Notes from Solo Playtests Forty-seven to Forty-nine

Here are some rough notes from three solo playtests trying (and failing) to test out some scouting rules variants, but making good progress on the new secret goal rules.

Playtest Forty-seven

Solo playtest, 3 "players"

Rules Tried
Village: 2-2-3-4-5
Scouting: 2 spaces, normal movement. Only restriction is that the character can't have collected any tiles.

Secret Goals & Evaluation
Friendly Neighbor is easy with 3
Master Scout is hard when other players scout -
Brave should have alternative condition - most deadly animals 3 points.

Scouting worked well, but has a bit of a "take advantage of your lead" feel to it, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do.

Playtest Forty-eight

Solo playtest, 3 "players"

Rules Tried

Village: 2-2-3-4-5
Scouting: 3 spaces, only by player with lowest combined score by a character without tiles. If tie, least tiles. Still tie, no scouting.

Secret Goals & Evaluation
Bear Wrestler is very hard to accomplish, worth the 8 points.
Homebody is not too hard, and conveys some strategic advantage when accomplished and so should remain at 3-4 points.
Crack Shot, as with any other goal requiring 2 specific tiles this is very easy to get blocked out of. Have to think of an alternate goal, 2 rabbits?

Forgot about the scout rule until it was too late for the blue player. Scouting later in the game only makes you lose sooner. I'll have to try it again, but fear the required math makes it too fussy a rule.

Playtest Forty-nine

This would make a good
default 2 player setup

Solo playtest, 3 "players"

Rules Tried
Village 1-2-3-4-5
Scouting: 3 spaces, no start/end requirements. Only character with lowest score on their track and no tiles can scout.


Secret Goals & Evaluation

Hoarder is hard to intentionally get 3 of the same, even by scouting multiple times. Maybe switch rewards to 3 for 2 and 5 for 3?

Bushwhacker (most spaces) will take some practice to do well. Maybe more points?
Explorer is fun, but 6 may be too many points, often advantage to escape the crowd near the village.

Scout, by the time I remembered it, was not enough to catch up. A turn or two earlier it might have helped.

Conclusion
It's time to step back and re-think the scouting rules, or scrap them entirely. I do like the increased strategy & memory they add, but if the rule isn't helping people who are behind catch up, or worse, giving an advantage to players in the lead, then it's not helping.

Secret goals are fun. They're more engaging throughout the game than the old end-game scoring. But I'll have to watch out for goals that can be spoiled easily near the beginning. Perhaps the answer is that each goal should have 2 parts - 2 ways to accomplish it with different points for each?