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Friday, October 31, 2014

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and Three

triple threes followed
by triple sixes
What we tried

  • 24 plant & animal disks.
  • 1 event per turn limit.
  • If you kept an event disk don't get an explore cube.
  • turn in 3 events for a goal, but not equipment.
  • called shot gives a -1 penalty if you get it wrong.
  • simplified Trader event doesn't change demand track.

Notes

This game had the craziest luck differential, as you can see from the photo, and it was reflected in the final score. What's changed though is that an unlucky player who died a bunch of times didn't win because of secret goals, so that's progress.

Play length was restored to an hour, but we still had time to upgrade equipment. Need to see what narrative arc is like with more players.

End Game

What's next?

Tree is unpopular, maybe it should let you look at 2 or 3 things?

Time to start scaling back experimental rules. Called shot makes poaching too powerful. Turning in event disks is fiddly and rarely done.


starting setup

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and Two

Game End
(paranoid yellow)

What we tried

New event Cornucopia replaces Bird. It's a collection of plants that can be gathered, worth 1 herb, 1 berry, and 1 nut.

Changed Mammoth to Sabertooth, a deadly animal worth 2 meat and 2 hide that has 5 life, which must be scored ASAP.

Trying arrows cost at 0, but you may only buy them if one of your characters has a bow.

Goal points lowered (quantities in parenthesis):
2 (4), 3 (4), 4 (3), 5 (3), variable (3).

Moved event disks at least 4 spaces from the village, they are better mid game.

Notes

Before starting the game there was concern that turning in 3 events for equipment (and probably goals too) encourages bad behavior. It hurts the game if people are just running around flipping events, not letting them do their job of mixing up the demand track when it gets stuck. Inspiration (the event that hands out goals) might be enough to get more goals out there.

Some ideas for restricting events:

  • 1 event per turn limit.
  • If kept an event disk don't get explore cube.
  • turn in 3 events for a goal, not equipment.


Called shot should be -1 to your rolls if wrong.

Trader is too complex. Shouldn't change the demand track, maybe shouldn't even change amount you get for trades. That it doesn't change demand is significant. It works awesome with Cornucopia, an event that gives you one of each plant, because it doesn't move meat and hide to the top.

Here is the biggest problem right now: game length has gotten too long.

The events on the board and being able to trade in equipment, have added complexity. Games are lasting 90 minutes or more. In some ways that's good, it gives time for the luck variance to settle out. But it's also hurting the urgency of the game. The end always used to come just a little sooner than you'd expect, and I like that a lot. This playtest I called an early end to the playtest with 20% of the plant&animal disks undiscovered. I'd much rather the game take one hour or less, and leave players wanting to go again.

The reason I decided last fall to increase the length of play by adding 50% more plant&animal disks was to be sure there was time for the game to have a nice story arc, where characters start out weak and grow stronger through a series of adventures. I think with event disks and equipment trading this can be done in a tighter time frame.

Another problem with the longer game is that it actually limits the paths to victory. In a longer higher scoring game you basically need to get the better equipment, Bow or Atlatl, to compete. The cost is absorbed by having more time to use it. In a shorter game you have less time to recoup your investment, so a more frugal strategy could succeed.


board setup

What's Next?


  • 24 plant&animal disks
  • 1 event per turn limit.
  • If you kept an event disk don't get explore cube.
  • simplify Trader event
  • turn in 3 events for a goal, not equipment.
  • called shot gives a -1 penalty if you get it wrong.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and One

Lester, Kris, and Ryan

What we tried


  • 3 goal limit
  • Goals are always draw 2 keep 1
  • Players start with 5 points worth of equipment.
  • Bow costs 6, Atlatl 5, Pouch 4.
  • One spear has a trade value of 1.
  • Events stay up, even animals
  • Trader stays until the end of your next turn.
  • Events that change village let you score one disk now.
  • Turn in 3 disk for one equipment or to draw 2 goals and keep one.

Notes

Kris, red, killed a mammoth
Ryan, yellow, was paranoid
Myself, purple, eventual wolf master
Lester, green, scored herb in fall
Continued frustration with goals determining the winner, not skillful play. But the game play holds up, even with half the players behaving erratically. The end was exciting, with Lester grabbing the furthest space from the village and then lucking on an event that set the market up perfectly and allowed him to score.

