So I'm in the process of developing a game where players need to collect mythological creatures and complete missions in order to win. There are two types of missions: one depends on the types of cards players have in hand, i.e. Collect 3 tech cards, and the other is based on actions players take during the game, i.e. Visit 4 different landmarks.
The problem that has come up during play testing is players can't keep track of their progress for the action missions. This isn't too bad with only two or three players, but with 5 or 6 players there is so much time between turns that they forget.
I've considered the following options:
1. Scrap the action missions altogether and keep only missions based on a single action or on the cards players obtain. This would make it easier for players, but would eliminate any variety in the missions, making them repetitive and/or too easy to complete.
2. Make the mission cards dry-erase so players can record their mission progress. Not sure how exactly this would be accomplished and how much cost it would add to the mission deck. Also worried about durability over time.
3. Have some other method of tracking missions - notepad, slider, etc. Major concern in this case is adding too many components to the game and driving up the cost. Also want to keep the game simple and easy to understand as it's targeted more at casual gamers, and the missions aren't the main focus of the game anyway.
Any thoughts, suggestions, or options I haven't considered?
Thanks for your input!
@questccg - So far the game is very simple component-wise - there's 3 game boards and 4 decks of cards, plus the player's game pieces (1 per player). I don't know that I want to add another component for what is a relatively minor part of the game, but I love how the Tower has their cards set up. Will look into it!
@ruy343 - The missions will not necessarily be secret, although I suppose some players will choose to play that way. I actually played around with the idea of a play mat when development first started, but because there are several ways to play, and the game itself takes up quite a bit of space already, it just didn't work. With changes that have be made since then, perhaps I'll try that again.
Additional info - players draw 3 mission cards each at the start of the game, and may complete them whenever they wish (but before they're able to win). About 1/2 of the missions require players to keep track of actions. Missions are a secondary purpose to the game (to keep players interacting and moving between the boards) and the main goal is collecting creature cards.
Any other ideas? At the moment I'm leaning towards sliders.