Featured Card - Settlement

Settlement is a village-type card. It is also very similar to cellar, almost identical in fact, except for a single extra game-changing action.

Its primary strength is the ability to connect multiple actions together in order to start your engine. If don't have enough actions in your hand, you can discard most or all of it in order to draw extra actions. Like cellar, it also helps you control your reshuffles, and so helps to keep all of your key actions in your deck for the shuffle.

It also alters the issue of cellaring another cellar. Discarding a settlement to another settlement eats up fewer cards in your hand, but also deprives you the action you would get from playing it.

The difference between this and cellar is very subtle, yet so incredibly powerful. In my playtesting, I found that it was great for jump-starting engines and kicking games into high gear. It is card that requires some skill, and is a lot of fun to play with.

Distant Colonies Update

Some significant changes have been made to Distant Colonies. I have started to associate certain cards with certain expansions, turning it into a true treasure chest expansion.

Base: Jeweler and Settlement

Intrigue: Almoner (see below), Curio Stand

Seaside: Hawker

Prosperity: Investment, Bookkeeper

Cornucopia: Waystation

Hinterlands: Flower Meadow (see below)

Dark Ages: Badlands (see below), Infernal Contract (see below)

Alchemy: Doppelganger (see below)

Guilds: Let's wait for it to be released to make a card for it

New Cards:

I really like the utility of Almoner. You can gain whatever card you want, but your opponent also gets a copy. Powerful for rushes, as well as in asymmetrical matches. The real value of it is knowing what cards are more useful to you than your opponent, as well as controlling the pace of the game.

It also has some fun edge cases, such as gifting your opponent the last curse, or combining it with cost reducers and gifting provinces.

 This card was adapted from Temp. It is a powerful one-shot trasher, or you can use it for alternate VP. Most games, it will trash an estate or overgrown estate on the first use, making it worth 2 VP. However, if you are determined (and disciplined enough not to trash them), you can make it worth even more and turn it into a powerful alt-VP strategy.

 One mechanic that I was experimenting with for the Distant Colony expansion was tampering with the basic cards. Flower Meadow is a lot harder to ignore than regular duchies, however, it makes for a much poorer alt-VP/rush game. 

The name is based on the dutch tulip-mania, where tulips became absurdly valuable, then crashed in price.

The idea behind Infernal Contract is that it offers a gold with a penalty, similar to Cache. However, this is slightly cheaper, and is a lot harder to get rid of than its coppers. The premise of this card is that you can open with a gold with a standard 4/3 split, but it comes with a penalty. You get a junk card that confers a VP penalty, that you cannot get rid of. In some cases, this can be exploited by trash-for-benefit cards, but overall, it is a bad thing. I also don't like that it forms a powerful combo with Curio Stand, but I don't really see a way around it.

A lot of Alchemy's focus is actions, and Doppelganger is my answer to that. It acts as a Throne Room, but also gains an extra copy of the card. It helps both to play them, and to gain them.
However, the real madness of it starts when you start Doppelganging other Doppelgangers. You can quickly build up your deck, and you can be sure that it supports your action-heavy composition.

Featured Card: Hawker

I received a good deal of feedback from Reddit on my previous post, and the general consensus was that Hawker was too strong.

I want to explain my reasoning behind the card.

The card itself is essentially a combination of Caravan and Market Square, yet cheaper than either. Market Square is a cantrip buy for $3, but it has a powerful reaction that inflates its cost. Its Caravan effect requires  you to pollute your deck with unnecessary buys.

It was actually originally $3, but I found that on too many boards, there was not enough to justify a second buy to get the effect, so I dropped the price to $2 so that they could feed themselves. This is not necessarily a balance issue, but just that it is so much more fun to play with it at the $2 price bracket.

In the Dominion Fan Card Creation Guide, it states that the cost of cards is not linear. The difference between $2 and $3 is near insignificant, but what I want to focus on is the difference between $4 and $6; namely the cost of buying two of them. Hawker is a card you want to mass, by design. That runs contrary to being cost $3, where you have to sacrifice a gold buy in order to buy more than one of them in a turn.

