Game Auction on BGG

I have posted a Game Auction on BGG, selling off pretty much every game I own (save a few that I actually expect to play soon or often).

Some of my favorite games are on that list, but I figure if it hasn't hit the table in over a year, it's hard to argue that I need to keep it!

So take a look, and if there's something you like, feel free to bid!

Somebody asked me about donations. I hate the thought of asking for handouts, which is why I thought it was better to sell off these games, but if you are so inclined I suppose I wouldn't turn it down. Maybe the best way to handle that is with the donation link at the Board Game Designer's Forum. I pay for that every month, so any donations there will help me directly and would be much appreciated!

Thanks everyone for your support. I feel kinda like a jerk complaining about my robbery when other people have real problems (like when their house got destroyed by a natural disaster, or their child died). But I appreciate the help all the same!

Robbery Relief Game Auction

I posted an auction list at BGG - feel free to check it out, and if something interests you then place a bid.

Thanks!

Fundraising Game Auction

I apologize in advance for this off topic and sort of whiny post.

If you follow my FB or Twitter stuff then you already know that yesterday my house was broken into and I was robbed of a great deal of cash as well as my iPad and a few other little things. I am no stranger to theft and loss - over the years I have had wallets stolen (out of my jacket, out of my car, out of my backpack) as well as bicycles (3 in a 6 month period)... but the value of this particular loss was about an order of magnitude larger than all the rest combined, and because much of it was cash, it won't be covered by insurance.

It's been a bummer to say the least, and to make matters worse, it happened while I was out negotiating a deal on a car...

In an effort to recoup some of that money (which was to be my down payment), I have decided to host a game auction on BGG. I have an awful lot of games, many of which I never play. With the exception of a few favorites, I think I'll put them all up and see if I can get any interest in any of them. I could really use the money!

So if you are interested in buying a game and helping me out, stay tuned - I'll probably put up that geeklist in the next couple of days.

And to be at least a little bit on-topic...

RECENT GAMING
I have played an awful lot of Lords of Waterdeep lately. With two caveats, I find it's a very solid game and I like t very much.
Caveat #1: Remove Mandatory Quests - The Mandatory Quests are a bummer pretty much all the time - often you don't want to draw it, because it does not net you anything, and it sucks to have a Mandatory Quest played on you, because (especially if it's in the last round or two) it can keep you from scoring a large VP Quest that you've spent multiple turns building up to. Nobody I know likes those cards, so I simply leave them in the box when I play.
Caveat #2: Remove the Lord which rewards buildings - In some games I think it's fair and balanced, but with a Quest, a Building, and several Intrigue cards which allow a player to build even if the building space is occupied, in some games I think that Buildings are too available, making that Lord too easy to dominate with. So I simply leave it in the box to ensure a more fair game.

I just got Castles of Burgundy and I've played it a number of times already. I enjoy it more as I play more and discover strategies and tactical tricks. However, I do think it takes too long, and much like Martin Wallace's London, I'm surprised at the degree to which you cannot plan your turn ahead of time in this day and age.

KublaPros and KublaCons

Last weekend I attended KublaCon, as I've done every Memorial day since 2005. Most years I log about 30-40 games played, and I've developed a long list of people who I see only once or twice a year. It's been a few years since I've been eligible to enter the Kublacon Game Design Contest (or as I call it, the "KublaContest") - but I still choose KublaCon for my Memorial Day convention over the closer, cheaper to get to, Gamex convention in Los Angeles. This year KublaCon was a little different for me - here's a brief account of some of the pros and cons of my trip this year:

Pros
Right off the bat I had a nice opportunity - I had bought a direct light to SFO, and they said they needed someone to bump. I generally don't like to do that at the beginning of my vacations because I want to get where I'm going. This time however thy were able to route me through LAX with a short layover (which gave me time to eat), and for $311 in flight vouchers I arrived just an hour or so later than originally planned!

I got to visit with a number of friends who I never get to see - this year that included Andrew, Paul, Rick, Helen, Marlin, Fred, Miguel, Peter Hansell (TableStar games), Leah and Matt, Ceej, Chris and Susan McKinley Ross.

This year I got to spend a lot more time than usual talking to James Ernest, which was fun (he's a funny guy!), and I met the special guest from the convention, Martin Wallace. I've never met Martin before, and for some reason I expected him to be standoffish or something. I don't know why I thought that, but I'm happy to report that Mr. Wallace was a really nice and friendly guy! I also met the Game Whisperer himself, Richard Bliss, and spoke briefly with Doug Garret and Scott Alden as well. I even met Evan Denbaum, who would have been a part time employee of Tasty Minstrel Games, if not for receiving a position at Electronic Arts. Finally, I met Dennis, a $250 supporter of Eminent Domain (he named a planet after his daughter: Echo Rose).

Oh, and I got a chance to see a game by Candy Weber which sounds like it will be published soon! Congrats Candy!

Cons
I don't mean to complain, but this year was not the best for me. Mostly it's my own fault - I feel like I was underprepared for the con this year. First off, the night before every convention nowadays I seem to have trouble sleeping. I don't know if it's anxiety, or anticipation, or what. This time I was up all night creating a final art prototype of Ground Floor to take with me, and I only got 2 hours of sleep (if that). With how little sleep I tend to get at conventions, it would be nice if I could at least get a good night's sleep before the convention!

I normally head out to KublaCon on Thursday night, so that I can enjoy the con all day Friday. By contrast, the Strategicon conventions in L.A. tend to not really get started until late Friday afternoon. I suspect that's what I had in mind when I was shopping for plane tickets, and I ended up with a flight arriving at about 4pm on Friday. When I arrived at the hotel (about 5:30pm - see above) it occurred to me that I was actually a day later than normal, and I'd missed out on most of Friday!

For the second time in a row now I appear to have forgotten to pre-register for the convention!

