Design Journey

Sun Oct 16 – Main Boards

In my second design for the game board, I ended up with two separate boards using the standard 20×20 folding panels.  This let me put every chart, track, draw pile, and discard pile on a board, but it takes a lot of table space.  Last weekend Braden and I discussed moving some elements around.  Thinking more about that, I created Summary cards for each player to reference.  One side shows the Jobs, and the other side shows the Traits.  Experimented with running the cardstock through the printer upside down to print both sides.  Worked pretty well.

For Jobs, we will need a different device.  I’m thinking of a stiff card with the number at the top, the name in large font, and the perks written out below.  These could be passed around the table starting with the Leader token so each player can choose from the stack as it shrinks.  I’ve played other games where these are laid flat on the table, which can be hard to see.  Maybe these can have a base so they stand up.

Next I enlarged the Player Cards and added a box showing the Standard Actions.  In playtesting, many players forgot these were available, in spite of being prominent on board #2.  

The scoring track around the board is common, and allows players to see where everyone stands.  To clear board #2 we’ll need chits of some kind.  How many each player has can be public knowledge, or kept secret to add mystery to the end of the game.

Finally, I added tracks for the three Skills on the Player Card.  I really liked the design element of a triangle with players competing for fewer spots at each higher level.  However, considering the game lasts only 8 years, the Trainer Job only allows for 8 advancements total, likely spread out among different players.  Newbie players didn’t immediately rush for these spots during playtesting, so I’ll drop this in favor of making the Player Card more interesting.

Removing all the above from board #2 leaves only the Phase wheel.  If we removed the Event grid from board #1, there should be room for a Phase track.  Thus eliminating the second board!  This will save production costs, shrink the box height and weight, also saving shipping costs, and reduce the table space needed.  However, we will need the various card piles to be placed around the outside of the board in easy reach.