Admittedly, this price only is justifiable if you view the extra buy as a disadvantage. In a game where extra copper is good to have, or the extra buys can get useful cards, it can become a dominant force. In particular, it combines well with:

• Gardens
• Duke
• Silk Road
• Goons
• Fools Gold (a cheap, massable card that benefits from large hand size? yes, please)
• Coppersmith (the increased hand size and extra copper feed him very well)
• Apothecary (extra buys work well with a low potion cost, especially one that feeds off of coppers)
• Counting House (helps amass copper and expand your deck, as well as offering a bit of control over your reshuffles by playing them or not)
• Peddler

The trade off is that in games where it will be powerful, it becomes a matter of skill to know how early to start massing Hawkers. If you open with a Hawker and buy more at every opportunity, you will end up with a fairly weak deck against an opponent that powers ahead.

Much like Chapel, I prefer this card at the $2 price bracket, not because of any particular balance issues, but because it generates more interesting games and decisions when it is cheaper.

Dominion: Distant Colonies

I have been thinking about how best to handle Distant Colonies, and I have decided to make it into a fan-expansion for Dominion.

Here is the first drafts of the dominion versions of my cards:

Formerly  Investor and Strategist.

Formerly Manager and Accountant (with some minor rework)

Formerly Designer.

A few original cards. Both are oddballs, but useful in the right circumstance.

I will likely follow this article up with more featured card articles of the individual cards. I am pretty excited to be making progress on Distant Colonies again, so it should come as no surprise that I will be focussing on them for a while.

Until then,

-Colin

Lenses - ways to evaluate your game

I have a book called The Art of Game Design: a Book of Lenses. The concept behind its lenses are different dimensions by which to measure your game or specific facets to examine independently about your game.

They have a very extensive, but not quite comprehensive list of ways to look at your game. It focuses mainly on video games, so I wanted to add a few that I have thought of that are more applicable to board games:

Lens of Cost - If you are going to produce something worthwhile to a consumer, you need to be able to provide them value for their money. This requires both that you make something worthwhile, and regulate costs.

• How much does my game cost to manufacture? 
• Will I be able to produce and sell it at sufficient volume to reduce manufacturing costs?
• What components add value to my game?
• Is there anywhere I can reduce costs associated with my game without compromising it?
• Are there any components I can improve on without increasing costs or that would provide more value than they cost?

Lens of Speed - The pace of the game is very important, especially if there are periods of time when one or more players do not have anything to do.

• How much down time is there per full round of player turns?
• Is there something engaging to do or plan while waiting for other players?
• What are players spending the most time on? 
• Can that time spent on it be reduced?
• Are any aspects of the game causing Analysis Paralysis?
• Are there any aspects of the game I can remove to speed things up?

I like these lenses because they focus on Efficiency. Ultimately, you want to provide maximum enjoyment per dollar, and per minute of gameplay. It often helps to examine your game in a single dimension like this, and then decide which dimensions are the most important for what you are aiming for.

Lens of Intuition - Players new to this game need to be able to quickly grasp the rules, objectives, and strategy of the game in order to appreciate it initially. 

• How long does it take to explain to a new player before they are comfortable to play it?
• Is it similar to something they already understand?
• Is there an easy way to distinguish a good move from a bad one?
• Can any of the aspects be changed to something the player would understand better?

That last point I am toting from experience. In Shadows of Japan, what is current called Gold was then called Influence Points. It was bad. People kept confusing it with Political Power, and no one could seemingly grasp exactly what it did for them. By simply changing the name, everyone intuitively understood it and no explanation was needed for something that previously caused enormous amounts of confusion.

"Please Don't Kill Me" Games

There is a certain subgenre of games that irk me. I will call them "Please don't kill me" (PDKM) games for the purpose of this article.

Essentially, they offer player interaction, but the only meaningful thing you can do with other players is screw them over; selectively. There are no teams, and every player is out for himself. This tends to turn the game into a game of grudges, and dogpiling the person in first place.