What's next?


Change "hunger cube" to "explore cube", it's a more clear description of its purpose, and the obvious name in retrospect.

New event: Cornucopia replaces Bird. It's a collection of plants that can be gathered, worth 1 herb, 1 berry, and 1 nut.

Change Woolley Mammoth to Young Mammoth, an animal worth 2 meat and 2 hide that has 5 life.

Try arrows cost at 0, but you may only buy them if you have bow.

Goal points move down mostly 3-4. Speaker for dead should be 2 per other goal.

Move event disks further from the village, they are better mid game.

Notes from Playtest One Hundred

Left to right: Kris, Brandon,
Lester, Ryan, Jason

What we tried


  • 3 goal limit
  • Goals are always draw 2 keep 1
  • Players start with 5 points worth of equipment.
  • Bow costs 6, Atlatl 5, Pouch 4.

Notes and Suggestions for What's Next

Neutral events should have rewards for the person who found it.

The Trader event is broken, the way it stays around the rest of the game and acts as a better market. Maybe it should last until end of your next turn. Maybe sell 2 points of plants?

Event animals should stay face up (I don't remember why this was suggested).

Remove red berries from the herbs graphic in Photoshop.

The Master Scout goal is really fun now. Need to clarify if players put disks face up.

Is there a way to get more goals without dying?

Add an Event that gives you equipment.

Turn in events for equipment or goal.

Events that change village could let you score one disk now.

Event idea: draw goals = players and distribute them as you wish.

Notes from Ninety-ninth Playtest

What we tried



  • 3 goal limit
  • Goals are always draw 2 keep 1
  • Players start with 5 points worth of equipment.
  • Bow costs 6, Atlatl 5, Pouch 4.
  • One spear has a trade value of 1.


What's next?


Tall tree should only kill you on a roll that's less than 6.

More events should move up meat and/ or hide.

Try writing rules with called shot mistake a -1 penalty. Balance the added complexity vs. gain.

Master Scout: 1 point per correctly named, no penalty for getting them wrong.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Notes from Ninety-eighth playtest

Left to right: Ryan, Kris, Lester, 
Brandon, Jason

What we tried

  • Hunger cubes
  • Called shots
  • 3 goal limit
  • draw 2 keep 1 goal when re-spawn
  • black disks were just tar pits

Notes

Some second and third time players in this group, as well as playtest veterans. One new idea was that variable terrain might be interesting. Hopefully I'll capture a bit of that feel with the new "event disks" (or whatever I end up calling them). An underlying issue the desire for terrain brings up in making board position interesting. Only having one explore per turn (plus possible hunger cube) means less interaction with the board, and tar pits were spread out in this 5 player game. 

Called shots encourage poaching, which I don't think is a bad thing. As I watch new players figure out the game, the most successful beginners are the ones who figure out that the best way to increase your odds is to use the information other players give you when they fail to pick something up.

The 3 goal limit didn't come up. In a 5 player game there's isn't as much time for intentionally collecting goals as there is with any less.

Drawing 2 goals and keeping 1 introduces another decision an the beginning of players' turns. It wasn't an issue in this game, but normally I like to let people ruminate while other people go, that's why I moved the purchasing of equipment to as you leave the village, not as you enter it. If I gave the goal as soon as a character died, I'd have to balance that against intentional last turn suicides.

The hunger cubes seem to balance out the flow of play. People remember to use them better than they remember to claim spaces after a successful hunt/gather. It's nice to be guaranteed to get something at the end of every turn.

The bow & arrow are, if anything, too effective. They are expensive, and it can be tricky when you run out of arrows, but only missing 1 in 10 shots is great.



What's next?

Recommended board setup should have the village near a corner, to make board position interesting, and give more sense of exploration.

I need to try the event disks with more people, I'm sorry I forgot my cheat-sheet this time.

It might be interesting to try putting the atl-atl at a cost of 4 points, so players could start out with it, even if it won't do anything until they gather and score enough for a spear. Alternately, if the sling and club start becoming too unpopular, I could shift Bow, Atlatl, and Pouch all up one or two, and increase the starting equipment points.

