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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.