International Tabletop Day, Playtest #72

Overview:

• Graphic design updates
• Bow cost experiment

Played with a new mix of four players, including one new player, and two who haven't played in a while. Gave an abbreviated rules teach which highlighted some graphic design updates that are needed. Also drove home for me the importance of receiving acknowledgement that players understand the end game scoring, which is simple, but vital!

Graphic Design

After seeing the dice graphics in print, it's clear that they need to be higher contrast.

As Christopher Badell (from Greater Than Games) pointed out, I need a stronger visual indication of what is Hunter equipment, and what belongs to Gatherer.

I also need to convey graphically which weapons require ammunition. The bow is obvious, but the Atlatl is less known, and unique in that spears can be used by themselves.

Bow & Arrow

Statistically the bow is a powerful weapon, it does medium damage, able to kill anything with two shots, and is one of the most accurate weapons. Logistically it is weaker, players favor the spear because the investment is less than what you get when you re-spawn after dying. So I could raise the cost of the spear, but I don't like that because it reduces player starting options. Instead I'll try lowering the cost of the bow.

Notes from Seventy-first Playtest

Beejell and Cybil

This was a playtest of the new simplified hunting system with two players who do not have a D&D background. They had struggled with the old system but were very happy with the new one.

You can also see from the photograph how the new cards fit nicely along one side of the board.

Simplified Hunting, Sample Turns

The new simplified hunting system has cut my pictorial sample turns down from 5 pages to 4. I need to find fresh players to teach the game, but I do think a 20% reduction in explanation effort is not unrealistic.

Sample Turns (1mb pdf)

Notes from Seventieth Playtest

Mini Equipment Cards shown with
Goal card, a pawn, and a meeple

This play-through was a test of the new mini equipment cards. Now in most games I'd never want to see these "Hobbit" size cards, but since they are equipment that sits on the table the whole game, it works. I actually bumped up the font size for the most used information.

Update Equipment Cards

Changes for the new combat system

1. The number you need to roll is in large print on the equipment card, rather than calculated using a number there and on the animal disk.
2. The damage the weapon does is in hearts, rather than a number and an icon.

Graphic Design Updates

1. The information you need while hunting is larger, and in a contrast color (white)
2. The number of dice you roll is right next to the number you need to make
3. The cards themselves are smaller, 1.75" x 2.5", so they'll take up less space on the table (equipment is never held in your hand in this game)
4. Font sizes are unified, only two now (9pt and 13pt)
5. The cost is labeled, so you don't have to match the symbol on the score track to figure out what it means.
6. The name of the item has been deemphasized in favor of having the largest possible photo.

Simplified Animal Disk

Here is an updated deadly animal disk. I've removed a bunch of numbers and symbols since equipment now handles the "what you need to roll" side of combat. Numeric life values have been replaced with hearts, and the meat and hide trade values have been moved up top.

Also, based on popular request, I've added a red ring around the deadly animals. This may not hold up well in the printing process, which is why I didn't do it before, but it's worth a shot. It may be more of a crescent shape than a ring, depending on cutter accuracy. But The Game Crafter has been getting better and better, so I'll take the risk.

Any feedback before I apply this throughout all the diagrams in the rulebooks? I'm still trying to come up with good icons for meat and hide, I almost decided to write out the full words in tiny text.

Notes from Sixty-ninth Playtest

Two player game with Cybil.

What we tried

1. Simplified combat math - roll the number on the weapon,
2. Animals don't move when wounded by weapon or torch,
3. Don't collect new your new goal until re-spawning that character.

Conclusion

I like this new combat system. Not having to do any math speeds play along. Weapons are still variable power relative to each other, each weapon is just more similar to itself when hunting different animals.

Next Steps

I'm going to update the graphic design on the animal tiles so that there are hearts for life, removing 2 numbers (3 digits) from each.

I'll also update the equipment cards to a smaller size which will fit better on the table.

Lastly, I'll update the rules. I'll get to trim out a bunch (with these changes I've even removed the knife). Once it's been proofread again I'll update the game on Game Crafter.