Upstate GB Playtest 1

[Bluedevyl]

So we just got done with a great night of gaming.

We did a 4 person draft of the new Magic: The Gathering set Unstable, which was a TON of fun, and then we moved on to our (or, at least MY) first playtest of Godsball.

We had a 4 player group, comprised of myself as Poseidon, Darcs as Zeus, Mrs. Darcs as Hera, and Eli as Aphrodite. We had a (REALLY resisting the urge to say we had a ball) GREAT time. I really like the overall gameplay.

We finished up after I think 6 refresh phases, even after Mrs. Darcs used the power to delay refresh until 2 Gods were out of GP.

At the conclusion, we were left with Aphrodite in posession of the ball, but she was on the opposite side of the map from her shrine, so scoring would be EXTREMELY difficult from there.

I will follow up with photos in the morning, but I wanted to report a great time had by all.

[FlameBlade]

Length of the game?

[Eliahad]

2ish hours? 1.5?

I have things, but I'm letting them marinate.

[Mike]

How was the whole process of hero interaction? Attacking/defending/stealing the ball... that sort of thing?

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

Yeah... I'm working on a Pointless Remix of the rules (without GP... point-less... *sigh*, anyway...) and I wondered about making Sprinting part of the move action so that you could then spend points separately on that and also attack, but I think for the moment, I'm against it.

[Eliahad]

It was a really good playtest, and I’m starting to get a clearer picture of what is working and what isn’t. Also, I trust SarahBeth, Andrew and Pat to give fair critiques of the game in constructive ways.

Here are the Problems that I noticed first.

Problems

Problem: The Map has terrain on it already, and makes people think it looks like terrain.

Solution Ideas: We're probably going to have a different looking game board by the time everything is said and done. But it's something we need to be aware of.

Problem: No One Scored a Point
Solution Ideas: Already came up with the “Goal Line idea” of getting to one of the 2 sides opposite your goal.

Player with the Godball at the end of a set time wins.

Player gains a point for each turn that they are holding the Godball. If no God returns the Godball to their shrine, highest point total wins. (Could be as “easy” as adding a scoring track around the outside.)

Problem: Poseidon couldn’t use his powers because there was no seed terrain.
Solution Ideas: In the ring that contains the Pillars of Heaven, the God places terrain tokens adjacent to the Pillar. These tokens are of the terrain type favorable to their hero. (I like this idea and I think it would make the board look pretty when it starts out.)

Conditional cards…"this happens, but if that can’t happen, this happens instead."

Problem: Clear HP and GP tracks.
Solution Ideas: Mike has already solved this, I just need to make Hero Boards for my handmade set.

Problem: Clearing Barriers
Solution Ideas: I don’t know. Maybe that’s just the way it is. Maybe Terrain that moves scrubs the whole hex.

Problem: Hero Actions
I think we really only need the 3 levels. But having the option to overpower on the attack might be worth it, and giving the Hero the option of choosing which level they would like to have take effect. Attack at Level 3 but it's defended to Level 2? You can pick between Level 1 or 2. Overpower to Level 4 or 5 and it's defended to 3? You can pick level 1, 2 or 3.

Problem: Order of Discard God Power, Draw God Power
It would be more fair if you could draw a card first, and then discard. Giving yourself the opportunity to make an informed decision.

Problem: The Refresh Mechanic isn't Intuitive

And maybe it's okay...but I screwed it up myself the first time around, and I know how it works. (My screwing it up, It didn't affect the game, I just got an extra turn without GP. I also felt dumb, but that's my own damn fault.) But after that first round it was fine and easy and wasn't an issue again. I want to keep the spirit of the Refresh Mechanic which has the Turn Marker going around the group, but with keeping that one player from having to wait for their turn to come all the way around again.

Okay! Now to the good things:

Good Things

Sarahbeth started cackling like a maniac at one point, in a positive uplifting way.
Andrew liked that each God deck played a little differently. I did, too. And I LIKED the way they played.
Pat had a puppy barrier following him around. (That card will need to be tweaked. Adorable, but it lasted forever.)

Sprinting is huge. HUGE. It keeps the game moving when people are far apart, but can go away when finer maneuvering is necessary. It let's you create space, but it didn't let you create so much space that people couldn't catch up to you. It lets people far away get closer to the action. I liked it a lot.

The Godball traveled super far. (Probably something like 30 hexes by the end of the game.) Everyone had a chance to win at one point or another (and Andrew had 2). SarahBeth will tell you she didn't, but the ball was within 3 hexes of her shrine. She had a chance. Hera is wily.

SarahBeth's strategy of hanging back paid off and gave her that opportunity. The people that were more aggressive also had chances.

Balance of the cards felt good. Level 3 cards are just about right. Level 2 cards are good, too. Level 1s could be made more useful. A few of the cards have achieved this (placing 2 barriers instead of 1, for example) but they still need work.

I had fun. And I didn't have the midgame slow down that I've had on the first few plays. My guess is that an hour and a half is the sweet spot for this game, so if we add a round limit to the game we'll be aiming for that duration.

[Eliahad]

Other thing from the week:

My mom - who played in November - said this was the first game where she could actually imagine being the hero in the game and the tasks they were undertaking. (Outside of RPGs).