Alright, who wants to give a new and almost completely untested game a spin? I did a playtest on my own, but considering it's a bidding game that uh doesn't work so well. Still it worked and seemed interesting enough, after balancing a few notably broken things.
Rough rules overviewThe game takes place over 3 main stages, with each being 3 turns long. There's also a setup turn (at the start) and a final scoring turn (at the end). Each turn, every player will collect income, in the form of three colours of cubes - Red, Green and Blue, and then take turns bidding for the card they want on a bidding track. Once everyone's bids are finalised, everyone buys their card. After everyone has bought a card, the turn ends and the next turn starts.
Notes about this being an alpha versionA lot of stuff might not be set in stone. The rules may be missing edge cases, cards may have unclear interactions, some stuff might be worded slightly incorrectly and have the wrong effect if taken literally, you know, that kind of stuff. On top of that, some things might become clearly broken as we play (especially a lot of the non-numerical stuff which is hard to quantify without seeing it actually in play). Hopefully, we won't need to change anything as we go, but as a last resort I may have to.
I also actually changed how the bidding works since my playtest version, which might have changed some stuff, but I doubt it'll change too much balance wise. Mostly it should make the game more fun and fair.
And of course, there's a very good chance the game won't be especially fun. Sorry. But it might be really fun!
Card Listhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z4JnyGQurC2NJiobtbzCTQ3BA5E7wtRZIqKmkPP1Foo/edit?usp=sharingFull rulesFirstly I apologise in advance that some of this stuff will be as though it were rules for a physical game, while others will be more like PBF format. Hopefully it'll be clear enough though.
SetupAt the start of the game, each player takes a copy of the base card, which reads:
Exchange: 5R>G and 8R>B. Income: RRRR
This gives the player their starting income, as well as an exchange option (explained later). From the stage 3 deck, shuffle and deal cards face up until two with the public scoring mark have been dealt. Put these two cards so everyone can see them, and shuffle the remaining cards back into the deck. At the end of the game, these cards will score points for everyone.
Shuffle each of the stage 1, 2 and 3 decks. With the stage 1 deck, deal a face up set of cards of size equal to the number of players. These will be the cards available in the first turn of stage 1. Put them to the side for now, however players may look through them at any time. Repeat this process two more times to make the turn 2 and turn 3 sets of cards for stage 1, then repeat this whole process for the stage 2 and then finally stage 3 decks. This will make 9 sets of cards.
Place the 6 start cards by the bidding track. Even in a game with less than 6 players, you still use all 6 cards.
Finally, choose a first player randomly and give them the first player card. This will rotate anti-clockwise each turn.
CardsEach card does one/two of several possible things:
1 off: Gives you the listed cubes immediately, but nothing else.
Income: Gives you the listed cube(s) at the start of every turn from now on.
Exchange: Lists one or more ways you may trade cubes. For example: "8R>B" means you can trade 8 Red cubes to get one Blue cube. Most exchanges are one way. If they are two way, they will have the <> symbol, for example "3R<>G" means you can trade 3 Red cubes for 1 Green cube, or 1 Green cube for 3 Red cubes. Exchanges may be done any number of times per turn, when you are buying a card, and also during the final scoring turn.
Effect: This card does something special. Read the text carefully and apply its effects. Some effect cards do something immediately and only once, other effect cards may have an effect several times.
Scoring: Gives you points at the end of the game. Each Scoring card will give you points for a certain thing. Some scoring cards require you to do something immediately. Otherwise, they take effect at the end of the game during final scoring.
Cube valuesWhenever anything revers to using cube values (such as bidding), these are used: Red cubes are worth 1. Green cubes are worth 3. Blue cubes are worth 5.
GameplayEach turn in the game proceeds the same way.
1) Deal out the cards for this turn by the bidding track, which were set aside during setup [the bidding track goes from 0-20 on each card]
2) Each player collects their income. This is shown on cards which say "Income:". With the base card, everyone will collect 4 Red cubes for the start turn. Subsequently, players may have to check all of their cards carefully for their complete income.
3) Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player may place their bidding token onto a card's bidding track, showing a bid for that card. Players may not bid higher than the value of cubes they own. If a player has already bid on a card and a player wishes to bid on that card themselves, they must bid a larger amount - i.e. they have to place their bidding token on a higher space. If a player outbids someone like this, that player immediately takes their token back and must place it somewhere else. If they place it on another bidding track above another player, this process may repeat several times. They may also place the token back onto a track they were initially outbid on, however of course they must exceed the current winning bid on that track to do so. This continues until a player choose to instead bid on a new card which does not yet have bids, after which play will continue clockwise on to the next player who has not yet bid.
4) Once everyone has bid one one card each, the bidding phase ends and players buy their card. This is done in turn order clockwise from the first player (often this can be done simultaneously, however players should pay attention to effect cards which may require the turn order to be followed, or if any player requests it be done in order, then it should be done player by player as well). Each player must pay their bid in cube value, and must choose to either buy or discard the card they have won. In the start turn, players may not discard the card they won. If they buy it, they must pay the cost printed on the card, and then put it in play in front of them, following any instructions or effects it has. If they choose to discard it (or find they cannot afford it), they place it into a discard pile away from the main play area and instead take 6 value worth of cubes, for example they could take a Blue and Red cube. They do not pay the cost printed on the card when doing this.
During a players turn to buy a card, they may exchange cubes. This can be done both before and after buying a card, but only during their turn. Players may only use exchange cards they own for this, such as the base card and any others they have earned during the game.
5) After everyone has bought their card, they take back their bidding token and the first player card is passed anticlockwise. If it was the start turn, discard the remaining unbought start cards in a 3-5 player game. Then, repeat from step 1 for the next turn's set of cards (unless this is the final turn of stage 3, in which case go to final scoring)
Final scoring1) Each player takes their income, as normal.
2) Flip the bidding board over to reveal the score track [This step may be unneeded in PBF]. Place each players bidding token on the 0 space (if a player has already accrued VPs due to immediate scoring effect cards, place them at the correct space immediately)
3) Each player totals points from their own scoring cards, advancing their token on the scoring track to show this.
4) Then, everyone scores the points from the two public goals. These score points in the same way that scoring cards you have bought do, you do not need to pay for them.
5) The player with the most points wins! The player with the least points packs the game away.
FAQQ: Didn't you just finish writing the rules? How are there already frequently...
A: Shut up.
Q: Do you get income during the start turn?
A: Yes. You will get income a total of 11 times over the game: During the start turn, during each of the three turns in the three stages, and once during final scoring.
Q: With Scoring cards, do I have to choose which cubes apply for which cards?
A: No, unless a card specifically requires you to spend the cubes. If a Scoring card says nothing, you could use the same cubes to score on two or more different cards.
Q: With [Card 22 Stage 1], do you keep the first player token forever?
A: No. First player continues to be passed around like normal, and first player still follows all of the normal rules except with bidding. All that changes is that before the first player places his first bid, you may choose to bid first, or you may choose to pass, ignore the normal clockwise order, and bid only once everyone else has bid.
Q: With [Card 27 Stage 1/2], can I just copy the other stage version of this card and cause an infinite loop where...
A: Shut up.
Q: Do cubes on [Card 25 Stage 2] still count as yours for final scoring?
A: Yes. Asides from sitting on the card, they're still your cubes in every way that matters. If you spend those cubes for anything however, they can never go back onto the card.
SignupsKuildeous
Seprix
Kirian
Schadd
Ghostofmars
I'd like to get to about 4 ideally. 3-6 is the player count I currently think it'll work with.
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