While this convention was a good one for me socially, it turned out not to be a very good one game-ially. I only played about 8 games, 2 of which were Yahtzee Free-For-All, and none of which were on my list of games I really wanted to play while I was there. Here's what I played at KublaCon:
Battle Line with Miguel
Alter Ego playtest with Miguel
Castles of Burgundy with Evan Denbaum
Eat Poop you cat with Miguel and company
Yahtzee Free-For-All with Chris and Susan McKinley Ross
Yahtzee Free-For-All with Andrew, Elmer, and Andrews other friend
Glory to Rome with Andrew, Elmer, and Andrews other friend
Unpublished Martin Wallace game

In addition I did demo Ground Floor several times, and Eminent Domain: Escalation once. But while it's important, demoing games is not the same as playing games!

I would have preferred to be better prepared going into the convention - if I'm going to demo games, it's better to get them on the schedule, have specific times for the demos. Also maybe I'll try harder to arrange specific games if I want to play them - I didn't really play anything on my list this time. It never seemed to be a problem before, but I think there are more demands on my time nowadays, so I would do better to plan ahead a little more.

Monthly recap - May 2012

I think I'll try a new thing... I have this dry erase calendar at work, and when I erase it and reset it for the next month I'll try posting a recap of the previous month of my life. Let's see if this idea lasts...

May 2012

I don't have much written on the calendar on the first 1/2 of the month, but I think that's because I was lax in updating it more than because I didn't do anything. It does appear that the month was somewhat uneventful though.


5/11 I drove up to Phoenix to meet with Patrick Nickell of Crash Games (as well as Fred McKenzie of Clever Mojo, Tory Neimann, and Nathan Kohatsu). We played some games and that was fun. The next day I stopped by and had lunch with my old friends Chris and Becky, who I hadn't seen since way before their second daughter was born (she's like 2 or 3 years old now).

5/19 the Ides of Gaming event that I run at Espresso Art on campus was bigger and better than it has been in recent history - more people and more fun all around.

5/25 - 5/28 I went to Burlingame, CA for KublaCon. KublaCon is a lot of fun, and I normally get to play a lot of games. This time however I was under-prepared as far as gaming is concerned, so I barely played anything at all. I did however get to meet Martin Wallace, attend several interesting seminars by Wallace, James Ernest, and Richard Bliss, listen to (and participate in) a live recording of a podcast (part 1 part 2), and visit with some friends.

I demo'ed Ground Floor (14 hours left on the Kickstarter! Will it break $100k?) three times, and got to play one of my prototypes once, and one of Martin Wallace's as well. I played only a couple of commercial games (Castles of Burgundy, Glory to Rome, Yahtzee Free-For-All, and Battle Line) and I played 1 game of Eat Poop You Cat (AKA Paper Telephone or Telestrations). Not a whole lot of gaming for a con at which I used to log 40 plays of various things!

I did take the airline up on its offer to pay me $311 in flight vouchers in exchange for bumping to a different flight. So I flew through LAX (instead of direct), had time to eat at McDonald's, and arrived about an hour or so later than originally scheduled. Seems like a good deal to me!

That's about it for May! See you next month...

How to get into game design

I was offered the opportunity to write something up for Why I Design Games - Collected essays from established game designers on the theory, art, and compulsion of board game design. 

 I was excited about the opportunity, but when considering why I design games, I found my thoughts coalescing more toward the question "how does one get into the game design hobby?" So I answered that question instead. Have a look, and leave a comment (here or there) - I'm interested in what you think!

KublaCon 2012 - Here I come!

I stayed up all night preparing a full art prototype copy of Ground Floor to bring with me to KublaCon today. If you're going to be at the convention and you would like to try out the game before deciding to pledge for a copy, find me and we'll make it happen!

I'm also bring my prototypes for the following upcoming TMG games:
* Belfort : the Expansion Expansion
* Eminent Domain: Escalation
* Kings of Air and Steam
* Titans of Industry - NOT Titans of Industry! I guess we need a new title for this one :(
* Alter Ego

As well as a couple old standbys that may or may not be upcoming TMG releases (at the moment they are not officially "on the list," but they may be soon):
* Exhibit: Artifacts of the Ages
* Dice Works
* Wizard's Tower

I've been known to bring more than this in the past, but this is it this time. Unless you count Brain Freeze on my iPad :)

I posted a geeklist of stuff I might like to play, but it's pretty half-hearted this time, including mostly those prototypes I am bringing. I just want to hang out with people and play something fun, I don't even know what. I would like to play Trajan though. And of course I intend to show Ground Floor to people and encourage them to pledge on Kickstarter. David and I even made business cards with a URL and a QR code leading to the KS page for Ground Floor - they look awesome!

I'll also be promoting RinCon while I'm there - which really just means mentioning it, and potentially handing out some flyers we made.

T-minus 6 hours and counting!

Themestorming session #1 (Exhibit): Success!

I had a nice long chat with Clive and John in a G+ Hangout to do some Themestorming for Exhibit: Artifacts of the Ages, with the goal of getting thematic names for the special tiles. I think it was rather successful, here's what I've got now:

1) Government Grant
2) Research Assistants
3) Professor Emeritus
4) Antiquities Broker
5) Expanded Vault
6) Deadbeat Shill (maybe there's a better name for this)
7) Philanthropist
8) Premium Show Case (or Premium Display)
9) Holy Grail

I am wondering if I need to worry about creating individual (real or imagined) artifacts, or if it'll suffice to say that "that tile is an Early Roman Tool."

Alter Ego, Exhibit, and Theme-storming

I was up in Phoenix this weekend, meeting with Patrick Nickell of Crash Games, Fred McKenzie of Clever Mojo Games, Nathan Kohatsu, and Tory Neimann - and we got a chance to play a couple of prototypes:

Alter Ego

Patrick, Nathan and I went through the current version of Alter Ego, with the fresh new organizational format I thought up in the car on the drive up.

I was disappointed in how fiddly the turns seemed to be last Tuesday, and how complicated it sounded to get Teamwork Tokens and Call the Cops. I figured a player aid would help the situation, but I hadn't made any yet - and while it would be a reminder, it would not actually simplify anything. I'm really happy with the idea I came up with in the car. Imagine a player board, approximately 4" tall by 11" wide, divided into 5 columns as follows (with the following information in each - probably abbreviated and/or iconized):

1. Income Phase (skip if no cards are played to this column): Collect 1 $ token for each $ icon you have in play. Job cards, some equipment, and some Henchmen have $ icons.

