Thursday, January 29, 2009

Winds of Fate - Spielbany verdict

Well, I don't think the publisher actually played the game, but I did hear that Gil taught the game to 3 other players, and that they played it and it was interesting to get some immediate feedback. While at a hotel in Santa Monica, I got a phone call from the playtesters and we had a nice conversation about how the game went.

It turns out Winds of Fate didn't go over as well as I had hoped. I got some excellent feedback from the playtesters, and Jeff followed up with some emails with comments and ideas to fix what they thought were lacking in the game. I have been mulling these ideas over, and will likely be incorporating some of them in one way or another. The one I think that has the most promise is probably the idea of making the Bet Chips more specific. Suppose the supply of Bet Chips each showed a specific location. When placing a bet with that chip, what you'd be saying is that you think Odysseus will visit that location on (or near) a particular round. Thus, you're more limited in what you can bet on, and different players are betting on different things (as opposed to all players betting on which round Odysseus will reach a specific location - Ithaca - or die.)

Another good suggestion was to associate each location with a specific Greek god - adding more characters than just Athena and Poseidon. Then the player who contributes the largest value to the adventure could win a token of that particular deity. In later rounds, players could be rewarded by the deity based on how many tokens of that deity they hold. This would help differentiate players and give them varying incentives as to where they want Odysseus to go.

I'll be thinking about these ideas and others, and hopefully the next incarnation will be better still!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Winds of Fate - last minute edits

This is c&p'ed from Pastebin, so formatting is lost, but here are the rules I'm sending to New York tomorrow to be played at the annual Spielbany playtesting event. I'm hoping my friends get a chance to play it (preferably with Zev, who said he would be willing to try it there) and I can get some good feedback. Who knows, maybe Zev will love it and decide to publish it!

For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, I have been working on this largely with Randall McClain from the BGDF - in fact it's based on a Game Design Showdown entry he made a couple of years ago. It began as my version of what I thought he had in mind. Early prototypes of my version were disappointing, and this version I believe is closer to what Nando originally had in mind with his GDS entry.

Odysseus: Winds of Fate
By Seth Jaffee (based on a Game Design Showdown entry by Randall McClain)
Contents:
15 Destiny cards (5 each: Safe Return/Dead/Stranded at Sea)
54 Adventure cards in 2 suits, Help & Hinder
15 heart shaped Crew tokens (10 small, 5 large)
2 black cylindrical markers (1 Odysseus marker and 1 Round counter)
50 Player markers in 5 colors (One marker for score, one for reward tiles, the rest for bet ownership.)
Score board
50 Bet Chips
Game board
Round track
10 Turn Order tiles (2 of each Turn Order tile labeled 1 through 5.)
12 Reward Tiles (The Reward tiles have black backs.)
10 Encounter Tiles
6 Olympus Cards (The Olympus cards are in sleeves backed with Mountains – for mount Olympus. They represent Athena and Poseidon’s influence.)

Setup:
· Place the game board, round track, and score board in the center of the play area
· Shuffle the Encounter tiles and place 9 of them face up on the 9 spaces on the board. The last encounter tile will not be used, but can be placed face down on Troy after the first adventure is over.
· Place the Odysseus marker on Troy and the Round counter on space 1 of the Round track
· Count out the appropriate number of Crew tokens and place them near the board. Set unused Crew tokens aside.
3 players: Use 25 Crew
4 players: Use 30 Crew
5 players: Use 35 Crew
· Give each player a set of Destiny cards (1 Safe Return, 1 Dead, and 1 Stranded at Sea). Return unused destiny cards to the box.
· Separate the Adventure cards into 2 decks – Help (blue back) and Hinder (red back). Deal each player 3 Adventure cards from each deck. Place the decks near the board.
· Shuffle the Olympus deck and place it near the board.
· Place 1 set of Turn Order tiles near the board. With fewer than 5 players, leave the unused tiles in the box. Randomly distribute the other set of Turn Order tiles to the players.
· Mix the Reward tiles face down and place them near the board
· Place a supply of Bet Chips near the board and give each player 2 Bet Chips.
· Give each player the ownership markers in their color, placing 1 marker per player on the Score board and one near the Turn Order tiles.
· Have each player shuffle their set of Destiny cards, place them face down in their area, and then place one of their Bet Chips on one of the face down Destiny cards. After this is done, players may look at their face down Destiny cards at any time.


