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Author Topic: Interview with Donald X.  (Read 2127133 times)

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arcee

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3625 on: January 19, 2017, 06:17:15 pm »
0

That is the house rule I recommend, and the way I have always played it. A technical reading of the rulebook suggests that abilities refresh at the start of your turn, which would make Canoe not work until your next turn.

Seems so strange to have a designer recommending house rules.  Do you have any you recommend for your other published games?
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Beyond Awesome

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3626 on: January 19, 2017, 07:10:06 pm »
0

Thanks for answering my questions  :)
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3627 on: January 19, 2017, 07:18:46 pm »
+9

Seems so strange to have a designer recommending house rules.  Do you have any you recommend for your other published games?
In this case, it's because the expansion rulebook is lacking. It doesn't cover the case, and then you look at the main set rulebook and come to a conclusion that is not actually how I played the ability.

Infiltration: They changed the game a lot from how I had it. I recommend playing with all of the optional rules; that at least gets you closer.

Nefarious: I recommend the second edition; the card mix is just slightly different, and a guy on research is free. Fixes due to the wisdom of my years. If you have the Ascora Games edition and aren't planning on getting the expansion, which should be showing up soon, then don't play those two Twists together that make the game unwinnable.

Greed: One card is wrong (a mistake I didn't catch). It's correct in the prototype and I haven't changed it to match. It's going to be hard to fix, I mean I guess you could sharpie it, if I told you what it was. No-one has noticed and well it's a drafting game; this particular mistake does not matter much.

Pina Pirata: The second uh printing is better. They added in the "Adventure mode" (I always play "Cruise mode") and made it less bad in the second printing. And the cards are much more uh readable, distinguishable, due to color, although still not as good as the prototype. And the tile mix is a little less harsh. I'm not sure how to tell the boxes apart. With the first printing, do not play Adventure mode.

Gauntlet of Fools: I think I blew it on Armorer; it's not especially strong, but you can get lucky and end up going through the entire deck of monsters. Uh my temporary fix is, don't play with that one.

Kingdom Builder: I think I basically play by the rules. Where the expansions are off, I play by the prototype; Crossroads-the-ability gets you any terrain if you have two of the same terrain, and this Canoe business. And many things have better names.

Dominion: The prototype doesn't support 6 players. I don't play with the removed cards, or Rebuild.

Temporum: Use the "Play or draw or score" zones sparingly; with new players, don't use them. If I had it to do again they'd be in the expansion, and some expansion stuff would replace them in the main set.

Monster Factory: I think I may actually play this by the rules.
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Deadlock39

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3628 on: January 20, 2017, 12:39:24 am »
+1

I have been playing a lot of Kingdom Builder lately. My questions are do you feel it's necessary to have caves tied to the tavern or would rolling a d20 be fine. For the island, you recommend the harbor and the lighthouse if you want to see it more frequently. Do you feel the island should be tied to these two quadrants or do you think it's fine to roll a d20 to see if it comes up and assign it to whatever boards pop up?

And, finally, my last question is about Task cards. Why do they have to be tied to the quadrants from crossroads? Would rolling a d20 to decide if task cards come up alter your vision of how they should be played? Also, why do you play with 0-4 task cards? Why not 0-1? Just asking because when I had two crossroads boards and two task cards, a friend of mine was suffering from AP.

Hey, I'm not Donald, but I've been playing more recently, and thinking more about how to randomize without tying to specific things like you are talking about.
I randomize all these things by throwing them into a randomizer with all the boards. 
They select like Dominion events. If you hit one, use it and keep going until you have 4 boards. The things I toss in the randomizer are:
All the boards
4 "task cards" (pick a random one for each one that comes out)
2 Capitals
Caves
The Island (randomly pick a side if it comes out)

I haven't used this too many times yet, but it feels pretty good.

If you think you'd like this method and happen to have everything, I have a rough first pass of my randomizer live:
http://www.makingmorefun.com/kingdombuilder/randomizer/
Being able to remove things you don't own is coming eventually, but I'm not sure when.

Kingdom Builder: ...and this Canoe business...