2. Support Phase (skip if no cards are played to this column): Draw 1 card for each [card] icon you have in play. Family cards, some equipment, and some Henchmen have [card] icons. Collect 1 Teamwork Token for every 3 Teamwork icons you have in play.

3. Patrol Phase (NEVER SKIP! 1 Henchman icon printed on board): Draw 1 Henchman card for each [henchman] icon you have in play. Put 1 of those into play, discard the rest face down. Community cards, some equipment, and some Henchmen have [henchman] icons. For every 4 [henchman] icons you have in play, you may call in an Anonymous Tip (discard a henchman and rescue any hostages on him).

4. Fight Phase (skip if no cards are played to this column): You may spend Hero icons that you have in play to rescue Civilians. Hero cards, some equipment, and some Henchmen have Hero icons. You may give up to 1 Teamwork Token to each opponent in order to use 1 Hero card in their display. You may discard 2 Teamwork Tokens in lieu of any 1 Hero icon for the turn.

5. Recoup Phase (NEVER SKIP!): Discard all cards in your display and all $ tokens. Take a new card from the table and place it in your display. Play 4 cards from your hand into your display. Discard the rest of your hand. Draw 4 cards, plus 1 more for each Henchman you have defeated.

The way I wrote it above reads more like a rulebook, but that's really because I'm not sure the readers of this blog are super familiar with the rules so I wanted to be more clear. I imagine it would be more reminder rather than rules text-y. I even think it could be awesome artistically. I imagine a sort of panorama which starts with morning: in a suit going to work at the left end (Income), afternoon: guy at home with family (Support), evening: patrolling the streets (Patrol), nighttime: fighting a bad guy (Fight), and maybe dawn: battered hero returning home (Recoup).


I have not played Sentinels of the Multiverse, but from the day it was announced I had feared that Alter Ego may not be viable anymore because the theme and game sounded similar (cooperative superhero card game). However, Nathan assured me that Alter Ego may be viable after all, and he mentioned that even in its present state (which I think is still too fiddly) he thought it was much more streamlined than SotMV. Sentinels seems to be enjoying great success, as evidenced by the blockbuster Kickstarter performance of the expansion. Hopefully I can get Alter Ego to a point where I'm happy with it - it sounds to me like sentinels is a much different game anyway.

Exhibit: Artifacts of the Ages

This morning on the way out of Phoenix I had lunch with an old friend Chris and his wife Becky. They were nice enough to try out a TMG submission I had brought with me, and then we played the latest version of Exhibit. Chris had played the game a while ago (and liked it at that time). Not much has changed since then - just the Consolation bid for not winning any auctions, the multiple tiles in an auction when nobody wins one, and the new Grant idea (one shot "wild weapon" of which each player started with one). Long ago I decided that I liked the Consolation bid. More recently (which is still about a year ago!) I decided I liked unclaimed artifacts sticking around for the following round (when the top 2 bids without going over will get one). The new idea is the Grants.

The first time I tried these I gave every player 1 Grant for each color (except Purple). That seemed like overkill - people didn't use very many, and it amounted to 35 components which didn't seem worth it. My plan for the next time was to give each player 3 Grants that can be used on any color other than Purple, however at the last minute I decided to just try 1 such Grant per player. the single grant seemed to work just fine, and I don't think I need to add more.

I think Exhibit is about done. It does tend to take a bit longer than I'd like, so I'm going to try starting the game with 2 Artifacts in each auction for the first round. I expect that to do 3 things - first, it will cut a round off of the game which will reduce the play time by at least a little bit. Second, it should help with the same thing the Grant was helping with - making it easier to get something going in the early game. And finally, it will give more players an Artifact going into round 2, and therefore a reason to want 1 artifact over another.

Other than that mall change to the beginning of the game, the only think I need to do is some Theme-storming in order to attach some meaning to the Purple tiles, and maybe the artifacts as well.

Themestorming

I think that a hallmark of a good game - and something I think Tasty Minstrel Games has going for it - is having a great look and feel in addition to being an interesting game. Theme and art factor heavily into that, so I need to add chrome to the parts of the game that are still abstract or are placeholders. This holds true for all of the games I'm working on, so I think it would be good to get some help with it. I'd like to start holding Themestorming sessions, on IRC, or a G+ hangout. If you'd like to participate in those conversations, then please feel free to do so! Leave a comment and I'll make sure I let you know when it's going to happen. Thanks!

Under the Hood: Belfort

"Under the Hood" is a series of strategy articles about the inner workings of games developed for Tasty Minstrel Games. Watch for these posts a couple months after the release of the game so that players have a chance to explore the game for themselves first!

Under the Hood: Belfort

Belfort is a game with a jovial and lighthearted theme – as a Master Architect, you direct a workforce of fantasy characters who toil to erect buildings which make up the city of Belfort. But don’t be deceived by the cute elves, dwarves, and gnomes on the box! Belfort is a heavy game of resource management, area control, and strategy!

Large vs small workforce
Like many worker placement games, Belfort rewards players for increasing their workforce. While it’s possible to win without your full complement of Elves and Dwarves, it’s very difficult if you don’t at least hire 1 or 2 more workers. With no upkeep cost, the only real down-side to hiring is the upfront cost – a placement and 2 Gold to go to the HR Department. After a point, the return on that investment diminishes – if you hire a Dwarf in round 4 for example, he’ll only provide 3 placements before the game is over. A round 4 Dwarf will pay for itself, and may contribute to resource majorities and points, but it’s nowhere near as useful as a turn 1 Dwarf! And while a turn 1 Dwarf is awesome, it does cost a significant portion of your starting capital. So be sure to hire when the opportunity arises and you can afford it, but also make sure you’ll get your money’s worth out of your new employee!

Gardens and Pubs are good Properties when working with a small workforce. They are inexpensive, they increase your income, and by turning a worker into a Master, they allow you to increase your resource gathering ability.

Income generation vs Taxes
There are 3 types of buildings in Belfort – Properties, Guilds, and Walls. Properties have a wide range of cost and effects. Guilds are expensive, but do not require a card – meaning you can build them in whichever district you want. They provide income when used, and that income comes at an interesting time: during the Placement phase. Walls are moderately priced, but provide no income at all, making them very poor choices in the early game. The strength of a wall is in the late game, when you know which district you’d like to build in, but do not have the correct card to build there.