Overview of play

Odysseus: Winds of Fate is played in a series of rounds. Each round consists of an Encounter phase followed by an Adventure phase and finally a Journey phase. During each round Odysseus will lose some crew and will travel from one Encounter tile to another. The game ends when one of three conditions occurs: If at any time Odysseus loses all of his crew, then the game ends immediately and he is considered Dead. If after round 12 the Odysseus marker has not reached Ithaca and Odysseus has not lost all of his crew, the game ends with Odysseus being Stranded at Sea. If the Odysseus marker reaches Ithaca and at least 1 crew survives the Adventure there, then the game ends and Odysseus has returned safely home.
Encounter Phase
During the Encounter phase, instructions on the current Encounter tile are followed:
· Troy – Each player may Place 1 Bet (in turn order). After the adventure phase, place an unused Encounter tile face down on Troy.
· Isle of Aeolia – Each player scores 2vp per unused Bet Chip. Each player may take a Destiny action. If Odysseus wins this Adventure, move the Odysseus token directly to Isle of Scheria.
· Isle of Calypso – Advance the Round marker twice. Each player may take a Destiny action.
· The Dreaded Charybdis – Double the value of the Olympus card for this Adventure. Each player may take a Destiny action.
· Isle of Circe – Each player may Place or Move 1 Bet (in turn order), or take 1 Bet Chip
· Isle of the Cyclopse – Lose 1 Crew. Add 3 to the Hinder total for this Adventure.
· Isle of the Laestrygonians – Lose 3 Crew.
· Isle of the Lotophagi – Advance the Round Marker. If Odysseus wins this Adventure, return 3 lost Crew.
· Isle of Scheria - Each player scores 2vp per unused Bet Chip. Each player may take a Destiny action. If Odysseus wins this Adventure, move the Odysseus token directly to Ithaca.
· Cliff of Scylla – Lose 6 Crew. Each player may place 1 Bet (in turn order).
· Isle of the Sirens – Each player draws 2 Adventure cards (in turn order). Return 2 lost Crew.
· Ithaca (Suitors) – Double Adventure. Add 3 to the Help total for each adventure. The game ends after the second Adventure (No Journey phase).

Some definitions:
Return Crew: Add Crew tokens to the Crew supply. There is no limit to the number of Crew that can be in the supply.
Unused Bet Chip: A Bet Chip held by a player that has not been placed as a Bet.
Destiny action: Take a Bet Chip from the general supply and place it on one of your face down Destiny cards.
Draw a card: Whenever a player draws cards, they may choose which deck to draw from (Help or Hinder). When drawing multiple cards, choose which deck each card comes from before drawing any cards.
Place a Bet: Place a Bet Chip that you have collected onto any space on the Round track that you don’t already have a Bet on. For each space between the current round and the space of the bet, add a Bet Chip from the general supply. Place a player marker on top of this stack of Bet Chips to indicate ownership of the Bet. (see example). It’s also You may instead place the Bet Chip onto one of your Destiny cards when placing a Bet. Place 2 Bet Chips from the supply along with it.
Move a Bet: Slide 1 bet to an adjacent space on the Round track. You may end up with 2 bets on the same round due to this.
Double Adventure: For the Adventure at Ithaca, reveal 2 Reward tiles per player instead of 1. After the first Adventure, each player will claim 1 Reward tile. Then start a second Adventure with the new turn order and at the end players choose Rewards from the remaining unclaimed Reward tiles. All Reward tiles contribute to crew loss in the case of a lost Adventure.

Example of Placing a Bet:
Tom has a Bet Chip and is given the opportunity to Place a Bet in round 2. Tom cannot place a Bet on round 10 because he already has a Bet there. He places his Bet Chip on round 9, and adds 7 Bet Chips from the supply. Tom then puts his player marker on top of the stack to indicate that it’s his bet. If the game ends on (or near) round 9, Tom will win (some of) those Bet Chips.

Adventure Phase
During the Adventure phase players play cards to influence the outcome of each Adventure. There is a process to resolving each adventure:
1) Reveal Reward Tiles
2) Play cards / Pass
3) Claim Rewards
4) Resolve Adventure

Reveal Reward Tiles
Mix all 12 Reward tiles and reveal 1 tile for each player in the game.

Play cards
Players take turns playing a card face down or passing. The first card played can be either a Help card or a Hinder card, but once a card is played, subsequent cards must be of the same type (EXCEPTION – there are 3 special cards that are not played face down… they are played face up instead and the color of their back does not matter. These cards give some effect such as “Draw 2 cards,” “+2 VP,” or “Advance round marker.” They count (–2) toward the value of your contribution to the Adventure.

