Notes from Sixteenth Playtest

Board at End of Game

Today's Experiments

Swapping - does this rule even come up? Is it worth the effort to explain the edge cases it creates? It came up once this game and felt cheesy.

Move 3 Spaces - Trying to make moving around the board more challenging and cut down on poaching. After one play I'm dubious. Maybe it was chance that we clumped up and didn't interact, but I think the hidden information rules change cuts down on poaching pretty well. Also poaching can be a fun interactive part of the game. But we'll try it again and see how it goes. We can also try on a hex board when I start experimenting with board layouts.

Torch - An item that prevents a deadly animal from killing your Gatherer. Replaced 4 Arrows, 2 Clubs, 2 Slings to add 8 Torches. We picked them up (equipment is free) but they didn't really come up in play.

Easier Escape Roll - Need to roll 10 instead of 11 for a Gatherer to escape a deadly animal.

Free Equipment - Second game trying this. I'm not sold, but Dan & Kris like it. It shifts the focus so you can concentrate on turning in your tiles at the right time. I think it takes away a lot of the strategy. When equipment is purchased you can buy all the equipment you need when you need it, or be frugal in your purchases. It also means that if your hunter is doing poorly your gatherer can't take go pick up equipment for them - this was one of the several self-balancing mechanisms in the game. It lets you balance out the luck between your two characters by turning points from the one who is doing well into equipment for the one who isn't.

There are a couple issues to address with points purchasing equipment. One is that when a character dies you're put in a tough spot of having to send a gatherer to go find something to buy weapons for your hunter. To fix that I would give the "respawned" cousins one equipment card to start, picked from the face up cards.

The other issue is the math complexity behind selling tiles for points, but then having to use those points immediately to buy equipment, and only scoring the remainder. To address this we could simply turn in the tiles for points, and then move your score backwards in the track of your choice to make purchases. This would be another point of control for the players, further balancing hunt vs. gather scores.

It would be nice to try a simple tiles for equipment (or tile value for equipment) trading system.


What's Next?

We're going to try the same rules set tomorrow.