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Ludus Play test

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emxibus
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Joined: 10/24/2008

I've been working on a gladiator game for a long time, but just recently took it in to be played at the local game store. Things went better than I thought it would. I was worried it would bomb, but it didn't. I came away with great suggestions and insights. From the session I have changed or added the following:

cards

Reduce the size of the cards: The cards where 7x12 cm (blue Moon size) and we ran out of table space. I have decided to go with 2.25 x 3.5 inch (Doom: the board game size) size cards.

Change the symbols on the cards: The symbols of the different stats on the cards didn't really convey what they represented.

Player mats: To better organize the game, player mats have been added. By adding them I reduced the stats token count from 190 to 50 (very cool). Each mat represents a different school that actually exsisted. Each school has a special abilty that it may use during the game. The mats also act as player aids, with all the vital info on them.

Event/Quest cards: To give the game more variety it now has a Event/Quest deck. At the beginning of each round one card is revealed. If it is a Quest card, it takes the place of the round. Each player selects one gladiator to help complete the quest. One quest is to go to the island of Crete and fight a Minotaur. If an Event cards is drawn, it affects the way the round is played. for example.

Event: Saturnalia is upon us! Saturnalia is the festival to honor the god Saturn. This year the Emperor has brought in a large number of animals for the celebration. To promote more animal fights the Emperor has decided to increase the payment for fighting an animal by three.

Game Play: In ancient times the games processed as so: animal fights, gladiator fights, and then marquee fights. I have been debating for a long time if I should follow this format during game play; Or should I allow the players to pick who they want to fight, when they want to fight. It's a question of a sense of historical accuracy vs. better game play. The testers helped me realize game play is more important.

All in All, it was very exciting to finally play the game outside my circle of family.

Nando
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Joined: 07/22/2008
Re: Ludus Play test

emxibus wrote:
By adding [player mats] I reduced the stats token count from 190 to 50 (very cool).
Very cool, indeed. But what stats are you referring to? According to an old copy of the rules I found lying around, you had 184 tokens if you include all of Stamina, Training, Charisma, and Denarii. Would you mind explaining what's tracked now?

emxibus wrote:
Each school has a special abilty that it may use during the game.
This is in addition to the gladiator type special abilities? Or are those gone now? Would you mind giving an example of a ludus ability?

emxibus wrote:
To give the game more variety it now has a Event/Quest deck.
This sounds really nice. I understand the Event you gave as an example, but I'm left wondering about Quests. For the example you mentioned, if everyone goes off to fight the minotaur, does that change the basic arena confrontation to something more co-op?

emxibus wrote:
It's a question of a sense of historical accuracy vs. better game play. The testers helped me realize game play is more important.
It wasn't really that tough of a decision was it? After all, minotaurs probably aren't very historically accurate, either. ;)

Nice job! I hope you'll keep us informed.

emxibus
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Joined: 10/24/2008
Re: Ludus Play test

Nando wrote:
emxibus wrote:
By adding [player mats] I reduced the stats token count from 190 to 50 (very cool).
Very cool, indeed. But what stats are you referring to? According to an old copy of the rules I found lying around, you had 184 tokens if you include all of Stamina, Training, Charisma, and Denarii. Would you mind explaining what's tracked now?

Here is one of the mats: http://www.xibus.com/gallicus.jpg

stamina is now a tracked on the mat (1-7) with a cube.

training plays a bit differently now. Each gladiator has an initial training number (1-3). This is the number of training actions a gladiator can perform during combat. There are still 4 training actions, but I'm not sure they are the same one as in the rules you have. As the gladiator enters the arena he is push up on the line until the training action boxes are revealed. Each gladiator collects a number of cubes equal to his current training number (3 is the max). During the fight players place their cubes on the training action boxes. Each training action can be used once per fight.

Charisma in the old rules is now experience. Experience is earned by winning in the arena. Experience is place below the gladiator in either the training or stamina box. Experience increase the gladiator's training (max 3) or stamina (max 7) by one. Charisma is still in the game, but with a limited role. It is used in determining if the gladiator survives a defeat in the arena.

Denarii is still the same, although the rewards for winning may be different.

So now there are 40 Experience tokens and 10 stamina tokens (used to fight animials and myth creatures). Tokens that got axed are the 100 training tokens, 10 experience tokens, and 30 stamina tokens.

Nando wrote:

emxibus wrote:
Each school has a special abilty that it may use during the game.
This is in addition to the gladiator type special abilities? Or are those gone now? Would you mind giving an example of a ludus ability?

In the upper left hand corner of the sample mat you will see the Schools trait. This school's trait helps its gladiators survive a defeat in the arena. I haven't named the traits yet, but will soon. School traits are in addition to the gladiator special abilities.

Nando wrote:

emxibus wrote:
To give the game more variety it now has a Event/Quest deck.
This sounds really nice. I understand the Event you gave as an example, but I'm left wondering about Quests. For the example you mentioned, if everyone goes off to fight the minotaur, does that change the basic arena confrontation to something more co-op?

