense with the visuals.
The clarity on the negativity bubbles and backtracking makes sense, and matches with how I interpreted it.
I'll be playing again tonight for sure.
Thanks for another cool game!
"It's much easier to show than it is to squeeze into a sentence ha!"
Maybe you could show it, then? something like this? I also stumbled on this part during my read.
(edit: just noticed that that is the point of the numbering under the dice! I didn't notice at all they had differents numbers! a few arrows should help)
Looking at this again right now, I can see the desired ordering with the numbers.
Don't know what was going through my head last night looking at it.
Fresh eyes, fresh understanding.
Now I feel silly.