Anything can happen in the woods

I'm starting to develop encounters, brainstorming thematic ideas for good and bad things that can happen in this prehistoric forest. For some I've got an idea of how they'd work. I've also got ideas for game mechanics but no story behind it. I'd be happy to take suggestions for either or both in the comments.

I'll probably use tarot sized cards, so there's plenty of room for variable outcomes to an encounter, rolling dice for resolution, with bonuses or penalties based on what equipment you have, or whether you're using your hunter or gatherer.

The back of the encounter cards will have resource symbols to be used in the consume action, so the encounters do not need to manipulate the demand track, although they could.

Encounter Theme Ideas

Injury
Forest fire
Rabid animal
Found something (equipment?)
Found exotic berries
Found trap
Seasonal mushrooms
Lighting
Clouds gets dark early
Run out of water
Meet a stranger trapper/trader/enemy
Celestial event (shooting star, eclipse) - fear or inspiration (draw one goal per player and hand them out).
Temporary encampment

Mechanics

Force trade between character that are nearby
Get shoes, character moves 5
Luck - re-roll one die, single use (then pass to next player?)

Theme & Mechanism

Make a poultice - next time would be killed, instead are wounded, movement reduced by one while that character lives.
Lost - roll one die, the player to your right moves your active character that many spaces. Each torch you cary reduces the move by 2, nothing happens if negative.
Climb a tree - (draw a tile and place it )
Potlatch Ceremony - players may trade equipment for points, or get free equipment.

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and Five

What we tried

• 4 points starting equipment
• Spear hits on a 10 or higher (1 lower than before)
• Club hits on an 11 or higher (1 lower than before)

Notes

Significant second mover advantage this game, something to keep an eye on. Poaching drastically improves odds. Encounters mixed in with the plants and animals might help, since exploration failures won't always leave something to pick up.

The consume action made it so that there was never a demand track stalemate, which used to be very common in 2 player games.

What's next?

New idea: when you have reached the maximum number of goals you can still draw more, but have to discard down to the limit afterwards. This could let you get rid of a goal you'll never make.

Combine new encounters that are mixed in with the explore disks, and the consume action. The consume might be triggered automatically, or saved for later. Maybe the back of the encounter card has the name and one or more resource icons, and you can keep it to manipulate the demand track later.

Even Simpler Hunting

In the last playtest we tried a version of hunting that is even easier to teach, which gets at one of the ultimate goals of game design: delivering the most play value with the easiest learning curve.

The rule is this: if you hit, you may roll again. The two shot limit was removed.

The game balance impact of this is to improve the Sling. It can kill deadly animals like Wolves and Bear that it could only previously fend off, or needed to be combined with another weapon.

Let's revisit the basics before looking at the odds behind each weapon. Here are the odds of rolling at least the given number on three six-sided dice:

#	Odds
7	91%
8	84%
9	74%
10	63%
11	50%
12	38%

These are the animals we're hunting, and the damage required to kill each.

Animal	Damage
Squirrel	1
Rabbit	1
Deer	2
Boar	3
Wolf	3
Bear	4

Now let's look at each weapon and weapon combo, how much damage they do, and the odds of hitting multiple times. Note that there's no need to hit more times than required to kill a bear, and weapon combinations assume hitting with both.

Weapon / Combo	Damage	Roll	Hit	x2 Hits	x3	x4
Sling	1	9	74%	55%	41%	30%
Bow	2	7	91%	83%
Spear	3	11	50%	25%
Atlatl	4	8	84%
Club	4	12	38%
Bow+Sling (+Sling)	3 (4)	7, 9 (9)	67%	50% (Sling x2)
Spear+Sling	4	11, 9	37%

Finally, the cost in points (players currently start with 5 points worth of equipment).

Weapon / Combo	Cost
Sling	2
Bow	6 (Arrows free)
Spear	2
Atlatl	5 (Spear required)
Club	1
Sling+Bow	8
Sling+Spear	4

Now, let's say I like how fun it is for someone wielding a Sling to be able to brave the odds and take on a deadly animal, or more hilariously for everyone else, attempt it and die trying. In that case the Spear and Club start looking a little sad by comparison. It doesn't make thematic sense to increase the price of the Sling. Let's try improving the Spear and Club. Conveniently, nothing is new set at a 10 (63%), so we can slide those both down by 1.

Weapon / Combo	Roll	Hit	x2 Hits	x3	x4
Sling	9	74%	55%	41%	30%
Bow	7	91%	83%
Spear	10	63%	40%
Atlatl	8	84%
Club	11	50%
Bow+Sling(+Sling)	7, 9 (9)	67%	50% (Sling x2)
Spear+Sling	10, 9	47%

Update: some other ideas that came up in conversation with playtester Kris Davidsohn. One is that the Atlatl may be slipping now, since the ammunition is so expensive. It could go down to 4. I'm also considering dropping the starting points down to 4. Another mechanism to play with for spears and arrows is only discarding them when you miss, or when you hit (missing is already really bad in this game, especially if you don't die). 

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and Four

Close end-game score.

What we tried

• Simplified hunting rules: if you hit, you may roll again (or run away). This only changes the Sling, because other weapons kill anything in the existing two shot limit.
• A new action available before or after scoring a disk: Consume. Choose one of 3 face up consume cards to increase the demand of one or more resource.
• Events were removed for this playtest.
• Pouch is priced at 4, bow 6, arrows are free if one of your characters has a bow.
• Players start with 5 points of equipment, get 2 points worth when a character re-spawns.
• "Hunger cube" rule is in place, you only explore once, but if you fail to collect something you get a cube that can be turned in later to continue moving and exploring after a failed explore.

Notes

I need to calculate the odds on the Sling with the simplified hunting rules. It's definitely fun to play this way, adds a lot of tension when trying to kill a wolf or a bear with 3 or 4 successful shots in a row (Lester killed a bear, it was awesome!) I may need to raise the cost to 3, or lower the numbers needed to hit with the spear and club (both of which have lost ground to the other weapons).

I will also consider lowering the points that you get towards starting equipment to simplify that decision at the beginning of the game.

The goal cards (/player aids) should say "draw 2, keep 1" on the back, one less rule to remember, and it's the same at the start of the game and when you re-spawn.

Need to double check that the rules are clear that you score one disk at a time, and that the meat/hide from an animal are also scored separately, and each move the demand track.

What's next?

I'm going to add encounters back into the game, with encounter tiles mixed in with plants and animals. There will be corresponding encounter cards with simple to resolve events. I briefly considered "choose your own adventure" style encounters, but that has problems with unfair knowledge advantage, and would disrupt the flow of an otherwise very smooth game.

I think most players have figured out that it is very effective to follow behind someone else, pay attention to what they fail to pick up, and poach it for themselves. I'll have to keep an eye on that with the encounters mixed in with the explore disks. There are few enough turns in the game that so far nobody has intentionally not explored new ground themselves in favor of always poaching.

We'll need to test whether a player who draws an encounter gets a hunger cube. It may depend on the particular encounter.

Given that the goal of this playtest's "consume" mechanism was to prevent the demand track from stagnating, not really increase scores, I will try integrating demand track manipulation with the encounter cards. That way there's only one new deck being added to the game. (Thanks to Kris for that idea).