For several reasons I reworked both the board and most of the cards and I'm currently having a break from my paper guillotine producing the new version. Hopefully I'm able to perform another playtest tomorrow, and I wanted to fix the most blatantly annoying things I found out during my solo playtest a couple of days ago.
- I fixed the board so that the cards are now presented sideways. Since the board is not square I imagine it will be put on the table and people will sit facing each other on the two longest sides. This means that everyone will have to read sideways, but it also means that one side of the table does not have to read it upside down. I also downsized the board to make it fit in the box (my leftover box from Galaxy Trucker The big expansion) if folded 2 times.
- Reduced the number of steps on the scoring track from 200 to 100. Hopefully that means the pawns will fit better.
- Adjusted the dimensions of the cards to make them slide into the sleeves easily.
- Added a base value for all cards that can be scored regardless of what keepers you have on your own player mat.
- Tried to simplify the cards and reduce the calculations necessary when deciding what to bid for. Also reduced the number of keepers that could influence the value of a single card.
- Added som bad effects to some of the cards to make the auctions more dynamic
- Added keepers to be handed out before the game start to make the first round more interesting. All these cards are in black and white to separate them from the "real" keepers.
- Added enough cards to be able to play 5 full rounds with 4 players. Perhaps even more cards are needed, but I doubt that is a major concern right now. It's easy to just add more cards later.
So, I guess I should return to cutting cards... And hopefully we will find time for that playtest tomorrow that lets me evaluate if the changes made the game more accesible.
Until next time!
