Nerd Pride Radio

Yes, we still need to playtest Athiest Godball more, but there are stuff that got me thinking about Godsball.

Big thing is Hero Points. They need to be flexible. We drain them too much, then no heroes are able to do anything. We boost them too much, we lose strategic edge that arises with HP management.

So gods powers need to be able to augment heroes in some obvious ways, and some in not so obvious ways.

I think there should be some kind of principle where there is a balance between the amount of barriers or negative stuff with boosters and positive stuff such that it is pretty close to our gameplay last night. God powers are there to maintain an element of surprise, but we should never slog down heroes too much!

Unfocused thoughts:

God Powers lay down and manipulate barriers/terrain to make movement more costly.

God Powers can attack or boost HP directly.

Gifts can make Hero actions or movement cheaper or free.

Curses can temporarily prevent opposing Heroes from moving or performing specific actions.

All of these I like.

I don't like the feel of God Powers that make movement or actions more expensive. "Place two tokens on this card. Next two hexes of movement cost an extra 1 HP." Or whatever. Don't like it. Just hit me with "lose 2 HP"... dragging it out seems like needless paperwork. Not saying eliminate them for sure, but maybe. They're tough.

God Powers affecting actions (brainstorm):

Un-interceptible pass.
Block intercept
Hero-toss -- Grab adjacent opponent and throw them up to 2 hexes from your position. They must pay 2HP or else land prone.
Bad Bounce -- after a Kick or throw lands, move it to a hex adjacent to it's target.
Slippery -- a get out of jail free card against Grab and shove.

The Focus of the current Gods:

Zeus - Balanced
Hera - Curses/Hindrances
Athena - Gifts/Balanced-ish
Poseidon - Terrain Manipulation
Hermes - Own Hero Movement/Maneuvers
Aphrodite - Other Hero Movement/Manipulation

I'm not saying that any of them are particularly honed in the direction I listed, but that it's what I was trying to consider as I picked initial card types and powers. I knew that things were going to change a lot, so at first I was more interested in getting powers created so that things could be tested. We can take things in whatever direction we want now and I will not be offended in the slightest.

Card Types I considered were:

Attack
Defense
Hindrances (Curses)
Movement
Barriers
Terrain
Gifts

We can combine and simplify these card types, but it helped me divvy up things. In fact, for now we could even create more card types (that will never make it into the game) for ease of balancing these different powers.

I see that same connection. Part of it is seeing the penalty laying there on the table and knowing you can delay it indefinitely by avoiding the action.

Also I don't like having to spend counters to spend HP. With a Gift, the counter replaces the HP... The action is the same: spend a token. The difference is just where the token comes from. With a curse you now have to remember to remove a counter in order to remember to remove HP. More fiddly stuff. More actions.

I'm being overly dramatic. You're already on the right track. We can still use them... SHOULD... But not over-use.

We are already getting into specifics. We need some kind of overarching philosophy to god powers.

For example, giving ways to clear out barriers ups the tempo of the game. Adding barriers slows down the tempo.

Question is, is the godless godball the tempo we want? Do we want faster? Slower?

Reach - hero can pick up loose ball from adjacent hex.

Stretch - hero can intercept from 1 hex farther than normal.

Follow - when an adjacent hero moves 1 hex, you may also move one hex (paying impediment costs) to a hex adjacent to their new position.


Most everything hero could also work as special Hero Abilities.

I, for one, like the tempo of Godlessball. Playing sans powers made me realize just how much most of the powers are "take that!" abilities. Especially in the first playtest I was a part of where the map became so covered in barriers that all the barriers just congealed into a giant barrier that made an entire section of the map unplayable.

Also, +1 in favor of abilities that don't need persistent tracking.

Wowie: I think I know what you mean about "Take That!" Powers but could you expand on that a little bit?

This is pretty good, and keeps focus on sportsball aspect.

Wow. Awesome organization.

I dropped all of those into a spreadsheet called Powers Playground (sorry to those of you who aren't me and Dave).

Using your headings, I created basic categories and sub-categories of cards. The specifics of each line should inspire one or two cards each (at least). I imagine that by going through that list and just outlining the most obvious cards for each entry (usually one boon, one curse), we could have a selection of 150+ unique cards before we even start delving into some of the combos and individual weirdness of each god.

Very nice.

Random musings while I wait for a meeting.

Universal God Powers, or rather powers that every God should have, perhaps tailored in small ways.

Create 1 Terrain of your choice in a target hex.
Move your Hero
Teleport your Hero ("catch up card")
1 Move God Pillar card (part of 'ultimate' card set.)
Move Godball (if certain conditions exist)
Create "barrier" (where the barrier is tailored to that God.)

Well, that's 1/5th of a 30 card deck right there.