Recent BGA plays (10/24-4/25)

 Lately I've been playing some board games with Corbin -- he's almost 7 years old now. He has even played some grown-up games, like Puerto Rico, and he's played a couple of my prototype as well. One day maybe I'll make a blog post about playing games with him...  But outside of those games with Corbin, I haven't really played much of anything in person since before COVID. I'd be lost if it weren't for online portals such as BoardGameArena.com! I've played some games on Yucata.de, MaBiWeb, boiteajeux.net, and Brettspielwelt in the past, but I never liked it as much as playing with my friends face-to-face across the table, and manipulating the tactile game pieces with my hands, etc. More recently it seems that some or all of those portals have died off or shut down. 

Board Game Arena is another online portal, and one which focuses more on the look and user interface... when the pandemic hit, they became very popular, and eventually sold themselves to Asmodee, one of the biggest forces in the boardgame industry! Ever since the pandemic started, I've been playing games on BGA regularly with some of my oldest friends, like Jeremy in Seattle and Steve in California. I like to play games I know on there but nowadays I also try to discover new games. I often enter a game without even reading the rules first, and just sort of "kludge" my way through it (no ideas where that term came from, but it basically means to stumble through the game and figure it out as you go). That's one nice thing about an online implementation, since it enforces the rules, it'll tell you what you can do, and it won't let you make illegal moves :)

Every once in a while, I compile some mini-reviews of games I've played on BGA for my friend David, but I think it would be smarter to post those here for a wider audience. So here's my latest round of mini-reviews for new-to-me games played on BGA:

Apiary

Finally getting to try this worker placement game where your workers level up! It's pretty cool... not sure if I like it as much as I thought I would, and it's maybe a bit more fiddly thank I expected for a Stonemaier game? Or maybecnot? I dunno --- it's pretty cool so far though (midway through a 2p and a 3p game)

Architects of Amytis

Fairly abstract game that kind of uses Tic-Tac-Toe as a mechanism. Place tiles on your 3x3 grid, try to make the configs on scoring cards, but tiles also score based on type and where you place them. Draft the tiles from a 3x3 display and leave a pawn there, and if you get 3-in-a-row, gain a bonus scoring condition. Cute, not bad. Was annoying when I couldn't get the building that lets you gain scoring cards, but I don't know how common that is

Azul Duel

2p specific Azul game, seems worse than just playing Azul with 2 players. I get the impression that these 2p "duel" versions of games are meant to be... smaller, more compact. Maybe that's a mistaken assumption though. Meh.

Bonfire (on Yucata)

Played some games of Bonfire on Yucata, and while it's pretty opaque, and the theme does not help much, and the costs/requirements are kind of arbitrary... once you get the hang of it, the game is pretty cool!

Botanicus

A not-too-bad game about gardening, where you maneuver your gardener for access to spots on your board, then plant and tend flowers. The action selection is kinda like Kingdomino - you're drafting actions as well as turn order for the following round. It's a little bit flexible, as you can pay money for otherwise blocked actions, but that's not trivial to afford. There's a side hustle of collecting animal tokens, and so far I think that might be a bit "overcentralized" because they seem to be worth a ton, and you can't really be blocked from getting them, so it seems like you kind of have to make sure you get your 5 animals to be competitive. I've enjoyed my first few games, not sure if it'll have legs, but it's at least a nice new game to consume
Edit: There's an "advanced" game that makes the animals more than just a set collection mechanism and gives players more variety in unique gardens and endgame goals. I think I probably like that better. It's a decent game!

Carpe Diem (on Yucata)

I've played a couple games of Carpe Diem on Yucata now, and so far - while it's not my favorite Feld title - it's also not my least favorite -- I kinda like it. Maybe like, B-tier Feld for me, where In the Year of the Dragon and Notre Dame are S-tier, and Trajan and Castles of Burgundy are A-Tier...

Dead Cells

This cooperative rogue-lite game with a videogame IP was... well, I didn't really grok it very well, and I didn't really enjoy trying. Maybe better on the tabletop, in real time, live with other players would be better so you could discuss what to do like, out loud.

