I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement: inaugural playtest and changes for next time

 Unfortunately, last weekend I was unable to do any playtesting, but the week before that I did manage to get a 2p test of the first draft of the I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement game (for lack of a better title, maybe Division of Labor?), and while just about every part of it needs some work, I'm relatively pleased with how it felt!

Prototype board

I have put together a physical prototype, but I'm not sure if I'll ever actually use it... I also uploaded those files to Tabletop Simulator (actually, someone volunteered to do that for me this time, and they did a much more sophisticated job than I probably would have!), and that's how I was able to get that first test in. The board I made is pretty uninspired:

First draft board for ICUC WP (working title: Division of Labor?)

Those center spaces are supposed to represent the spaceship / starting spaces, and even though it's awful graphic design, I was using those spaces as each player's starting 2 spaces. Yes, you'd split 8 cubes into 2 piles, and put them both into that odd shaped space -- that space was to act like 2 spaces at once. When you place there, you choose 1 pile of cubes and ignore the other, leaving it for the next person to place there. I have attempted to improve on that for next time, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet:

2nd draft of game board - to try next time

When splitting, follow the arrows
This was done in MS Paint, sorry about the 2 different styles of arrow!

This 2nd draft seems likely a little clearer, and closer to my initial intent to begin with. Each player now has their own 2 spaces (in their player color) in the center 3x3 section of the board. The very center space isn't really part of it, and neither are the 4 corners of the board (though I guess they could be). That leaves 44 spaces - I have no idea if that's a good or bad number!

8 does feel like a decent number of cubes to split at the beginning of each round. I've got players making that initial split concurrently, behind a screen, then revealing and placing the piles in the starting spaces. One question that came to mind is what to do if a starting space still has the 4 cubes from last round in it... presumably you'd add to them, which might be fine. I wonder if a max number of penalty track advances (per color) would be in order, mostly for that situation...

The player board worked as expected, as did the "research" track*. I had forgotten to make a file for penalty tracks, so the guy who made the mod for me did some up on his own.

* Side note: while I've been calling that a Research track, the buildings are more like your technologies, and the "research" ended up being extra workers and VP, so maybe better would be to call that a Training track

Training track and Workers

In the 1st draft, I went with [no effect] / [+1 worker] / [+1 worker] for the effects of the top token, and then [1vp] / [3vp] / [6vp] for the bottom token. I also started us each with 4 workers apiece. We were playing a 2 player game, and 4 workers to start felt like way too many. I could see more workers being a good idea in a game with more players, as there would be more spaces to utilize, but I'd have to try it to be sure. With 2 players I think perhaps starting with just 2 workers might be good (perhaps start with 2/3/4 workers for 2/3/4 player games).

Starting with too many workers already, adding another at 2 steps on the Training track seemed too easy, and the thought of adding a 2nd new worker on top of that didn't sound as attractive anymore, so next time I am going to try changing the 2nd space effect to [ne effect] instead of [+1 worker] and see if that feels more appropriate.

I also bumped up the VP values of the 2nd marker, as they just looked weak (not sure exactly what that should be worth yet).

Penalty tracks

I think the 1st draft penalty tracks might be a good length, but the penalties themselves need some work. The only in-game penalty that I could think of was increasing the cost of actions by a cube, but it turns out that causes some problems and raises a lot of questions. My opponent (Rick) suggested just making it loss of VP at game end, and that sounded like a good fix. I would have liked to have some in-game issue for players to have to deal with, but for now I'll try -2/-3/-5 VP (cumulative). You can still get out of these penalties (left to right) by covering hem with cubes "in hand" of the appropriate color.

The Actions

All of the actions in the game sort of worked, but it was a little weird how some of them (Explore, Experiment) worked no matter what, and some (Expand, Exploit) required a tile to have been Explored already in that location. I had figured it would work out, as Green and Blue cubes would just be "poison" if there wasn't a tile there yet, and Red cubes would become worth less and less as the board filled up with tiles. In a way, I like the sound of that, but realistically, it didn't feel great - a little too frustrating, especially if the red cubes just refuse to come out of the bag for some reason, and you just can't build anything at all.

Rick had a good suggestion for this as well: basically find a way to be able to Explore no matter what. My next draft will switch out the red action (Explore) with a new one: draw X cubes out of the cube bag and keep one of those "in hand," put the rest back in. Compare that to the Explore action, where you draw X tiles, choose 1, and get a bonus from it (which could be 1 cube in hand)... some of the tiles have no cube shown, so theoretically this new action will offer better choice of cube than Exploring (besides, if you take a cube when Exploring, then you're out a free scoring icon or building)

But we still need a way to draw tiles! So  let's say that ANY action could be used to Explore instead of the action indicated by the cubes' color. I think this will help a lot - you can ALWAYS explore, which populates the board with tiles, and gives you a thing, but maybe the specific actions are more efficient at their job. For example, Exploring can get you a Level-1 building for free, but your choice is limited, and it can never give you a Level-2 or 3 building at all. Similarly, Exploring can get you 1 scoring icon, but the Blue action can get you 1 per cube, so potentially several icons. And all of these are bolstered if you have built buildings to support them!

Oh, and on that note: I think the building that lets you draw 1 extra tile with exploring could apply that ability when drawing tiles (when Exploring) AND cubes out of the bag (when Recruiting - the new action).

Can't wait until next playtest!

Well, that about summarizes the changes I want to try next time I get a chance to play this game. Hopefully this weekend!

If this sound interesting to you, and you would like to blind test it on TTS with your group, let me know, I can probably get you access to the mod. I'd just ask for feedback in return!