Working on developing my last month’s GDC entry, and have a question. How important is it for a game to be able to accommodate a wide number of players? Right now my game seems to work fine for 3 or 4 players. 2 probably wouldn’t work without some rule changes for the small game. 5 might work if I they have a special initial setup (starting with 3 scientists instead of 4), but I’m not sure (and I doubt 6 would).
I mean, it seems like designers often strive for game for 2-6 players, and yet as I think about this, Settler’s of Katan (arguably THE eurogame) is really only 3-4. Is it worth trying to expand the number of players? How much does a game really gain from that? Is it worth it if there are rule changes in a specific case (or even just setup rule changes)? Are people put off by 3-4 player games?
Or is your best advice to playtest all of these variations?
In the end, I think the level of transparency between game information and the players will dictate how accommodating the game is towards more/less players. Information transparency would be the first place I would look at to expand a game in that direction.
simpson
What do you mean information transparency? As in, show people everything? Because as of now the game is still fairly transparent. There are cards, but those aren't really the major element of the game. And everything else is open and non-random.
Maybe I should be more specific. In my game, you have a team of scientists, and you run around a spaceship that is being attacked by aliens, heading for escape pods. The later you make it to the pod, the more you're worth. There are a limited number of escape pods. Each player moves both the aliens and their scientists. Players play cards, which can do a number of things, including destroy parts of the space station. In a deck of 32 cards, currently there are 5 cards to destroy the labs (one each).
My worry with a 2 player game is that it is too me-vs-you. Any movement of an alien can be countered. Additionally, there is a mechanic that if a character is attacked by an alien, she must be attacked a second time before she is killed. In the absence of a third player, this would make it very difficult to kill scientists. Also I worry that there would be too many escape pods (as it stands, there would be 2 extra), and that the game would take too long (not enough players = fewer cards drawn = longer time between lab destruction cards, and more reason to not play them).
My worry with expanding the game to 5 players is 3-fold. My biggest concern is that players would go through the deck too fast, and the ship would be destroyed too quickly (this can slightly be remedied by giving each player 1 fewer card at the start, but still won't make a huge difference). Second, I worry about basic space concerns, and there being a shortage of escape pods, lest I remake the board for a 5 player game (though this can be remedied by giving people fewer scientists each). Last, I worry that in a 5-player game, each time I go, it means there are 4 opponents who get to go, and possibly attack me with aliens from long distances away. I'm not sure how I could remedy this. Maybe I could make the aliens move 1 space instead of 2, but somehow this feels like a stretch, and would cause other problems.
Thoughts?