Eternitium

A very straightforward deckbuilder, where taking better cards makes you negative progress. Every turn you have to take a bad card into your deck, then you get to make some progress, then you may optionally take a Basic or Advanced tech card into your deck (at the cost of -1 or -2 progress). There's a sort of PYL option on the progress as well, which may be interesting if you are tracking the contents of card piles/decks adequately. So far (1.5 games in) this game isn't knocking my socks off. the card effects are few and uninteresting, the game is very straightforward, and it's just not that fun for me

Finca

I played a couple games of Finca and was thoroughly unimpressed. As one player said after the game: "this was not fun."

Forum Trajanum (on Yucata)

I stumbled through a game on Yucata.de, without reading the rules first, and it did not work out at all! That game is done, and I only understand about 20% of it! What I do understand doesn't really excite me much... you take two tiles pretty much at random from your board, think about the one you might want, and pass the other to your opponent... then you get what they pass you, and you have to think about whether you want that more than what you already decided you wanted (seems like double effort to me). Then you do stuff that I don't fully understand, and I'm sure some of it is worth points... In fairness, I should really learn the rules properly and not try to just kludge my way through, and I'd be happy to try it again (hopefully after at least watching a how-to-play video), but I don't expect this to be my new favorite Feld or anything

Garden Rush

I enjoyed a couple of games of this cute little head-to-head abstract, and I'd play again. You draft vegetables from a common pool, but there's a strong geographic element to it as you place them into your garden grid.

Guild of Merchant Explorers

Still figuring it out (might need to check the rules), but so far the hype seems justified -- seems like a solid twist on the roll & write genre

Edit - just finished my first game, and I like it! Probably the best R&W I've seen an a long time!

Edit again - OK, this game is SOO GOOD! I really like the main mechanism, and the whole thing just works really well. I've played on all the different maps, and they're all interesting and a little different. Great game!

Let's Catch the Lion

This game was a little abstract that I did not care for at all. You have 3 units, with specific move patterns, and like Chess, you want to capture your opponent's Lion. Do not recommend.

Let's Go To Japan

I'm really enjoying this drafting/set collection (sort of) game! I've played a handful of times, and it's pretty great.

Living Forest Duel

New 2p spinoff of the really good Living Forest... not really much like LF at all. Reminds me of RA a bit --- the PYL card draw in this Duel version is from a shared deck, and on your turn you either add a card, or use an action. You get 2 actions per round, and the round ends when both players are out of actions, OR when 3 solitary animals show up. After a couple of games I'd say it's alright, pretty good even, but I think I prefer the base game personally.

Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game

Cute little area control game where you spread out tokens at random, then surround areas such that you have a majority in the area... you just take turns placing 4 border pieces on the hex grid until all the areas are 4-7 spaces big. Not really my kind of game, but it wasn't bad for a simple, light game, I think

Mesos

I heard this compared to In the Year of the Dragon, which I love, so I gave it a try. Turn order draft like Kingdomino or Viticulture... events you have to prepare for... I can see the comparison to ItYotD, but this feels "smaller" somehow. I enjoyed a few games of it 2p, haven't finished a 3p yet.
Edit: I like ItYotD better, but this ended up being pretty good (especially head-to-head)

Middle Ages

Aside from a boring title, I think I like Middle Ages (after 1 play, where I learned as I went). It feels a lot like Kingdomino as you are drafting tiles for your board as well as turn order for next round, but there's no geographical element (kind of a bummer), and the tiles are a lot more sophisticated - they each have an effect, and then you collect income for that tile's type. I look forward to playing it some more, it's definitely grabbed me more than Moon River (another Kingdomino-like game)

Mythicals

This little 2p rummy variant left much to be desired

Naishi

card game - don't re-order your hand, try to get cards in the best place to score well. This one was hard for me to grok at first, it's not very intuitive, but after 1 game I think I've got it now. This is not my favorite type of game, so I don't think I'll play much more, but I do want to play at least once now that I've got the rules down

Revive

Took a minute to really figure it out, and the implementation benefits from a big screen and tooltips (so harder to play on my phone), but now that I think I know what's going on I think I kinda like it. Not sure if it'll have legs though. Basically you have 3 resource types, and 3 main actions (each costs 1 of the resources), and you have multi-use cards (one of my favorite things in games). Beyond that, it's kind of like Concordia or something -- you play your cards and take some actions until you're out of juice, then you "hibernate" and reset things a bit.
Edit: I almost didn't remember this one even reading he description! But now I remember it, I think it was pretty fun, and I'd play it again

Stonespine Architects

This is a solid booster draft game (like 7W) where you build a dungeon and populate it with monsters, traps, and treasures. There are various goals to compete over and while it's nothing earth shattering, it seems like a very solid game to me
Edit: after a handful of plays, I really like it!

