Skye Frontier - 4p playtest

 I got a chance to play a 4p game of Skye Frontier this afternoon with Rick, Aaron, and a new arrival at my playtest group, Eric. Other than some technical difficulties right at the start, I think it went fairly well...

The game only took about an hour, but I think we got enough stuff done. I audibled during the game to awarding N coins for completing an area of size N (instead of N-2), which spend the game up a little bit -- with that change I should probably add a few coins to the supply (like 18-20 coins per player rather than 15/player). Also, my current rules say that the game ends at the end of a turn when the coin supply runs out, but it seemed clear that we should finish out the round.

We used the tweaks I decided on after last week's 2-player test:

• Scrolls cost 1 of each cube (rather than 1 of any cube), and are worth 1x value (2x if in a completed area)
• Start with 1 of each cube (rather than producing in each area, which amounts to about 2 of each cube or so)

Those seemed to work OK, and seemed to have the expected effect - more people were storing tiles, and the Build action being used more.

Here are some notes from this session:

• Barrel icons should be worth something extra, since there aren't as many things that score for them. Conveniently, they have a coin icon incorporated into them, so maybe I could just make them worth 1vp at game end
• OR... one (or two) of my players suggested just removing the barrels, making fewer total icons, and making it a little bit easier to get the other icons you're after
• We used 4 each score tiles, scroll tiles, and regular tiles to explore. I had considered scaling the regular tiles by using N+1, so no matter what all players would be choosing from 2 or 3 of them every time. I think I might try that next time. As for score and scroll tiles, I might try reducing those to 3 next time
• I haven't ever used it, but technically there's a rule in the rules doc that say s you can draw a scroll tile off the deck if you don't like what you see, but I don't like that, so I'll be deleting that rule
• As mentioned above, I think I'll award N points for completing an area of size N (rather than N-2). Originally I wanted to disincentivize making a bunch of small size-2 areas, but I'm not sure that's necessary or worth the extra rule
• Also as mentioned above, I think we should play out the round after the game end triggers so players get an equal number of turns

The players all said they did enjoy the game, so maybe it's time to start looking for a re-skin or re-theme. Since I've been calling it "Skye Frontier," it's made me think of a game about airships and flying islands, with something of a steampunk vibe, but I don't have anything specific in mind. One of my players had some good, unusual ideas, which I'll list here so I can find them later:

• The scrolls suggest towns or factories that need specific resources. Could be like space colonies or factories.
• Or make it ecosystem themed - icons are prey, scrolls are predators, trading is migrating or something
• Ok this might run into appropriation issues but: volcano island culture, scrolls are temples, icons are villages and farms, trading is sacrificing to the volcano (or boats represent escaping/expeditions to another island?)
• A little more abstract could be restaurant manager themed: castle represents your restaurant, trading is delivering food, icons are food suppliers (butchers, farms, fishers, specialties like truffles), and scrolls are restaurant reviewers. "Exploring" is connecting with new suppliers, terrain could be growing regions OR cuisine styles

It was good to have a full test, to get a full table of testers, and to have a game go over decently well!