Friday, August 15, 2014

An Icon for Animal Hide

The last of my placeholder icons has been replaced with a real graphic! Game-icons.net came through with a new original icon for animal hide.

Update: One piece of feedback I received was that the head of the hide was too round, too human, so I've elongated it and tapered it down into more of a snout, while trying to remain at the same level of abstraction as the original design.

Deadly Wolf Exploration Disk (rendered)


Updated mask:

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

An Icon for Meat

Finally, thanks to game-icons.net, I have an icon to represent meat in my game. Better yet, I put in a request on the forums and they're going to do one for hide too!

Wild Boar Exploration Disk (rendered)

Monday, June 9, 2014

London Playtest Meetup and Ninety-seventh Playtest

What we tried


  • black disks with animals/events on the flip side
  • one explore per turn, with a hunger cube if you don't collect anything that lets you explore a second time on a later turn
  • did not use "called shots" (I forgot it, it's not part of my regular teaching flow)
  • 4 goal limit


Notes

An interesting mix of hard core euro gamers and amerithrash fans, all aspiring designers.

Per usual, the person with the heaviest European accent liked it the least, would eliminate the memory aspect for deadly animals, and was looking for more economy/control, while dismissing the probability differences in the hunting weapons entirely.

Another suggested was to re-name hunger cubes, the thought being that if you're hungry you should have lower energy. Scout cube was suggested. Maybe a cultural difference? The name wasn't my idea, but I thought it very apt because hungry = desperate = tries harder. Not like they're "starvation cubes".

The bow, recently made extremely powerful by only requiring a 7 to hit (91% chance!) got an odd reception, but I think that was just a player experience level thing. They didn't like how few arrows you could carry, and felt that maybe it should come with an arrow, cost 1 less, or make wood tipped arrows that are free but only do 1 damage. Regardless, they were definitely wrong about this one.

A last idea was that you might be able to consume some of the food that you are carrying in order to explore more. Thematic, certainly, but likely not worth the complexity.


What's Next?

When a character dies and you get a new goal, try drawing 2 and keeping 1, like at the beginning of the game.

It would be interesting to have a powerful weapon like the Bow cost 4, which is the amount you start with. That would mean you couldn't afford any ammunition for it, and would have to successfully gather and score to arm yourself. This is similar to the "pouch+torch" opening gambit, which is sometimes successful but often backfires.


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Notes from Ninety-sixth playtest

What we tried

  • New optional rule: calling your shot. A hunter can name an animal before exploring a face-down disk on the board that had been left from a previous turn. If correct, add one point to the roll of the dice.

Notes

Both players scored well at their goals, but it did not change a large lead.

What's Next?

The Omnivore goal should probably be removed, It is not one that players are likely to achieve and still play successfully.

A simple language update for the rules: change "Supply & Demand track" to just "Demand track".

Still need a name for these face-down disks that used to be tar pits. "Event disk" seems the closest fit, but I need to avoid having two types of disk that start with "e". Maybe Exploration disks need to become "Plant & Animal" disks?

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Notes from Ninety-fifth playtest

What we tried


  • Replaced two negative black disks with ones that manipulate the market, improved Potlatch Ceremony (see previous post).
  • Reduced points of most goals by 1-2.

Notes

The negative black disks were too discouraging, so I'm shifting them towards supply/demand stalemate breakers.

Originally goals were 3-4 points. You had to, and some people would, die a lot to win the game with goals. The problem was, if the goals couldn't swing the winner then you know who has won the game before the end. So I raised them to to 6-8 points, with a few higher. Now we've got a 4 goal limit, which I think I'll keep even if the goal points go down to prevent the suicide strategy.

Rolled a 7 with my Atlatl against a Mammoth

Conclusion

The black disks can be exciting, but aren't so good they imbalance the game. It's challenging to flip one over and use it to your advantage if the market changes.

The Woolly Mammoth can be a game changer. At 3 meat and 2 hide, I almost caught Dan off guard and would have scored 20 points if I'd made both my rolls.

The very end of the game was disappointing because it outlined a goal that is still broken: Specialist. At 4 points per set of three and 1 per pair I accidentally scored 10 points to win by 1. This goal is left over from the shorter game is broken now in two player. I think it's time to eliminate this goal. It's not that different from the ones where you get points for collecting the most disks. It would reward a focus on collecting certain animals, but I've never seen anyone adjust their strategy to achieve it.