Tower Up

Solid game mechanically, and production seems like it's probably very nice (I've only played on BGA) -- but feels very abstract to me, no thematic consonance at all. Therefore I'm not sure how 'fun" it is

Toy Battle

Simple, quick head-to-head game from Repos -- and it's really good! Either draw 2 tiles, or play one - each tile has an ability and a value. You can always cover your own tiles, and you can cover an opponent's tile IF yours is bigger. Some spaces have an effect when you place there as well. Surround areas to gain stars, 50%+ stars wins. OR, win by placing a tile on the opponent's HQ. If someone runs out of tiles, most stars wins. A little bit of tug-o-war style back and forth, a touch of card advantage, two routes to victory (maybe 3), and the ability to pivot between them... great game!

Umbrella

This is a weird little abstract that, TBH, I didn't love. You draft marbles from the left, right, top, or bottom... left and right are shared pools with your neighbors, everyone shares the top pool, and the bottom pool is just for you, but it's bad to have marbles in there at game end. When you pick a marble, you "push" it onto your board from that side, pushing other marbles in that row, and sending the last one off into the next pool. Your goal is to make specific arrangements of marbles to satisfy cards

The White Castle

A VERY short (9 turns) dice-drafting/worker placement game that feels a bit like it's procedurally generated. Lower valued dice tend to trigger your lantern income (which is upgradeable), but they potentially make you pay more for actions, while larger valued dice gain money instead of losing it. You can end up connecting multiple actions in a big chain sometimes which is always fun and satisfying

Zenith

2nd release from PlayPunk (Captain Flip was great!), thought I'd give it a try. I like it pretty well so far. Can be a bit dependent on drawing the right suits at times, or if you need money, sometimes you need specific types of cards and if they don't come then that's rough, but that seems to be just occasional so far and goes with the territory of a card game.

I'd like to see a Diplomacy option that cost any card type, gave you Leader, and let you draw 5 cards, keep 1 (like RftG's Explore+5) OR maybe just the ability to optionally discard 1 card at the end of each turn before refilling hand

Quick check-in for the new year

 I've been meaning to post more in this blog, like I used to. Some of the stuff I would normally have posted in here has instead gone into game channels on the Discord server* I set up for playtesting, but that's dangerous:

Tangent: I had been using Slack for exactly that purpose before, and a few years ago they decided to change how they do their free accounts: instead of a limited number of posts that last forever (which was plenty for me and my game notes), they changed to an unlimited number of posts, but only accessible for 90 days -- to see posts beyond that you need to have a paid account. There's a bit of a loophole in that threads appear to be visible, and if I'd known that, I would have replied to all of my posts, even if it was with a nonsense reply, just so I'd be able to see them now. I did try to export the info before I lost access to it, but there's really no good way to do that, so it wasn't very successful. I lost a lot of thoughts and info on a lot of game ideas!

I don't expect Discord to go that route, it seems a lot more established and set in their ways, but it never hurts to have a backup, and it can help to write things out in different ways. So I would like to make some catch-up posts here about some of the game projects I've working on. Let's call that a New Year's Resolution.

* Apparently, the Discord link expires after a while, so if you want into the server, leave a comment here that the link is bad and I'll edit a new one in or something

It's been a while since I've made any resolutions, or explicitly thought about ambitions, and I think it's a good idea. So here are a few:

Progress on signed games 

I have 2 games that are signed but still haven't come out yet: Apotheosis (to be called Usurpers), from a small publisher, so I don't know if or when it'll finally come out, and Eminent Domain re-release, which includes Eminent Domain: Coalition (a solo mode that I should probably expand on, TBH), from Rio Grande so I feel good about it, but it's a year late at this point. I'd like to see those both come to fruition. 

