Goal Cards Layout

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Notes from Sixty-second Playtest

(actually, we played with five)

Rules Tried

A five player game with one player who hadn't played in a while, so here are rules that haven't been tried with 5.

No area majority

Wounded animals move 1, diagonal ok.

Torch use must be declared, in which case you do not roll to escape. It pushes the animal 1 space (diagonal ok).

No bare handed hunting, you may not explore.


Notes

Master Scout should be simplified and pointed down to one point per tile.

The torch is better this way.

There should have a way to discard equipment in village.

The 4 player board setup worked well with 5. As with all my initial setups, no that there's no area majority as a shared goal they can all be tighter, with the obstacles closer to the village.

Notes from Playtests Fifty-nine to Sixty-one

Playtest 59, Click to Enlarge

Playtest Notes
Always a great opportunity to play with people who haven't played in a while. Here are my observations:


Torch Use
The torch is a little confusing because it is a triggered by a certain event, rather than used actively like other weapons. Maybe there's a way to make a torch more like a regular weapon, so you just use it, rather than watch for the condition when it kicks in.
Example:
When a Gatherer with a torch encounters a deadly animal he may use it to drive off the animal. The torch is then discarded. Otherwise he rolls to escape (on a 10+) as usual.

Torch Moves Animals
If the Torch forces the animal to move, it should move in the same manner as an animal wounded by a hunter - 1 space, diagonal allowed.

Master Scout Goal
Should add that you are not allowed to take notes.

Playtest 60, Click to Enlarge

Get rid of bare handed!
Bare handed hunting makes it easy for a player to start out by spending all his money on gatherer equipment, and then commit suicide with his hunter to re-equip and get a second goal. Hunting should not be allowed without a weapon. You can still buy a spear for 1 and try to kill yourself, but it cost points and at least you tried.

Paranoid Goal
The Paranoid goal appears to be over pointed. It's tricky, but spacing out your claimed territory can be a powerful strategy, preventing others from poaching any tiles you are unable to claim immediately.

No Spaces Touching Village Goal
May be under pointed, makes movement difficult for the whole game.

To Try
I've been saying for a long time that this game should have player boards. It would aid in teaching the game, and standardize where in front of you your plants & animals go (it's important for other players to be able to tell how many of each you have collected).

At some point I had the idea that the secret goal cards, which form the center-piece of the player's area, should have player board information on the back. I'm already using the to store the player's scored disks, it's the natural next step.

Notes from Fifty-eight Playtest

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Today's Story
Let me tell you about this damn wolf. I was making a path out of the village (yellow player in the photo). The wolf showed up right at a pinch point between a mountain and the side of the board. I kept going after it with an atlatl and spear, and died over and over again. Each time I'd die I'd get another goal, "Brave", "Largest Territory", "Pathfinder", each adding more incentive to kill that wolf. But also losing 2 points as I re-equipped. I finally killed it, but not until the other players had pulled well ahead. Next time I'll be less stupid and try a bow and arrow instead, or drive it away with a sling.

Oh, and as a side effect of my stubbornness, the player to my left had the "Copy Cat" goal, and was able to find one of my 7 goals that let him tie for the win!


Rules Tried

Village: 1-2-2-3-4

This works, and should help me use the same score track for 2 and 3 players as for 4 and 5. The village needs to have lower values, because the number of tiles remains constant at 24, even if there are fewer players.

Wounded Animals Flee 1 Space (diagonal OK)

Think this works. Really need to go bow hunting to try it out more. I had the largest territory bonus, so I used the atlatl instead this time, going for one shot kills.

Three Player Board Setup

The village & mountain setup shown here works well. I like it in this corner too, closer to the village track.

Goals Audit

We went through all the goals currently in circulation and made notes on each.

Copycat: Change to copy one goal from a player to your left or right.

Explorer: Change to 4 points.

Brave: Change to 6 points for killing 3 deadly animals.

Master Scout: Works as is.

Most Types of Disks Sold: Needs more testing

Fewest Types of Disks Sold: Change to 6 points.

Basher & Fletcher: kill both, too arbitrary, not in line with other activity happening in the game.

Homebody: Change to 3 points, this is a benefit by itself.

Crack Shot: Simplify to 5 for either killing 2 rabbits or 2 squirrels.

Wolf Master: New goal! Kill 2 wolves, 6 points.

Frightened: Getting rid of this goal. Don't want to encourage people to lose.

Productive: Reduce to 3 points, have to be successful to attempt this.

No Claimed spaces Next to Village: Haven't tested.

Omnivore: Increase to 5 points, I like this one, but it's tricky to pull off so needs a bit more incentive.

Hoarder: Name is inaccurate - maybe monopoly? Or maybe change it so you don't have to score them at the village. New points scheme: 1 point each disc for any pairs or triplets.

End Game Both Characters Not in Village: This is a good one. Tricky to pull off, down to the wire. Needs a name: Wanderers.

Pathfinder: This is good.

Largest territory: This is good.

Craven: Needs testing

Paranoid: Change to 7 points so someone actually tries it. Anticipating that it makes movement very hard.


Update: 10/18/2011
Based on feedback from multiple sources I want to try a couple different number patterns for the village, representing perhaps people giving up on resources that are too scarce? These are not 2 & 3 player variants, just a different way of playing:
2-3-4-3-2
2-3-4-5-4 or 2-3-4-5-3

Notes from Fifty-seventh Playtest

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Village: 1-2-2-3-4

After last week's fairly disastrous (but productive) playtest I decided to try out a new village track on my own before wasting other people's lunch breaks on it. I'm happy to report that these values were very nicely balanced, produced a nearly tie game at 32-31 points.

