[GB] Playtest on Wednesday? 3-21

[Eliahad]

Hey again!

I have a free night Wednesday, after 7:30 MDT or so. Anyone interested in another play? With terrain cards and favored terrain thrown into the mix this time?

[FlameBlade]

Probably in, if things aren't too crazy.

[Bluedevyl]

I've recently started going to the gym, which is a big deal for me During the week I have to go later on at night because my wife gets home later on. I can get out when she gets home at 5, which means I can get back by 630 or so. I think that I can probably do it, though. I'll get there when I can

[Wowie]

Can confirm I won't be there, board game night @klubhaus. Sorry!

[Bluedevyl]

Things dont look good on my end tonight, gents. I totally forgot my wife has her All-District Vocal concert tonight, which means she won't get home until at least 9. I also need to go bottle my latest batch of homebrew with my brother in law, which I wont be able to start until after she gets home, and then I'll have to do the gym after that.

I hope it goes well, and I look forward to updates!

[Eliahad]

Cool, Good luck! And I hope the concert goes well!

I will still hop on around 7:30 MST and if Flame (and anyone else) wants to mess around, I would be happy to do so.

[FlameBlade]

Snowed out, so can get on later.

[Bluedevyl]

The snow hole didn't hold out, eh? How much did you get?

[FlameBlade]

6 inches, but locations not far east or north got 12 inches to 20 inches. It was still enough for everything to shutdown for a couple of days in my area.

Ah, south of mason-dixon line, automatically become vulnerable to snow.

[FlameBlade]

I think terrains work.

But I also think there should be fewer of terrain cards in relative ratio to curses and blessings. Maybe 1 to 3 or 1 to 4.

I feel like terrains are more epic, and therefore should be fewer.

Then again. Might be better if gods are more individualized.

[Eliahad]

Yes. You had an unfortunate draw last night as far as number of terrain cards you had, I think.

I had an epiphany last night and now I want to redesign the Hero Boards. Not in a crazy way, but now the Gift slots are going away.

Left side is going to be Refresh on top left, Rest on bottom left.

Refresh - On your turn, add 1 HP.

Rest - If you spend 0 HP this turn, add 2 HP (per Mike's suggestion. Emotional me is not sold on this, but I would like to try it.)

Top side is Shove, Grab, Force Fumble. As already written.

Right side is Throw, Kick. As already written.

Bottom side will be Move, Sprint, Defend

Move - 0 HP + movement cost - move your hero one hex.

Sprint - 2 HP + movement cost - move your hero one hex.

Defend - 2 HP - block Hero Action against your Hero.

"But where does the Spear of Zeus go?!" well, it's going to have a "Shove" version and a "Throw" version. If you play it in the Throw slot, it has one effect. If you play it in the Shove slot it has a different effect. It basically becomes just another Blessing (because it is) but it significantly alters the Hero Action that's already there. Maybe Throw now becomes "Target any Hero up to 3 hexes away, that Hero is knocked down. Any adjacent Hero must discard 1 HP. Discard this card after your next Throw action."

[Mike]

Exactly. And all of our blessings and curses need to be similarly named.

The buyout option on the No Rest card worked well. I wouldn't mind seeing that more for curses. Buying off No Rest for 2HP seems appropriate due to the nature of the card. Maybe a baseline of 3HP for most other curses?

Because realistically, how many Blessings will most god decks have? If the only way to get rid of curses is with Blessings of the appropriate type (or a Remove Curse card) then we're starting to eat up a huge chunk of each deck with sorta mandatory cards.

Possibility: you can only buy off a curse at the end of your turn, so you have to suffer the curse for at least one round.

[Eliahad]

I think adding a buyout to curses is a good way to go.

Honestly, I had the opposite experience of Flame. I wanted to see more terrain played out. We had removed most of them by the end of the game!

[Mike]

[Mike]

I also decided I don't like the Block/Grab option for a victim of a Move Through. If you want to do that, you could have Grabbed them on your last turn to prevent the Move Through, or else you Grab them on your next turn to keep them from running away.

[Eliahad]

[FlameBlade]

Now that I have some chance to brood.

*warning warning warning ahead!*

I think what I learned from the playtest is that the ratio of different cards need to be paid attention to, especially when it comes to
designing god powers for individual gods.

Terrain-heavy means it's going to be much harder to handle curses/blessings as they come.

Curse/boon-heavy means there might be some less tactical surprises.



So plainly put, Terrains = tactical, curse/blessings = strategic with some tactics mixed in -- that is, players have perfect knowledge of what you do,
except for the cards in the hand (which becomes tactical)

So, what I'm talking about -- too much terrain, less blessings/boons -- means heroes will be less likely to be able to respond easily to changing environment, as curses will be harder to get rid of. In that, I think terrains could work out, as long as we keep a critical eye to the balance between the two.

I suspect that I was a bit frustrated with having terrain-heavy hand, because I think I generally prefer long-term strategic approach to the game, and in that, I felt like I was less able to respond to situations on the board. Ironic, because terrain affects the board in long-term, but the general use is very much tactical.

Don't @ me. Come at me.

[Mike]

Check the curse buyout above. Also some curses could be single-use... dispose of curse after you actually use its overpriced, broke-ass effect.

But yes, some decks may have more trouble with curses. Some decks will do better in terrain-heavy regions. I may not be able to get rid of that damn Sprint curse, but if I pay the extra 1HP to Move onto this forest, I have a card that lets me surf these trees for an extra hex of movement.

Also every deck should have 1 or 2 Remove Curse cards.

Sudden thought: if we need ways to handle curses, we can include text on most Blessing cards that says, "OR discard this card instead of playing it to remove ANY curse." Which turns those cards into either a Blessing OR a Remove Curse--choose which one when you play it.

Lots of possibilities. I say we go with a mix of stuff.

[Wowie]

[Mike]

I get that, but I don't like rules that aren't on the cards. Once a new player has learned The Basics, almost everything they need to know should be visible to them on the table. That's why I like Dave's Hero Card design so well.

One of my design goals is to keep The Basics as small as we can.