I need a 5th category of encounters

The game is similar to eldritch horror. Or other games in the family: Arkham Horror, elder sign, etc. Players do 3 things on their turn: Roll dice to determine 3 actions, they can do. Resolve an encounter. Spawn new encounters and other resources on the board. Repeat until the game ends.

I have not considered the fact that Artifacts could be cursed demonic artifacts. I was expecting them to power up player, not make them a problem to manage.

I don't invent lego blocks, I create something new with the blocks that already exists. Yes, there will be similarities with other games, but it will be different enough to stand on it's own. In fact, I am creating a system, that should allow making many more games with different variations.

This is the first game of the system, so it will be much more though to design. Since there is many possible variations, instead of expanding the game, I will create new stand alone game using the same system as core but exploring different twists.

So even if there are many possibilities, I need to make a choice, and not put too much stuff in the game. One of the primary objective is to make it printable at Game Crafters and keep the game small and cheap for that genre. I am using accordion 8x16 board (I love this board), it gives you an idea of the box size.

Yesterday, I made some mathematical calculations, I'll need to do more simulation to see the stats.

• There are 4 types of encounters that the player can try to resolve.
• Every 5 turns, 2 of each will be spawned, so 8 encounters per 5 turns.
• The doom track will advance twice per 5 turns. It starts at 13, so it will take approximately (13/2=7 x5) 35 turns to end the game.
• This means 8x7 = 56 encounters.
• Since there is only 8 space with one of each type per space, that makes a max of 32 encounters.
• Now encounters can be surged(flipped, more difficult), when triggered a second time. So 56-32 = 24/32 encounters will be surged if players do absolutely nothing.
• The players can only solve 1 encounter per turn, therefore 35 encounters, assuming they always succeed.
• On the other hand, they only need 13 encounters that makes the astral seal progress to win the game. (Some encounters might not move the seal, not sure)

OK, that might have been too much math for the points I want to make.

Should I allow characters to resolve multiple encounters on the same turn with extra difficulty?

The problem is that 8 encounters spawns for 5 player resolution. Creating an excess of 3 encounters per 5 turns if players always succeed. So as the game progress, more and more encounter will be on the board.

I think the surging already solve that issue, since resolving a surged encounter, is like resolving 2 encounters. So waiting to resolve encounters could be a good thing, but more difficult.

I think it should be OK, to have only 1 resolution per turn, if all resolution are put on demon encounters. It should create more tension at the end of the game, there could be more problems available.

I would still need a default encounter if no encounters are available. Probably a provoking encounter.

This makes me think of removing World Encounters to avoid wasting encounter resolutions on non-demon encounters. All demon encounters gives you a choice to take more risk to get an asset as reward. This should be the first way to upgrade your character. Since that also increase the difficulty, you might want to do this while the encounter is not surged. So now, there seems to be 2 strategic path: waiting or not waiting encounters to be surged.

Finally, the second way to upgrade would be via actions. I am thinking that you can build up a network of contact which gives additional actions, or powered up actions in different areas of the board. Those contact would be shared by all players. They would require no encounters, just some of the basic actions (3 per turn). Examples of contact/allies: Healer can cure physical conditions, antiquarian allows acquiring an artifact, etc.