I played with two very different approaches. The Red player went out on the attack with a knife and a club. The Blue player started with a pouch and a spear, but didn't go hunting until picking up an Atlatl, and after the first turn always carried a torch.

Solo games are tricky, but I try to be fair, using standard Village scoring tactics for each player - selling whenever what they have is in the top 2 slots and the other player has the same type of tile. Meat and hide are a little trickier, in a two player game they rarely get up very high, but it worked out.

The only disadvantage of these village numbers that I have found is if you sell two exploration disks of the same type on the same turn - the second one is only worth 1 or 2 points. But you can always hold on to the second resource for later.

Goals

Blue player went first and had Homebody, so all he had to do was draw a plant tile, and not die.

Red player had the goal where your characters had to be away from the village at end of game. He almost pulled it off, but ended up racing home to avoid a loss, and letting the Homebody win by 1 point by failing the goal. Still, a very tight game.

Board Setup

I tried this really nasty setup with the village in all the way in the corner. By late game the red player was barely able to make it out in one turn, and once or twice had to forgo a second exploration. It certainly replaces the challenge of fighting for Largest Territory.

Notes from Fifty-sixth Playtest

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Rules Tried (and mostly failed)
This was a bit of a disaster, as you can probably see from the photo of the board at the end of the game here. But it's good to shake things up, try some different rules, even if they fail.

Village: 1-1-2-2-3
Trying to lower the score for 2 and 3 player games, this was too far. The only way to buy anything was to die. And with the third and fourth slots the same, items were either scored at the top, or the middle.

Glass Gems as Claim Markers
These were supposed to be shiny and pretty, but in reality they were just hard to see (again, look at the photo).

Wounded Animals Flee 1 Space (diagonal OK)
This didn't come up that I remember, we'll try it again. A little funky only having diagonal movement in one place in the rules, but easier to describe than the whole "move 2 spaces if possible, otherwise 1, only pass through empty spaces" mess.

2 Player Board Setup with 3 Players
Tried the tighter board setup, with mountains surrounding the village in a corner, that had been intended for 2 players. Now that we don't have to leave room for everyone to compete for Largest Territory, a nastier setup like this might work.

Goals
The only goal of note this time was Over the Harvest Moon, which is a really cool idea pulled from hearts/spades to have a player try to get only Gather points. Aside from being way off with the village track (impossible to achieve) it really messed with the game. I played it, so I ran around just trying to gather things, ignoring Rabbits, Deer, etc. It raced the end of the game, making it unsatisfying.

To Try Next

1. Same board setup - this might be right for 3 players, but this test was so off it's hard to tell.
2. Village: 1-2-2-3-4 - I tried this out in a solo "2 player" game, it worked well. 
3. Try the "Harvest Moon" approach as a legitimate tactic, gathering tons of information about the board.
4. Wounded animals flee 1 space (diagonal OK)

Notes from Fifty-fifth Playtest

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Rules Tried
Receive 3 points instead of 4 when you re-spawn.
No largest territory bonus at the end, it became one of many secret goals.
Fleeing animals can move through any space without a character in it, but must still end on an empty space (didn't come up).

Observations
One play is not enough testing, and we had 3 instead of 4 players this time, but it would appear that removing the area majority element of the game really raises the level of play. A theory as to why is that having one less thing to worry about freed players up to focus on the more subtle aspects of interaction in this game. To really play this game well you have to pay close attention to the demand track in the village and to the other players. By not worrying as much about which specific spaces we were fighting over, it freed up working memory to concentrate on other things.

Secret Goals
Instead of going over each goal that was attempted in this game, I'm going to try to organize the goals themselves, so we can see how they are distributed. Points in bold.

High Risk Hunting: Bear Wrestler (spear + bare handed 8pts.), Most Deadly 4pts., Brave (1 of each deadly 7pts.), Crack Shot (squirrel/rabbit hunting 6/4pts.), Bare handed squirrel or rabbit 6pts).

These are good in moderation. They certainly lead players down unexpected paths, but can often become a dangerous unbeatable obsession.


Claimed Spaces: Explorer (furthest from village 5pts.), Un-claimed Neighboring Space 1pt. ea., Pathfinder (longest line 4pts.), Largest Territory 3pts., Homebody (most touching village 4pts.), Loner (no spaces next to village 3pts.).

The trouble with area bonuses is that they can "reward winning". But as variable secret goals it's less of a brute force win, so it works much better.

Exploration Discs Collected: Most Types 3pts., Craven (most small animals 5pts.), Omnivore (same # plants and animals 4pts.), Productive (most tiles, including unsold 7pts.), Unsold Items 3pts * (# - 1), Hoarder 2pts. pairs, 5pts. triplets, Fewest Types 5pts.


I like that these can encourage weird collecting behavior, but collecting specific things can be very difficult to do deliberately.

Equipment: Armed to the teeth (3 weapons 2pts.), Full set of Equipment (6 items 3pts.)

Even if re-pointed to compensate for the cost of the items, these can probably go. It's easy to buy stuff, especially if you die.

Memory: Master Scout (name face-down discs 2pts ea.)

I'm too scared to take this myself, but it's a very cool one. Need more like this.

Dying: 3+ goals 1pt. ea.


Haven't tried.

Odd Behavior: End Game not in village 5pts., Over the Harvest Moon (if 0 hunt, 40+ gather, gather is base score).

We haven't tried these, very interested to see how they work. Harvest Moon will need adjustment based on number of players. Maybe it's 50 minus 5 per player or something like that?

To Try Next

1. When you die, pick from one out of 2 secret goals.
2. Continue to refine the secret goals, work out the distribution of challenging high scoring goals and easy but lower scoring ones.
3. Flip side of the village board could have a value track for 2 and 3 player games with lower numbers: 1-1-2-3-4. They're in the same arrangement, but would keep the point scoring down in these games