What's next?

I'd like to come up with some more black disks that are positive events or cool things that you can find to encourage people to flip them a little more.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Black Disks Formerly Known As Tar Pits

Black Disks

I'm exploring the possibility of replacing the static tar pit disks, which acted as minor obstacles, with more thematic event/animal/item disks that can be turned over as a free action. I've played three games with them so far, have gotten better at deciding where they should be placed at the start of the game, and like the changes they are causing. Anybody who has played the game enough times to realize that the supply/demand track is the heart of the game knows that sometimes it will lock up as people avoid scoring until the optimal moment. These disks give me an opportunity to mix that up a bit.


I haven't decided what to call these yet. Right now they do a variety of things. I can't call them events without renaming the exploration disks (although that not out of the question) to avoid alliteration. So I'm waiting to see which ones stick, and would welcome suggestions. On to the rules.

Appendix C: Black Disks

Permanents remain on the space, it cannot be explored.

Animals are treated the same as exploration disks, but may have supplemental rules.

Events are typically one time occurrences which are discarded after use unless otherwise specified. If the disk is discarded the space may be explored.

When an event moves a resource to the top of the supply & demand track, other resources move down to take its place, the same as during scoring, but in reverse.


1. Tall Tree

Permanent. Look at one face-down exploration tile. Roll 3 dice, less than 7 and the active character dies. Limited to one use per turn.

2. Bird

Animal. 1 life, 1 meat, 0 hide. When scored gain one Arrows equipment card.

3. Woolly Bear Caterpillar

Event. Omen of a long winter. Move the nuts to the top of the supply and demand track. Then move hide to the top.

4. Lucky Clover

Event. Use this disk to re-roll one die. Keep this disk with your goal until you use it. After use, pass this disk to the player to your left.

5. Famine

Event. Move the meat to the top of the supply and demand track.

6. Sickness

Event. Move hide to the top of the supply and demand track. Then move herbs to the top.

7. Drought

Event. Move the herbs to the top of the supply and demand track. Then move berries to the top.

8. Potlatch Ceremony

The player or players with the lowest trade value worth of equipment may take 3 points of equipment and distribute it among their living characters.

9. Woolly Mammoth

Animal. Deadly. 6 life, 3 meat, 2 hide. If collected must be scored before either of the player’s characters may explore again.

10. Fall Harvest

Nuts and berries are plentiful. Nuts move to the bottom of the supply and demand track, followed by berries.

11. Spring Bloom

Plants are growing fast and easy to find, lowering demand. Herbs move to the bottom of the supply and demand track.

12. Poison Berries

Event. Move the berries to the bottom of the supply and demand track. If the active player’s gatherer has any berries they are scored immediately.

13. Lost

Event. The player to the left of the current player moves the active character two legal spaces, avoiding other black disks and ignoring claimed space movement rules. The spaces do not count towards the 4 space limit. This disk is discarded and the turn continues like normal.

Notes from Ninety-second, Ninety-third, and Ninety-fourth playtests

End of a 3 player game

Playtest Ninety-two

What we tried

  • New! What were once simply tar pits are now (yet to be named) events/animals/items that you can encounter as a free action
  • limit 4 goals
  • hunger cube gained when fail to find something to hunt or gather, but didn't die

Notes

The black disks were placed close to the village and most got flipped over early in the game to little effect. The four goal limit seems reasonable. The rules are still not settled about the hunger cube, some confusion about when you get one.

Conclusion

The black disks need to be moved further from the village if they are going to work as intended, to break stalemates by disrupting the market mid-game. It's good that I had a playtester who simply ran around flipping them over to show that this was a problem. Another player, looking at what they did, decided to avoid them entirely.

The points on the goals are too high, they are determining the winner, making it so that you have to seek out death on order to get at least 3 or 4 of them, because if you wait to die incidentally you won't have time to accomplish your goals.

I think the hunger cube is a definite improvement, but need to simplify it. I'll also make a spot where it goes on the player aids (A.K.A. the back of the goal cards).

played outdoors on the patio

Playtest Ninety-three

What we tried

  • black disks at least 3 spaces from the village

Notes

A two player game this time, with a player who missed the first play with the new event/animal black disks.

