Worker Placement: How to "collect" resources?

I think that "randomness" would most likely turn off players who prefer more deterministic play. And this is very important because aside from the battle dice, the game is deterministic.

This one is bang on! Yes there could be a limit of 3 Qi (Chi) per monk and the "Cipher" cards could influence this limit (like to maybe 5 Qi at the most) and there could be 5 Qi limit for one monk or +1 each monk. Definitely a GREAT suggestion, I had a similar thought.

While a challenge might be good; I was thinking about "Catan's Robber" and that maybe I could have something like the "Shadowforce" which goes around stealing resources from the monks as they collect it. It could be similar to a "Traditional Battle" between two (2) monks... You roll and see what happens. Yeah it's NOT deterministic due to die rolling but it is the most effective way of offering a mechanic which BLOCK or OPPOSES the monks.

So kudos on that one too... I think the "Shadowforce" might work in making the collecting more difficult. But ATM it's just an idea... I would of course need to playtest it.

This would be very difficult to do since the Qi is connected to the "terrain". I'll ask you ANOTHER question (later).

I'll wait for ANOTHER question (later) to address this idea.

This would be difficult to track. If it was a "Video Game", this could actually work and it could be like a 3 minute time-out (per tile). But since this is an analog game... Would be difficult to implement.

This could work... But not sure if it would be valid. Going back to the hard limit, if it was "3 Qi" and you have 3 monks that means at most 9 Qi. That seems like already a lot. Adding a "color" barrier would detract from the nature of the tiles: Some are single colored, others can be dual colors (implying a choice of Qi — Like Black OR White).

I am also leaning with "Colorless" Qi. An example would be "2 Blue Qi" and "3 Colorless" (any of the other colors). This is another consideration too. So ONLY having one color + only a fixed limit ... Makes for something "too restrictive". Again more playtesting. This is NOT a bad idea... Just needs to be validated.

Again timing would work great for a Video Game: you have 3 turns per monk to return with the Qi. But again in an analog context... It makes it a bit "frustrating": you need to think but you are pressured by a timeout. I'm not designing a real-time game. So I don't think it could be feasible.

And NOW for that QUESTION that I have been wanting to ASK:

Please feel free to SHARE your ideas/thoughts/feedback/questions concerning this or even other aspects that we've been discussing. Cheers!

All players control the "Shadowforce" once per round by rolling a "Shadowforce" die (Custom 1 to 3 or Standard 1 to 6 — depending on the number of players 2 or 4). So, like in Catan the "Shadowforce" is moved around by the LAST player in the Round. Sometimes you roll HIGH and other times you roll LOW. Therefore, there is probably some kind of AVERAGE roll that occurs although a player can be lucky or "unlucky" depending on how the players use this "Shadowforce".

What needs more playtesting is IF the "Shadowforce" STEALS all Qi from one monk or does it have to ATTACK (and then there is the whole dice rolling — for combat)... Not sure, requires more playtesting.

I took a look at Tzolk'in and I understood what you meant. There are other rules that you are encouraging me to ADD from the comments and ideas. Like you only have "3 monks" to collect Qi (Chi) but... You can have up to "2 additional monks" as Area Control (which could affect the abilities used in the "Cipher" cards).

There are some more thoughts like: instead of everyone waiting until the END of the Round to roll for the "Shadowforce", if you ROLL a "3 or higher", you get to roll for the "Shadowforce" also... So this is like the more you move, the HIGHER the actions ATTRACT the "Shadowforce" into moving...

Or it could be a CATCH-UP mechanic ... IF you roll LESS than a "3" (0, 1, or 2) ... You can at least roll for the "Shadowforce" as a counter-measure to BALANCE out your turn...

This is sounding HIGHLY plausible and good for general gameplay (rewarded for a crappy roll... Hmm!)

I think for PA, the idea is that each of your monks collect Qi (Chi) and must return it to the "nearest" (or player's choice) Gateway such that the Qi can be counted and applied for the current "Cipher", unlocking a "Location".

Yeah... I am definitely LIKING the "Crappy Roll Reward": roll for the "Shadowforce"...