1/7/2020 Playtest

[Eliahad]

First playtest of 2020, and first time playing the game in about 3 months. We took out the hero powers, but left everything else as is. And it turns out that the game still has the pieces that made it feel fun before all of the rule changes went into place. There was a lot of terrain, but it led to some really cool moments, like when the volcano came out and left a crater around itself. Also, most importantly, we still really like this game.

Biggest new thing to test:

3 actions every turn. The idea was tossed out as a joke, and then all three of us (Mike, FlameBlade and myself) stopped and said, wait a minute. What if you refresh to 3 (AP) every turn. If you want to defend on someone else's turn, you have to save your AP for that moment, but generally speaking, you get your three actions every turn. Step would still be 3, in keeping with a tenant that showed up waaaay back at the beginning. You would get your 1 hex and 1 card for free every turn. Everything else would cost you actions.

Short term pros: easy to test, as we don't need to change anything. Easier to explain what you can do. Gets rid of rest...and refresh for that matter. Streamlines things even more. Less managing AP. Less staying out of the action while you rest up.

Short term cons: the dynamic of the game will probably change a lot. Hermes will still be broken.

[Eliahad]

What I would like to test next:

How does having 3 actions per turn, knowing that you have to save actions to defend or intercept, feel different than having 4 actions per turn.

After getting that feeling, then testing 3 actions per turn, but with 2 'anytime chips' that you can spend as actions, but do not refresh, at half time you would get one of these chips back.

What needs to change to make this happen:

Review of GP to make sure most work with that concept in mind.