More games signed

I've had a few pitches recently, but none of them led to anything. I do have one promising lead currently for Division of Labor, so hopefully that'll pan out. Taiko Kiri (co-designed with my friend Steve) is under review by a publisher, so hopefully they'll choose it over their other options (and I just got word that it got a step closer, edging out one of two competitors!). But I've got a pretty big list of games to pitch, and I'd love to see some of those published.

Seth Jaffee Development

I have been doing some development projects for a few publishers, but it's been a while. I have recently picked up 2 consultation gigs, which could turn into full-on design/development projects. I'd like to do a little more of that this year.

One of the games I did freelance development on hasn't come out yet, and I wonder what its status is. It would be good to see that in the wild as well.

More blog posts going forward

And as I said above, I plan to post more in this blog going forward. I find it useful to write out my thoughts on a game, and I like being able to go through old posts and revisit (and sometimes revive) old ideas.

The List - July 2024

    I feel like it's about time for an update to The List ... I should really make an effort to check in with this more regularly, like every 3 months or so.

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG)
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [now available from Renegade!]

- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [Final Frontier Games]
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

- Amun-Re expansion [Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]

- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Dice Works (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Suburban Sprawl [pitching to publishers]

- Let's Go Balloon Racing [pitching to publishers]

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson) [pitching to publishers]

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022) [pitching to publishers]

- Worker Placement Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam idea, July 2022) [pitching to publishers]

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":
- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Eminent Domain: Coalition [solo mode]

- Division of Labor (FKA I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement)

- 18-card Point Salad (KBGames 18-card game jam entry, July 2024)

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Press Your Luck Candyland [Candyland variant]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

- Eminent Domain: Legacy [campaign mode]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge [Abandoned]

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere] [Abandoned]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown] [Abandoned]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential] [Abandoned]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Recent updates to the above

Published Games

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [Final Frontier Games]

The Kickstarter for The Sixth Realm is over, so I've moved this entry to the Published Games section! It'll still be a while before people get their copies, but I look forward to seeing reports of games played when that happens.

Finished But Unpublished Games

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

No change to The List, but Usurpers (FKA Apotheosis) has been progressing at the publisher -- I've seen snippets of art and graphic design coming through. I believe that one will be on Kickstarter eventually, and once that finishes (assuming it's successful), I'll move this entry to the Published Games section

 

Currently Pitching Games

- Let's Go Balloon Racing [pitching to publishers]

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson) [pitching to publishers]

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022) [pitching to publishers]

- Worker Placement Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam idea, July 2022) [pitching to publishers]

I've been trying a bit harder to get my games in front of publishers, with varying levels of success. These four titles are on my Pitch List now, though to be honest, I'll be surprised if I can place the 2p microgames with anyone (even if I think the PYL one is pretty solid). Goballoon Racing and Taiko Kiri on the other hand seem like strong candidates to me.

Current Active Designs

- Division of Labor (FKA I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement)

I'm still working on this one, so it's "currently active," though technically I've also added it to my Pitch List - I think it's about ready to start pitching

Backburnered Designs 

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

I have moved a couple of games to the back burner on The List, seeing as how I haven't worked on them in quite some time

Promising Recent ideas:

- Press Your Luck Candyland [Candyland variant]

After playing some Candyland with my 6 year old, I got him to try my No Thanks/Candyland mashup which, incidentally, worked alright but had a problem at the end. As that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, we tried another Candyland variant: Press Your Luck Candyland, which worked very well!

Asking AI for help with a theme

I'm sure some specifics could be better, but I'm pretty happy with Division of Labor currently. I think its *weakest* point might be thematic consonance, rather than some mechanical or balance failing.

As I sit on this airplane, waiting for them to fix a broken overhead bin, I decided to try asking ChatGPT to help me with the theme of this game. I briefly described the idea I'm currently using (voyagers finding new islands everywhere they roam), and I uploaded the rulebook. This is what it came up with (and it's not bad!):

Backstory:

In a time long forgotten, five great tribes set sail across uncharted seas in search of new lands to call home. These tribes, bound by ancient pacts and a shared desire for prosperity, discovered a vast archipelago filled with lush islands, each brimming with potential. As the chieftains of these tribes, players must explore these new islands, extract resources, build settlements, and develop the land to honor their ancestors and ensure their tribe's legacy.

