Secret Goals Revisited

I've revised all the secret goals, scaling the points down to 1-3. Remember, these points are scored after the higher score is removed, so 3 points from a goal is like 6 points scored during the game.

Also, based on feedback from the cruise, more of the games are partially achievable, rather than all or nothing.

If seasons do end up giving out secret goals then Speakers for the Dead will have to be removed. I have a couple new candidates to replace it: Gamblers, a new version of an earlier goal, drawing 3 goals brings it closer to Copycats in power, and a new one Hapless, that uses the new "retries" concept.

Seasons

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

The above are the options I've come up with so far for each season.

Notes from Playtest One Hundred and Seventeen

Two player playtest with Dan

What we tried

Event marketplace manipulation (need a better name for those resources at the bottom of the event cards) can move resources up or down one, or drop them to the bottom.

Changes to the resource values. Reintroducing plants worth three with a distribution of 3, 2, 2, 1. Birds replace squirrels and have 2 meat, 0 hide. Rabbits have 2 hide and 0 meat.

"Bare handed" hunting. Actually, it's a new piece of equipment that all hunters always have available: a knife. The knife does 1 damage and requires a roll of 12.

Tear drop shaped score markers. They're flat-ish, possibly stackable, and have a point that can aim at the score number of things become crowded.

The game is divided into four seasons, with different rules for what happens when characters die, and new public goals. Each season (except maybe Winter) will have 3-4 different variations.

The game starts in the Spring. Character that die and come back in the Spring will get 1-3 points for equipment, but no goal. We tried 2. Spring includes a shared public goal, and this one is cooperative, intended to help players who are behind get the points they need for better equipment. The goal we tried rewarded all players for not leaving face down disks on the board: 3 if there are none, 2 if there is 1, and 1 if there are 2.

Summer gives re-spawned characters 0-2 points for equipment, we tried 1. Also death gives you an additional goal. The public goal is to explore a long distance from the village. This game we tried "3 points for claiming a corner space". Other variants could be claiming an edge space, a space a certain number of spaces from the village, or a space not touching another claimed space.

Fall gives characters who died a goal, but no points. They may discard a goal for a retry crystal (this was overlooked in our playtest). Other variants could always include a retry. The public goal for Fall is an early reminder that it's time to start balancing out those score. We tried scoring 3 points for having scored an equal number of plants and animals. Other goals could be having balanced (or near balanced) hunt and gather scores, or near balanced total tiles collected whether scored or not.

Winter gives you one extra retry when a character dies and comes back, no goals or points. No public goals, only the players' own secret goals. Winter may be printed directly on the board.

Notes

Fighting a wolf with a knife was so fun! I had a retry and came one roll away from finishing it off.

The rabbit only having hide does make a difference. The intent was that the meat and hide wouldn't both bottom out at the same time when the majority of animals are sold. Another side effect is that the minimum value of an animal becomes 2 points (a rabbit when the hide is valued at 1) instead of 4.

The 3 value plants can lead to some really big scores, Dan got 20 in one turn. But they also make it possible to come back from a large deficit, and inject more gatherer points into the game. I'll keep an eye on whether it's working.

The Tornado event was almost awesome! Dan was pushed all the way to the village, and almost moved all the other characters out of it. It will still get removed, but there's a germ of a good idea in there.

When I write up the rules for seasons I will have to clarify that the "death bonus" comes from the season that you re-spawn in, not the one the character dies in.

I'm really liking the way Seasons are working. Having the death rules on the board helps with teaching. The public goals are important to go after, 3 points is the maximum value those should be. I'm hoping they'll help guide new players too.

This is definitely a 90 minute game now, with events and retries. Sometimes individual turns can go a little long. I had one turn where two events and a torch extended my turn long enough to get me killed by a bear, while carrying a plant in a pouch. It was brutal, but memorable!

Things to try next

Maybe the retry crystals should be kept in the burial ground so that players don't forget to take one when they die.

I need to revisit the player aids, or add more text to the board. Especially with the seasons putting the rules surrounding death in text for everyone to see, there are other rules that it's becoming more clear are missing from the player aids or the board. Those rules include hunting and retries. I should find a place for them.

Text should be larger on the season cards because they're always on the table, you can't pick them up to read them.

Mechanism that hasn't been tried: players taking two turns in a row. Might work as an End of Spring event, where each player takes two turns in a row going around the table. Too powerful for one player to be allowed to do it..

Player Mat Redesign

A new playtester suggested tying in the graphics from the score tracks with the player mats / secret goal cards, to strengthen the association between the sides of the card and which score track they belong to. This is important so that new players put their collected plant and animal tiles on the correct side, so that other players know what they have.

I have a couple designs in contention, both tied in with other cards in the game, so it's purely matter of preference:

Dark Secret Goal / Player Mat card

Light Secret Goal / Player Mat card

Here's the old design, which I still like in some ways, but it doesn't aid in teaching as much as the new one.

Old Card

Marketplace in the Main Board

Marketplace integrated with Village on main board.

The values in the marketplace are the only thing that varies based on the number of players. That's because the number of exploration tiles (and the length of the game) remains constant, meaning that with fewer players, each gets more resources. If the values in a two player game were as high as in a five player game, the two players would exceed the score tracks.

Until now this was achieved by having a double sided mat. In first edition it was the top 1/3 of the board, in the original printing of 2nd edition it was an 8"x2" mat that sat on top of the board and slid all over the place until I made corner pockets to hold it. This solution was not repeatable, and the mat added extra cost to the game.

Here's my first sketch of the new idea for having both sets of numbers co-exist:

And here's what my first pass at the graphic design looks like. You can see it with the value tiles revealing only the correct set of numbers for a three player game at the top of this post.

Bare Handed Hunting

Knife

A common request from players is to be able to go hunting bare handed. This may be because suicide is a strategy (see my earlier post on Seasons). Or it may be a more visceral thing. Either way, it might be a nice addition to the game.

I came back to it while thinking about the knife, a short lived piece of equipment from an earlier hunting system. As a person living in the 22nd century, I never go anywhere without my pocket knife, why would a primitive hunter?

Mechanically, the knife is a piece of equipment that players don't have to buy. It doesn't take up one of the hunter's 3 equipment slots, and it's not even a card, it's embedded in the graphics of the board. Using the knife to hunt is always an option.

Exploration Tiles - Birds

UPDATE:

I got some great feedback on the animal tiles, here's the latest iteration.

ORIGINAL:

Exploration Tiles

Squirrels may be replaced by birds, with a Quail and Pheasant shown on the far left (need to pick one).

The big play balance difference in these new tiles is that now the majority of animals have only meat or hide, not both. I'm hoping this will allow for more good opportunities to score. Until now, whenever someone scored even a rabbit or squirrel it would completely tank the market for anyone else wanting to score an animal.

At this small size light text on a dark background was too hard to read, so I've switched back to dark text.

The deadly animals an now distinguished by their red text. Also, the fangs have been replaced by the gatherer icon, to indicate which character needs to roll that number.


I've also done these on a plain white background. It doesn't look as nice, but may be easier to read in print (it's pretty harsh on screen).