Jiang Hu: The Underworld

Overview

Jiang Hu: The Underworld is a solo-designed wuxia strategy board game for 2-6 players (recommended 5-6), with a ~60-minute play time. Representatives of six martial arts sects compete on a randomly assembled hexagonal map, collecting resources, purchasing weapons and arts at village sectors, and using push/pull displacement abilities to maneuver opponents into hazardous terrain. A battle-royale-style map collapse mechanic creates time pressure, while custom dice providing four action point types (Attack/Move/Action/Mana) balance strategic planning with randomness. I completed all game design, numerical balancing, card text writing, and printed a physical prototype for playtesting.

Problems Addressed

• Balancing strategy and randomness: Pure randomness lacks depth; pure strategy raises the barrier to entry. Custom dice with four action point types and up to 3 rerolls ensure players at all skill levels remain engaged.
• Map terrain functional differentiation: Nine sector types each needed clear, memorable effects (Forest for extra collection, Magma Pool for 2 instant damage, Village for trading, etc.) to prevent terrain from being purely navigational.
• Six sect ability differentiation: Each sect needed a distinct passive ability (Wudang increases displacement distance, Shaolin immune to terrain negatives, Ming Cult sets a teleport anchor) providing strong identity without breaking balance.
• Map collapse pacing: Collapse trigger timing (Rounds 4/8/10) and post-collapse rearrangement rules needed precise tuning — applying meaningful pressure without allowing random collapses to end the game prematurely.
• Resource economy strategic tradeoffs: High-value resources (Crystal) have low draw probability, requiring players to choose between quickly accumulating cheap resources for basic weapons or patiently collecting for premium equipment.

Solution & Implementation

• Custom dice system: Designed custom dice providing Attack/Move/Action/Mana point types, with up to 3 rerolls per turn and the ability to keep satisfying results — creating controllable randomness in action planning.
• Hexagonal map random assembly: 37 terrain tiles randomly shuffled into a hexagonal map, combined with post-collapse rearrangement, ensuring each game has a unique map layout and enhancing replayability.
• Weapon and arts combo system: 12 weapon cards and 8 arts cards each with individual triggered abilities activated through dice points; multiple weapons can chain into combos in a single turn, incentivizing equipment accumulation over single strong-item strategies.
• Push/pull displacement and terrain synergy: Weapon push/pull effects are designed to synergize with terrain damage (pushing opponents into Magma Pool/Desert/Minecave sectors), transforming terrain from backdrop into active tactical resources.
• Physical prototype production and playtesting: Printed a complete component set (6 character cards, 40 resource cards, 12 weapon cards, 8 arts cards, 37 terrain tiles), organized multiple playtesting sessions, and applied targeted adjustments to the purchasing system and map collapse pacing based on feedback.

Tech Stack

• 类型 / Type：实体桌游（Physical Board Game）
• 组件 / Components：自定义骰子、角色卡 ×6、资源卡 ×40、武器卡 ×12、武学卡 ×8、地形板块 ×37
• 工具 / Tools：图形设计软件、打印实体 Prototype

Key Features

• 37 hexagonal terrain tiles randomly assembled, 9 sector types with distinct effects
• Custom dice four action point system (Attack/Move/Action/Mana) + up to 3 rerolls per turn
• Six sects each with unique passive abilities
• Weapon and arts card combo triggering system
• Push/pull displacement synergy with terrain damage
• Battle-royale-style map collapse (Rounds 4/8/10, three phases)
• Village trading system + rare Crystal resource economy

Challenges & Tradeoffs

• Purchasing system complexity: Playtest feedback identified the purchasing system as a primary area for refinement — weapon types could be more varied and weapon pricing could better cover a wider range of strategic situations.
• Map collapse pacing vs. map size: Playtest produced both "map too small" and "map too big" feedback, indicating map scale relative to player count needs further tuning — 37 tiles may be oversized for 2-player games and tight for 6-player sessions.
• Player interaction density: Current mechanics are primarily individual-action-focused; alliance or simultaneous action mechanics to increase player interaction were not implemented in the initial version and remain a key expansion direction.

Results & Impact

The game completed a full physical prototype with printed components and organized multiple playtesting sessions. Players responded positively to the wuxia theme, resource management mechanics, and strategic depth of the dice system; the map collapse mechanic was recognized as providing effective pacing pressure. Playtest feedback was used to make targeted adjustments to the purchasing system and map parameters.

Next Steps

• Refine the purchasing system with more weapon type variety and adjusted pricing to cover a broader range of strategic situations.
• Explore alliance mechanics or simultaneous action systems to increase player interaction density in multiplayer sessions.
• Adjust map scale parameters for different player counts to optimize the collapse experience for both 2-player and 6-player sessions.