Setting:

Players are the heads of powerful tribal families, each with their unique skills and abilities. They journey together but compete to prove who can best lead their tribe by strategically splitting and choosing resources, placing workers, and developing the newly found islands.

Key Elements:

1. Voyaging and Discovery:

   • Each round, new islands are revealed, representing the ever-expanding frontier the tribes are exploring. This keeps the game dynamic and emphasizes the ongoing adventure and discovery.

2. Tribal Leadership and Worker Placement:

   • As chieftains, players send their workers to various islands to gather resources, build structures, and train their people. The worker placement mechanism reflects the strategic allocation of the tribe's members to maximize efficiency and development.

3. Resource Management and Development:

   • The I-Cut-You-Choose mechanism ties into the theme of tribal fairness and strategic decision-making. When players split resources, they must carefully consider the needs of their tribe and the potential benefits for their rivals.

4. Cultural Heritage and Storytelling:

   • Integrate a storytelling element where each action taken on an island represents a story or legend being told within the tribe, enhancing the theme of cultural heritage and the passing down of knowledge.

Thematic Blurb:

"In 'Division of Labor: Voyagers of the New World,' you are the chieftain of a proud tribe, navigating the vast ocean to discover and develop uncharted islands. Lead your people wisely, gather resources, build thriving settlements, and train your warriors and scholars. Every decision echoes through the generations, shaping the future of your tribe. Will your name be remembered as the greatest chieftain of all?"

Game Actions and Theme Integration:

1. Recruit (Red):

   • Call upon the strength of your tribe, drawing new warriors and workers from the action bag to bolster your ranks.

2. Build (Green):

   • Erect structures that will stand the test of time, from simple huts to grand monuments, each contributing to your tribe’s growth and prosperity.

3. Extract (Blue):

   • Harvest the abundant resources of the islands, ensuring your tribe has the materials needed for survival and advancement.

4. Train (Yellow):

   • Educate and train your tribe members, advancing their skills and knowledge to better prepare them for the challenges ahead.

5. Explore (Any Color):

   • Venture into the unknown, uncovering new lands and opportunities for your tribe to exploit and develop.

Visual and Component Suggestions:

• Game Board: A beautifully illustrated map of an archipelago with lush, vibrant islands.
• Island Tiles: Each tile representing different types of islands with unique resources and opportunities.
• Action Cubes and Worker Pawns: Designed to look like tribal artifacts and members.
• Player Boards: Depicting the progress and achievements of each tribe, with spaces for buildings and tracks for training and resources.

Another game design jam (or two!), another couple of 18-card games!

 A couple of years ago, a Discord server I am in had an 18-card game design jam, and I made a couple of games for it. One of those turned out to be pretty good, I think - though I don't know how marketable a 2-player only Press-Your-Luck microgame with no theme really is.

Right now, that Discord server (KBGAMES), and another server I'm in (Decision Space) are both having an 18-card game design jam (details here, and here)! I had no intention of working on any 18-card games for either one, but wouldn't you know... ideas crept into my head, and now I've got a game for each jam!

Last time my games were all a little bit of a cheat with respect to the 18 card limit. This time, both are legit, only 18 cards, and on one case, a couple of dice.

Just like 2 years ago, I appear to have one game that seems good, and the rest are nothing to write home about. here's a quick description of my current 18-card games:

Tic-Tac-DOH!

 The bad one this time is a game where you place and move your three pieces (a square, a circle, and a triangle) on a 3x3 grid of cards in an effort to get (and hold) 3-in-a-row, and you do so by using 6 Action cards, of which only ~2 are available to you each turn (based on a 2d6 roll). So you roll, choose one of the two results (if doubles, you may choose to roll again if you wish), and resolve the action card in that slot. Then you flip the action card to the other side, changing the actions that are available a little bit. The idea here was that you would be able to see what actions are possible, but you won't necessarily have access to the ones you want most, and your opponent could potentially even have a game winning action out there, leaving you anxious to see if they roll it or not.