Deciding which Property to build is one of the interesting things you’ll do in a game of Belfort. You’ll want to consider the ability – would you like to use many building powers and fight for Gnome majority? Maybe the Tower is a good choice – but you should also consider the income of the Property. The Inn is a good building for expanding your workforce, but with no income it can really hurt when tax time comes around. The Keep is expensive and only good for scoring, but it does give 1 gold income as well.

If you can produce more income from buildings than you are paying in taxes, then you’ll have a lot more gold to spend on things like Gnomes and Guilds!

Majority scoring
It’s easy to forget while building properties and collecting resources that you only score for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd majorities in each district. Placing additional ownership markers in a district where you’re already way ahead may be a waste of resources! Also, keep in mind when hiring new workers that there are points to be had for controlling the most Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes.

One more note about area majority scoring – it’s better to score 2^nd place in two districts than it is to score 1^st place in one!

Belfort has another area majority mechanism in addition to scoring – bonus resources from the Forest, Quarry, and Mines. Being the last player to pass gives you the advantage of seeing where other players have sent their workers, but every placement spent stalling means 1 fewer worker to send for resources. Earn majority bonuses where you can, but make sure you’re getting the resources you need to build this turn, and don’t forget about your taxes!

King’s Camp
Turn order in Belfort is unusual – it doesn’t change unless you go to the King’s Camp and change it. And when you do that, you get to CHOOSE your turn order. It can be advantageous to go first for the best worker placement choices next round, but that can also make you a target for another player to take your turn order crest. You could choose to go 2^nd, hoping that a future player will choose to take the turn order crest from player 1 rather than you, while still getting an early placement order. You could even choose to go last, which is especially strong in a scoring round so you can see where other payers have placed their ownership markers. However, going last runs the risk of the spots where you’d like to place drying up.

Some guilds, such as the Thieves’ Guild and the Bandits’ Guild, make the King’s camp a much more important consideration, so it’s important to look at what guilds are in play when you decide how you want to deal with turn order. Maybe a trip to the King’s Camp is the right play!

Alter Ego Rules - v2.4

Alter Ego
By Seth Jaffee – Rules v2.4
A cooperative deck building game of vigilante heroism

You won't see Crime City on any map, but that's how people have come to know your hometown. Sadists, Anarchists, and the Mafia each carving out portions of the city they call their own. Hundreds of innocent bystanders caught up every day in their turf wars, or held under their oppressive thumbs. Precious few have the time, the money, the guts, or the wherewithal to do anything about it. You're one of those few... Of course it means you'll have to give up that happy home life, or that cushy job. The paper paints vigilantism in a negative light - you'd be viewed by the community as a monster. But your city bleeds... the city bleeds and it calls your name. Will you answer?

You're a vigilante hero, one of the few in Crime City who have come together to put an end to the reign of terror the city's been trapped under. Banding together, you'll fight through a swath of henchmen in order to find and defeat several Arch Villains. But as you get stronger as a hero, you'll have to neglect some parts of your Alter Ego life - your family, your job, and your community.

Components:
50 Hero cards (5 types)
75 Alter Ego Cards
- 25 Family Cards
- 25 Job Cards
- 25 Community Cards
XX Henchmen Cards
9 Arch Villain Cards (3 types)
XX Nemesis Cards
XX Equipment Cards
XX Civilian (CIV) Tokens (3 types)
XX Teamwork Tokens
27 Arch Villain Tokens
[XX Cop Tokens]

Setup:
1. Shuffle the Henchmen cards to create the henchmen deck. Place this deck in the middle of the table.
2. Randomly choose 1 Arch Villain of each type. Those will be the Arch Villains used this game, put the rest back into the box.
3. Sort the Hero and Equipment cards by type and place them in piles in the center of the table, accessible by all players.
4. Give each player 4 of each Alter Ego card (Family, Job, and Community). Sort the rest of the Alter Ego cards by type and place them alongside the Hero cards.
5. Each player shuffles his deck of 12 Alter Ego cards and deals 4 cards face up into his "display" area, then draws a hand of 4 from the remaining cards in his deck.
6. Sort the Civ tokens by type and create pools of each. Also create a pool of Teamwork tokens.
7. Deal each player 1 Nemesis card, which they keep hidden from other players.

Terminology: In order to make it easier to describe the steps of the turn, the term Trophy will be used. A Trophy is an icon on a Henchman card that you have defeated.

Player Turns:
Players take turns one at a time resolving each phase of their own turn before the next player plays. Each turn consists of the following phases, in order:

1.       Income phase: Collect income from your Job:
* For each Job card in your display, collect $1
* If you have at least 1 Job card in your display, collect $1 for each $ Trophy in your play area.
You may spend these $s to buy or activate Equipment this turn.

2.       Patrol phase: On your turn you must first bring a henchman into play:
* Draw 1 card from the Henchmen deck.
* If you have any face up Community cards in your display, draw 1 additional Henchman card for each Community card.
* If you have at least 1 Community card in your display, draw 1 additional Henchman card for each Community Trophy in your play area.
* Choose 1 of the drawn Henchman cards to put into play, and discard the rest in a face down discard pile.
* "Call the Cops" - If you have at least 3 Community icons in play and played at least 1 Community card, then you may [discard a Cop token from the group's supply and] remove 1 Henchman card in play from the game. Any hostages on that henchman are considered rescued and are returned to their supply pools. No player takes the Henchman card into their play area.

When a henchman comes into play he takes some civilians hostage! Place CIV tokens on the Henchman card as indicated. If a CIV token must be taken but the supply is empty, then the game is over and the Villains win!

                                                                          

3.       Support phase: After a Henchman has come into play, you may gain support from your family, allowing you to draw cards from your deck:
* For each Family card in your display, draw 2 cards from your deck.
* If you have at least 1 Family card in your display, also draw 1 card from your deck for each Family Trophy in your play area.
* If you have at least 3 Family icons in play and played at least 1 Family card, then you may collect 1 Teamwork token from the supply.

4.       Equip phase: You may spend money on fancy equipment to make you a stronger hero:
You may spend $s to buy as many new Equipment cards as you can afford. Place these cards in your discard pile, unless the card indicates that it should be placed directly into play.

