Hello All,
While some of you may have read about one of my games entitled "Crystal Heroes" (CH) ... I recently took that game off my shelf and re-played it to see what my impressions were with the game from about 3-Months ago (Like in Early December).
Well I played the game... And found it "boring" TBH.
It just was not as EXCITING as my Prospector Expansion for Splendor. That game is well balanced and the additions add to the FUN but don't overwhelm the core game that Splendor is.
Getting back to CH...
I made some BIG decisions:
1> I would make the game Bilingual (English & French).
2> I would remove as much as the TEXT as possible and focus on SYMBOLS.
3> I modified the Scoring Mechanic to a sort of Mini-game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
4> I changed the look & feel of the default Template to make the cards seem a bit more attractive and ... well I am please with the results.
5> I "simplified" the Actions and used the Orange Crystals to indicate the number of Action a Player may take on his turn (as seen above...)
6> I removed the Reference pads (4x) since the game has been simplified.
7> I removed the "Stat Paths" and the Clear Acrylic pieces... Just too costly to produce and too many required by the game AS-IS. Both removed.
8> The number of Actions is simple: Battle, Move, Collect, Warp, and Scry. With these five (5) actions the game is "streamlined" and follows a much more direct sequence of play.
That being said... And shown too (Hahaha!) I'm trying to figure out a "Battle" System for the game, now that the "Stat Paths" have been removed.
I was thinking about using dice and initially chose standard D6s... But given some time to "reflect" a bit, I ordered standard D10s from Chessex with four (4) different colors: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green.
The de-facto colors in the GAME already as "Crystals" and go as follows:
A> Red = The yearning for Food and/or Hunger.
B> Blue = The yearning for Battle and/or Bloodlust.
C> Yellow = The yearning for Wealth and/or Treasure.
D> Green = a wild dice to mix with the other three (3) dice.
So my initial ideas were to have a MATCHING dice mechanic. Like "Red = 3", "Blue > 2" and "Yellow < 8", Green is a wild match and can replace any of the other DICE (Red, Blue or Yellow).
This SIMPLE pattern matching dice rolling is SIMPLE and with 1,000 possible combinations (10 x 10 x 10), PLUS the "Green" die for Wilds... That seemed to have a bit of something GOOD.
I know many gamers like determinism. And this is how CH was BEFORE with the "Stat Paths" (fully deterministic). It was BORING. You just compare and if you are stronger, your unit wins. Plain and simple... but much too BORING!
The problem with this NEW SYSTEM is that it is only ONE-SIDED:
1> Either you use the values from the Attacking Unit OR
2> You use the values for the Defending Unit.
Both are BORING. Somehow I would need to ADD some kind of FLAVOR that would imply that BOTH the Attacking AND the Defending Units would have some kind of INPUT when it comes to a BATTLE.
How??? That has yet to be determined.
If anyone has any ideas, comments, questions, feedback that you want to SHARE, please feel free to let me know what you think.
Many thanks!
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@The Professor (Joe) to share with me his own personal thoughts about the dice and how combat should be handled. I had another "mini-game" in mind but ... Joe feels that it is too complicated for kids aged 12+ to understand.
He said that he would do some playtesting and see what he can work out as a "Battle" System given that he thinks it's best to keep it as simple as possible.
We'll have to wait and see until Joe gets a chance to do some Development work and playtest the ideas he already has in mind...
I agree ... Something SIMPLE yet effective with enough variance to support a LOT of different units and cards!
It's a bit of a "tall order" at the present time. Since I used "Tic-Tac-Toe" as a Mini-Game ... I was thinking that "Poker Dice" might be another "Mini-Game" that could be possible.
But Joe feels like kids aged 12+ won't have enough background to comprehend "Poker Dice" and since we are trying to streamline the product this may not be the best approach or solution...
Anyhow we'll touch-base with @The Professor again and see what his playtests have revealed and how he'd like to proceed!