This really annoys me as a gamer and as a designer. I can remember many games where my strategy was just to essentially play "multiplayer solitaire" (or turtle, depending on the game) and divert attention from myself. It is very counterintuitive to actively punish players for doing well, and tends to promote "safe" (aka boring) gameplay. I also dislike it because it promotes "metagaming" where you do not play the game, you play the players, and old grudges and biases will haunt you. As someone who typically does well in games, "Please don't kill me" games tend to make me feel like a target.

A few examples of games that fit into this category:

• Munchkin - By far the worst for this, players hoard nasty cards until a player hits level 9, then players essentially remain there until the group collectively runs out of punishments. I actively dislike this game for that exact reason.
• Rattus - Not nearly as bad for it, this fits mainly in regards to player roles. If a player can sit on 2-3 roles for most of the game, it is very unlikely he will lose, however if (like me) a player continuously gets his roles stolen, he doesn't really stand a chance of winning.
• Smallworld - Smallworld fits this pretty much to a tee; however for some reason however, I never seem to mind it as much in this game. Smallworld just seems to have a particular brand of magic that, no matter how much players screw each other over, no one gets mad about it.
• Risk - This is pretty much why Australia is the best continent. But really though, why would you ever play Risk when there are so many better games available?

There are a lot of different ways to avoid PDKM syndrome.

• Cosmic Encounter avoids this trap by the cleverly designed Destiny Deck. Whenever you are to make an attack, you draw a card to determine which player you attack. In addition to the standard player cards, there are also special cards that target players meeting certain conditions (e.g. fewest lost ships, most foreign colonies). It also helps that losing your own planets is not overly punishing.
• Axis and Allies remedies Risk's flaws by forcing predetermined teams.
• Dominion's attacks hit every opponent, so that you cannot actively pick on a given player.
• King of Tokyo actually made a solution out of a problem, integrating this into its core gameplay, allowing confident players to become the "King" and take on everyone else
• Many eurogames don't let players directly attack each other, and only indirectly interfere with each other (by building a road or train route first, or buying key commodities up before they can).
• Shadows over Japan uses a combination of hidden knowledge and limited actions to keep players from each others' throats. The opportunity cost to attack another player is quite high, requiring you to reveal one of your ninjas, and potentially reveal your allegiance, as well as spending precious actions to move into position and attack. I think it is rather clever, though maybe I'm biased ;)

Until next time,

-Colin

W(h)ere

W(h)ere is a game about a family of wolfweres that is an action-adventure game that serves as a more mature addition to the genre. It is a slightly older design of mine, but I will try and walk you through it. The main character is a wolfwere, who was separated from his pack (family) and brought to a strange island; he is brought from his forest to a laboratory on a remote island. The enemies are mostly animals, with humans introduced later on, and you use a variety of techniques to defeat your enemies and solve puzzles, taught to you by your other family members trapped on the island.

The game takes place in the third person perspective, it uses gritty violence and is in the adventure/RPG genre. The plot is essentially a quest for the family of wolfweres to escape the military lab and return home. Throughout the game, you learn new techniques taught to you by your escaped relatives. The game is played like most of its genre, only with the twist of being mature. [other games of its genre include Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie Series, Donkey Kong 64, etc.; just a clarification] The main world is the island, it is surrounded by water and is inescapable by traditional means. The various levels are caves, laboratories, ships, and other landforms and structures. They are only accessible in chronological order, with objectives and bonuses to each one.

Initially, combat is rather simple, with only a few basic attacks and weak enemies. Later on, however combat gets very interesting when you are fighting the military humans armed with guns, stealth becomes a large factor, deception and tactics become very important. The more advanced techniques require collectable tokens, accumulated throughout the levels. Those techniques are required to advance past later obstacles.
This game is essentially aiming at a more mature audience that grew up with the classics; there is a significant shortage of games of this genre and next to none in the mature range, with obvious implications. It is also a realistic sci-fi game though it might be called fantasy, also another scarce realm. It touches a number of untapped genres, combined with unique characters, solid gameplay, good graphics, immersive environments, and an involving storyline promises to be a significant title in the evolution of games.


The objective of the game is to escape the island laboratory with your pack. That is accomplished by rescuing your family members throughout the game, then sneaking on board a military ship as it is leaving the island (due to an evacuation order). A long series of events leads up to this point, and is caused by multiple conditions that were all triggered by the player.


