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Random vs Targetted hazards

5 replies [Last post]
Fri, 11/04/2005 - 20:16
larienna
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Again, it's for my space rally game.

Let say I place on some cards various events that can occur in a ship. I have 2 ways to play these event cards, which method would you recommand:

The Random Method
Mix these bad event cards with other card. Each player draw a card a the beginning of their turn. If it is a bad event, it occurs immediately on the person who drawn the card or to the left or right player(can be also specified on the card).

The Targetted method
The players keep their cards in their hand and they can play their event on any player they want unless the cards specifies otherwise. An altenative can be made by indicating specific moments when the card can be played to limit abuses.

The targetted method has the disadvantage that it will always be the strongest players that will receive all the bad event. It is somewhat illogical, but in matter of game play, it is cool since you can hinder the leader even if you are really weak. While with the random method, all ship have the same probabilities of being targetted by a bad event.

Personally, I like the targetted method. What do you think?

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Sat, 11/05/2005 - 06:22
#1
seo
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Random vs Targetted hazards

I also like the targeted method better.

I understand why you say it is illogical, but if you think about it, in real life the more experienced and/or the smarter ones will manage to avoid many hazards that less experienced or smart people will suffer. It happens all the time: an experienced cook will know that he can't open the oven while the cake is cooking, so even while opening the oven will ruin the cake for both the experienced and the inexperienced, only the latter will actually open it to check the progress, so in a way, it's the weak one who is more prone to "accidents".

I hope you get what I try to explain. I'm not sure I'm clear enough. :-/

Seo

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Sat, 11/05/2005 - 08:10
#2
kombo
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Random vs Targetted hazards

Don't know if this will help you, but I had a similar problem in a game themed around industrial fishing (sigh!). A third approach to your porblem (that will reduce the number of cards nescessary) is cards targeted on situations or areas of the board.

In my game I, for instance I had a card stating that there were polution in the area of Humber, meaning boats fishing this area would be affected.

Don't know anything about your game, but you could have something similar:
Area: Ships being near planets, suns, cosmic rays or whatever.
Situational: Ships using their jamming system, vertical motion inducers etc.
Ship-specific: Ships with ion-drives, Lasers powered by Quartz etc.

Sorry for the grammar and spelling

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Sat, 11/05/2005 - 09:47
#3
Infernal
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Random vs Targetted hazards

you could have both. You could have on the cards a symbol or some instruction as to who is targeted by this event (the player drawing the card or another player that the drawer chooses).

Another solution: In Munchkin you have trap cards that, if drawn at acertain time in the round, then it applies to the drawing player. If the card is drawn at other times in the round then that player can choose when to play the card and who is targeted by the card.

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Sat, 11/05/2005 - 13:35
#4
Kreitler
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: Random vs Targetted hazards

Larienna wrote:
The Targetted method
The players keep their cards in their hand and they can play their event on any player they want unless the cards specifies otherwise. An altenative can be made by indicating specific moments when the card can be played to limit abuses.

I've got a game that uses targeted hazards. These work well, but there were a couple of tweaks I needed to balance them.

First, some targeted hazards are persistent. These are played to the board and affect all players in the region. If you have backtracking in your game (or laps in your rally), this has the added bonus of possibly screwing the person who played it, which can be a lot of fun.

Second, I broke my hazards into three "classes". Roughly, class I hazards are pretty weak, IIs are medium, and IIIs can be pretty powerful. I allow players to hold hazards in their hand and play them on *anyone's* turn, BUT you aren't allowed to play a hazard with a lower class value than other hazards played the same turn. This prevents people from completely devastating 1 player in a turn.

A couple of other notes: my game also includes defense cards which counter hazards. Also, you can always choose to move 1 small unit of "default mileage" on your turn. Default mileage is unaffected by hazards. Finally, the hand limit is 4 cards, so holding onto hazard or defense cards has a large impact on your other turn options. This combination of attack, defense, default mileage, and hand limit allows for many styles of play.

I hope you'll let us know what system you choose.

Mark

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Sun, 11/06/2005 - 14:55
#5
larienna
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Random vs Targetted hazards

Thanks for the information, I really like the alternatives you have proposed.

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