You probably already did somewhere, but can you explain what you do differently with Canoe?

spiralstaircase

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3629 on: January 20, 2017, 05:33:01 am »
0

Dominion: The prototype doesn't support 6 players. I don't play with the removed cards, or Rebuild.

You've said elsewhere that the remaining expansions won't get 2nd edition cards, just tweaked reprints.  Do you think there's a case for replacing just Rebuild in a Dark Ages reprint?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3630 on: January 20, 2017, 01:38:14 pm »
0

You probably already did somewhere, but can you explain what you do differently with Canoe?
It starts working after the turn where you get it, instead of after you start a turn with it. You get Canoe, the next player takes the last Oasis, you get to use your Canoe.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3631 on: January 20, 2017, 01:44:11 pm »
0

You've said elsewhere that the remaining expansions won't get 2nd edition cards, just tweaked reprints.  Do you think there's a case for replacing just Rebuild in a Dark Ages reprint?
We would have to make it possible for everyone who bought an inferior copy to easily get the replacement. We're not making an Update Pack for one card. The promos are given away and not widely available.

The way to replace one card in Dark Ages would have been to have an Update Pack with 7 cards that were spread around among expansions. Some people would probably be mad at that though - I bought the old Cornucopia and new Dark Ages and this card is redundant, thanks for selling me something I already have.

Also the moment has passed! At best it's something I can consider again for 3rd editions.
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spiralstaircase

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3632 on: January 21, 2017, 06:25:04 am »
+1

Also the moment has passed! At best it's something I can consider again for 3rd editions.

I guess.  One alternative would be to say "Hey, here's a promo card, it's the card that I'd replace Rebuild with if I could. And when the current stock of Dark Ages runs out, I will.  So if you've already got Dark Ages, maybe pick it up; if you haven't, then either get them both now or wait, it's up to you".  And then the promo might encourage people to grab the existing stock, though I doubt it would be a big thing.


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NoMoreFun

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3633 on: January 21, 2017, 10:13:38 am »
0

You've said elsewhere that the remaining expansions won't get 2nd edition cards, just tweaked reprints.  Do you think there's a case for replacing just Rebuild in a Dark Ages reprint?
We would have to make it possible for everyone who bought an inferior copy to easily get the replacement. We're not making an Update Pack for one card. The promos are given away and not widely available.

The way to replace one card in Dark Ages would have been to have an Update Pack with 7 cards that were spread around among expansions. Some people would probably be mad at that though - I bought the old Cornucopia and new Dark Ages and this card is redundant, thanks for selling me something I already have.

Also the moment has passed! At best it's something I can consider again for 3rd editions.

What about "expansions to expansions", eg a 150 card expansion to Alchemy coinciding with the rerelease of Alchemy as a big box expansion.
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McGarnacle

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3634 on: January 21, 2017, 11:08:36 am »
0

You've said elsewhere that the remaining expansions won't get 2nd edition cards, just tweaked reprints.  Do you think there's a case for replacing just Rebuild in a Dark Ages reprint?
We would have to make it possible for everyone who bought an inferior copy to easily get the replacement. We're not making an Update Pack for one card. The promos are given away and not widely available.

The way to replace one card in Dark Ages would have been to have an Update Pack with 7 cards that were spread around among expansions. Some people would probably be mad at that though - I bought the old Cornucopia and new Dark Ages and this card is redundant, thanks for selling me something I already have.

Also the moment has passed! At best it's something I can consider again for 3rd editions.

What about "expansions to expansions", eg a 150 card expansion to Alchemy coinciding with the rerelease of Alchemy as a big box expansion.

This would be cool!
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pacovf

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3635 on: January 21, 2017, 01:31:29 pm »
+5

I think a FAQ of the Interview with Donald X. is in order.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3636 on: January 21, 2017, 02:19:18 pm »
+3

Also the moment has passed! At best it's something I can consider again for 3rd editions.

