Streamlined Combat

Today's experiment:

Remove half the math from the combat system, while retaining as much game balance as possible.

Instead of having the number that you need to roll on the disk, and the bonus to your die roll on the weapon, I averaged out the odds of hitting in the old system, and put the number you need to roll on the card. The life/damage numbers are changed to more visually oriented to hearts.

Initial Thoughts:

The weapons seem more normalized. The club got a lot more use even without its special power. The deadly animals felt less scary. I guess even though with the old system the highest you'd ever need to roll is a 12 (with the +1 from a club), it's still scary to see a Wolf with its 13 to hit.

The game plays very fast, closer to 30 minutes with 5 players. Definitely time to try it out with 36 tiles instead of 24.

Left to right: Eddy, Dan, Kris, Lester

In the Wild

A couple seedy looking fellows playing Hunt or Gather in a bar.

GenCon 2012

Hunt or Gather Demo at the Game Crafter booth

Rules Rewrite

Published an update to the rules today. After getting feedback from 4 "blind playtest" groups I re-worked the rules so the game would be easier to learn for the first time without anybody there to teach it. I got the rules reviewed edited by a third editor, and also proofread by another person. Here they are:

• Hunt or Gather Rules.pdf

Tomorrow I'll order a few copies to put together and send out for another round of playtesting and review.

Initial Reviews

There are a couple great reviews of Hunt or Gather up on The Game Crafter. One is from a playtester, but one who did not work with me on the game and learned it directly from the rules, and the other is from the print-on-demand publisher where it is featured as a staff pick!


"...There's enough strategy to keep you engaged, but not so much you need to obsess over every decision. In other words, it's the kind of game that's actually fun to play.

The game's competitive, but not mean spirited. You can't hurt your opponent directly, though the rules encourage you to tell white lies here and there. Hunt or Gather favors trickery, strategy, and out-of-the-box thinking, which makes victory all the sweeter..."

-Erin Snyder


"This is a great game that works well whether you're a group of two or a group of five. Most games that are designed for two player don't scale as well when you go up to larger groups, but this one does a great job.
...
You know you've picked a good game when your friends ask to play it again. And H||G got played three times in one day with my particular group. For that reason I give the game 5 stars."

-JT

For the full text of these reviews visit the Hunt or Gather page on Game Crafter.

Sample Turns

Download a story and rules explanation (with lots of photos!) of a few samples turns of this game:

Hunt or Gather Sample Turns.pdf (1.2mb)

Here is a sample photograph:

Hunting a bear

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the FAQs from the latest edition of the rules:

Q: What disks do I have to show everyone when I explore?

A: Deadly animals must always be revealed.

Q: What’s the easiest way to tell deadly animals from non-deadly animals?

A: The deadly animals have dark backgrounds.

Q: Can I lie about what disk I just found?

A: Yes, if it’s not a deadly animal.

Q: Can a hunter use a torch?

A: No, but a hunter can carry a torch to exchange with a gather.

Q: Can I move back to village and score on same turn?

A: Yes, but you may not explore any spaces on the way.

Q: When do I get to pick up more equipment?

A: Any time a character leaves the village.

Q: When a character dies, do I lose any claimed spaces?

A: You get to keep claimed spaces, and disks that have already been scored.