Pass
When a player cannot or chooses not to play a card on their turn, they Pass. That player places their current Turn Order tile face down near the Turn Order tile supply, and takes the highest numbered face up Turn Order tile from the supply (the first player to Pass will be the last player in turn order in the following round) and places it face down in front of him to indicate that he’s out of the Adventure. That player receives the reward printed on the tile:
1st: Gain 4 VP.
2nd: Gain 2vp. Draw 1 card.
3rd: Draw 2 cards.
4th: Draw 3 cards.
5th: Draw 4 cards.
Once a player Passes, he is done with the Adventure. After all players pass, all Turn Order tiles are turned face up.
Claim Rewards
In turn order players choose Reward tiles and gain the rewards printed on them. Place an ownership marker on a reward tile to show that it’s been chosen; another player may not choose the same reward tile.

Resolve Adventure
Reveal all cards played by players. Each player totals the value of cards he has played, subtracting 2 for each special card played. The player who contributes the largest value to the Adventure scores 2VP, moving his marker on the Score board accordingly.
Reveal the top card of the Olympus deck. Its value is added to either the Help or Hinder total for the Adventure – Athena [hearts] supports Odysseus and uses her influence to help him. Poseidon [spades] hates Odysseus and adds his influence to the hinder total.
Compare the total of all Help cards and all Hinder cards, including any modifiers due to the Encounter tile. If the Hinder total exceeds the Help total than Odysseus has lost the Adventure. Lose Crew according to the total of red numbers on the Reward tiles for this adventure. Otherwise, Odysseus has won the Adventure.


Journey Phase: Lose 1 Crew and Advance the Round marker
After each Adventure, Odysseus and his crew journey on to the next Encounter. The journeys are arduous, and 1 Crew is lost in each Journey phase. There are 2 possible paths from each Encounter tile, a Calm path and a Stormy path. The path taken (Calm vs Stormy) depends on the outcome of this turn’s Adventure - if Odysseus won the adventure, he takes the Calm path. If he lost the adventure, the stormy path is followed. The Encounter tile just left is flipped face down. Advance the Round marker on the Round track.

Face down Encounter tiles
If Odysseus arrives at a face down Encounter tile, the Encounter, Adventure, and Journey phases are modified as follows. Advance the Round counter one time as Odysseus wanders through the Mediterranean, no matter how many face down tiles Odysseus visits in a row.
· Encounter: If arriving via a calm path, each player draws 1 Adventure card (in turn order). If arriving via a Stormy path, lose 1 Crew.
· Adventure: No cards are played. Reveal the top card of the Olympus deck. Move the Odysseus marker to the next Encounter tile according to the Olympus card If it shows Athena, use the calm path; if Poseidon, use the stormy path. No Crew is lost during the Adventure phase. Repeat this process until Odysseus arrives at a face up Encounter tile.
· Journey: Skip the Journey phase.

Game End
The game ends when one of three conditions occurs:
· Dead: All crew is lost
· Stranded at Sea: After the Adventure phase of round 12 the Odysseus marker has not reached Ithaca
· Safe Return: After the Adventure phase in Ithaca, if at least 1 crew remains
At that time players collect payouts for the bets they have made. Any bet that is on the same round as the Round marker on the Round track is given in full to the player who placed it. For all other bets, remove 3 Bet Chips for each space away from the Round marker and give the rest to the player who placed the bet. For example, if a stack of 8 Bet Chips is on round 9, and the game ends in round 7, the payout would be 8-3-3=2. The player who placed that bet receives 2 of the Bet Chips from the stack and must discard the rest.

Then, players reveal their Destiny cards and receive the Bet Chips that have accumulated on the Destiny card that correlates to the game end condition. Each Bet Chip is worth 2 points. The player with the highest score wins! In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Bet Chips wins. In case of a further tie, all tied players win.

Monday, January 12, 2009

My kingdom for a playtest!

I was able to play a game of Winds of Fate today with Rif and Mike! Huzzah! I implemented a lot of the things I've been talking about, and here's how they went:

* I need to make Player Aids listing the turn sequence and reminding players that they are Fates and NOT Odysseus.

I still need to make player aids, and write down the rules!

* I think I might like to separate the 2 colors of cards into 2 decks, and when you draw cards you choose which deck to draw them from (any combination). I feel like there needs to be more control over which color cards you get, because those cards are used to make your bets good.