Wolfweres

Wolfweres are similar to werewolves (hence the name) with the critical difference that they are wolves for most of every month, they then turn into humans on the night of the new moon. Their wolf anatomy is slightly off from a normal wolf, they have ball-and-socket shoulders, and there is some sexual dimorphism; females have a thicker patch of hair on their back, often called their mane, which is often slightly off color from the rest of their hair. Wolfweres have dark and thick hair, a large head with a significant jaw. They have a short tail, and mostly solid colored hair. Wolfweres have cat-eyes, with a vertical slit for a pupil. The Wolfwere lifespan is approximately one third of a human’s, a good approximation of an equivalent age is simply to multiply the wolfwere’s age by three. Wolfweres are omnivores, they have significant food sources in both the plant and animal kingdoms. On the night of the new moon, they become full fledged humans, though many of them have unique hair patterns which are hereditary; they do not shave while in human form [as they would end up with strange bald spots when they returned to wolf form], they still retain their language, though they are much less proficient at speaking in human form. 

Wolfwere Culture

Wolfwere culture revolves around their clans, basically branches of a family that travel as a pack; working together to hunt, forage, raise young, and perform the various jobs life throws at them. When one from outside the family joins a clan, they are referred to as an Invited, though they are not officially invited until they bring a new member to the family. A clan typically has between eight and sixteen members, the oldest generation of which is referred to as Elder, of which there are only two; the alpha and their mate. The position of alpha is not defined clearly, it is not based on gender or age, and is not even necessarily stable between the two Elders; the alpha position often changes between them.

Wolfweres are named after animals that have common personality traits with, though they often have prefixes added depending on their order of birth. Firstborns are called Senior, secondborns have no title, Thirdborns (or Finalborns) are called Little. It is rare for a family to have more than three children, and as such third born children are named as the last. Only children are given the title of wise, it is referring to the fact that they will be better off not having siblings to compete against. It is not actually much of a benefit, but the title remains after the myth was dispelled.

Wolfweres who have no direct blood relationship refer to one another as siblings; brother or sister depending on gender. Wolfweres with direct blood connection refer to one another with the appropriate titles. It should be noted that their language is not translated literally, and many of the words are the closest english approximations to the wolfwere language. The invited mate of a sibling is referred to as a near-brother or near-sister, the wolfwere equivalent of an in-law; this applies to all relationships, near-daughter or near-son, with the near addition for each.

Wolfweres travel by the season; they cross the equator and move into the opposite hemisphere during winter, and as such they never see snow, but know of it from folklore. This movement is called the great migration, and was originally started to keep them alive during the freezing temperatures of winter combined with their frail human bodies, though they do not stay in the equatorial region permanently as they live in forests and could not survive long-term on the little food in the area.

Wolfwere language is based on barks, growls, and smells. It is customary to exchange scents upon meeting an unknown wolfwere. Most of their communication is barks, there are a wide variety of syllables and as such messages can be sent in only a few barks. Growls express emotion more than words, though they often deliver a much clearer message than words ever could. Not all growling means bad things, they can mean good feelings as well as bad, though the baring of teeth is more often a snarl than a smile.

Wolfwere Characters

Note that Anaris is the main character

Name: Anaris (Little Spider)

Sex: Male

Age: 7 (equal to ~20 human years)

Eye Color: Yellow (wolf form) / Brown (human form)

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Name Significance: Little refers to the fact that he is the youngest of his siblings, spider is making reference to the species, who are known amongst the wolves for their intelligence and resourcefulness, as they have the ability to create complex webs seemingly out of nothing.

Distinguishing Marks:

Human: has a mane down his back and a thin beard, thinning out to middle.

Wolf: fairly unremarkable as far as wolves go. He starts off smaller than average, then gets larger as the game progresses; just to make it more interesting. Size based on max health.

Background: Anaris grew up with his family as most do, moving with the seasons and hunting animals as a pack. He has a strong relationship with his family, especially his siblings. Him and his brother both joke at their animal names, “spin a web brother spider” countered by “fly away brother bird”. His relationship with Alarid is also strong, they make a competition out of everything and work well together.

