Skip to Content
 

Getting coins

5 replies [Last post]
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 16:13
SinJinQLB
Offline
Joined: 12/02/2012

So after play testing a game of mine I ran into a little snag that needs to be tweaked, but I'm having trouble resolving it. Here's the basic idea of what I'm trying to do:

All players start the game with 5 coins each. When it is your turn, you need to use some of your coins (usually just 1 or 2), in order to buy an item that will help you play a card from your hand. This mechanic I definitely want to keep in, and will do anything to make it work.

My problem is finding out how players can get more coins. Originally I had it where on your turn, you could choose to either take 1-3 coins, or draw 1-3 cards (or some combination, i.e. take 2 coins and 1 card, or 3 coins and no cards, or no coins and 3 cards). You would do this at the beginning of your turn. You would then buy the item you need. my issue here is that the place your taking the coin from (the center of the game space) is also the same place you return the coin to when you buy the item. So, I forsee a lot of players taking their coin, then simply putting it back when they buy the item. Kinda redundant, right?

Any thoughts on this?

Top
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 16:57
#1
questccg
questccg's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/16/2011
A couple options

SinJinQLB wrote:
*Snip*
My issue here is that the place your taking the coin from (the center of the game space) is also the same place you return the coin to when you buy the item. So, I forsee a lot of players taking their coin, then simply putting it back when they buy the item. Kinda redundant, right?

Any thoughts on this?

Well if you make such that coins are EARNED vs just picking them, then that is a way of not making it redundant. Not sure how you game plays, but it could be that you have certain cards which allow you to pick additional coins from the middle of the pile, steal coins from an adversary, or force players to pay 1 coin each.

Also if you earn 1 coin per turn (aside from any special cards) and your items cost MORE than 1 coin, well that adds a level of strategy: what item am I going to play considering I have x coins... Your items should cost more than 1 coin (for this to work).

Top
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 20:20
#2
questccg
questccg's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/16/2011
Discarding items is another option

questccg wrote:
Well if you make such that coins are EARNED vs just picking them, then that is a way of not making it redundant. Not sure how you game plays, but it could be that you have certain cards which allow you to pick additional coins from the middle of the pile, steal coins from an adversary, or force players to pay 1 coin each.

Another possibility is if you *discard* an item, you can earn a certain amount of coins. Let's say an item costs 3 coins to *play*, well if you discard it you might be able to earn 2 additional coins. For more powerful items, you could earn 3, 4 or maybe 5 coins...

Top
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 21:04
#3
JustActCasual
JustActCasual's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/20/2012
coins = cards

I like the card discard option: if you've already established that 1 card = 1 coin with your draw method, why not just let them discard cards as "coins". Unless the choice of cards or coins is important to your aesthetic, it seems like this would eliminate excess components and let players have more options. Just give them three cards drawn, and then let them discard one for one at the appropriate phase. You could even use card backs with coins on them to maintain the visual.

Top
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 22:07
#4
questccg
questccg's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/16/2011
Don't like 1 card = 1 coin

JustActCasual wrote:
I like the card discard option: if you've already established that 1 card = 1 coin with your draw method, why not just let them discard cards as "coins".

I would lean towards having different values for cards, instead of the preset of 1 card = 1 coin. Simply because you can make certain cards more *powerful* than others. So I personally would favor having a *coin value* on each card. When you *discard* you can show players how many coins you earn. And I would keep the coins because using cards as coins is what San Juan does and I personally find it hard to track... That's just me.

But I think using coins (like winks) is a cheap option, especially if they are all the same color.

Another alternative is introducing coins of different colors, let's say 3 color: Red, Yellow and Blue. Cards could earn different colors coins and could also affect game play. So you could have combinations like 2 Red coins and 1 Blue coin to play an item... This makes things a little more complex and adds some more strategy when using coins combined with items.

Also I would not put any information on the *back* of cards. Why, this can allow other players to know what kind of cards you are holding... But if you have both a *Play* and *Discard* coin value, that would allow for the most amount of flexibility.

Top
Sat, 01/26/2013 - 22:30
#5
SinJinQLB
Offline
Joined: 12/02/2012
These are all great ideas,

These are all great ideas, thanks guys! Some of them I hadn't even thought about, so it's good to hear them. I'm going to mull them over and see what sticks.

Top
Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut