Game #20: Cow Tipping by FL

Are the beauties supposed to have horns? Are these cross dressing cows? just curious.

I like it so far. But I agree with your own comments about the probabilities. With 5 suits, that last road piece will be really hard to make a 5set. Especially late in the round as several runs have probably been made. Also note that if a +1 vehicle is there, then it becomes impossible to do a Set, and you will have to get a run.

I would suggest some sort of way to score points based upon which piece of the road you knock a vehicle from. So to reward those willing/able to make the larger runs/sets. So maybe the vehicles aren't in stacks, but upon the run/set you used to track this.

I like the color collection thing. :) That is something I used in Tourney and probably my favorite bit of it.

It does seem like it could be a bit frustrating to not be able to tip anythign without the Elsa marker. So in large player number games you would only get the oppurtunity to tip every PlayerNUmber rounds, so if you miss a round of tipping you are in more trouble.

I have a few comments on the graphics part of things. I know this is a prototype, but I feel the need to mention these. First, the Small Suit markers under the numbers need to be simpiler. Each CowType seems to have a distinguishing featuer, maybe just use that for the suit. Lipstick for the Clowns, Bow for the Beauties, Glasses for the Homies. That would make it easier to distinguish.

For the vehicles, if the color makes a difference in scoring, make sure there is a second identifier of the color other than the color itself. Maybe the Word of the Color somewhere, this helps color-blind and low-light gaming.

The Ordinals should go on your little charts of number, ala Bohnanza. And think about using Black instead of all the colors for those numbers.

So at the end of each Round (up until the Barn is drawn) you sort and score the vehicles twice. Once by type and once by Color right?

Overall I think it is certainly neat. It is essentially a rummy variant right? I like those for family type games, especially as most people already know rummy.

However, if your probabilities of your Roads don't work out nice, you might think of two things: either Poker hands sort of thing, or look at Phase 10 for different types of things to use.

Nice work, and interesting theme.

Well it makes a nice contrast with my game next week, which has lots of bits, lots of rules and lasts about three hours (and that's just reading the rules ;)

A very nice take on Rummy (once again, proving how versatile it is as a format!)

Couple of quick comments: Firstly, I recall the chat we had about passing markers around, and I can see why you were having trouble.

I was slightly confused by the bit in the rules which said that you laid out the traffic cards "as shown" - I thought initially that you meant to use the cards you show in the example diagram (especially as you do mean that for the road cards.) I can't think of a better way to put it though.

And as for it being a "least developed game" - my game Fire and Ice was less developed than this and that made it into the Hippodice judging :) It clearly needs balance testing, but the central concepts are obviously solid.

I read the rules and it appears to be quite clear.

Things I liked about the game:

3) like the fact that if you discard a card you place it face up on the discard pile (a la "Lost Cities")

4) Simple two player gangs

5) Alternate ways of scoring with color and same amount of vehical (in a way multiple ways of scoring thus victory conditions). I think this is your games strongest point.

There are a few things I do not like:

2) Right now the way the traffic cards are (you mention the symbols represent how tilted the road is) it appears to be on one large hill. What's wrong of shuffling the cards or adding more cards to be shuffled and playing them so you have a surface of a hilly region. I think it is important to try to make each game different every time.

The main difficulty in the game that might break it is that you have a steady stream of vehicals. What I think will happen is that people will simply just concentrate on the four traffic cards with the lower amount of cards needed to cow tip a vehical. I don't think people will go ahead and even try to tip a motorcyle, for instance, in a more tilted traffic square, as they now one will come around pretty soon.
[EDITED: I may have this wrong, I guess the cars start on the harder road squares. This helps greatly, but with having so many cards, maybe the reverse will occur. My basic point of scarcity and tension, I believe is still valid though.]

In Costco, they only sell a special item once and never sell it again. The reason is to create a sense of urgency of getting it. To increase competition and tension between the players, they have to be uncertain that one is going to turn up soon and create a *scarcity* of them. As such, I suggest

4) The vehical cards have a number telling you how many squares to move (if there are blank spaces), of course, stopping behind a car if it can not go the full amount. This can make some vehicals go faster around the road, creating them harder to cow tip.

5) Have a car crash card or kids going across the road vehical card. The player that picks this card can put the card in an empty square that will hold up traffic moving for a certain time.

Even with these changes, I don't think people will still go for the more difficult road squares. In order to help against this, here a few suggestions:

7) On the road card, have specific "run gang" of a specific type (clowns for instance) that can cow tip.

Some further suggestions:

2) I would state in the rules that the player who cow tips the most cars is the winner not just because of points is because Elsa would fall in love with the player (like Clyde) who orgainzed the gangs that proved to be the strongest (tipped the best). I would have a picture of Elsa with a kiss on the side under winning.

That's all for now, but I hope this sparks some ideas of your own.