The core design of Bear Trap is now done, and the two-player game is polished. So, in today’s article I thought I’d share some comments on my experience designing Bear Trap. Ideation I first thought of creating a game about the Soviet-Afghan War while teaching Military Ethics at university in 2013. I was drawn to […]
Bear Trap Designer Notes Read Post »
Designer BlogsAs highlighted in a previous InsideGMT article, Bear Trap is primarily a two-player game—but one which will come with a rich solo mode developed by the GMT One team. In this InsideGMT article, I want to quickly mention a few other things that make Bear Trap a complete package: two additional short scenarios, and tournament
Bear Trap Gets Two Short Scenarios, and More! Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Scenarios/VariantsWhen I began developing Bear Trap, it was already a tight and competitive two-player game, much like its spiritual ancestor Sekigahara. However, the designer P.R. Daniels had ambitions to go beyond this and include a solitaire mode that would allow a single player to enjoy the game by themself. Bear Trap is a block game
Resolving Combat in Bear Trap’s Solitaire System Read Post »
Developer Notes, Examples of Play, Solitaire SystemsIn this InsideGMT article, we’ll play through a few turns of Bear Trap. The following playthrough is designed to demonstrate a few different aspects of the game, and to give you a basic sense of what it’s like to play—it’s not meant to be a demonstration of good play by the players. In what follows,
In this InsideGMT article, I’ll give some historical comments on a few (but not all) of the strategy cards. I want to unpack the events and people at play behind these cards so you can better appreciate what they represent. But this is a high-level overview of the historical background, and detail here is sacrificed
Cards in Bear Trap (Part II of II): Historical Notes on the Strategy Cards Read Post »
Designer BlogsIn past InsideGMT articles, we looked at the gameplay in Bear Trap and provided a simple combat example. Part of the asymmetry in Bear Trap emerges from the way the cards work. And so, in this InsideGMT article, I’ll explain how the how the different cards work as well as look at the force pools
Cards in Bear Trap (Part I of II): Card Types, Force Pools, & Deck Composition Read Post »
Designer BlogsIn this article, I’ll provide a high-level overview of the mechanics found in Bear Trap, and an explanation of the gameplay. This example of combat in a prior InsideGMT article will also help elucidate some of the explanations found here. Note that, for the sake of brevity, the rules aren’t described here in complete detail—for
Gameplay Overview—How to Play Bear Trap Read Post »
Designer BlogsIn this InsideGMT article, I’ll walk you through a simple example of combat in Bear Trap. This should give you the flavor of the combat system in Bear Trap – as well as how it’s similar to, yet also quite different from, combat in Sekigahara. Because of the timescale over which Bear Trap is played,
Resolving Combat in Bear Trap Read Post »
Designer Blogs