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Tradewars - Homeworld: Solo expansion

Well this thread (http://www.bgdf.com/node/15596) has got me thinking about *NEW* ways of implementing a SOLO expansion for the NEXT expansion of the game.

And I really need to THANK Joe (The Professor) for linking those articles on Board Game Geek (BGG).

The game is called "Tradewars - Homeworld" and I had been thinking about the NEXT expansion for the game. Although I have nothing in stone - YET - I do believe I want a HIGH-SCORE SOLO scenario which has everything to do with TRADING resources to get the highest possible score (in terms of trading resources).

To me this KIND of game (theme and genre) lend well to this type of scenario. Moreover because the game suggests TRADE - why not have a scenario just about it!

Perhaps I can have a sort of "Trade Federation" which will TAX a player once the game has resolved... This is like having a HIGH-SCORE and then it's TAX TIME and suddenly you lose a TON of points to the "Trade Federation"! I really am liking this concept for a SOLO game, it adds some depth to the game and makes it that it's about trading as opposed to destroying using starships.

Definitely food for thought!

Comments

The "Trample" effect

I have also been considering having certain weapons as having a "Trample" effect like Magic: The Gathering. It basically means that EXCESS damage is dealt to the player's Homeworld.

I like this concept because it adds a variety of NEW strategy to the game. This would be a powerful addition to some Weapon cards and might be good for the Solitary scenario "The Derelict"...

More playtests need to be done - and I am hoping to get feedback from the lab and their designers...

United Trade Cartel

I have been thinking about the SOLO Expansion scenario and believe I have a GOOD mechanic to make the game interesting, challenging and very replayable.

The expansion will consist of fifteen (15) Planetary cards, each one having different trade value multipliers for various resources. Each time a Planetary card is displayed, the solo player rolls ONE (1) White D6 dice. This states how many turns that Planetary card will remain in play.

The challenge is to BUY cards from the "board" and SELL cards when it is profitable. This is a FINE line to balance... If you don't sell enough, you risk losing the game. Moreover the game has a finite amount of turns: a total of ten (10) Planetary cards are available to the SOLO Player. That means a maximum number of turns is sixty (60)!

For this to happen, you ALWAYS need to roll six (6) with the White dice. Very unlikely to happen. And you probably don't want that many turns in a SOLO High-Score scenario anyways?!

The LAST aspect of the game is the five (5) remaining Planetary cards. As of the time of this writing, my idea is that for each of the remaining Planetary cards, ONE (1) card will be drawn from the player's deck. Next we multiply that resource by the multiplier on the card. Lastly we multiply by some X factor which is for the Cartel. Like 5 or 10. So if the resource is a 3 x 2 (resource multiplier - could be a random BLACK dice also - TBD) x 10 = -60 points!

So you can see how the Cartel can "beat you up" so to speak. Okay maybe there needs to be some *tweaking* for the scenario...

I can't help to think that this would be a very challenging and enjoyable scenario which can be played over and over, each time trying to WIN the game and BEAT your best personal score!

Number of turns

On average, with a standard d6, the number of turns would be around thirty-five (35) turns. Which is not too bad. Some games may go longer, like 40-45 and some may be shorter, like 25-30... Sixty (60) being the MAXIMUM possible (6 x 10).

Notes: On each turn a player must decide what is MORE advantageous on that particular turn. He can either sell cards to buy from the table and then have those cards for his deck or he can trade-in cards for quickSilver according to the trade values specified on the Planet card.

I am really happy about this SOLO scenario... It will add a GREAT amount of SOLO replayability. The Derelict scenario may need some tweaking - but I'm going to give a once-over again once the game "comes home" (more blind playtesting that need to get done!)

Expansion GOAL

Well the not too bad *factor* in having this SOLO scenario is that it ADDS fifteen (15) cards to the expansion. The expansion needs to have some form of components if we want to sell it!

It might also make for an interesting MULTIPLAYER mode. Not sure about this... I still need to think about it some more! But the goal would be that each player would be able to SELL his resources to one (1) of the Planets in play.

But I am wondering about how a Player can earn some TAX money. Let's say Player #2 wants to sell his Isotopes and chooses to deal with Player #3 Planet "X", should Player #2 gain some credits also???

To be continued...

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