[GB] Reinventing Gods powers.

[Eliahad]

I'm trying to psych myself up to go through the old card file and see how much things have changed.

[FlameBlade]

Spoilers: a lot!

[Eliahad]

Darn tootin'!

Mike: We need to also go through and change all the "Terrain <type>" cards to specific types of terrain. I'll do that a little this morning.

[Eliahad]

And now we have 122 cards! Time to go through the Artifact list.

[Eliahad]

3 more specials:

Hermes: Take the top card from each God deck, including your own. You may look at them, and then you must give each God one card to take into their hand.

Hermes: Choose a clockwise or counterclockwise direction: All heroes must move 2 hexes in that direction on their current ring of the board. This move is stopped by a Pillar of Heaven. (A Hero in the center of the board does not move.)

Hera: Until the end of your next turn, all other Gods must play with their hand of cards face up in front of them.

[FlameBlade]

you know -- I do wonder if we could open up to cyclng god powers. That is, if the player didn't play god powers, then the player may draw two cards then discard to the maximum to end the turn.

Just a thought -- a trade off for not playing a god power.

[Mike]

That's a great idea. We introduced something like that early on (before the godless testing and revisions), but it fell by the wayside before we ever did much with it.

Because I have no problem with churning the deck and going through your powers a few times in the course of a game.

[Eliahad]

I don't have a problem with this, but it did raise questions in my mind. Until we figure out how long a game is, we won't know if that's a good strategy or not. In a 16 turn game, you would only get through your deck one time...if you don't play any powers at all. On the other hand, if it is useful once or twice a game, it's worth having it as an option.

[Mike]

16 turns.

3 cards to start. 5 reaction cards in an "average" deck. Assume they play one card per turn and that they use every reaction card they hit...

They'll get 20 or 21 cards into their deck by the end of the game.

Now imagine it's Aphrodite with 12 reaction cards in her deck (may or may not really be that many). She'll probably get all the way through her deck if she's making full use of her cards. Possibly get 3 or 4 cards into a second pass through... So she'll see 34ish cards total.

For either of these cases, add in 2 or 3 cards from effects that cause you to lose cards. If we go with "Discard up to 2 if you don't play one", then add in 3-5 more over the course of a game.

Personally, I think that "standard" decks with an average number of reaction cards will, on average, get through 30 cards. Deck with a large number of reaction cards will get through 40ish.

But that's largely guesswork.

[FlameBlade]

Just wanted to offer something to a god if they get into a situation where they feel like their current powers will get nowhere fast, and seeks a way of getting better cards quickly.

Just did not want anyone to feel their cards are worthless, and perhaps a form of mulligan in opening rounds as a chance to get better cards while seeing how others play out.

[Mike]

I'm on your side, Flame. I think it's a good idea. It's Eli who's being an old Scrooge about it and refusing to even let us test it.

It's tough working with someone so closed-minded.

[Bluedevyl]

Alright... there's no bad ideas, right?

What if you gained a point when you made it all the way through your deck?

Discuss!

[FlameBlade]

I think nervousness is due to added options and ultimately decision paralysis. I feel like card cycling might be more suited for advanced players who is familiar with the game.

[Mike]

No bad ideas.

Right now, I have no reason to encourage or discourage deck-churning. But we made find wr need something like that.

And personally, I'm not into awarding points for anything other than goals, but then I remember that I was against team play for way too long, so what do I know?

[Eliahad]

Andrew: We'll save that for when we playtest winning the game. At the end, once we've done everything else

Mike: I am being a curmudgeon about it. My internal critic is saying that if we need to do that, then we didn't do a good enough job creating useful cards. I'll go put it back in the soundproof box. (Incidentally, that's also the critic that's keeping me from just making a damn card list so we can start playing again. He's such an asshole.)

[Bluedevyl]

Just tossing it out there, as it popped into my head.

I'm not generally in favor of scoring points for anything but goals, but if we need scoring to be more dynamic in a couple of months, its something to keep on the very back burner.

Cheers!

[Eliahad]

Absolutely! I mean, we don't really have a way to win this game yet, do we?

And suggest things as you think of them! I know I read everything here. Mike reads everything here. Flame reads everything here. You read everything here. Every little suggestion shakes out something else. It's been a weird, awesome, unlike anything else I've done process.

[Eliahad]

Hey folks, we're about 15 cards away from a completed 1st draft of the cards list. Mike did some great things with Aphrodite!

I could use some brainstorming help with the Special Top Level powers for Aphrodite, Hera and Zeus. If any of you have some ideas!

I need to find a little time to finish up Hera's list, too, but that just takes some plugging in, mostly.

[Eliahad]

How do you feel about this idea?

Giving Aphrodite a Golden Apple power as one of her specials.

"Place a Golden Apple token on Mt. Olympus. This token acts as a second Godball. Discard this token if a point is scored with the Golden Apple."

The idea that the Golden Apple was fought over by Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, much like our Godball. I only gave it to Aphrodite since she was the one who won it in the end.

[Mike]

I love that! Potentially even give Aphrodite a slight advantage when handling the Apple. Nothing earth-shaking... like a +1HP cost to attacks against her while holding the Apple. It's a drastic sort of card and I don't want Aphrodite to feel like she plays this and then if it immediately gets taken away, and now she's no better off than before.

But man, it's like getting the extra ball in pinball.