[GB] Draft of GB 2.0 review

[FlameBlade]

"To setup the game" is redundant -- already know that it's "Setup" section!

"the very center" -- remove "very" -- not necessary.

"The players shall attempt to place heroes evenly as possible around the corners of the board"

"Draw 5 cards" -- five or four? We never tested five with the current iteration.

would this long paragraph serve better if broken out in bulleted lists?

Excise last sentence -- players will figure it out.

FFA Set up

So, based on descriptions in Setup, you really don't need to write out all of that. Can consider removing all of that stuff.
Why not let players mix and match?

Rather, express that players can play as a team game, or free for all -- such as 2v2v2, 3v3, or FFA.

Overview of Play.

Refresh Phase (Beginning of turn)

Roll "Draw phase" into "end phase" -- I think drawing is the clearest indication that everything is done, and time to pass the turn to next player.

12 rounds -- to be determined!


The Hero

Move "A hero token that is in a hex is said to occupy that hex. At the end of a turn, two heroes may not occupy the same hex, though it is possible for a hero to pass through an occupied hex." to descriptions of actions in action phase. This is just a set up of what Hero is represented at this point.

Hero Action slots -- "Each hero action may be only used once" -- move it to action phase section.

Add in that all of the slots on the hero board is the basic actions, and will be altered by blessings and curses throughout the course of the game. More descriptions later on in the game.

"You may not have more than 8 HP tokens or less than 0 HP tokens in this pool" Then maybe figure out how to roll the rest into other sections.

Reactions should be on left part of the board!

Tip area -- are there any cards that actually react to sprint or move?

Movement Cost -- should clarify that "# of tokens" includes favored terrain token. Example below helps, but not immediately obvious from the equation.

"you MUST return to the hex from which you entered the occupied, losing whatever resources you have already spent" -- does that means hero could lose godball? Is all of the movements nullified in a turn?

Aside: Wacky thought: -- if hero decides to throw while on the same hex as other hero. Does the hex-owner gets to decide whether to intercept right away? Think it as batting away the pass.

Shove -- "of the 6 hexes around the opponent..." -- seems contrived. Could use a rewrite. "Opponent's 3 adjacent hexes away from your hero."

(thought -- 2-hex shove. would it be possible for a hero to fly over other hero?)

"Grab" -- "lose the ability to use grab, shove, *AND* sprint actions on their turn"

Need something that clearly indicates that someone is grabbed. Should create a special colorized "GRAB!" card to "cover up" parts of the hero board.


Throw 1 hex -- what if someone happens to be throwing while on hex occupied by other hero? Would other hero have a chance to intercept?

Emphasize that kick cannot be intercepted.

An odd thought: What if hero tries to intercept, got cancelled by other intercepting hero (at the same distance). 3rd hero grabs ball, and throws it again, allowing for other interception chance...but is the hero's interception "exhausted" or still a valid move? Can a hero intercept several times between his turns?

Note: whoever has the laurel wreath is pretty damn strong. Does laurel wreath gets passed around? in fact, this is the only place in the whole document that mentions "laurel" or "wreath" Consider mooping it.

Rest -- does that means moving into a hex that requires a payment means rest is not available even if actions aren't used? Didn't this used to be 1 hp for not moving, 1 hp for not taking any actions?

If multiple Gods wish to play a reaction card, turn order takes precedence -- should clarify that the turn order starting from the God with active hero.

hrm, not a fan of last sentence "Last in is the first out"

Moving on to the card types. How do we know when an action is taken, and how do we prevent from an action from being taken twice? Especially if someone tries to be sneaky and use the same action slot after altering the slot with GP? Thoughts involve using some cards to indicate actions. Maybe. Not sure.

Blessings and Curse effects replace Hero Actions -- already explained in "Playing cards on the Hero Boards."

Thought: What if mountain is replaced by a new mountain? Ocean replaced by a new ocean?? Would that knock down the hero?

"The sporting thing" --> "It would be sporting to take a token.."

Knockdown -- also lose "grab" -- if the hero is grabbing someone.

Moving terrain -- could a hero "defend" a hero being shoved by terrain? If that happens, might end up shoved in a different way? Or is this indefensible?

Can removing terrain knock down a hero? After all, terrain has changed quite a bit!

Reaction thing with GP was repeated earlier.

Dropping the godball -> losing the control of godball. I think the idea of "control" is vital to the idea of scoring! Of course, that means addressing "fumble"

[FlameBlade]

And as a comment:

1) Good start!
2) Will need a lot of restructuring. What I see is a lot of cross-reference, and a lot of redundancies when just a little restructuring would simply roll a lot of stuff up into a single place.
3) Also, Likely will need to restructure how things are introduced. Give basics of each component. For example:

Hi! These are Hero actions! (list all actions that Hero could be doing!)
Then briefly describe God Powers, and different flavors of god powers that can be used to annoy Hades out of heroes!

Then describe phases of a turn, where everything comes together, then detail each phase in a natural, logical order, maybe.

Break it down into each phase.

Refresh -- point out that nothing can ever interfere with refresh here.
Action (and break out into subsections -- one for hero, and one for god)
Draw Phase
End Phase.

Then start describing each phase in detail, maybe.

