Game #56: Intergalactic Hitchhikers by Jonathan Hager

Can you give more of a description (or show more examples) of the Ship Tiles. From the 1 pictured example, it looks like it's destination is "Castor" and costs 2 movements points ... I'm not sure what the 3-by-2 grid in the lower-left is showing -- origin?

I assume that some ships take you to new solar systems within the same sector and some take you to completely new sectors ... is it possible for 2 players to be in the same solar system at the same time?

On the game board -- are the solar systems the labelled stars (the upper-left sector shows: Castor, Pollux, Wasat, Mebsuta, Tejat, Gemini Lambda, and Almesisan)? Or are they each of the sections within the sector grid (again, the upper-left sector shows labelled stars in just 5 of the 6 sections)?

-Bryk

"Ooops".
White, black and yellow cubes stated in introduction.
Black, white and green cubes used during set-up.
Green, black and yellow cubes used during the game...

It sounds fairly straight-forward, although I share Jeff's concerns over the map-board (a cute concept but remarkably difficult to follow; it probably does need colour-coding for the various sectors) and the limitations imposed by the tiles.

I do like the progression of the game: as it develops there are less options as the cubes are removed. I can see why the Challenge Cards are there, but it feels as though players need a couple to begin with, just to give them an initial strategy - otherwise I think the early turns would just be "go to sector, pick up card".

I assume the "travelling to more than 2 systems" line is supposed to mean that players may not take more than two tiles in a turn - in which case, it should say that!

One suggestion: there should be penalties for "failed" Challenges. This would make navigation hazardous if a player has to go to a sector where only the Challenge cube is left. Of course, this requires the action of taking a cube to be mandatory rather than optional.

Thanks, Jonathon ... that clears things up a bit.

I would have to echo Jeff's comment that you might want to interjet a bit more decision-making on the players' parts. Perhaps instead of only having 1 ship tile flipped over at a time in a sector (unless I'm reading that wrong), always have 3 face-up ... when someone jumps a ship, a new one is flipped up from the deck.

Also, instead of simply drawing a challenge card and *having* to reacte to it (and possibly take a penalty, like Scurra suggested) ... you could have them draw 2 and keep whichever one they'd like.

Also, in agreement with Jeff, I'd use some other term than "Blog" ... perhaps "write an article" or "journal" or something else generic and not so trendy.

I like a lot of things you have going here -- the theme, the action cubes limiting what players can do (and giving the only source of interaction, that I can tell), the game-end conditions.

I think it just needs a few more tweaks to open up the way players' decisions can impact the game -- and even each other.

-Bryk

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for sharing the game. I hade a really interesting time reading it.

Question 2: Are the rules clear.
When I started to read the rules it did not take long before I realized I did not understand the game at all. After the clarifications in the thread, there was no problem to understand them (the rules need to be updated with this information).

Question 1: Does it sound fun.
The game have a interesting theme (and I would probably get a copy for the theme), for a prototype the components look great, the rules are understandable (after update) but the answer to the question has to be no (a little bit hard but I think that you need to do a lot of rework to make it a good game).
There are three main reasons why I probably don’t like the game:
- Setup
- Interaction
- Simulation

Setup: This is a game that has a game time of 60 minutes to complete and have a setup of minimum 5 minute. There are too many components to set up before you can start. To play the game two times on an evening is out of the question.
- There are 126 tokens that have to be sorted into 6 piles and then they should be divided into 3 piles each with 7 tokens in each pile.
- There are 126 cubes in three colors that shall be divided into 42 piles with one of each color in each pile.

I can think of several ways to solve this problem:
- Do the other way around with cubes. When you have been on a solar system, then mark your action with a cube on that system.
- The ships does not need to be distributes into the final places. Just have 6 piles with 21 tokens (and place three from this pile into the sector).
- Another way is that combine the cubes with the space ships (you can add more victory combinations as have visiting all solar systems in a sector (and you don’t have to have any cubes)).

Interaction: I got the feeling that you have made a solo game for 3-6 players. There are not so many things you can do to interact with other players.

Simulation: There are very little I can do to change to outcome of the game. I got the feeling the choices are so limited, it will be a simulation of who get the best markers.

Interaction and simulation are actually the same problem. I can think of several ways to do things differently. This is one way:
Just let the ship cards/marker only be a destination indicator and a goal color (the cubes). The cards/markers can not be placed on there home sector and there can not be more then 2 more on one place then it is on the lowest number.
Setup: Each player set up a ship in a sector. Deal 3 cards/markers to each player. In order around the table, each player draw a card and place a card in each sector until 18 cards has been placed. Then can the game starts.
The turn: Each turn a player can/shall do the following:
- (optional) Exchange a card from the hand to any ship on the board or place a ship from the hand to the board (the player will have one card less).
- Move from the current sector to another sector (and the player can continue moving until he has moved 6 positions or can not move to a sector he has not been in this turn. The player can keep the cards.
- Draw the same number of cards from the deck and place them on the board.

(This is maybe a hard judgment on the game and the others seem to like it. You should probably listen to them).

// Johan

I think the secret goals sound fine, but if I'm understanding the setup correctly, I'm gonna agree on overdrive with the comments that there is too much setup and too many fiddly bits. Are there really 3 cubes set on each DOT on the map? It seems like there's just got to be a better way somehow... Setting up triple digits of anything is pretty excessive, and all the more so when there are 2 triple digit setups. And your game sounds like a really light game otherwise (well, not super light, but not the kind of game people typically spend hours setting up).

One thing I don't get - how do you move between sectors? I guess some of the ships have non-local destinations?

I like the overall notion of 3 possible ways to play each space, and each can only be done once (especially combined with secret goals). I also like the idea that it's hitchhiking, so you have a set number of ships to hop on and no control otherwise. I worry that the 6 sectors, 42 spaces total, means a lack of contention between players, but maybe you've playtested it.

I would change the "Take Instant Fame" action name... it only makes sense in game terms- what is "taking instant fame" in the real world? Maybe call it a "Photo Op" or something.

Simple improvement to the map (as someone else said, it could be more informative): just make the dots in each sector a unique color, and maybe the ship tiles then match the color for their sector.

Instead of the scorekeeping of actually 'taking instant fame', I'd say just keep the green cubes in front of you, and add them up at the end of the game. Minor issue, but that + keeping completed challenge cards in a pile means no scorekeeping is needed during play, you just tally it up at the end (don't even need that score track!).

Wow, I just want to note that what Deviant said was the single most brilliantly simple suggestion in this whole thread: have players ADD cubes to the (initially empty) star systems when they do one of the 3 actions there. This completely eradicates the cube setup phase, which is quite significant, and still maintains the exact same information. Nice one!