Conclusion

Goals certainly won the day again, those will need adjustment. I screwed up and missed one when we cut our game short, but still swung the win having four goals compared to one.

The black disks worked perfectly. They kept the supply/demand track moving, and provided fun surprises. I killed a woolly mammoth!

With both goals and black disks now requiring players to add up the trade value of their equipment, I need to define that term in the rules, and it would help if the back side of a half-used spear/arrows card had its value on it.

black disks nearly opposite to the way tar pits were 

Playtest Ninety-four

What we tried

  • black disks at least 4 spaces from a central village.
  • your hunger cube is claimed any time you don't claim a space or die

Notes

Wow, we had some really bad dice rolling this game. One thing this game really highlights sometimes is people's stubbornness, attempting the same thing over and over again piling up character deaths, going beyond maxing out their goals.

The black disks continue to play a fun role in the mid to late game.

The end of this game had the biggest rules hiccup it's run into in a while. A detail of one of the goals is in the rule book, but not on the card (some goals don't require that you score the animal/plant, but you can't have lost it by dying - a game can't rely on people's memory of events). This misunderstanding led to a change in strategy and ended in a tie game that otherwise may not have been, there's no way to know. 

Conclusion

Negative black disks are lame. I'm going to replace them with more supply/demand track disruption, and a better Potlatch Ceremony.

There doesn't seem to be any harm in collecting a hunger cube when you hunt and miss. I've always said the worst thing that can happen in this game is when you go hunting, miss, but don't die.

Next step is definitely to revisit the points that goals award, and expand the text on the cards.


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Notes from Ninety-first playtest

What we tried


  • limit 4 goals
  • hunger cube cannot be used if miss when hunting

Notes

The hoarder goal is unclear, I need to move the full length wording from the rules to the card, making it clear that you need at least 11 points (card says more than 10, which is easy to misread as 10), and clarifying whether half-used arrows/spears count (they do, but I'm not sure if they should).

We're looking forward to replacing the tar pits with obstacles/events to help mix up the market when it stagnates due to players refusing to turn in anything except at the highest value.


Conclusion

Four goals seems like it might be the right number. Dan played more suicidally than I did and got 4 early, I did some fancy equipment juggling and died a couple times, but was able to achieve all 3.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Notes from Eighty-ninth and Ninetieth Playtests

Lester, Ryan, and Kris
at Game Häus Cafe

What we tried

  • Players only explore once per turn.
  • Collect a hunger cube when you fail to find something, use it later to explore a second time.
Current rules around this have more complexity than fits nicely on a player aid: your turn ends after a single explore if you hunt an animal, it doesn't end if you are a gatherer and escape a deadly animal, it ends if you claim the space.

Notes

With this new approach you are guaranteed to get something every turn, an exploration disk, a hunger cube, or killed. And getting killed is often not a bad thing, as I'll discuss further in a moment. It reduces the complexity of most turns, and keeps the game flowing smoothly.

Conclusions

Overall everyone agreed is a great change. I need to work on the wording of the rules, to clarify whether a hunger cube can be used when hunting and you miss. We played that you could, but it was confusing. I'll take the opportunity to revisit the clarity around hunting - that when you miss your turn is always over. I noticed some confusion around this in a review on The Game Crafter.

Last year I overhauled the goals, adding some new ones and increasing their value. I needed the goals to be able to swing the winner of the game, to keep everyone engaged up until the end. The points needed to be scaled up to fit with higher scores because, by popular demand, I increased the game length from 45-60 minutes to 60-75 minutes. The problem this created, which has always been there to a certain degree, is that suicide became a broken strategy. So I created a limit of 6 goals. From recent playtesting it would appear that there is still a problem, as the game is now you need to die 4 or 5 times to be in contention to win the game.

Next Steps

  • Continue working on the wording of the rules.
  • Experiment with a limit of 4 or 5 goals.
  • New idea: fleshing out a terrain idea from a review of Hunt or Gather on The Game Crafter by turning the "tar pits" into event disks, that you flip over and something happens (some good, some bad, some altering things like the market).