As I mentioned in the other Blog entry, I have *sort of* playtested the game. And I immediately had an idea once I did that playtest:
- A POT to collect all tokens!
Since each player has 12 cards, 1 card never gets used (during a game). But I have found a USE for this card. At the beginning of each round, each player choose the bottom card and reveals it.
That's the amount of point that determines who wins the POT! The player(s) with the LOWEST level (can have multiple winners) each earn points from the POT.
Again it's still early - this is just an idea - in its infancy!
Comments
Slight modification
Instead of having 12 cards, players will have 15 cards. All cards get used and four (4) cards are POT cards!
You also earn your LOTK bonus each turn - but you can get an advantage by winning (and not sharing) the POT...
We shall see - this might or might not be useful or favorable.
More playtests (and complete ones - this time)!
More about TOKENS
So I am SUPER "stoked" that this game uses "shards"! Really awesome because it really ADDs another "dimension" to the game. I know cutting all those little shards is a pain in the @ss. But it's a worthwhile exercise because the game is better with them.
Same goes for the damage tokens... More shards to add to the game.
Again a pain to cut (because they too are circular)... But I added a 1/8" bleed to be able to cut them properly. And it seems to have worked pretty good.
All that remains are the "Lord Of The Keep" (LOTK) cards. This is basically the character cards you play according to your selection. Each character has a *distinct* special ability that can be used once per round.
In addition, they also get a Token Bonus which is specific to each LOTK. For example "Lord Kane" earns +2 Treasure bonus each round. Since there is four (4) rounds to a game, that means +8 Treasure tokens (for a game).
What will need BALANCING is how tokens are EARNED or given... Aside from winning The POT (which ensure you some tokens), there needs to be a way to replenish your reserves (aside from the Token Bonus).
So still things to think about and playtest. I will be cutting MORE Tokens this week (in the evenings and trying to playtest maybe on Friday night... My kind of Friday Night Magic! :P)
Update: cut ALL the Play Tokens!
It took a couple of hours - but I finally got ALL the Play Tokens cut. Yeah, they're not perfectly circular but close enough. You can at least play with them and understand which token is for which attribute.
NEXT: Damage Tokens! :( Only a *frown* because I need to cut a ton of more tokens... PNP sucks so bad. I hate cutting my own prototypes!
Stay tuned.
First real Playtest
Ok so I just completed the FIRST real playtest of "Monster Keep" (MK).
Some things right away that need "fixing" is:
A>No POT Luck, there are enough tokens available to players.
B>Need to FIX the Token earning (not sure how - yet).
Some things that are a little confusing is HOW attacking should proceed.
The RPS-9 works pretty nice. I got that at least right.
C>Scoring (Victory Points) also need to be re-evaluated.
The scores stay pretty low and Player #3 won by +1 VP (with 5 VPs).
But the game has more "meat"... It's not just a duel game. The Lords actually work pretty good - but need some refining (See point B above).
It FEELS like something tangible.
Keep you all posted!