Nom

Made by Jit, played on roll20 (here: https://app.roll20.net/join/205705/Caltrw ).

Objective

To be the first to reach the treasure room on the top floor of the Temple and unlock the treasure room! What's in the treasure room? No one's really sure! It's either something really powerful, or some ancient treasure, perhaps the key to controlling the monsters in the temple, or maybe an ascension to vorish demigodhood... Either way, you and your fellow treasure hunters all want it, and you're willing to brave the wilds, fight monsters' stomachs, and even devour each other to get to it!

Short Rules

Roll a d6 to advance, pick up cards when you land on spaces. When fighting a monster, you make a Nom check to avoid being nommed. When trying to escape a belly, you try to make an Escape check, but if you fail that, you take digestion damage.

The Board

The board can be seen here, albeit shrunk; in-game it's twice this size: http://i.imgur.com/9EvWYDq.png . As you can see, the board is divided up into four sections. Each has its own set of monsters that is separate from the other, and each has a different difficulty rating as well.

The Wilds

More of a thin jungle/marsh/savannah than anything else, this is an open wilderness with the beginning of the long pathway to the Temple. Though it's fairly open, and the monsters aren't hugely dangerous to a well-equipped adventurer, that doesn't mean a lot haven't met their end here..

Monster Examples: Blue Lizard - 4-foot lizard with a very stretchy body; Rhinocerous - Big plant-eater that doesn't shy away from charging down any live prey; Giant Frog - A very large frog with a very sticky tongue.

Once someone reaches the end of the Wilds, then they'll have a choice. They can either take the more dangerous, shorter path through the Hidden Valley, or take the longer, safer path through the thick Jungle. Once they've passed the split, though, there's no going back..

The Jungle

A much thicker rainforest than the Wilds, the foliage is everywhere and requires a good arm and a machete to hack through. Here, one is much more removed from society, and given how nature has been allowed to run amok in here,the predators are more experienced and would hardly shy away from any fresh meat wandering in..

Monster Examples: Alligator - Ambush predator, lurks in water and strikes. Strong stomach; Venus Mantrap - Giant pair of plant jaws, and vines to feed the unsuspecting individual inside; Soothsayer - ???

Hidden Valley

The locals don't talk much about this place, only that they never go to it, and no one ever comes back from it. It seems to be a more open jungle landscape than one would expect, though. Trampled ground, huge chunks bit out of plants, obviously something rather big lives here. Or maybe more than one "thing". But if you feel like tempting fate, you may be able to scurry on through and get farther ahead than your rivals, and get a shortcut into the Temple as well!

Monster Examples: To put it shortly, dinos.

The Temple

The end-game environment, and the place where you'll really want to be equipped for. Traps and high-danger monsters and secret artifacts can all be found in these halls, the former moreso than the latter. Upon entering, you'll have to traverse clockwise or counter-clockwise around each floor to take the stairs at the opposite side, working your way farther and farther up until you reach the treasure room..

'Monster Examples:' White Slime - Stretchy and sticky, hard to move around in; Gargoyle - You'd think it's just a stone statue, until it reaches out and opens wide..; ??? - King of the temple. Get as far away as possible, or better yet, never find him.

To Start

Each player starts with 20 HP, and as of v1.01, will be allowed to choose from two randomly-drawn items. Each person also starts with an Escape DC of 12 and 3 digestion damage as far as their belly goes, but more on that later. After that, everyone rolls a d20 to determine order, and play begins!

Order of play, movement

On your turn, you roll a d6 (/roll 1d6) and move that many spaces along the path. If you land on a space with writing on it, you follow what the writing says. If you land on a Nom!, Item, or Temple space, then you will be dealt the according card. And if you land on the beginning of a side path, on your next turn, you may choose to use that path to get ahead.

Also: Whenever a player reaches the Temple, then to help get other people caught up, everyone outside the temple receives a +1 bonus to their movement rolls for each player inside the Temple.

Item Cards

These cards are simple enough. These are all equippable items of various types, denoted by the symbol on the card: Hand (sword and shield), Armor (chestplate), Amulet (amulet), or One-Use (potion with a cross on the front). Out of those, you may hold/equip 2 Hand items, 1 Armor item, 1 Amulet item, and 2 One-Use items at any time. Any extras will be dropped on your space, at which point another player can pick it up as they pass.

As as v1.01, landing on an Item space will give you 3 cards, and you're allowed to choose 1. Others will be put in a discard pile, which will be put back in the Item deck and shuffled when it reaches 10 cards.

Nom! Cards

Namesake of the game. Not to say you'll want to draw these. More often than not, these will be Monster cards, at which point you'll have to engage an enemy in combat, aka run away so you're not devoured. More on that later. Also in this deck are some One-Use items for you to use to permanently boost your own digestive system, as well as special cards that will allow you to make a Nom attack at someone close to you! You can hold onto two cards of each type, maximum.

• Tip: You can use the attack cards whenever you land by someone. It can be useful to jump to someone's square if you don't want to stop on a Nom space!
• Another tip: Announcing your actions (or lack of action) is a good thing to do! Helps GMs not wonder if you're done your turn.

Temple Cards

A special, buffed deck for the Temple. The majority of these are monster cards, though some of them are rather rare items that can give you a good bonus. Just make sure you don't draw the Thrown To The Beast card!

Combat

After drawing a Monster card, the DM will roll a dice to determine what monster you'll face (since he doesn't have cards made for that yet), and make a small introductory post. At that point, you basically have one shot to run by succeeding with a Nom check. You do this by using any Nom-buffing items you might like to use, rolling a d20, adding any bonuses from your equipment that would help, and comparing it to the enemy's DC. If you beat it, good, you've escaped and are safe. If not, then sadly, you're devoured. Once devoured, you're basically stuck in place until you make an Escape check that beats the enemy's DC. The enemy may move, but you cannot roll to progress any farther in the board. The enemy will deal digestion damage every turn you fail to escape, as well, though if you escape, you can slowly regenerate health, or find a health potion.