Name: Sicaris (Senior Bird)

Sex: Male

Age: 10 (equal to ~30 human years)

Eye Color: Hazel (both forms, though more yellowish in wolf form)

Hair Color: Black

Name Significance: The senior refers to the fact that he is the firstborn in his generation. Bird is referring to his good nature towards his siblings, as birds are known for their parenting due to the trouble birds go through to support their young.

Distinguishing Marks:

Human: Long hair on head, facial hair only small beard near mouth and moustache (lovingly called his beak)

Wolf: Sicaris is known for his size, as he is larger than most.

Background: Sicaris took it upon himself to play a major role in raising his brother and sister, he has a strong relationship with each. He takes his responsibility as Senior seriously and will go to extreme efforts to help them.

Name: Alarid (White one)

Sex: Female

Age: 8 (equal to ~25 human years)

Eye Color: Pink

Hair Color: White

Name Significance: Alarid’s name is fairly obvious, she is called the white one because she is an albino.

Distinguishing Marks: Alarid is easily recognizable due to her white color, as she is an albino. As such, she does not change form on the new moon (see Wolfweres), and is well known for both these attributes.

Background: Alarid has a strong relationship with her brothers, as they were raised together. She takes it upon herself to ‘defend the pack’ on the night without a moon (see Wolfweres) as one in wolf form can fight much better than a human. Her unique attribute is often subject to the jokes of her brothers, though she has an equal number about their human appearance.

Name: Delaris/Ancut (Senior Hawk/Elder)

Sex: Male

Age: 27 (equal to ~80 years)

Eye Color: Lime (wolf form) / Green (human form)

Hair Color: Graying Black

Name Significance: The Ancut title refers to the fact that he is the eldest of his clan (see Wolfwere culture) and is often used in place of his actual name. Senior refers to the fact that he is the oldest amongst his siblings, while hawk refers to his inquisitive nature and decisive action, as hawks watch carefully then swoop definitively.

Distinguishing Marks:

Human: Elder has long graying hair, which he usually ties back. He has a gray beard, which is short, except for a goatee. He has a large scar over his left eye, and has a medium build.

Wolf: Elder is easily spotted due to his larger than average size as well as his coloration, though he can be further identified by the distinct scar over his left eye.

Background: Delaris is the elder of his clan, and as such knows how to make Charms and is the only one who can teach you to use them. The distinct scar on his eye is a reminder of the encounter with Balaris’ bear.

Name: Maltarid (Wild Rose)

Sex: Female

Age: 18 (equal to ~55 human years)

Eye Color: Yellow (Wolf form) / Brown (Human form)

Hair Color: Brown

Name Significance: Wild rose is referring of course to the plant, as she is beautiful but deadly (as roses have thorns). It is also said that she wore a rose in her hair as a human, and that contributed to her name (and why she was named after a plant and not an animal)

Distinguishing Marks:

Human: Maltarid has light brown hair and very little body or facial hair, though the hair on her head is unusually long (comparative to other wolfweres’ human forms)

Wolf: Maltarid is typical in appearance, though her brown fur is notable. Her mane is darker than the rest of her hair (see Wolfweres)

Background: Maltarid is known for her double-faced attitude, she will be a rose one minute and a thorn the next; she is quite straightforward and her husband keeps her under control. Being an Invited (see Wolfwere culture), she has a weak relationship with Balaris’ parents.

Name: Balaris (Wise Bear)

Sex: Male

Age: 19 (equal to ~60 human years)

Eye Color: Hazel (both forms, though more yellowish in wolf form)

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Name Significance: Wise is a title given to only children, while bear refers to his personality. He is practical, strong (of heart and body), and resourceful; which are all traits associated with bears.

Distinguishing Marks:

Human: Balaris has thick hair on his head, back of neck and shoulders. It is not long, but is very visible (~1”). He is well built and has an under bite.

Wolf: Balaris has thick, black hair around his shoulders, is fairly large, and has a white coloration on his right ear.

