Hel’s BELLEs
For the past year or two I’ve been mucking about in the world of board game design. The idea that’s been getting most of my attention is a mechanized combat game. It started out as a board game full of bits and tiles and other miscellaneous extras, but as I worked to streamline it I cut it down in size immensely, until it became a double deck of cards. It still has lots of flexibility in terms of components (a board and minis could very easily be added for extra fluffiness), but can be played with just the cards and some scratch pads.
A lot of effort has been sunk into limiting random chance, which might appeal to war and strategy gamers more than traditional mecha fans, but I like it. Working on a beta deck now, making some changes based on early playtesting, and I just recently put together a ruleset. That was a much bigger job than I’d anticipated, but I think they work. I guess I’ll find out before too long. Once the beta deck is done, I’ll probably start looking into blind playtesting it, which will be the real test.
Response from gamer friends has been great; should be interesting to get some non-friend input. The complexity is far lower than it was in the early days, but there’s still a lot going on.
rats east 
So what’s the game concept?
Mecha vs mecha combat with on the fly upgrading, tactical strategizing, and simultaneous combat resolution. I’ll get into more detail, no doubt, in future posts.