When you move your piece onto a space, you also get to use the effect of that space, which should give you more agency. And finally, there is a special ability for each of your pieces that's different each game. 

I played a first draft of this game a couple of times, and I think it kind of works. For next time I intend to revamp the board effects (make them more straightforward, and mostly about moving pieces around), tweak the Action cards, and try an idea my friend had about how to add +/-1 effects (like the workers in Castles of Burgundy) - print +/-1 on each of your pieces, and let you 'spend' them (by flipping the piece), with very few ways (if any) to get them back.

18-card Point Salad

There's a recent (2019) game called Point Salad that I've never actually played, but I've heard nothing but good things about. In it, each card can either be a scoring condition, or something that would help you score off of those scoring conditions. This was an inspiration to my other 18-card jam game - the one that I think has potential to be pretty good.

In my game, you and your opponent will use the old Merchants of Amsterdam/Biblios mechanism to draw 3 cards, one at a time, and assign one to KEEP, one to SCORE, and one to DISCARD. You do this simultaneously, card by card, until all three cards are assigned, then you draw 3 more and do it again. IN the first "Age," you'll do this 3 times before the deck runs out, then you'll score some points. After scoring, you'll shuffle the SCORE and DISCARD cards back together (the cards you kept stay in your tableau), and start a new Age. The 2nd age will only have 2 rounds of card distribution, then scoring, and finally the 3rd Age will only have 1 round.

When it's time to score, each player examines the cards in their own tableau and scores points based on the scoring conditions on each card in the SCORE row:

My latest thought is to reward best-of-three rounds, rather than total score, so that a player who gets a lucky draw and dominates one round will win that round, but not necessarily the whole game.

Design Contest on BGG

Soon after I had this 18-card Point Salad game, a post went up on BoardGameGeek about someone running a design/development contest for an 18-card game they'd like to use as a companion game with their urbanist book about the city design of Tokyo. That contest is kind of weird in that they have some parts of a game, so it' smore of a development contest -- though they seem open to alternate ideas as well.

It occurred to me that I could consider the card colors in my design to be the districts, and the shapes to be features (such as zoos, hotels, restaurants, etc), and then the players could be building up their proposed rail line (with a station in this Modern Tokyo neighborhood near a touristy resort, and another station near a mom & pop restaurant in a Traditional neighborhood), while the scoring row could represent the demands/desires of the public. With that mindset, I could pitch this game to that contest, and it could fit pretty well, with the possible exceptions that (a) it eschews their tile laying aspect (which they claim is OK, but might count against my game in the judging), and (b) my game is for  players, while they want a solo game. I think 1-2 players would be OK, maybe even 1-4 (I have some thoughts on doubling the deck and playing with up to 4 players, but the setup/format at each player count might have to be different) could work if they don't mind doubling the card count... but will it work solo?

Well, I have been doing some solo testing by simply dealing out cards at random for the opponent, and that works alright -- maybe that could be adapted into a proper solo mode.

So that's what I've been up to lately. Those two games, Division of Labor, and prototyping a simplified version of Keeping Up With The Joneses to see how that works.

Division of Labor 5p playtest

 I finally got a 5p test in of Division of Labor last night! It went alright. There was one brand new player, and the rules took us almost 30 mins for some reason - I sometimes think teaching a game is harder to do on TTS than IRL, but that did seem excessive. Then the play took a full 2 hours, which is on the high end of the range I expected. I'd prefer a little shorter duration, but I don't think 2h is out of the question for 5p. Also, I think that game took longer than average due to the new player, but of course, every person who plays after publication will be a new player at some point! 

I got a lot of feedback about certain aspects of the game, all of which is useful, but my goal for this test was specifically to see how 5p worked, and what changes would need to be made to accommodate the 5th player. Here are some observations I made specific to 5p:

1. Turn order compensation 

For 5p, I reduced the number of rounds from 5 to 4. This is mostly to keep the duration down, and I think it was fine, but it also means the player that goes last in round 1 (arguably the worst position) also never gets a chance to go first, which seems like a clue that turn order compensation would be in order. This came up in our last 4p game as well, and I just haven't gotten around to trying it yet. My thought is to give late turn order players (maybe just the last player) a random cube from the bag... or if that's not enough, maybe 2 cubes.

