[GB] Terrain & Barrier questions

[Mike]

What happens when a new terrain is created on a space already occupied by a hero? Or when it moves onto their space?

In our playtest, the first time this happened was with mountains, and the card said they get knocked down. No problem. After that, the kids I played with assumed that ALL new terrain knocked you down if it was created on your space. I didn't correct them, and that's how we played it. I like that. Personally, I'd like to add to that: If new terrain appears under you (created or moved, doesn't matter), you can either spend 2HP instantly to keep your footing, or else you are knocked down and have to spend your next hex of movement to get up. This applies if terrain changes as well. Obviously, you can ignore this is the new terrain is your favored one.

What do we think about not having arrows on the terrain (i.e. terrain never moves by itself)?

I had one card that allowed me to play terrain, then put X tokens on the card which I could use to move the terrain later. That worked super-well. If we use it, I would even say, "Place 3 adjacent Forest terrains anywhere on the map, and then place 3 counters on this card. At any time, spend one counter to move any Forest terrain 1 hex in any direction." Something like that. Then we eliminate the auto-movement for terrain. Auto-moving barriers can still be a thing (a dust storm or tsunami or stampeding herd that just rolls across the map), but this will help highlight that barriers and terrain are separate entities, even though they function similarly.

Should barriers have a time limit?

I feel like terrain should be permanent until altered by divine action, but that barriers should be time limited. I just can't come up with a decent way to track that.

POSSIBLY... cards that involve "add counters" or "lasts for X rounds" or whatever could have their own "slider scale" along the bottom or side or whatever, and then you just put 1 token on the correct number. For things with limited uses, you move the counter when you make use of it. For time limited stuff, counters move down at the end of your turn as part of cleanup (except the turn you actually play the card--makes no sense to play a card and then mark off a round before it even affects anyone else).

Okay, I say all this, but there's a balance to be had between facing a wall of junk with four or five barriers on each hex (which kept happening to us) and having a bunch of extra things to track. I just don't know.

Any time a terrain is created on or moves onto a hex that already has terrain, the old terrain is discarded?

I assume yes. Haven't checked the rules for it.

End zones?

Okay. First off, should the temples be sacrosact? That is, should opponents be barred from moving into or creating barriers/terrain on an opponent's temple. Secondly, should there be a barrier-free "end zone" of the three hexes around each temple? You can still move and place terrain there, but not barriers. This occurs to me, because there are only 3 hexes that provide entry to each temple. And I spend a lot of my game trying to block heroes from moving back to their temples using barriers and terrain. Only later did I realize that a more effective strategy in many cases would have been to start dumping terrain and barriers on the three hexes around their temple. Plenty of cards let you cover three hexes at once, and with a single card, I just created a wall around their temple.

I don't think this is something we need to test right away, but let's keep it in mind if we start seeing problems in this direction.

Should heroes get a pass on some or all of the barriers created by their own deity?

It would be easy to track. In the final set, all barriers will be individualized, so putting each god's symbol on their own barriers is easy peasy. Does Zeus's lightning storm part before his chosen hero? Do Poseidon's swarm of sirens defer to his ball-carrier? Or do all heroes suffer equally before these godly powers? Something to think about, because it would be easy to implement and would change strategy drastically.

I'm going to change the Print-n-Play so that ALL barrier tokens are coded to individual gods, so that if we choose to try this out, the capability is already there.

[Eliahad]

[FlameBlade]

Thought: moving terrain also destroys barriers. Just a thought.

[Mike]

Good call, Flame.

E, I'll cover yours in more detail tomorrow.