Mole Majority - Playtesting August 2015

Playtest Sessions - August 2015

Some minor, quick updates.

- There's been some confusion regarding the stackable bonuses, primarily due to the wording (or absence of wording) on the cards, so I will revise this. All stackable bonuses that are played in addition to the action displayed on the card (for example, the GROUNDSKEEPER cards and their BREED bonus) will have the word "THEN" listed on them. This is consistent with the NUMBER 2 THEN +1 BREED card, and identifies different situations when stackable cards are automatically used when a card is played.

- The wording on the CONVERT CARD will be revised to "CHOOSE ONE STACKABLE: MOVE +1, BREED +1, ROLL +1, REPEAT CONVERT." This is because some players were misreading the card as allowing them to use the GROUNDSKEEPER and CONVERT actions as stackables, even if they hadn't used those attacks as that turn's action.

The "ROLL +1" refers to the GROUNDSKEEPER attack card, but clarifies that a GROUNDSKEEPER attack must happen first (to establish a ROLL NUMBER as stated in the game rules), and "REPEAT CONVERT" indicates that another CONVERT card must be played prior to the stackable. Finally, adding "CHOOSE ONE" in the beginning indicates that the player who uses this as a stackable is entitled to only one of the stackable options, not all of them.

- When a player first gains majority of a hex, then the Home Token on that hex is flipped face-up. This way, all players will know what the value of the Home Token is, but only after it's been claimed. This will add strategic value to certain hexes while maintaining replayability. Home Tokens gained from causing Cave-Ins will still provide one of the random off-board Home Tokens.

- I ended up submitting this game to a publisher of other light-strategy and family-oriented titles, but I've yet to hear back from them, either yea or nay. I assume this was due to it being prior to GenCon, so I'm not so worried about it. If they actually request to see a prototype, I'll have these cards revised prior to shipping a copy out to them.

- I'm toying with revisiting the MOLE PANIC! cards from earlier versions of the game. I could call the card "GOPHER IT!" just to include a goofy pun. This would allow a player to take the first three cards from the top of a target player's discard pile, choose one to add to their own discard pile, and return the rest. It may come back, injecting some more player interaction and "take that!" beyond the GROUNDSKEEPER and CONVERT cards. We'll see what it looks like to have a game with all three of these interesting actions included. More testing, but of course! :)