2. Penalty tracks 

Because there is 1 fewer round (and relative to 2-3p games, you get your 3rd worker 1 round later as well), you end up doing approximately 4 fewer turns, which means about 8 fewer penalty track bumps on average... Which means players won't be pushing up against game end penalties-though the early game in-game penalties are probably fine). I might want to reduce the track lengths for 5p, probably taking a space out of the middle section (between the 1st and 2nd penalties).

I seem to recall having a similar thought for 4p, so maybe the penalty track board could be two sided, with 4-5p penalty tracks on one side, and 2-3p tracks on the other that are 1 space longer. 

3. Worker spaces 

I was afraid this would be a problem... In lower player count games, there has always been enough worker spaces to go around, we've never had a player be unable to place a worker (though if enough players earn their extra worker off the training track, I think it's not impossible). In 5p, the way I had it set up, in the turn you get your 3rd worker automatically, there will be 14 worker spaces, and 15 workers (or more!). So immediately this is a problem. For the playtest we said that if you are unable to place a worker, you get a consolation prize of 1 cube of your choice. 

That allowed us to play, but it's not an ideal solution. I think I need to make sure that there are always enough spaces for all the workers in play. However, in a rare case where multiple players train their extra worker, there will be situations where this problem arises, unless I add a LOT of extra spaces (which might not be so terrible, perhaps). So, I'll think about how many spaces I'd need at an absolute maximum and consider making that available (a fortuitous side effect is that means almost always there will be some islands where the cubes accumulate and then you split like 6 cubes instead of 3). Failing that, another consolation prize option could be a free Explore action in any island you want... That's not nothing. Maybe also a random (or chosen) cube. If the consolation could be useful enough, then that might be preferable to the setup getting out of control! 

4. Letter token limit 

I had been scaling the number of each letter token because I thought "naturally there ought to be enough to go around." My last epiphany was that maybe scaling those isn't actually necessary, mostly because not every player will be going for them anyway. So lately I have been using 5 of each token no matter the player count. That's more than the 3 I had previously used for 2p games, which means there can be more of a back-and-forth fight for majority perhaps, and also that blue cubes don't become meaningless so quickly... 

My concern for 5p was that despite that revelation, 5 players might just be too many for that number of tokens. In our game last night, 2 players went heavily into the set collection (1 got a complete set, the other got shut out of one of the letters, costing them 4vp), 1 more ended up with 3 of the letters, and the last two players only got 2 letters. That result wasn't too bad really, and if it's common, then maybe 5 tokens per letter is enough after all. I'm tempted to up that a little bit though, maybe just 1 more of each token... Though I'd hate to change setup for only one player count :/ So maybe I'll leave it as 5 for now. 

Also, we upped the majority bonus a tiny bit... Instead of 1 point per majority, we got 2 points for a clear majority, and 1 point for a tie. I'm not sure if this was any better, but at least it was a little more complicated :) I do kind of like the idea of majority feeling worth going for.

Another suggestion that has come up, probably instead of a majority bonus, is to allow players to *spend* the letters for some effect. I'm not sure what effect would make sense - boosting actions, I guess. Maybe I could color code the letter tiles, so you spend the red one to boost the red action, for example, making them similar to the cubes "in hand," only they don't cancel penalties, and they are potentially worth more points. Does that mean they're better, or worse?

5. Letters "over-centralized"? 

Not related to 5p, but a concern keeps coming up (from the same people, so it may or may not be a universal concern) that the letter set collection is basically worth too much, they felt like the winner did that, and if you want to compete, you cannot ignore the set collection. I am not sure if I 100% agree that it's a problem, but I DO 100% agree that it would be bad if that were true!

Potential solutions, if it IS a problem, include:

* Nerfing the points, especially at the high end (doesn't have to be exactly triangular)

* Boosting the value of other aspects (e.g. buildings score face value rather than 1vp)

Side note on the set scoring...