I guess.  One alternative would be to say "Hey, here's a promo card, it's the card that I'd replace Rebuild with if I could. And when the current stock of Dark Ages runs out, I will.  So if you've already got Dark Ages, maybe pick it up; if you haven't, then either get them both now or wait, it's up to you".  And then the promo might encourage people to grab the existing stock, though I doubt it would be a big thing.
I do not expect we will ever replace a card in a set without providing a better way than a promo for people to get it.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3637 on: January 21, 2017, 02:22:49 pm »
+6

What about "expansions to expansions", eg a 150 card expansion to Alchemy coinciding with the rerelease of Alchemy as a big box expansion.
On Blogatog people are always telling Mark Rosewater they need to do a Return to Kamigawa - Kamigawa being their least popular world ever, by like every metric they've measured. There are always more people who just do not see why they are not doing this.
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ThetaSigma12

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3638 on: January 21, 2017, 02:36:23 pm »
+1

What was the worst card you actually legit tested, like what ones did you think would be fine then you played them once and it was horrendous?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3639 on: January 21, 2017, 04:25:01 pm »
+15

What was the worst card you actually legit tested, like what ones did you think would be fine then you played them once and it was horrendous?
It's impossible to find a definitive answer, I mean I'm not endlessly researching it and cards have been tested that don't survive in any files.

On day one, the first game of Dominion, Ruined Market and Necropolis (as "Market" and "Village") both cost $5. So, that's pretty bad.
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AdrianHealey

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3640 on: January 22, 2017, 12:14:13 pm »
+10

Hey man, if $11 is a decent price for herbalist, than $5 is a good price for ruined market.
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markusin

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3641 on: January 22, 2017, 12:22:09 pm »
+3

Hey man, if $11 is a decent price for herbalist, than $5 is a good price for ruined market.

Hey, make it offer you three choices from the black market deck instead of giving +buy and I would buy it for $5 back when I was a Dominion noob.

I know my group would use a mock-up of Black Market but forgot to include the +2 coin when playing with it.
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MatthewCA

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3642 on: January 24, 2017, 12:30:08 pm »
+5

I'm not sure where to post this so I hope this is the right spot. I'm just curious why the term "deck" was used to describe the pile of cards you draw your hand from. In my opinion the better term for this pile is "draw pile" and "deck" should only be used to describe all the cards you possess, be they in play, your discard pile, on a mat, or where ever.
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Beyond Awesome

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3643 on: January 24, 2017, 01:12:06 pm »
0

I have been playing a lot of Kingdom Builder lately. My questions are do you feel it's necessary to have caves tied to the tavern or would rolling a d20 be fine. For the island, you recommend the harbor and the lighthouse if you want to see it more frequently. Do you feel the island should be tied to these two quadrants or do you think it's fine to roll a d20 to see if it comes up and assign it to whatever boards pop up?

And, finally, my last question is about Task cards. Why do they have to be tied to the quadrants from crossroads? Would rolling a d20 to decide if task cards come up alter your vision of how they should be played? Also, why do you play with 0-4 task cards? Why not 0-1? Just asking because when I had two crossroads boards and two task cards, a friend of mine was suffering from AP.

Hey, I'm not Donald, but I've been playing more recently, and thinking more about how to randomize without tying to specific things like you are talking about.
I randomize all these things by throwing them into a randomizer with all the boards. 
They select like Dominion events. If you hit one, use it and keep going until you have 4 boards. The things I toss in the randomizer are:
All the boards
4 "task cards" (pick a random one for each one that comes out)
2 Capitals
Caves
The Island (randomly pick a side if it comes out)

I haven't used this too many times yet, but it feels pretty good.

If you think you'd like this method and happen to have everything, I have a rough first pass of my randomizer live:
http://www.makingmorefun.com/kingdombuilder/randomizer/
Being able to remove things you don't own is coming eventually, but I'm not sure when.

Kingdom Builder: ...and this Canoe business...

You probably already did somewhere, but can you explain what you do differently with Canoe?
 

