Did another live playtest of Magitech Mechs last night. Went very well! Combat was fun and very tactical, with lots of group participation and decision making. Still a bit slow, though. That may because people are still getting used to the possibilities, or it may just be that the game is going to have to be lumped into 1-Act-a-Night as the standard playtime. We'll see.
Few gripes or mechanics suggestions, which is nice, although there were some overall suggestions.
First, it is very difficult NOT to get white cubes. Non-Combat tasks can be tweaked for how much of a given type is needed to continue (and those may be balanced ok anyway), but Combat needs something. A timer was suggested, which may work ok. You pretty much can't lose your first few fights, so I need to do something there.
People also wanted more feeling of advancement. Right now the decks just get weaker over time due to damage and wounds, so we need something make you feel like you've gained something out of all the challenges you overcome.
Some ideas there. A good one is to make Story Cards give you some sort of bonus if you succeed at them. This would give you incentive to do more than the minimum to progress the storyline. Also, maybe rename them to Event or something like that. Story and Plot are too similar. Another idea was to have a deck of Experience cards that people can draw from at the end of each successful Challenge. Probably 1 per group, and let the group decide who gets the card. These could be cards for the player's deck, one-shot cards that can be used when needed, or maybe cards that give additional abilities.
Not sure how that'll shake out yet. I need to make sure that things stay fun over the course of the game, but balance will also be necessary. I don't want the bonuses you get to overwhelm the core Decks. I really just want them to enhance them.
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Topic: Mephansteras' Board Game Designs thread (Read 7765 times)