Design Journey
Tues Oct 11 – Game Duration
I mentioned to our artist Anita that the box will need a little symbol indicating how long the game runs. Until now, I hadn’t really though about how long I wanted it to take. During playtesting it took as long as it needed, and was generally quite slow as questions came up that weren’t in the Rulebook yet, and we hashed out any interesting ideas as they arose. I happen to like long games, and regularly meet with friend to play Twilight Imperium or train games all day on a weekend. But that may not suit a large audience. Also, this game just seems like it should spin faster with major battles over Events and Elections followed by light skirmishes during Promotions. Ideally, it would take about 30 minutes per player, so 4-6 players would take 2-4 hours.
Setup should be simple, just shuffle the various decks of cards, grab your Player Card, and put your tokens on the board. The rules are not terribly complex, just a nine concepts to teach: Influence, Action Cards, Traits, Skills, Players and Assistants, Events, Elections, and Promotions. We can limit hand size so you don’t have a ton of cards to study.
I also reconsidered how many Politicians there were, since a primary way to end the game is running out of Deputies. Originally I created 26 names, one each starting with A-Z. During Setup 16 are placed on the board, leaving 10 in the Draw Deck. During Year 1, there are 4 promotions to Minister, then an Election to Prime Minister that eliminates the loser, leaving room for 2 more promotions. Then the Event generally ousts someone, causing another promotion. This leaves 3 in the Draw Deck after Year 1, which likely reach the board during the Event and Election in Year 2. If the rest of the game is evenly balanced between the four Ministries, it takes 12 promotions to leave one Deputy in each. Therefore a 13th promotion empties one out. At the cadence of 3 every two years, it takes twelve more years, for a total of 14 Years. Much too long.
The original board planned for 12 Years, and none of the playtests got past Year 6. The second board ended the game after Year 8, still pretty long. We’re currently working on the third iteration to better use empty space, and could shorten the game to fewer turns. That feels arbitrary, and doesn’t allow much time to develop a strategy. It’s possible your Secret Client won’t even appear on the board. I know I would feel cheated out of a few Victory Points. Both of those would make the game more about random chance than skill.
So I wondered, why not have fewer Politicians in the deck? With the Kickstarter reward for backers to put their names and faces on the Politicians, we surely won’t end up with 26 A-Z. By reducing the total to 22, they all reach the board in Year 1 just from the 6 promotions. The Event will likely leave a vacancy, too. To avoid taking 12 more years, we need to introduce Action Cards that oust Deputies. Also, an Election every Year will oust the loser, and give more players a shot at scoring with a Prime Minister. Ousting 2 per year shortens the game to about 6 years. There is a chance one Ministry empties out rapidly, which is somewhat self-correcting. I would expect players to vigorously seek to defeat those remaining to give their clients in other Ministries a chance to move up and score higher. There is also a chance the Ministries empty evenly, running as long as 9 years. Odds are most games will last 7-8 years, which seems like a good target. There is some variability on the Events where ousting is prevented, or multiple Ministers get ousted. So each game will have a bit of uncertainty about the exact ending, which I think is a good thing.