Second Line - New Orleans parade game

Thanks for taking the time to read through the rules OB! I'll answer a few of your questions here...but as you said a lot will get sorted in playtesting.

"Does the bonus for matching a location only apply once, or each time the player can populate the location with the correct paraders?...It may be confusing for players to reverse the benefits of matching paraders to locations; it might be simpler if the rule states that paraders that are removed from their locations are wiped from the board; I think the loss of the 5 points at the end of game would be sufficient penalty"

The penalty for losing a Location was mostly to prevent abuse of the bonuses they award; for instance, if a player is able to purposefully leave a Location only to re-visit it again in order to gain the bonus for a second time (more Paraders, more First Line cards, etc.) It seemed that this could be potentially abused. Also, if a player loses a Location due to an Event, but are able to secure it again after the fill-in mechanic, should the bonus be awarded again, or should the player simply keep the award they received in the first place?

"Since the parade line is expected to be dynamic, how to the players keep track of how many bars have been visited (Bar Stroll); or is the intent that objective is complete if the game ends and the particular condition is met?"

As the "movement" of your parade always happens at the front or rear, Paraders who are "visiting" a Location are generally there until an Event removes them; I can't see any reason why a player would abandon a Location they "own" unless made to do so. Therefore, if your Objective is to visit 5 bars, the Paraders you place to visit those Locations are generally kept there throughout the game. If you were to pass a bar but are unable to place 2 Revelers and "own" it, you have a few options on your next turn to try and do so successfully...mainly playing cards which award you Revelers in the first place and using the "bump" action to move those at the front up and filling in with new Paraders. Take too many turns/proceed too far past the Location, and the opportunity is lost! First Line hand management directly affects your Second Line progression, turn-by-turn.

"When I exchange a FL set, and the cards I exchange match the criteria for both a group of paraders and a GM, do I get both or do I need to pick one or the other? Or is it not an exchange for the GM; simply showing that you have the right combination is sufficient?"

GMs are just like First Line cards, but with higher set requirements and in return, higher Parader awards. They only limit the sets you play IF you plan on playing a set with a GM included. They can be tough to play successfully, but the hope is they're clearly worth the pain of fulfilling their requirements. This is why players are limited to only 1 at a time...to use them, you'll have to purposefully target the cards they need as you build your hand.

"Rather than player turns, my gut reaction is that this game would play better with a round/phase style of play. For example, the round starts and all players draw and play 1 event, then all players move their lines, then all players attempt to fix their lines, clean up phase, etc."

I do really like the idea of players being "active" as often as possible throughout the game, and a turn-based system certainly brings down time with it. Something like this could work:
Draw Phase/Trade-In Phase/Placement Phase/Event Phase/Resolution Phase

This sounds like a really great idea...it also forces me to change the Location award for Tourists, which is currently "Take an extra turn." I chose it as a scapegoat and don't really like that condition, as the others award you more Paraders and more First Line cards. What could the Tourists award you that is equally meaningful, fitting this new "phase" progression???

"I can see some situations in which a single parade line may have multiple breaks at the same time. would the players benefit from having a default "take no other actions this round and consolidate the line" option? The player would effectively lose their turn, but would start the next round with a solid line."

I agree that the "fill-in" mechanic should not be too cumbersome; coming with too many requirements/restrictions to do so. Losing the Paraders and control of Locations should be penalty enough, and players should get back to extending their parade ASAP without having to pull themselves out of too big of a "rules hole." I like your suggestion as it keeps things neat, but with a decent penalty.

Awesome awesome feedback from all so far...I hope you guys all see I'm making a real effort at getting this game completed to industry standards, and the critiques and suggestions posted here are a big part of getting there!

I've posted a photo of the playtest game setup in the OP...more balancing to be done, but things are developing nicely! I thought those of you interested in "Second Line" and it's life here on BGDF would enjoy seeing the progress.

Ha thanks OB...the dice are for Parader bonuses; visit a Location on the board by placing 2 matching Paraders on their color spaces and you get to roll the dice to see how many and which types of people are attracted "outside" to join your parade. All dice are identical and feature the 4 core parader types of Reveler, Artist, Tourist and Local, as well as 1 Draw side and 1 blank side (no gain). Min gain 0, max of 3 per roll.