Nice randomizer
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3644 on: January 24, 2017, 03:09:12 pm »
+8

I'm not sure where to post this so I hope this is the right spot. I'm just curious why the term "deck" was used to describe the pile of cards you draw your hand from. In my opinion the better term for this pile is "draw pile" and "deck" should only be used to describe all the cards you possess, be they in play, your discard pile, on a mat, or where ever.
This is the spot, but I don't really have an answer. Some things early on did not involve thinking things through.
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ipofanes

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3645 on: January 25, 2017, 03:54:33 am »
0

What about "expansions to expansions", eg a 150 card expansion to Alchemy coinciding with the rerelease of Alchemy as a big box expansion.
On Blogatog people are always telling Mark Rosewater they need to do a Return to Kamigawa - Kamigawa being their least popular world ever, by like every metric they've measured. There are always more people who just do not see why they are not doing this.
Obviously you'd have to follow the rules of the market, but do you think yourself that the concept of alternate, non-convertible (in the sense that Debt and Coin can be converted into just fine) currency is not intellectually satisfying enough to expand on? Surely the small expansion did not explore all the routes that came with the new concept. On the other hand bad luck of the draw at turn 3 can hose you in a way that you may want to resign early.
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ipofanes

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3646 on: January 25, 2017, 03:55:26 am »
+2

I'm not sure where to post this so I hope this is the right spot. I'm just curious why the term "deck" was used to describe the pile of cards you draw your hand from. In my opinion the better term for this pile is "draw pile" and "deck" should only be used to describe all the cards you possess, be they in play, your discard pile, on a mat, or where ever.
This is the spot, but I don't really have an answer. Some things early on did not involve thinking things through.
Should have named it R+D.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3647 on: January 25, 2017, 04:49:37 pm »
+1

Obviously you'd have to follow the rules of the market, but do you think yourself that the concept of alternate, non-convertible (in the sense that Debt and Coin can be converted into just fine) currency is not intellectually satisfying enough to expand on? Surely the small expansion did not explore all the routes that came with the new concept. On the other hand bad luck of the draw at turn 3 can hose you in a way that you may want to resign early.
I think the concept of "alternate currency that you buy in order to use and that's all there is to it" would not benefit from further effort. Too many people didn't like it and more cards wouldn't change that. And a card with +$P wouldn't change that, and a Remodel that got in P wouldn't change that (and Alchemy at one point tried out such cards).

The broader concept of alternate currencies could be fine. Feel free to tackle the problem of how to make a good one in the variants forum.
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Kirian

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3648 on: January 25, 2017, 11:52:36 pm »
+5

Obviously you'd have to follow the rules of the market, but do you think yourself that the concept of alternate, non-convertible (in the sense that Debt and Coin can be converted into just fine) currency is not intellectually satisfying enough to expand on? Surely the small expansion did not explore all the routes that came with the new concept. On the other hand bad luck of the draw at turn 3 can hose you in a way that you may want to resign early.
I think the concept of "alternate currency that you buy in order to use and that's all there is to it" would not benefit from further effort. Too many people didn't like it and more cards wouldn't change that. And a card with +$P wouldn't change that, and a Remodel that got in P wouldn't change that (and Alchemy at one point tried out such cards).

The broader concept of alternate currencies could be fine. Feel free to tackle the problem of how to make a good one in the variants forum.

This concept could be... the bomb.

* Kirian ducks
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Marcory

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #3649 on: January 26, 2017, 04:53:30 pm »
0

Obviously you'd have to follow the rules of the market, but do you think yourself that the concept of alternate, non-convertible (in the sense that Debt and Coin can be converted into just fine) currency is not intellectually satisfying enough to expand on? Surely the small expansion did not explore all the routes that came with the new concept. On the other hand bad luck of the draw at turn 3 can hose you in a way that you may want to resign early.
I think the concept of "alternate currency that you buy in order to use and that's all there is to it" would not benefit from further effort. Too many people didn't like it and more cards wouldn't change that. And a card with +$P wouldn't change that, and a Remodel that got in P wouldn't change that (and Alchemy at one point tried out such cards).

The broader concept of alternate currencies could be fine. Feel free to tackle the problem of how to make a good one in the variants forum.

This concept could be... the bomb.

* Kirian ducks


Come on, now. November was 2 months ago. Save your Gunpowder plots for Guy Fawkes' Day.
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