This seemed to work just fine. I wonder though if it doesn't make it too easy to tell who's trying to kill Odysseus off and who's trying to get him home.

* When passing without playing any cards in an Adventure, you are allowed to change your Destiny bet. I'm going to add that you can instead add a bet chip to your Destiny bet if you like. Of course you'll have to have a bet chip to do this.

This seemed fine. Mike had some ideas about a different way to handle Destiny bets, which I will consider - the best thing about them was that they could make early Destiny bets pay out better than late ones - which seems only fair.

* I'm going to use the endgame bonus of 1vp per pair of Help/Hinder cards in hand and see how that goes.

It seemed OK to me, and I like the idea of rewarding a balanced hand... but Rif suggested simply 1vp per card in hand might be good enough. The number of points were talking about here is small compared to the final score, so I'm inclined to go with whatever is easiest. Maybe 1vp per card is the best idea. I still think that having cards leftover should be worth something.

* I was considering relating the number of crew lost to the result of the card play for the adventure. As yet I've preferred the random number dictated by reward tiles drawn, which is set before cards are played and can therefore factor into your decision as to which cards to play. It does make sense to scale the number of crew lost based on the outcome, but I think the game is better served with the info up front. This factors heavily into a decision I'm making for the endgame as well, so it'll have to stay. I do think that perhaps some crew should be lost even if the Adventure is won, but I'm not sure the best way to go about that. Maybe a simple 1 crew? Maybe additional crew is lost if the Hinder-minus-Help result is more than a certain number? I'm not sure.

What I tried today was that a number of crew is lost each round equal to the numbers indicated on reward tiles, and if Odysseus loses the Adventure, that number is lost again. I kinda like that, and for the final showdown with the Suitors (the Ithaca double-adventure) could have the potential of losing that number 3 times (once for sure, and again for each of the adventures that Odysseus loses).

On the down side, I was planning on turning up 2n reward tiles for the Ithaca adventure, which is twice as many as usual, and if they all count three times, well, that's a lot of crew lost. I suppose I could say that the 'automatic' crew loss occurs during the Journey phase at the end of the turn, and at Ithaca there is no Journey phase (so the only crew loss at Ithaca comes from Odysseus losing the adventure). I like the sound of that.

* I am considering making the board bigger - 4 columns instead of 3 (still 3 rows per column). I probably won't do that this week though, as I expect it'll be a lot of work to redo the board and make more encounter tiles... but I do need to consider it because I fear the game isn't really lasting long enough for the Stranded option to really come into play. I'm also considering Stages... the first column would be Stage I, the 2nd and 3rd columns would be Stage II, and the 4th column would be Stage III. Then the bigger effects of Encounter tiles could be placed in the later stages, making for more of a story arc. Also, it's a sneaky way to keep 2 tiles I like, one teleports to the other, and the 2nd teleports to Ithaca, short circuiting the board... I'd like to keep that latter tile out of Stage I, and this method makes that easy to do. For this idea I'll have to make 5 more Encounter tiles that are thematic and interesting.

I do think the board needs to be bigger. I might try to do that this week after all, but if I do I'll likely only make 2 more tiles so there's enough for the board (no extras). Alternatively I could change the round in which Odysseus is considered Stranded... make it round 9 for example (as there are 9 spaces). Our game today ended on round 9, but the round track was advanced twice through cards played (I kind of like that a card can adjust the time track). Last update I added things that advance the time track to make sure a 12 round game was even possible. I think I'll leave it as is for the time being.

Other thoughts after the game today:

* The VP rewards on tiles are +2vp or +4vp, and other rewards are +1 Bet Chip or +2 Bet Chip. Bet chips are worth 2vp each at a minimum, and potentially more if you successfully bet with them. Therefore I think I'll increase the VP rewards to +3vp and +5vp. That way the VPs are worth more than the Bet Chips, which are more flexible. Moving a bet can be very valuable, saving 3 bet chips (6vp worth). I might need to consider that and see if those reward tiles are 'too good'. It's also the case that moving the bet isn't certain to get you those points, so maybe it's fine if it's worth more. Also, if it's worth more, then players might fight for 1st choice.

* I am thinking about the value of the Destiny bet. One idea I've had is to put some VP value on the card itself, which means if a Stranded result is harder to orchestrate, then it could be worth more VPs than a Dead result. Then bet chips placed on the Destiny bet could simply be worth some static 3, maybe 4 VPs.