5.       Crime-fighting phase: Now that you have geared up and garnered the support of your friends and family, it's time to go fight some crime!
* Hero cards in your display may be spent to rescue CIV tokens currently being held on a Henchman card. Hero cards spent must match the icons depicted on the Henchman card. The rescued CIV token is returned to the supply UNLESS that henchman’s Arch Villain is in play. See Arch Villains below.
* If you have at least 1 Hero card of a particular type in your display, you may use the matching Hero Trophies in your play area.
* You may "request help" from another player. Give an opponent 1 Teamwork token in order to use one of the Hero cards in their display (they need not discard it). You can only request help from each opponent once per turn, and each request requires a Teamwork token.
* You may discard 2 Teamwork tokens to the general supply in lieu of any 1 Hero symbol.
* If the last CIV token on a henchman is rescued, that henchman is DEFEATED, and then you may keep that henchman in your play area and gain the printed benefit (Trophy).
* Whenever a henchman is defeated, check to see if it has any Arch Villain icons. For each Arch Villain icon, place an Arch Villain token on the matching Arch Villain card. Once enough Arch Villain tokens are placed on an Arch Villain card, that Arch Villain will come into play and terrorize the city until he is defeated! (See Arch Villains – below)

6.       Recoup phase: After you're all spent from fighting crime, you get a chance to recuperate and plan your next turn.
* Discard all cards in your display.
* Play 4 cards from your hand face up into your display.
* For each Display icon on Equipment or henchmen you have defeated (in your play area), you may play an additional card face up into your display.
* Choose a Hero or Alter Ego card from the supply stacks and place it face up in your display.
* Discard the rest of your hand, then draw 4 new cards from your deck (shuffle your discard pile as needed) plus 1 card for each Hand Size icon on henchmen you have defeated (in your play area).

Play continues with the next player in clockwise order. 

Arch Villains:
When Arch Villains come into play, they take hostages just as Henchmen do. Place CIV tokens on the Arch Villain card as indicated. If a CIV token must be taken but the supply is empty, then the game is over and the Villains win!

While an Arch Villain is in play, Civ tokens rescued by defeating henchmen are removed from the game instead of returned to the supply. Civ tokens rescued from the Arch Villain card are returned to the supply as normal.

Game End:
When the last Arch Villain is defeated, then the game is over. The Heroes have saved Crime City from the clutches of evil and everybody wins!

OR...

When the last Arch Villain is defeated, then the game is over. The Heroes have saved Crime City from the clutches of evil! Any player who has defeated their Nemesis wins a Personal Victory, while all players win a Cooperative Victory.

OR...

When the last Arch Villain is defeated, then the game is over. If all players have defeated their Nemesis, then the Heroes have saved Crime City from the clutches of evil and everybody wins! Otherwise, the Nemeses who were not defeated rise up and overtake Crime City!

OR...

When any player defeats their Nemesis OR the last Arch Villain is defeated, then the game is over. If the game ended because a Nemesis was defeated, then the player defeating their Nemesis wins. If the game ended because an Arch Villain was defeated, then the Heroes have saved Crime City from the clutches of evil and everybody wins!

If at any time a CIV token must be taken but the supply is empty, then the game is over and the Villains win!

Alter Ego update

I finally have gotten around to creating a first draft of proper Arch Villain cards! At this point I'm not terribly happy with the Equipment cards, but they'll do for a playtest at least.

Time to get someone to try the game with me. Things to watch out for and determine:

• Number of Civ tokens in each pile
• Cost of Henchmen
• Number of Henchmen required to trigger Arch Villain (AV)
• Cost to damage AV
• HP of AV
• Cost to buy Equipment (Eq)
• Cost to activate Eq
• Usefulness of Eq
• Usefulness of Cop tokens and Teamwork tokens.

I'm excited to finally try this out!

New blog technology

I thought it might be about time to update my blog with some of that newfangled social media gadgets... so I did. tried anyway.

Leave a comment with what you like and what you don't like - what gadgets you think I should add and what I should get rid of. I got rid of that stupid AdSense thing, because as far as I could tell I wasn't actually getting any sort of money or credit. I probably was and just don't know how to access it, but not knowing how to get at some small amount of money is functionally equivalent to not having it, and I'd just as soon not have the ugly ads on my blog!

Happy reading!

Blast from the past: Hot & Fresh

I was just reading through an old blog post - something called "The List," which is how I keep track of old game designs. I read the bit about Hot & Fresh, and got to thinking a little bit about the game.

The most recent idea (and at this point, it's not all that recent anymore) was to add a system of 'shortcuts' - players play tiles in the space between the main streets which represents paths that they are familiar with and their opponents are not. So you can drive on your own tiles, but you cannot drive on an opponent's tile unless you connect a road to it with your own tile first.

This was a big step forward, I think, and when I first implemented it I finally was able to get a playtest in. However, the fundamental problem is that as far as distance is concerned, these paths are not really 'shortcuts' - they're more like 'same-distance-cuts.' Therefore they're only useful if the traffic light happens to be red, and then just to dodge the corner.

It had been suggested - maybe more than once - that there should be some semblance of traffic modeled in the game. I had hoped that worrying about traffic would not be necessary, and that the dynamic routes created by changing traffic lights would be enough to drive route planning decisions. I like the idea of the shortcuts, but I think I have to face the possibility that the whole idea of red lights doesn't really work unless traffic builds up behind them. With that in mind, I thought about how I could model such traffic in a simple, intuitive way. Here's what I came up with:

Currently, if I recall my own game correctly, every so often some of the traffic lights advance from Green to Yellow to Red. The lights that change are noted on the delivery cards that come up. Suppose that after adjusting the appropriate lights, each intersection resolves some "traffic." Add a Traffic token to the street behind any red light (line them up if need be), and remove 1 from behind any green light.

When moving through these Traffic tiles, players will have to spend more movement points, so the effect of the traffic is to cause delays. These delays will build up at intersections as their lights are red, and will slowly diminish as the lights are green. I think this sounds like an easy enough system (though a bit more fiddly than it was), and I think it may give the feel of changing routes that I was going for in the first place.

