[GB] 3/31/19 Live Playtest

[Eliahad]

Players: Dante, Paul, David
Gods: Poseidon, Hermes, Hera
Rounds: 12
Final Score: 1, 2, 1
Time: Teaching 35 - 45 mintues; Playing, about 2 hours.

Today's playtest was with 2 new to the game players. They both have experience with games (one is an 8th grader, one is his dad), up to and including tabletop RPG, but not necessarily Eurogame experience. In fact, I'm pretty sure they haven't played a Euro. Which only matters as to the experiences they are used to in games.

They had a blast, and quickly and unprompted offered as many future playtests as we need. They are both incredibly thoughtful and offered good advice on little changes. The game experience (except for the length of game) was spot on. Epic moments happened. Clever moments happened (including an artful play from Dante that was the first point of the game. Calypso broke open, tossed the ball to some dolphins who nosed it into the goal. At which point everyone was hooked.)

Positives:

Smaller Deck = more likely those epic moments happen. Switching to 24 cards was the right choice.

New Hera and Poseidon are huge steps in the right direction. Hera has some more tweaks, Poseidon seemed good.

EVERYONE had at least one moment of..."Okay, here's what I'm going to do."

Dante, being a very patient person, would wait patiently for his turn..and then as Paul neared the end of his turn would start saying, "Are you finished? Are you finished? Did you draw a card?" and THEN excitedly execute the plan he had worked out. It was amazing.

The new rules are great. I just need to learn how to explain them better.

Negatives:

Game length. Hoo boy, this is an issue. As you learn the cards, you'll be able to see your possibilities more quickly, but as it stands now, the text and the gronking of cards slows the game down. The GAME is good, I might say 'Very Good' even, but the upscale of time on the first game is immense. I have ideas on a 'beginners' game, but it doesn't make me feel that great about it...because the GAME is in the interactions of the more complicated cards. This is a thing we need to think on, and make sure we're okay with and/or find solutions for.

Teaching is hard, except we need new audiences to teach on. I really should find some time to actually practice a script on my own so it feels comfortable and natural. I'm not there yet, and I get distracted by questions. I can be good at this, I just need to work on it.

TWEAKS:

DIVE: Can you choose to dive off of terrain if someone else wants to move you on the terrain?
DIVE: If you dive, does hex cost apply? (If yes, make sure that's on the hero boards.)
DIVE was still one of the more complicated things. I was going off of my understanding of the new rule. I need to read Mike's rule changes.

From Paul: REST: Gain 2 AP (instead of REGAIN 2 AP, Regain implies you've spent something. But really, you're just gaining it. I think this is a word we can use to replace 'restore, regain, and all the other words we have for getting AP back. It would simplify that part immensely.)

Lots of duplicate card titles. Probably my fault.

Cards that need tweaking and/or have typos: HM-GF-08, HR-GF-07, PS-MR-05 (up to 3), HR-MR-03 (add "and terrain.), HR-MR-03 is one of 2 cards named Waterspout, Poseidon has the other. Hermes and Poseidon both have 'Clear Paths." Poseidon "Clear Path" is not clear as to what terrain it is intended to affect.

tl;dr - It was a great game, good experience. Too long.

[Eliahad]

Other positive:

The new flock of sheep is exactly what it should be! They started in a clump and then started wandering around the whole board. It was fantastic. The bull was pretty good, too.

[Eliahad]

Other cool thing:

Paul would say, "Perseus is.... Actions Perseus is doing." And then he would say, "Hermes is going to..." for cards. It was an excellent way to keep cards vs. Actions straight.

To that end, he liked the idea of calling them hero actions, because they are the actions heroes do. Even if it's redundant overall, it makes it easier to keep things straight, and that might outweigh the redundancy.

[FlameBlade]

Don't feel bad about time! We played El Dorado the other night, and was supposed to be 20 minutes per player. Took 3 hours with 3 players the other night. And I was only one who is new!

Just keep practicing your pitch.

[Eliahad]

Yeah, you and Mike said the same thing.

I might be asking the wrong question. The right question might be, "Who is this game for?" because we haven't really answered that. Or, to be business-y, what is our market?

[Eliahad]

Possible dive/terrain move simplification:

Dive: You may dive into any unoccupied hex that did not already contain the moving terrain token.

Moving terrain: a moving terrain token may not move into a hex occupied by a hero already moved by terrain this turn.

[Eliahad]

Addendum to the Dive rule:

Dive is a reaction, and can only be taken on someone else's turn. It costs 2 AP + hex cost of the hex you dive into.

You may dive if terrain moves into your hex, or if terrain in the hex you are on begins to move.

When you dive, move your hero to any adjacent unoccupied hex that did not contain the moving terrain token that turn. This means if the terrain moved through multiple hexes to get to you, you may not move into any of those hexes.