Mike suggested basically making a Destiny bet every round, one way to do this is instead of choosing a result and then adding bet chips to it, players would add a bet chip (from the general supply, not their own) onto one of their 3 cards each round. So if you have been betting on Safe, and it starts to look like he's not going to make it back to Ithaca, then you can start betting on Dead instead. And if the game swings such that you think the Safe return is likely, you can go back without losing the progress you'd already made on that bet. Players would score for the chips that end up on the Destiny card that matches the actual game end condition.

This idea allows for early commitment to pay off better than late commitment, which I like... but I'm not sure if I want betting to happen every turn, and I kinda liked the idea of having one bet being different from the other. The more I think about it, the more I like Mike's suggestion though. I'm not sure if I want to make that change without trying it out.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Nothing like the last minute...

It's been almost 2 months since BGG.con, and I'm FINALLY working on Winds of Fate! Spielbany is next weekend, and I was planning to send the game to be played (by Zev) there. Nothing like the last minute to spur productivity, huh?

In thinking over some of the issues I'd been having with the game in the last couple of playtests, I think I've come to some conclusions. For those following along at home, here are the things I've decided:

* I need to make Player Aids listing the turn sequence and reminding players that they are Fates and NOT Odysseus.

* I think I might like to separate the 2 colors of cards into 2 decks, and when you draw cards you choose which deck to draw them from (any combination). I feel like there needs to be more control over which color cards you get, because those cards are used to make your bets good.

* When passing without playing any cards in an Adventure, you are allowed to change your Destiny bet. I'm going to add that you can instead add a bet chip to your Destiny bet if you like. Of course you'll have to have a bet chip to do this.

* I'm going to use the endgame bonus of 1vp per pair of Help/Hinder cards in hand and see how that goes.

* I was considering relating the number of crew lost to the result of the card play for the adventure. As yet I've preferred the random number dictated by reward tiles drawn, which is set before cards are played and can therefore factor into your decision as to which cards to play. It does make sense to scale the number of crew lost based on the outcome, but I think the game is better served with the info up front. This factors heavily into a decision I'm making for the endgame as well, so it'll have to stay. I do think that perhaps some crew should be lost even if the Adventure is won, but I'm not sure the best way to go about that. Maybe a simple 1 crew? Maybe additional crew is lost if the Hinder-minus-Help result is more than a certain number? I'm not sure.

* I am considering making the board bigger - 4 columns instead of 3 (still 3 rows per column). I probably won't do that this week though, as I expect it'll be a lot of work to redo the board and make more encounter tiles... but I do need to consider it because I fear the game isn't really lasting long enough for the Stranded option to really come into play. I'm also considering Stages... the first column would be Stage I, the 2nd and 3rd columns would be Stage II, and the 4th column would be Stage III. Then the bigger effects of Encounter tiles could be placed in the later stages, making for more of a story arc. Also, it's a sneaky way to keep 2 tiles I like, one teleports to the other, and the 2nd teleports to Ithaca, short circuiting the board... I'd like to keep that latter tile out of Stage I, and this method makes that easy to do. For this idea I'll have to make 5 more Encounter tiles that are thematic and interesting.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Don't paraphrase rules...

... Or if you do, make sure you do it in a way that doesn't in fact change the rule!

Time and time again I have come across rules questions stemming from the questioner's misunderstanding of a base rule - often because rather than learning the base rule in the first place, the questioner was explained an approximation or paraphrase of the rule.

Case in point: There is a discussion on BGG right now in a rules thread for Battlestar Galactica. It seems clear to me that a particular poster in that thread was told when he was taught the game that "Cylon ships don't activate during Revealed Cylon turns." This is not accurate - rather the rule is that the Activate Cylon Ships step and the Jump Preparation step are skipped during Revealed Cylon turns. What's the difference? Well, some Crisis cards which may come up during a revealed Cylon turn, and especially Super Crisis cards which ONLY come up during a revealed Cylon turn, activate Cylon ships as part of the crisis. Obviously, these ships DO activate. Only the symbol at the bottom of the card which may or may not activate other ships during the Cylon Activation step of the turn is ignored (because again, that step is skipped according to the rules for revealed Cylon turns).

If you have read the rules or learned them properly then it sounds trivial and ridiculous to hear "how come there are Cylon activation symbols on the Super Crisis cards, if they can't activate on a revealed Cylon turn?" And yet, that very question came up.

This is a pet peeve of mine, so I thought I'd put up a post which I could perhaps point to at some future time.

Don't paraphrase rules... or if you do, make sure to do so in a way that doesn't functionally change them!
You're just asking for confusion later.