I'm in the process of testing a game with similar design to Exploding Kittens (i.e draw from deck and avoid bomb).
My game has 2 decks, the first containing:
-25 filler cards
-5 bomb cards
With the second containing action cards:
-10 add 2 filler cards to the bomb deck
-5 the next player draws an extra card from the bomb deck
-2 switch the player order around. The new "1" player immediately does their turn
-1 from now on, each player draws an extra card from the bomb deck
-2 randomly take 1 action card from another player
At the start, players draws 1 action cards each and take one player order card.
The player who has the "1" player order card draws 1 action card (and discard it), can play at most one action card, resolves its effect, then draws from the bomb deck. If a player draws a filler card, he puts it in the bomb discard pile the "2" player does his turn. If a player draws the bomb card, the game ends.
When no more action cards can be drawn, the discarded action cards are reshuffled.
Right now, the starting bomb deck contains 9 filler cards and 1 bomb. The goal is to make a good casual filler game where players can leave and come in freely, ending under 5min, and being easy enough to learn in under a minute.
After playtesting for a bit, 1/10 chance to lose seemed like a good start, especially since unless people are feeling lucky, 2 filler cards are usually added right away (1/12).
The reasons I'm posting here is to collect as much feedback as possible on whether the game feels more frustrating than fun, and on if the "add two filler cards" should be broken up into "add 1/2/3 filler cards". I'm having trouble deciding on higher variability produces more fun or more frustration for when you get the "add 1" instead of "add 3". I also haven't gotten enough people to play at once to see if putting in ways to add more bomb cards has any merit.
Any other feedback would be greatly appreciated as well.
I got the idea while talking about Homeopathy, the more complete version has water as filler and a virus as the bomb. The action cards are called pseudoscience cards and are themed around general homeopathy falsehoods.
At the start of your turn you have two cards in hand. Each new turn you draw a new card, and you can only play one card per turn.
I wanted a game with half decision making and half leaving it up to chance. After a bit of playtesting, I did find that getting hit with a "License Removal" (take an action card from another player) was way too strong and didn't leave you with much, so I might bump the starting hand up to 3 instead of 2, giving people a few more options and making "License Removal" weaker.
Exploding Kittens, I find, has the problem of player death in a game which could go on for quite some time for the first player out. While themed as a casual game, there's more depth and complexity to it which make it a lot more suited to the middle ground of casual board game players and frequent board game players.
Title: Dilution: the Homeopathy Game, would hopefully allow people to leave the game if they have to, or allow people to jump in, making it a good filler game if you have a party or as a lead-up to another bigger game.
I'll try playtesting with starting hand of 3 and see if people feel a bit better.