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Pantheon: Blergh. Finished latest updates and play-tested today with Donovan and his friend. The boys enjoyed the game, but it is missing something. I don't know what. I keep pulling in new mechanics, dropping others, trying to find something that pops. I'm starting to think something fundamental about the play needs to shift. The gameplay itself gets redundant because the the primary choice each turn (draw from deck or take top discard) remains the same every turn. I'm thinking there needs to be an additional choice inherent in the game. Hmmmm, lightbulb.
Right now, there are four "End Round" cards which can be revealed to end the round only if the player has discarded one of the six "Tribute to the Gods" cards. I didn't much care for that mechanic. I do think ending the round needs to have some hoop to jump through, but the Tribute cards felt frustrating to me and the boys expressed frustration with them during the game. I do like cool stuff though, and everyone likes scoring more points. So, new ideas:
Keep some number (4? 6? 8?) of Tribute to the Gods cards in the deck, but the Tribute cards allow you to play one card from hand face-up in your Pantheon area and then draw a new card. Functionally, the Tribute cards allow you to increase your hand size, but they provide some information to the rest of the players about what Pantheon you may be collecting. Or maybe each Tribute card does something different? That feels too complicated.
This would leave me with a hole in the game with respect to how to end the round. Hrrmmm. Suck. I don't know. I think there is a casual card game with enough cool extras to keep it re-playable in here, but I'm having a hard time finding the sweet spot. I guess I'll test the alternate version of the Tribute cards and if the game is more fluid I'll send that version out to the 3 or 4 groups willing to do playtesting. I think it might be time for outside opinion.
Monster Fighter: Got the first set of monster cards mapped to the fighter cards. Only 80ish to go. The blue print is there, but the logistics on this one are kind of kooky. I would make a sub-set of the cards and playtest those but I don't think that would be representative of the game. I think mapping the rest of the cards and getting the character cards mocked up on the computer is probably a four to five hour job, so getting this done to start playtests mid-month is achievable. 12/11 isn't going to happen, but 12/13 is realistic.
Nothing to Fear: Nope. Energy is going to the other two.
Storycraft Decks: See above.
Right now, there are four "End Round" cards which can be revealed to end the round only if the player has discarded one of the six "Tribute to the Gods" cards. I didn't much care for that mechanic. I do think ending the round needs to have some hoop to jump through, but the Tribute cards felt frustrating to me and the boys expressed frustration with them during the game. I do like cool stuff though, and everyone likes scoring more points. So, new ideas:
Keep some number (4? 6? 8?) of Tribute to the Gods cards in the deck, but the Tribute cards allow you to play one card from hand face-up in your Pantheon area and then draw a new card. Functionally, the Tribute cards allow you to increase your hand size, but they provide some information to the rest of the players about what Pantheon you may be collecting. Or maybe each Tribute card does something different? That feels too complicated.
This would leave me with a hole in the game with respect to how to end the round. Hrrmmm. Suck. I don't know. I think there is a casual card game with enough cool extras to keep it re-playable in here, but I'm having a hard time finding the sweet spot. I guess I'll test the alternate version of the Tribute cards and if the game is more fluid I'll send that version out to the 3 or 4 groups willing to do playtesting. I think it might be time for outside opinion.
Monster Fighter: Got the first set of monster cards mapped to the fighter cards. Only 80ish to go. The blue print is there, but the logistics on this one are kind of kooky. I would make a sub-set of the cards and playtest those but I don't think that would be representative of the game. I think mapping the rest of the cards and getting the character cards mocked up on the computer is probably a four to five hour job, so getting this done to start playtests mid-month is achievable. 12/11 isn't going to happen, but 12/13 is realistic.
Nothing to Fear: Nope. Energy is going to the other two.
Storycraft Decks: See above.