Currently I'm using triangular scoring for different letters plus majority bonus for each. I also liked the multiplicative scoring (number different x number same) with a majority bonus for each as well, which was out of control when the letters scaled per player count, but is ok with a max of 5, though it *can* get up to pretty high scoring. Someone recently suggested RA monument type scoring, where you get triangular type score for variety, and then for each letter you get a flat bonus if you have at least 3 of them (so nothing for 1 or 2, except the set scoring) - that's pretty similar to the majority bonus, but I like that you don't have to count everyone else's stuff to get your score, so maybe I should try that - maybe 0/0/1/2/3vp for 1/2/3/4/5 of each type (AKA 1vp for each letter beyond your 2nd of each type).

6. Also unrelated to 5p, a suggestion came up that I don't want to forget about, so I'll include it here. It happens to be something I'd considered initially. but haven't given any further thought to yet. The suggestion was to make the Island tiles more distinct, more different from each other, perhaps by adding some kind of effect to them. For example:

• When you Split here, take a letter tile from the Choose player
• When you Split here, take a cube from the Choose player
• When you Place here, take a [red] cube from the bag into hand
• When you Choose here, you may add a cube of your choice from the bag to the island

I think this kind of thing could give the islands a bit more character

Division of Labor: My favorite mechanisms

 Jamey Stegmaier has a video series on his YouTube channel called My Favorite Mechanisms in which he makes short videos for various games he has played, highlighting mechanisms he finds interesting, clever, or fun. As I approach the finish line on my latest design, Division of Labor, I thought I might try to do a post highlighting some mechanisms in the game that I'm particularly proud of or happy with. So here we go!

I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

The core mechanism of the game is worker placement mixed with I-Cut-You-Choose. While WP is a very common mechanism, ICYC seems a little underused, and I actually get the impression that it's a well-liked mechanism, with its popularity on the rise. But most games I can think of that use ICYC are small games where that's the whole game: from older titles like Colloretto, Zooscape, and Tussie Mussie, to new ones like The Great Split. There's a classic game called San Marco that utilized ICYC pretty well, though people say it's really only good at exactly 3 players. I did think Zooloretto did a pretty good job of building a bigger game out of the mechanism that is Coloretto - that's probably my favorite entry in the genre so far.

Division of Labor uses ICYC to drive a game that has a lot more going on, which I think came together pretty well.

"Penalty" tracks

As a key part of the ICYC mechanism, I think a "poison pill" is necessary - like the penalty you get in Zooloretto for taking an animal into your barn because you haven't got room for it in an enclosure. In Division of Labor, you are able to do 2 different colored actions per turn, but your split might have 3 or even all 4 colors of action cubes in it. Doing the same colored action too often, or taking splits with extra cubes you won't be using are ways to introduce this idea of "poison" into the game, which helps make the splitting and choosing really work well.

Note that you can mitigate the in-game penalties with a couple of the actions by gaining cubes to store on your board, covering up the penalty spaces on the tracks. However, if you do a particular action too many times, you could still end up with some negative points at the end of the game.

Overbuilding

A happy accident in Division of Labor is the dynamic born of the ability to cover up smaller buildings with larger ones of the same shape. I initially allowed this as a way to sort of increase the amount of space to build, so it wouldn't be too frustrating. But it led to a dynamic where building early for the uncovered benefit on your player board made you susceptible to being covered up, while waiting and building later in the game could potentially be better for scoring (cover up opponents' buildings, and ensure yours are in play to score at game end). That was an unintended dynamic that emerged, and one I'm pretty happy about. 

Overbuilding also makes the game feel a little more interactive than some euro-style WP games. 

Explore as a backup option

In Division of Labor, there are 4 actions color-coded to the action cubes, but anytime you're resolving an action with some cubes, instead of the action associated with those cubes' color, you may opt to Explore - drawing 1 tile per cube and choosing one to add to the island, augmenting the whole island for everyone. Doing this gives you a small benefit of your choice from what's available on the tile you added (a free level 1 building - if you haven't already built it, a free icon token - if any remain, or a free cube of a particular color). of course, the more tiles you draw to choose from, then more options you have.

Being able to Explore, which is never amazing but is also never bad - it's always a little bit good - means that you're never stuck with cubes you cannot use, and it also means you can explore with your first action in an attempt to improve your second action, making room for clever plays.

One of the building types allows you to draw additional tiles when you explore, which means you'll have a lot better odds of getting something useful, facilitating these clever plays even more.