Notes from Fourth Playtest

Updated @5:30pm


This was the most complete playtest yet. We played 18 turns in about 45 minutes. Biggest highlight was death. Kris died on the first turn. I died repeatedly fighting bears. (note that dying doesn't take you out of the game, you just lose your weapon and one of your hunter's siblings steps in next turn.)

Other things that worked:

• The Equipment value/turn is so much better! Only getting 1/2 value for selling stuff back, and limiting the amount the characters can carry moved the focus of the game back to hunting & gathering, instead of buying and selling equipment.
• Limited movement (4 spaces) but allowing players to move for free over the places they explored has some nice strategies. Combined with the area control aspect there's a nice little meta game that happens. (Dan created his own isolated path on one side of the board while Kris and I fought for control of one corner.)

What should be tested next:

• We need Poison Mushrooms so Gatherers can die too, (and maybe leave them as traps if they survive?)
• The Bow sucks. Actually it's arrows that suck, because they cannot be used by themselves (unlike the spear/atlatl relationship). The current proposed solution is actually to reduce their attack power, but allow them to attack one space away. That way the hunter would be safe from deadly animals. 
• Let's try 18 turns for a 3 player game. (16 for 4, 20 for 2). I want to make sure there's time for conversation within a 45-60 minute game.
• Need to clarify rules around what to do when newly purchased items push you over a carrying limit.

Update:

One solution to the problem of purchasing blind and risking one of your characters not being able to carry the item is simply to not allow blind purchases. I'd increase the amount of equipment available to purchase to 5, and replace all the equipment if all 5 (or maybe just 4) are the same type.

Making more equipment available would also allow us to address another inconsistency in rules vs. theme, your characters can purchase items for each other when they're not both in the village. Maybe a character should only be able to purchase equipment that they can carry themselves, and then you'd have to get your hunter and gatherer on the same spot to swap stuff?