3 August 2014
Playtest Session 12
4 players, 3 new
PLEASE NOTE: when I took this photo, the Orange player had already been packing up their pieces.
I had sent the ruleset to a friend of a friend of mine, and after an exhausting go-round with Twilight Imperium v3 (my first ever), we wound down the evening with a game of Mole Majority. It lasted just over an hour, after instructing three new players (including the friend who had a copy of the ruleset). Some observations:
- Typography/card layout needs to be updated. There needs to be a difference struck between a card that has two possible options (such as a NUMBER CARD, where players can do both Move and Populate with the same card), and a "stackable" card or Action card (where only one Action is permitted, either/or). Using the "plus" sign was confusing to some, since its use was inconsistent with the card rules.
- Based on feedback, I also think that shrinking the iconography for the Special Effects was not a good choice. In the next revision, I will make the Special Effects icons take prominence and move the Stackable bonus number to the bottom of the card (or something). Adding text or editing the already-existing text is also required.
- Speaking of Special Effects, there was a heated discussion regarding the use of the Mole Panic card, as well as separating the Cave-In and Make-A-Home actions into separate cards. Long story short, I do not want the Cave-In Special Effect to be on its own, since it is used primarily in 3- and 4-player games. It needs to be appended it to something else as a choice.
- There was also a discussion regarding the usefulness of the Mole Panic card, though general consensus eventually turned around to affecting another player's deck. Someone also suggested changing the picture to one of those groundskeeper's rolling landscape things, which I'll likely do in a future card update.
- They also suggested I come up with a way to push opponent moles out of a hex a player has claimed. Oddly enough, this is an idea I had mused about in a previous playtesting report. I will have this implemented in a future card/ruleset update. Maybe it's a Special Effect I can have paired with the Cave-In, so the Make-A-Home card can be on its own.
The picture shows that the game remained close, and the winner was predicated by Home Tokens. Both Blue and Black stayed close thanks to their Cave-In Tokens.
