Re-Thinking The Torch

Torch card, full bleed art prepped for printer

I've been thinking about the role the torch plays in the game, and considering making it more powerful so that it's more interesting early in the game.

With the current rules a torch is a mid to late game purchase you make only to protect a Pouch. Experienced players realize that early in the game it is better to die than to fail to collect something. New players will make the mistake of buying a torch because they think dying is bad.

My new idea for the torch is that it pushes the deadly animal to the nearest empty space, and you get to explore the space you are on again. It is still then discarded.

But, as Dan pointed out, maybe the torch shouldn't be a sure thing? If you still had to roll to survive against the deadly animal it would add another moment of dramatic tension, compared to now where you just discard it. It would also be another opportunity for risk assessment. Looking at the numbers, having it give a +2 to your role takes the odds from 50-74% to 74-91%. +3 would probably be too goo at 84-95%, although we'll see.

Cybil pointed out that having to roll a different number against different animals and then having a weapon with a bonus to that role is actually the same as the old hunting system, which was too complicated for people without a D&D background. It would better to have the torch change the number that you need to roll against any animal, rather than having to teach people to make a die roll with a modifier. I'm thinking it should either require you to roll an 8 (84%) or a 7 (91%).

The next concern, especially in a 4 or 5 player game, is that the at the start of the game the first players might grab all the torches. Two solves for this would be providing more of them in the supply, or increasing the cost to 2.