Ask @sedjtroll

I mentioned online today that I didn't think I was using Twitter enough, so I posted a tweet asking my followers to let me know what sorts of tweets they'd be interested in. I figure I might as well aggregate and post the questions and responses here on my blog.

@toddderscheid: what are you playing these days? What games have pushed others out of circulation?

Here's my response. I realized my responses would be far too long for a 140 character post, so I used Twitlonger. This may defeat the purpose of my original comment (not using Twitter enough), but I did tweet the link :)

@benny275 says he'd like to hear about design inspiration and how to turn a prototype into something publishers would want to produce.

Here's my response to that one. I took a look at a few of my designs to see what inspired them.

I'll try to remember to update this post as I answer additional questions.

One of thee days I'd like to utilize VYou.com to answer people's question via video. I think that's a really neat format, and I'd like to see it utilized more.

YANGI: Yet Another New Game Idea

I had meant to work on Alter Ego today, but like many of my game designs, instead of the design I wanted to work on, I thought of a whole new game. It's a card drafting game, and I even designed a bunch of cards (108 of them), printed them up, and sleeved them. I also made mats to put between neighboring players...

Perhaps I should explain the game a bit. I'm not sure what prompted it, but I was thinking about card drafting - M:tG Booster draft style, like is used in Fairy Tale, Notre Dame, and 7 Wonders. I thought it would be cool if there were 2 sets of cards - two different types - that were being drafted, and you passed 1 set in one direction around the table, and passed the other set in the other direction. I imagined a play-mat between a player and each neighbor with an image of the card backs for the different sets of cards, and a big arrow indicating which direction to pass that set. It might be the idea of that mat which really inspired me to work on the game! I made the mats double sided, so between rounds of the game you could flip them over to reverse the direction of passing for each set.

So what is this game about? How does it work? It's rare that I design a game completely
"mechanics first," but this time that's all I've actually got! I haven't thought of a theme that would fit. But I do have cards and mechanics :) Here's how it works:

As I mentioned, there are two sets of cards: Action cards, and Building cards. Each round of the game will consist of a Draft phase followed by an Action and Building phase.

Draft phase
Players will draft some Action and Building cards to play later:

1. Deal 4 of each Action and Building cards to each player.
2. Players choose 1 card from each set of 4 to keep, and then passes the rest in the direction indicated by player aids (placed between neighboring players). Place drafted cards in a face down pile in front of you.
3. Repeat until all of those cards have been drafted.

Action and Building phase
In turn, each player will play as many Action cards as they like, followed by at most 1 Building card.

1. Play any number of Action cards.
2. Spend coins provided by Action cards to play 1 Building card

Action cards have 2 aspects: Coins to be spent on building, and a game effect. No matter how many Action cards are played, only 1 game effect will be resolved - the one on the card with the smallest number of coins on it! The fewer coins on an Action card, the stronger the game effect on that card, so stronger effects mean less coins to spend on building.

Building cards have a cost, a point value, and a game effect. Currently the Building cards get better (more points and stronger game effects) as they get more expensive, but I'm not sure that's the correct way to go. Generally speaking the point value of the Building cards are equal to the cost of the card in coins. I think perhaps the stronger game effects should be on the cheaper buildings so that players will have to choose between stronger effects and higher scores.

The effects I mocked up for my prototype are fairly straightforward for the most part...
Action card effects:

• 0 coins: Tuck this card under any building, that building is worth an additional 2 points. Do not play a Building card this turn.
• 0 coins: Tuck this card under any building, that building provides 1 coin each turn.
• 0 coins: Discard any building in play and replace it with a Building card from your hand.
• 1 coins: Take any Building card from the discard pile.
• 1 coins: Take any Action card from the discard pile.
• 1 coins: Discard any building in play of value 2 or less.
• 1 coins: Each player (including you) must discard 1 building card from their hand.
• 1 coins: Tuck this card under any building, that building is worth an additional 1 point. Do not play a Building card this turn.
• 1 coins: Take any building in play into your hand and replace it with a Building card of equal or greater value from your hand.
• 2 coins: Discard any building in play and replace it with a Building card of equal or greater value from your hand.
• 2 coins: Discard any building in play of value 1 or less.
• 2 coins: Discard a card: Take any Action card from the discard pile into your hand.
• 2 coins: Discard a card: Take any Building card from the discard pile into your hand.
• 2 coins:Put a Building card of value 1 or less into play. This does not count as your Building card for the turn.
• 2 coins: Discard a card: Draw 5 Building cards from the deck, put 1 into your hand and return the rest in any order.
• 3 coins: No game effect

Building card effects:

• 0 cost/0vp: Discard this building from play: +1 coin this turn.
• 0 cost/1vp: No game effect.
• 1 cost/1vp: Play this card from your hand as if it were an Action card (provides 1 coin)
• 1 cost/2vp: No game effect.
• 2 cost/2vp: After drafting: Draw 1 Action card.
• 2 cost/2vp: After drafting: Draw 1 Building card.
• 2 cost/2vp: Discard this building from play: +2 coin this turn.
• 2 cost/3vp: No game effect.
• 3 cost/3vp: Play this card from your hand as if it were an Action card (provides 5 coin)
• 3 cost/3vp: Discard this building from play: Take any Action card from the discard pile into your hand.
• 3 cost/3vp: Discard this building from play: Take any Building card from the discard pile into your hand
• 3 cost/4vp: No game effect.
• 3 cost/?vp: Book icon. If you have 1/2/3 Book icons, this card is worth 2/3/4vp.
• 3 cost/?vp: Guard icon. If you have 1/2/3 Guard icons, this card is worth 2/3/4vp.
• 4 cost/3vp: +1 coin to spend each turn.
• 4 cost/4vp: Play this card from your hand as if it were an Action card (provides 2 coins)
• 4 cost/5vp: No game effect.
• 5 cost/6vp: No game effect.