Remember that everything is pretty much explained on hero board! Just that there are details for each rule that needed to be expanded. Maybe remind players that rules are pretty much already laid out on the board, and one pretty much could go and play the game almost quickly, and maybe that it's worth to check out interception, defend, and rules for god powers (especially when it comes to the definition of knockdown.)



Just some ideas to think about. Right now, the rules are good start, but I'm not feeling the flow.

[Eliahad]

This is great, thank you! (Comments as I think of answers!)

[Mike]

[Mike]

Nope... the diagrams for FFA are wasteful. Too much space to convey so little info. I think we need to have names for the starting hexes.

FREE FOR ALL
3 player -- Heroes start in Macedon, Lesbos, and Sparta.
4 player -- Use Macedon, Thrace, Sparta, and Minos.
5 player -- Leave any one corner empty.
6 player -- Use all corners.

Then diagrams for team games because we'll have to designate goals for team play.

I love overlapping goal areas for FFA. I think team goals should be distinct.

[Eliahad]

[Eliahad]

Re # if cards in initial draw. Maybe it was 4? I still have 5 in my head from waaaay back. We should test both.

[Mike]

[Mike]

As indicated by the last line there, I'm going to redo the map to add a round counter track for this version AND I'll add names for the six starting hexes.

[Eliahad]

[FlameBlade]

About ending turn on other hero. Everything done in the turn is nullified? Including throwing ball 2 hex? GP not counted?

Sounds like a wacky tracking issue.

[Eliahad]

[FlameBlade]

Better. Wasn't clear what was meant by 'resources'

[FlameBlade]

[FlameBlade]

Because I'm a jerk, gave it another run-through, on April 27th 2018, just now.

4/27/18 comments

Tweak objective -- "while your god cheats to help your hero win!" We need to make sure that we have a little flavor, so it's not so rules-bound.

Draw 4 cards sentence -- "this *is* your opening hand of cards..."

could "the same ring" be reworded for clarity?

FFA setup -- so much better!

Note: if you choose... how about rolling that into the first bullet? "you may play one god card, then take hero actions /or/ take hero actions then play one god card" -- would that be good? (Also, given that freebie movement is a hero action, it seems that it must be done with all the other hero actions, correct?)

Overall, Overview of play is much much better now!

"See Blessings and Curses for more information" -- change to "more details"

Situation to consider:
2 heroes grabbed the same hero. But last grabber has a curse where it only can prevent sprint. What does that mean for the grabbed hero? Does the grabbed hero lose the sprint? Or still lose the whole shebang, and that the cursed grabber gets to follow if the grabbed hero moves?

One more thing -- "move action" is distinct from "sprint" -- should be changed such that "anytime grabbed hero moves, grabber may decide whether to occupy the hex grabbee occupied before. Consider this -- grab that is cursed that it doesn't prevent sprinting -- and the player sprints.

"To control the Godball, you simply move into the hex...blah blah blah blah..." -- make it more exciting, add flavors.

force-fumble (hero who gets forced-fumbled) scoring feels queasy to me.

[Mike]

Preserving for posterity:

I will teach quickly:


On your turn:
1. Refresh Phase - put one HP into your Hero Point Pool. Resolve any effects on God Powers in Play.
2. Action Phase - Take Hero Actions and/or play a God Card. You may take each Hero Action only once each round, but may take as many different actions as you can afford. They are all listed on your Hero Board, and they all have an HP cost. You can either play the God Power first, and then take your hero actions, or take your actions and then play the God Power, but you cannot take actions, then play a card, then continue your actions.
3. Clean Up Phase - Resolve any cards that say 'at the end of your turn.' Draw your hand back up to 4 cards. Play goes to the next player.

Card Types:
Blessings and Curses - They are the cards that are played onto the Hero Boards. They REPLACE the action listed on the board. They have a cost listed on them, and the altered cost is what you have to pay to activate your new action. Curses are generally bad, blessings are generally good. That said, YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON ANYONE YOU WANT. You don't have to only play a blessing on yourself.

Terrain - When terrain is created, it causes any Hero present in the hex to be knocked down. This is regardless of whether it is their favored terrain or not. Any terrain already present in the hex is removed first.
Removing terrain does not cause the hero to be knocked down.
Moving Terrain - If terrain moves, everything in that hex moves with it. When it moves it shoves heroes out of the way as per the shove rule. They must, however, attempt to move to a place where they cannot be shoved a second time. If no place exists then they move in the direction of the terrain as well.

Legends - These replaced Barriers, and they all have effects associated with them. These effects are listed on the cards

Hex Cost (Movement cost):
The hex cost of moving into a hex is equal to the number of tokens in that hex. Favored Terrain and the Godball do not count toward this cost.
You CAN move through opponents. But you must move out of their hex by your cleanup phase or you move back to the hex where you entered the

Scoring:
Those little Tao discs with the colors. They represent your starting area, and they also indicate which goal area you are trying to get the Godball to.
If you were the last God to control the Godball when it enters YOUR scoring area, you get a point.
So if someone made you force fumble, and you had a god power that made the Godball bounce into your area? You get a point.
If you toss the ball, and then have a way to move the Godball? You get a point.
Kicking the Godball also counts as being in control.