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.