You do me an honor with that comparison sir! You're right TTR had an indelible effect on me, and while it was not directly the inspiration for Second Line, some of its elements made a lot of sense to add to what felt "natural" within the theme.

I'm definitely trying to keep this at a similar weight as TTR, as the theme is fun and light and I think players would expect as much. No one wants to play a game about a party in New Orleans that plays too deep. Kind of a hybrid game night/party game, as your previous comment mentioned. I fully intend this to be played with some Dr. John blaring (I've been playing his albums "Gris Gris" and "Remedies" for days now) and perhaps a preferred beverage...so it's important to me to get the up-front simplicity and depth of strategy in balance.

I thought of that "Snake" game too! Currently players are allowed to cross over their own parade lines, and also required to maintain at least 1 open space between them and an opponent in order to tell lines apart (tracing them back to the starting street). There is the ability to steal an opponent's line if it's broken by a street closure or movement of the Voodoo Priestess, but that's the only time opponent lines may interact...looks good on paper but I really need to play through this scenario. There's also the Re-route option available each round, so players are never really completely boxed in. I'll investigate how your "lead meeple" suggestion could help...

Anyways thanks for continuing to check this design out! I'm just beginning testing, but my hope is to have it fully tested and ready to pitch by the end of the year...if not sooner.

I should add that I tried playing the Locals in such a way that having (1/2/3) on any given street will protect your parade, rather than having the "visiting" mechanic of the other Parader types serve to ward off the Voodoo Priestess.

With just one per street, players tended to plant them at the corners, effectively blocking 2 streets with a single Local. Requiring more than one made this less of a simple strategy, and I think this overall piece could be made more strategic in HOW and WHERE Locals must be placed, as well as how their number and placement relates to the movement of the VP.

I think having the Locals operate in a slightly different way than the Revelers/Tourists/Artists would enrich the game and add another level of strategy, so again your comments are very helpful!

I've updated the game board, and you may notice it's become quite a bit cleaner!

Gone are the fleur-de-lis Event markers on the board, as now players each receive a roll of the d12 Event Die to see if any occur each round (50% chance). Event cards are still drawn from the Event deck.

Voodoo Priestess may occupy any blue space; red/yellow/green spaces remain and play the same.

I think all of my design questions have been answered, so it's time to play!

Every player gets a roll of the d12 during the Event Phase. For each one that lands with a fleur-up, they draw 1 Event card. So now there's a max of 4 Events per round...or there could be none!

Distribution of the spaces began with the Locations around town (Bars=Revelers/Landmarks=Tourists/Cultural Centers=Artists), then filled in based more or less on concentration to give all players a more or less even distribution. Uniformity doesn't matter to me as much as long as all players have the same overall chances.

There are also FAR more spaces than meeples to fill in, and this was done so that players weren't overwhelmed by trying to match Paraders to the spots, as there are so many around you always have a shot at another nearby. Hopefully, this keeps Lines growing and "moving" at a good rate.

Total of 184 "spots"/3 = 61.33 of each, or 61/61/62. I gave the bonus to the Revelers, as everyone in NOLA loves to party!

Looks like I forgot to fill in a space towards the upper left center of the board, too...that's the final red Reveler spot.

OP has been edited to reflect the current status of this game...suffice to say after just 4 playtests in 4P mode, much has been discovered. The good has been amplified; the bad has been tossed. Everything has been systematically tightened to play intuitively and in theme. The game feels and plays great even when pushed into extreme situations, and I'm taking it into "outside" testing, where it will be exalted or abhorred by strangers...or worse still, met with soul-rending indifference.

For any community members in the LA area, I'll be running some playtests on Saturday, August 29th at Emerald Knights in Burbank from noon-5pm...if for any reason you might want to play Second Line. I may have to dress up like a Mardi Gras float to attract attention to my table, so be prepared for anything!!!

Those kind enough to go through my rules now that I think that they're proven...your impressions are very much welcome!