As of v1.01, every round that you're in a stomach, you will gain +2 (stacking) to your next roll, and upon escape, that bonus will be halved and applied to the next Nom check you make. So if you spend 3 turns digesting in a stomach, you'll have gained a +6 to your roll, and if you escaped with that roll, then you'll receive a +3 to avoiding the next monster's gullet.

Critical Hits/Failures

For right now:

• crit Nom failure: -4 on first Escape check
• crit Escape failure: Take 1.5x digestion damage, no check increase
• crit Nom success: +4 to next Nom check
• crit Escape success: +3 to bonus to next check

Direct PvP

But what about eating each other, you might ask? Well, not to worry, that's still a possibility. If you land on someone's space, you can try to attack and devour them. To do this, both parties roll a Nom check. If you beat their roll, you successfully devour them, and if they beat your roll, then...you don't! Cards that you draw from the Nom! deck will give you the chance to move to a nearby opponent's space and attack an opponent as if you're a monster, with the DC listed on the card. If you succeed, then you devour them! Your stomach will deal 3 points of damage to them on every turn, and heal you for 2 points, and when the opponent escapes, they will be released onto your square and unable to eat anything/be eaten for 2 turns.

• Tip: Attack cards can be used whenever someone comes into range, it doesn't necessarily have to be on your turn! Just because someone moves to your space and wants to nom you doesn't mean you can't throw a card at them instead! Attack cards also are not affected by being devoured by an opponent.

Helping/Hurting Opponents

You might also notice that a few cards in the decks aren't...entirely good to use if you're in a stomach. Things that will increase digestion damage and make it more difficult to escape. Well, conveniently enough, you don't have to just use them on yourself... you can feed those items to any preds you walk by, and make it that much harder for your opponent to break free of the stomach he/she's stuck in! You could always give them a helping item too, but who would want to do that? That would let them keep going after your treasure!

Treasure room, aka, the Win space

Once you arrive at the treasure room...unfortunately, your journey isn't over yet. You have to actually -get- into the treasure room. Right now, the current method is "one lock, six keys", where there's a lock that must be opened, but using a key takes a turn. Other methods can be developed. But don't worry! As soon as it's open, you're the winner!

What happens if two people are in the treasure room together?

At this point, it becomes more of a tussle. As said, as long as you're the -only one- in the treasure room, then you win. If there's more than one person (not counting if one is in the belly), then it's impossible for either to win. When it comes to your turn, you have three options:

• Try to open the treasure room: You can still guess at a key like normal, you don't have to be alone to try. You just have to be alone to win when the door opens.
• Devour the opponent: Like any other time you're on the opponent's space. Can be done with opposing Nom checks, or one player using a card on the other. Only difference is, if both players make a Nom check, then whoever wins devours the other. Doesn't matter whose turn it is.
• Push the opponent out of the room: If you want to push them, then both players roll an unmodified d20. If you beat their roll, they're knocked back 1 space, but if they beat you, you're knocked back a space. Safer strategy than nomming, as it is.

If you successfully push or nom an opponent on your turn, you may also use a key.

As soon as the room is open and only one person stands in the room alone, triumphant, full, what have you, they immediately won the game, and may set about devouring other players as they want.

• Other note: There is no penalty for going into a player, once you reach this room! You can try to nom as much as you'd like!

Summary

Don't get eaten, eat your opponents, equip yourself, survive the wilderness/valley/jungle/temple, and be the first to open the doors to claim the prize! Also please just remember that this game is still fairly early. Technical mishaps and strange things are bound to occur, and balance is being worked on.

Any questions, feel free to give Jit a poke. :3 Or if you have suggestions for monsters for an area that he didn't think of.

Current changelog

v1.07:

• Removed common one-use items, made others slightly harder to get
• Slight tweak of armor/hand/amulet item frequency
• Added some transformation potions that buff movement and Nom
• Added some Nom attacks that can backfire
• Reduction of DC bonus from Potion of Digestive Prowess and Dragongut Ale so they're not ridiculous
• Added traps in the Nom deck, some which can be used on other players instead of being triggered on yourself (and added Monster cards to balance out the increase in cards)
• Slight board reworking; Valley is longer and more Nom spaces, and Wilds is longer with a few more Item spaces; also quite a few spaces that boost the person in back
• Need to update the board preview to match, because it doesn't reflect the board change yet
• Players can move at half speed on the same turn that they escape from a belly
• Slight tweaks to a lot of monsters (the gist of it is, overall, Wilds is slightly easier, Valley is slightly harder, Temple and Jungle are a tiny bit harder)
• Reassessment of self-guidelines for GMing, resolution to be more blunt about keeping preferences honored

v1.02:

• Removed two-player-consent for nomming
• Changed cooldown to 2 turns, no nomming or being nommed outside of cards
• Added a bunch of notes to the wiki with tips
• Fixed all those dang cards

v1.01:

• Added "adrenaline" bonus (the stacking +2 while in a belly)
• Added "deal 3, pick 1" for items.
• Reduced monster encounter rate for both Nom! and Temple cards (something around 1/4 of the Monster cards, for both decks)

Thoughts for future changes

• Change up DCs for monster stomachs?
• Make players able to offer items to monsters for escape?
• Shops?
• Prey-only variant, where monsters are automatic and players receive an item upon escape?
• Belly rubbing to increase DC?