The first mod-able game board component, the setup mod (aka starting scenarios) has been released to the site, it is part of a game board mod system I’ve been working on. Using setup mods you can create a variety of situations from recreating historic battles to simply specifying the location of neutral territories. You can create mods for any board you have access to play. Here is an example of a setup mod created for the Pirates of Malta board:
Notice that there are 4 predefined players on this board (one starting in Africa, Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and neutral territories have been placed covering the rest of the territories. Also you can see that the neutral territories in France all only have a single unit to make it easier for the player starting in France to take that continent. To try to balance the powerful territories in the Middle East some key territories in the Middle East have been designated to start with 5 neutral armies. Finally, Malta itself because of its high unit bonus and special attacking ability starts has designated to start with 10 neutral armies.
You can create mods for any game board you can play. To get started go to the Design > Mods Tab and click on “Create New Mod” where you’ll be asked first to choose which game board you would like to mod.
A modder can control many details of the setup including choosing players names and colors, what cards they have and how many units they have in reserve. As the mod system is new more changes will be introduced to it in the next couple weeks to make it easier to share and play others’ mods also more aspects of the game board design will be openned up to modding. Please be sure to send any feedback you may have.
