Hey guys,
Working on a design and one of the major phases of the game revolves around drafting cards from a resource area and taking them into your hand to be played later (something along the lines of Through the Ages).
We've been playtesting it, and the biggest complaint from one individual is that he can be "blown out" by a card that someone drafted on a prior turn and that he just forgot about. His argument is that a serious gamer would just get into the habit of writing down all of the cards that his opponents drafted, rather than face losing to what boils down as a memory issue.
In some ways, I agree with him that losing because you forgot that someone had a card (especially if you're newish to the game and don't know what all the cards do, let alone who drafted what) isn't exactly fun, and it doesn't feel all that sleek in terms of design. The game is fairly cutthroat with a lot of cards that pack an offensive punch, and simply forgetting what's out there isn't exactly what I consider a lapse in strategy, or even something that I want people to care about that much.
I guess what I'm looking for from the community is - how do you deal with public to private information? Would it be better to just have drafted cards remain face-up in front of a player's play area? Should I come up with some way to make the purchase phase completely private, so no one feels like an idiot when they just forget that a certain card had been picked and not played yet?
Thanks for the feedback,
Phil
Hey guys,
Just some clarifications:
There are only 10 cards available to draft during each round, and the game lasts for 6 rounds. I didn't mean to imply that all the cards were face up at the beginning of the game.
Also, while I've never seen MTG players write down drafted cards (not sure if that's legal actually) some of the more competitive players in tournaments would write down the contents of my hand if they had an ability that let them look at it, and cross cards off as I played them. Since this particular player is a Magic judge, I can see his concern.
Anonymousmagic, you are probably right that I have no real "reason" for obscuring the cards other than liking that players can have some information that others don't. My problem is that I don't think I've executed it all that well.
And yes, I share the concern that leaving everything that's been previously drafted face up might introduce some measure of AP into the game. In my playtests, players have had on average about 2-4 card in their hands on any given turn.