Yes. This is new to the game, so it may change after seeing it in action.
Right now, this is how it works. Each player picks a gladiator to participate in the quest. All players role a die to see if their gladiator scores a hit. If ALL gladiators hit, the creature loses one stamina point. Otherwise, all the gladiators who missed lose one point. Training actions can be used to help any gladiator still in the fight. The first gladiator out of the fight gets one VP, the next gladiator out gets 2 VP, etc. If more than one gladitor goes out at the same time they all get the same VP. If the creature is defeated then all gladiators survive to fight another day and the gladiators still in the fight all get the next level of VP. If the creature wins all the gladiators die.

Nando wrote:

emxibus wrote:
It's a question of a sense of historical accuracy vs. better game play. The testers helped me realize game play is more important.
It wasn't really that tough of a decision was it? After all, minotaurs probably aren't very historically accurate, either. ;)

I wanted to add mythical creatures earlier in development, but didn't because I thought I wanted a historically accruate game. After the decision to go with "game play" over accuracy was made I figured why not add the mythical creatures too. So now the game is BASED on historical accuracy with some mythical flavor:)
Nando wrote:

Nice job! I hope you'll keep us informed.

Thanks, I will.

Nando
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Joined: 07/22/2008
Re: Ludus Play test

emxibus wrote:
Here is one of the mats
Stunning. Evidently par for the course for you. (But you have a typo -- Retire under Round Order.)

emxibus wrote:
Nando wrote:
does that change the basic arena confrontation to something more co-op?
Yes. This is new to the game, so it may change after seeing it in action.
This. Is. Awesome.

However... :( Some people may not appreciate the "extra" rules for it. I am not one of those people. BUT, it doesn't use the groovy Emperor's Call mechanism! ;)

Are there still just the 6 Festivals/Rounds? It seems like 1 or 2 Quests would be sufficient, or you'd run the risk of pushing the arena matches too far into the background. So what I'm saying is that it seems like you'd come up with a bunch of these (for variety) and then maybe only include 2 in the draw pile? But only using two seems sorta lame and probably doesn't justify all the cards. Maybe you could indicate these on the Fame track and play the one indicated in the square the leader lands on? That'd leave a lot of room for "normal" rounds, and you could "time" them so that gladiators have a chance to develop before dumping the harder quests on them? Or if they're sparse enough, play them as any player lands on them, as long as they haven't been played yet. Of course, this idea doesn't guard against a glut of Quests either. (Just rambling, here. ;) )

emxibus wrote:
So now the game is BASED on historical accuracy with some mythical flavor:)
I think you've done an excellent job merging the two. From way over here, this game looks to be dripping with theme. (And the chrome certainly doesn't hurt.) Excellent.

emxibus
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Joined: 10/24/2008
Re: Ludus Play test

Nando wrote:
emxibus wrote:
Here is one of the mats
Stunning. Evidently par for the course for you. (But you have a typo -- Retire under Round Order.)

Good catch, I look for typos but usually only see what I want to see. hmmm......

Nando wrote:

emxibus wrote:
Nando wrote:
does that change the basic arena confrontation to something more co-op?
Yes. This is new to the game, so it may change after seeing it in action.
This. Is. Awesome.

However... :( Some people may not appreciate the "extra" rules for it. I am not one of those people. BUT, it doesn't use the groovy Emperor's Call mechanism! ;)

Thanks, we'll see how it goes during play testing. I didn't use the Emperor's call here because I didn't know if people would think it fit.

Nando wrote:

Are there still just the 6 Festivals/Rounds? It seems like 1 or 2 Quests would be sufficient, or you'd run the risk of pushing the arena matches too far into the background. So what I'm saying is that it seems like you'd come up with a bunch of these (for variety) and then maybe only include 2 in the draw pile? But only using two seems sorta lame and probably doesn't justify all the cards. Maybe you could indicate these on the Fame track and play the one indicated in the square the leader lands on? That'd leave a lot of room for "normal" rounds, and you could "time" them so that gladiators have a chance to develop before dumping the harder quests on them? Or if they're sparse enough, play them as any player lands on them, as long as they haven't been played yet. Of course, this idea doesn't guard against a glut of Quests either. (Just rambling, here. ;) )

Yes, still 6 festivals. Currently, there are 7 cards in the Event/Quest deck, 5 events and 2 quests. During a game one card will not be used.

Your right, I only want there to be a max of 2 quest per game. I limited the deck size to guarantee that there would be at least one quest. I like your idea about using the fame chart for quest. This would allow for a bigger deck of events.

Nando wrote:

emxibus wrote:
So now the game is BASED on historical accuracy with some mythical flavor:)
I think you've done an excellent job merging the two. From way over here, this game looks to be dripping with theme. (And the chrome certainly doesn't hurt.) Excellent.

Cool, thanks.

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