Background: Balaris was a troublemaker when he was young, likely the reason he is an only child, though had some sense knocked into him after having his life saved by Delaris, in an encounter with an actual bear.

Name: Leterid (Little Mouse)

Sex: Female

Age: 28 (died at age 23, 5 years ago)

Name Significance: Little refers to the fact that she was the third and final child in her family, Mouse refers to her personality, as she is resourceful and caring, traits associated with mice.

Background: Leterid is well remembered for being a strict but loving mother, and adds with pride that she finally straightened out Balaris’ mischief. She died due to a disease that her aged body could not fight off.

Name: Felimaris (Wise Lion)

Sex: Male

Age: 35 (died at age 24, 9 years ago)

Name Significance: Wise is a title given to only children, Lion refers to his personality. He was proud and strong, loved his family and defended them fiercely; all traits associated with lions.

Background: Felimaris is remembered for his pride and strength, as a clan leader to aspire to, and his seemingly effortless methods of keeping others on track. He died of old age.

Name: Olarid (Little Monkey)

Sex: Female

Age: 9 (equal to ~25 human years)

Eye Color: Green (wolf form) / Blue (human form)

Hair Color: Light Brown

Name Significance: Little refers to the fact that she is the third and youngest among her siblings, while monkey refers to her personality. She is curious and energetic in her pursuits of knowledge, a trait associated with monkeys.

Distinguishing Features:

Human: Olarid has a rare trait, she has red hair in human form. She is rather hairless, except for moderately long hair on her head.

Wolf: She has lighter hair than most, as well she has a distinct petite form. Her mane is slightly darker than the rest of her hair. (see Wolfweres)

Background: Olarid was raised in a different clan, her parents and siblings taught her everything they knew and answered her every question, but could not satiate her curiosity. She met Sicaris by chance, when they were both hunting the same deer. She has a weak relationship with Sicaris’ family, though better with his siblings than parents, as they now hunt in fours.

The family tree.

Non-Wolfwere Characters
Note that these do not actually have names, as your character cannot understand English, but their names are based on their phonetic interpretation by the wolves (and given a small spin in the process)


Name: Samaris (Samurai/Sameul)
Sex: Male
Personality: Materialistic, cold
Appearance: short blond hair, gray suit, blue eyes
Age: ~45
Position: Head of Research
Significance: Serves as a boss, as well is responsible for the experiments done on your family


Name: Karmarid (Dr. Cameron)
Sex: Female
Personality: Caring, inquisitive
Appearance: long blond hair, thin-framed glasses, white lab coat,
Age: ~25
Position: Scientist: Animal Care Specialist
Significance: She is the one who ‘carelessly’ let out Alarid, she helps out you on a few occasions [like g-man does in half-life], because she feels bad for you because of the unpleasant experiments done on the wolfweres.

Opening Cinematic
In the opening cinematic, your pack is hunting some deer, when a strange noise comes from the side, it sounds like thunder (gunshot). The deer flee, and your hunting efforts are in vain. Suddenly, a group of newmoons (humans) emerges from the bush, covered in a strange greenish fur (camouflage clothes), Elder asks the newmoons what is happening, they panic and point their staves (guns) at Elder and a dart hits him. The other wolfweres see this and move to attack the newmoons, then more come and fire at the pack. You are hit in the neck and black out as the chaos continues. (fade out)
You wake up in a large metal cage, in a white-metal room with two newmoons grunting excitedly, in white fur. //[these wolves are a new species! They may not even be wolves!][what do you mean?][their DNA is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, look at these isotopes][isotopes? You mean they have radioactive blood?][not quite, it seems to be oriented to change based on radiation in the environment.][they have unstable blood?][we’re not sure, it’s unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. The specimens are being held for further study](barking from cage)//“what is going on? Newmoon brothers, help me out of here!” (scientists look over, grunting incomprehensible jargon [english])//[he’s woken][we should get him sedated and back to storage](fire a tranquilizer into the wolfwere)//“brothers, what are you doing?” (fade to black)

Plot?
I have a plot written that flows through a series of levels, however this post is already very heavy on text. As such, I will include it in another post.