After 4 rounds of player turns, the Action and Building phase is over. All players discard any cards they still have in hand and Round 2 begins by switching the passing direction for each type of card (flip the player aids over). The game will end after a certain number of rounds based on the number of players:

• 2 players: 6 rounds
• 3 players: 4 rounds
• 4 players: 3 rounds

I don't know if this game will pan out to be any fun or not, and I'm not sure if the double draft mechanism will prove to be too confusing or not, but who knows? I already know that the building effects are not balanced properly, and there are some timing questions about some of them. But maybe with some tweaking this could turn out to be a good game :)

Tasty News from Tasty Minstrel, and other stuff

Here are a few things that are going on in Tasty Minstrel Land:

Ground Floor preview video by Tom Vasel

We sent a copy of the prototype with the end artwork over to The Dice Tower, and Tom Vasel did a preview video of Ground Floor.Check it out if you'd like to see how to play, and catch a glimpse of what Tom thinks of the game.

Ground Floor Kickstarter status

The Kickstarter project for Ground Floor is going strong. With $30,388 in funding now (624 copies of the game!), and 38 days left in the project, the 3rd Stretch goal has been met - so all backers will receive the first three Stretch rewards:

1. 2 additional Specialty tiles: Social Media and Inheritance
2. 2 additional Economic Forecast cards: Great Depression and Windfall
3. Niche Market TI

And now we're shooting for $35,000 to add goal #4: 5 Economic Forecast Scenario cards. I think that we are likely to get to the $75,000 needed for Skyline, but we aren't there yet...  we still need you help!

Michael Mindes "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit

Reddit is a social news site similar in function of Digg, and people have been doing these "AMA" things on there. AMA stands for "Ask Me Anything," and in practice people can come and ask whatever questions they want of the person holding the AMA. By the time you read this it might be over, but you can read the thread here.

Mike says he will be devoted to answering from 1PM-4PM PST, but throughout the day he will stop in and still provide answers, so go ask Mike those burning questions you've got on your mind!

Eminent Domain: Escalation

Formerly "Warmonger," the EmDo expansion is about done. I'm still making final tweaks to some of the cards, but the gameplay is determined, and the art is underway! Eric Carter and Ryan Johnson are on board again, and after their awesome illustrations in the base game I'm really looking forward to seeing what their work for the expansion (spoiler alert: so far, it's AWESOME!). Gavan Brown is on board again as well, so I'm looking forward to an all around awesome looking expansion :)

Alter Ego

I'm on the verge of wrapping up everything that I need to do for Escalation, Kings of Air and Steam, and Ground Floor (in fact, the final art files for Ground Floor just went to the printers! Horray!) - and I'm looking forward to getting back to my other designs. Next on the list is Alter Ego. I'm really excited to finally get back to working on that game, as I think it really has a lot of potential, not only potential to be a fun game, but also potential to have really cool art, and e very well received by players.

Recent Gaming

I recently got a few new games. It's unusual for me to buy games, but there were a few I was interested in playing, and when my interest hit critical mass, I went ahead and picked up a few titles...

• The Manhattan Project
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Venture Forth

I have yet to play Venture Forth, but I did play it once at Gama last year (before it was published) and I enjoyed that play. I really, really like The Manhattan Project, and I also very much like Lords of Waterdeep. Two very good Worker Placement games that people are comparing lately - both are worth playing!

That's about it for now. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments!

What's in a name?

A situation has arisen to which I don't know what the appropriate response is. There's a game that's slated to be produced by TMG which is a very good, very solid economic game that I've only briefly mentioned in this blog (Oct 2010). In addition to the game being top quality, I really, really like the title. It's a game that the designer has been working on for 4 years, and a google search for the title mostly brings up the designer's blog posts about his playtests.

The thing is that another, entirely different game has recently sprung up on Kickstarter using that same title! I played the Kickstarter game last July at Protospiel, when it was called something else. The game was in pretty good shape last summer, and is likely been improved since then. I'm sure it's a fine game and people will like it, but the thing I'm concerned about is this: what do I do about the great title of the game TMG is coming out with? Must we change it? That kinda sucks, as our game had that title first. But at the same time, it would cause some confusion in the marketplace if we released another game with the same title, wouldn't it? I know the designer of the game isn't thrilled with the idea of having to change the title, after using it for 4 years. He's been looking for a new title, but nothing's near as good as the one he had.

So, that's the dilemma - what can be done? What should be done? And how annoyed should I allow myself to be that this unfortunate thing happened? I'm open to suggestions...

Update: As I suppose I knew the whole time, we of course will have to change the title of the game we'll be releasing. We have it narrowed down to about 4 fair alternatives. The question will be which alternative is the best!

Ground Floor: Live on Kickstarter!

This morning marked the beginning of a 55 day long Kickstarter campaign for Ground Floor - a game I've mentioned before in this blog.

I think it's fair to say that Michael has learned a lot about running a Kickstarter campaign, and it shows in the superb organization he's got going on this time, and the incredible support the game has garnered in it's first hours! At the time I'm writing this, the project is at 177 backers, and $10,940 in support! That's really awesome, and I offer a hearty "thank you!" to everyone who has pledged for a copy of the game already.

If you haven't pledged, then what are you waiting for..?

I didn't know it was live!

Well, now you do! If you don't want to be left out in the cold in the future, consider signing up for Tasty Minstrel's newsletter - you'll receive all the inside info you'll require about upcoming TMG releases and deals. You'll also be offered the opportunity to join sub-lists for specific projects (such as this Kickstarter project), so the extra project-specific emails only go out to those who want them, not the entire TMG mailing list. I think Michael does email marketing right!

What is this game about?

This description is copied verbatim from my blog post (December 2009), and it remains a good description of the game:

Ground Floor is a game about being an Entrepreneur. Each player has just started a company. All they have is 7 Information, their ground floor office (representing certain basic actions they can take), $9 income per round from investors, and their time (4 marker discs representing units of time). As the game progresses, players can hire employees (which reduce your $ income but increase the number of time units you can use), upgrade their ground floor actions, and add floors to their building, gaining abilities and Prestige. To finance this, players "do business" in town by scheduling meetings, advertising, shopping at outlets and making products to sell to the public. They must do this in the face of a volatile economic atmosphere - in a Boom economy more products will sell, but noone will be looking for work. In a Depression you will be hard pressed to sell any products, but the job market will be full of potential employees who can be hire on the cheap. You can see the Economic Forecast, but can never be sure exactly how many consumers to expect in a round, so how you price your products matters a lot, as does your popularity level.

