Mid-Late Game Trigger Help

My most immediate thought is to rig or stack the deck.

Some games do this, I think maybe Pandemic? Can't remember the others, but basically there were cards that when drawn, acted as a count down. So if I drew all 5 or 6, the game would basically be over. But in order to avoid the too-soon vs 3 hour slog dilemma you're experiencing, the "trigger" cards would be placed in the deck in a semi-randomized rigged order.

The deck was divided into 5 small piles, and a trigger card was shuffled into each pile. So you get 5 randomized piles with a trigger card somewhere in them. Then the 5 piles were just put on top of each other to form the deck.

That's what I think you should do. Control when you want the end game to trigger via the setup. For example, take your adventure deck and divide it into X piles. Shuffle 1 trigger card into the 1st pile, 2 trigger cards into the 2nd, and so on. If you need 6-7 trigger cards to put you in the end game, your players will probably go through ~60% of the deck.

Hope this helps.

My problem with this game is that while it is very clever with it's storytelling and dynamic "conclusions"... I feel like the CONCLUSIONS are FAR TOO IMBALANCED. I watch TableTop with Wil Wheaton and he was the traitor and it seemed like the demons he spawned quickly defeated the opponents rather quickly while he went and hid somewhere. Do you think that is a GOOD "conclusion" for this game(!?)

I for one didn't and that cheapened the whole experience.

Can't say if other "outcomes" are the SAME or NOT... But if they are anywhere close to the same kind of slaughter... I'd hate to be the other players because the "traitor" seems to have a definite advantage to winning the game!

Here's an IDEA which is a bit different (I think):

1. Divide the deck of "X" cards for 2-8 players into 3 piles (approximate).

2. Put 1 clue on the top of each pile.

3. Shuffle the piles individually.

4. Combine the shuffled piles (DO NOT RESHUFFLE).

5. Play the game...

What this will do is sparse out the experience and ensure that the 3 clues will be in relatively batches. So #1 may be early, but you'll still need to use up more that 33% of that deck before reaching #2 (and probably more).

If you do it this way, it can be identical for any amount of players and the length varies from the SIZE "X" of the deck. If you want it LONGER go for 40 cards, if you want it shorter go 30 cards. That can be tweaked as you have already explained.

Cheers!

Note: Another designer beat me to the punch... But basically he's suggesting the same process (he says 5 cards) ... it might be hard with a deck of only 30 cards... I would say 3 cards to trigger should be enough.

Notice that this method, when applied results in the BOSS being found BEFORE the end unless the 3rd clue was the bottom card of the deck.

Welcome to BGDF, pupulesurfer!

Everyone seems to have hit upon similar ideas. Depending on the desired pace, you can mix and match the subdecks:

* "Clueless" subdeck on top ensures a lot of draws before clues appear.
* "Clueless" subdeck at the bottom has the effects Quest mentioned.
* Subdecks stacked in random order would allow for the first or second effect at random, or just a big lull between clues. No telling ahead of time.

It sounds like the clues are MacGuffins or Plot Coupons (that is, they serve no other purpose than to be the trigger), but you might want to consider giving each one some power so that you can guarantee the heroes have such powers by the time they face the boss.

A much more complicated system would be to have each clue drawn from a small set of clues... and the exact clues that appear have some bearing on where the boss is and/or what it is capable of doing. So there would be four or five First Clue cards, four or five Second Clue cards, etc. Unless riddles/myths/prophecies are integral to your theme, this is an idea best left until AFTER the rest of the game is working.

What is your game about? What do you want the players to do?

- Do you want them to work together so that the level cap is reached as quickly as possible?
- Do you want the players to have a fun way to hang around for 3 hours?
- Do you want one player to be the obvious victor, and their measure of success is the number of levels they've attained?
- Do you want all the clues to be discovered, and the boss to be faced as quickly as possible?
- Do you want the entire mansion/location explored?
- Do you want players to acquire the best equipment from the equipment deck, as quickly as possible?

I hate to say it like this, but I don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to do with your game, what kind of obstacles the player is going to face, or what constitutes a victory.

If you can provide a few more details regarding your design goals, and specifically what kind of scenario you're attempting to simulate with your game, then I think we can be of better assistance. Are your rules posted anywhere we can review them? Any playthrough footage we can watch?

Maybe I'm the only one confused by what you're describing here, and I apologize for that. But I feel like I need a little more guidance before I can offer some worthwhile suggestions.

I suggest you implement a time limit in your game - something like, "30 turns until the doomsday clock strikes 12 and the world ends," or whatever - and see what it does for your game.

Based on what you describe here, I suspect players are dragging out the game themselves because there's no urgency behind their quest. If your main complaint is that the game seems too long and/or risks being boring, then injecting some urgency as tension may likely help. If it works but the game seems too difficult, then you can balance other game factors to compensate.

hello.
im not familiar with betrayal so sorry if this is their method.
dice can be useful for this. 1 d6 rolled each round, roll x 6s and the end game triggers. this is not completely random as you can play with the number of dice (and the number of sides) to get the right frequency of numbers (anydice.com can help) eg. using 2 d6s makes the chances of rolling a 7 or higher about 60℅ (58.333...) an 8 or higher is about 40℅ (41.67). you can also adjust the number you need to roll or the number of times you roll it depending on difficulty and player count.
thematically its harder to justify dice (cards can have pics and text) but custom dice can help with that.

I immediately though of something along the lines of Onirim where the player is able to push the Boss encounter off until they no longer have the resources to avoid it any longer. Not sure how that would work mechanically or thematically...