The crux of the game is balancing 2 resources - money and information. In the early game players have an income of $9, and it's difficult to get an appreciable amount of info. As you hire employees though, your income goes down (you have to pay their salaries), and the only really good way to make money is through selling products. Selling products is tricky, as it depends heavily on your popularity, the amount of products being sold by players, and the number of consumers for the round. You need to find a way to make both money and information because it costs a significant amount of each to add on to your business. Your score (Prestige) will be based on the floors and abilities of your company. A 6 story skyscraper is more impressive than a 3 story building for example, but there's something to be said about having a better operation on your ground floor as well.

I've never heard of Ground Floor - how do I know if I'll like it?

Well, if you're reading this blog, it's possible you've heard of the game here before. But even if that's not the case, there are several resources available to learn about the game:

• Official rulebook
• Print and Play prototype files
• Session Reports and Reviews on BGG
• Video overview of how to play by designer David Short

Please check out those sources of information, and if Ground Floor looks like your kind of game, then please take a moment to check out the Kickstarter Campaign and pledge your support by pre-ordering a copy (or three!) of the game.

Why pre-order instead of waiting for the game to come out and then buying it online at a discount?

Good question! There has been a lot of discussion online about Kickstarter, who should be allowed to use it, and whether people should be charging full price for products being kickstarted. In this case however, you can get 1 copy of Ground Floor for $50, or if you go in with a couple of friends and get 3 copies, they're only $40 apiece! Retail price of this game will be about $60, so these prices are already discounted - on the order of what you'd pay online, and if you live in the US then that includes shipping!

On top of that, Kickstarter supporters will receive all of the overfunding incentives as the project raises more and more funds! Michael has a number of cool extras planned, which will come for free with your copy of the game if you are a Kickstarter. Most of these have not been announced, but he did mention that if the project raises at least $75,000, he'll be including a copy of a whole nother game! David Short has created another game called Skyline - a lighter dice game which shares the theme of constructing buildings. If the project hits $75k, that other game will be included for all of the supporters!

*Check your funding level - at the time I wrote this, it was true for all of the levels, but it's possible more have been added since, and they may not all qualify for the overfunding goals!

So as you can see, it's a really good deal. And I can tell you that it's a really good game as well. David has come up with a lot of clever mechanisms, and I've put a lot of development work into the game. We're both very proud of it, and if you follow my blog, then I think there's a good chance it'll be your kind of game too! Check it out, and tell your friends!

Tons of Warmninger/Escalation testing!

I am happy to report that I have had a lot of opportunity to playtest Warmonger (I think I'll start calling it Escalation and see how I like it) this week, and it's been very productive!

In addition, I have received some playtest reports from people who have printed out the Print-n'-Play files, and they have been very useful as well. So a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has tried the game out!

For those following along at home, here are a few card comments and potential tweaks. I'll be updating my PDFs again tonight and tomorrow to take some of these into account. Also, at the end of this post there'll be a sneak peak at a new piece of the expansion that is, frankly, pretty awesome!

Card Tweaks:
Scientific Method: This card has seemed to be much too powerful for my liking. The next tweak is to allow the additional tech card purchase on your own turn only. Perhaps I'll phrase it like this: "You may follow your own Research role."

Midnight Oil: I had put 2 Exotic icons on Midnight Oil - pretty much because I didn't know what else to put there. After playing with it, I feel like that's not useful or fun at all - so I will replace those Exotic icons with a Destroyer. For the most part, Midnight Oil hasn't proven to be terribly useful, but I like that it exists, and maybe people will buy it for the Destroyer.

Civilized Planets: I have changed the Colonize cost of each of the Civilized planets to 4.

Action Planets: I have changed the Colonize cost of each of the planets with Actions on them to 4.

Diverse Tech Cards: I would like to try increasing the cost of the L2 Diverse techs to 2 Destroyers rather than 1 Destroyer. 1 Destroyer seems too easy to get. I am still waffling on whether I want the other L2 cards to cost Destroyers or not. Improved Fleet would probably still cost 5 Fighters I think...

Destroyer Technology: I don't like how easily Destroyer Tech chains into other techs by providing the destroyers necessary to obtain other Diverse techs, which you obviously already qualify for. Therefore I think I'll move Destroyer Tech back to the Metallic stack.

Dreadnaught Technology: It appears that Dreadnaught Technology is a bit too powerful. The thing about Dreadnaughts is that they are supposed to be difficult to get - on par with a L3 tech card. So a L2 tech card that just GIVES you one seems a bit too good.

One idea instead is to put a Dreadnaught in the corner, rather than allow it to put your Dreadnaught into play. But frankly, I'm not sure that's any better. Making the card into a Dreadnaught still means you can buy one for the cost of an L2, and I don't like that. Annex has a Dreadnaught on it, and it's a L3. So I think either Dreadnaught tech should not exist, or it should be a L3 tech. Probably L3 in the Diverse stack.

Utility: I fear that Utility might be a bit too good for a L1 tech. Thorough Scanning and Freedom of Trade seem about right - but Utility can ramp a player up to L2 tech very quickly. Comparing to Warfare Tech just confirms that Utility should be a L2 tech. The question is, is it good enough on its own to be L2? Or should it get a Resource Slot, or maybe a Production symbol?

If I do add a Production symbol, then I might consider adding a Warfare symbol to Warfare Tech. Though I don't really feel that's necessary, so maybe Utility is OK as is? Fighters are not limited by Resource Slots like Resources are, so maybe that's justification for Utility having something extra.

Biosphere: I think I'll swap this with Utility, making it a level 1 tech. I will probably remove either the Production icon, or the Resource slot. Whichever I remove, maybe I'll add to utility, so both in play together will have 2 slots and a Produce icon, just like currently. Frankly that combo, while it seems pretty good, does not seem to compete with other strategies.

Annex: Mike suggested I make Annex a L2 tech, with a Destroyer rather than a Dreadnaught on it. I'm not sure if I like that or not. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Scenarios:
There's a new aspect of the expansion that I think people will really dig. I don't want to spill all of the beans about it, but here's a hint... they're called Scenarios. Specific custom starting setups which we think make for a really interesting game :)