This last month has seen several playtests of 18GB, including the first plays with people outside my local gaming group. As I expected, I learnt a lot. For the last playtest, I didn't play myself but just watched the game unfold with no input from me beyond explaining the rules. I have several changes to make as a result of this testing. The basic design seemed to hold up but various bits need quite a bit more work.
The biggest problem is the mix of trains in the end game. After the local playtests, I made the 3X optional after the purchase of the first 4X, because players found that the 3X weren't worthwhile and hurt the companies that had to buy them. The optional trains seemed to work but reduced the number of companies saving for the final 6X. The game still ends 3 ORs after buying the first 6X; arguably this now makes the game too short. This whole area requires more thought.
I tried changing the rule for converting companies to ten-share companies, so that conversion happened when any player bought a notional sixth share. The idea was that if someone has a successful five-share company, another player can force them to convert it, potentially at an inconvenient share value. I soon found that the game needs the original mechanism as well, in which the director can convert a company during the stock round. Currently I am keeping both but it may be that the conversion by buying the sixth-share is too complex.
Several people had trouble laying track in Scotland. This partly reflects the current design of that part of the map. In one game, the double-town tiles were another contributing factor. The idea of the double-town tiles was that these three hexes would be areas of particular contention for the right tiles. In practice this isn't working well because the alternatives to the obvious tile lays don't work so well. One 18xx designed suggested that I drop them, on the grounds that the double-city and triple-city tiles already give enough variety and strategy to the game. He's probably right.
In the most recent playtest, no-one started the NER. This surprised me and challenged some of my assumptions about the game. As a side effect, it meant that it was impossible to token-out Newcastle (because one space had to be reserved for the NER). I realised that I had designed the game with the assumption that the NER would always be one of the tokens blocking Newcastle. As I was also concerned that the NER might be too strong a company, I'm now experimenting with starting it in Middlesbrough instead.
There are various other small tweaks as well but these are the most significant. I was a little surprised to learn that the map and tile mix needed so many tweaks, as I had thought these were pretty stable. I do think the revisions will significantly improve the game, so if tests bear this out, the experience will have been very useful.
Friday 27 July 2012
Monday 9 July 2012
18GB tile design notes
Many of the tiles in 18GB differ from those found in other 18xx games. These notes explain the main differences.
The plain track tiles are standard. Indeed, I use the bitmaps from John Tamplin’s 18xx.info site.
For the town and city tiles, the income values are 1/10th those of standard 18xx games. The money system in 18GB divides all values by 10, thus removing the need for notes or chips of values less than 10. In fact, this decision makes it possible to use a track for recording player’s cash rather than needed notes or chips at all. This is intended to speed play.
Apart from the difference in values, the single- town and yellow single-city tiles match those in other games. The green single-city tiles have only one station space instead of two and the brown single-city tiles have value 30 instead of 40.
As the tiles had to be redrawn anyway, I have taken the opportunity to make the graphic design more consistent. So the yellow single-town tiles use circles to represent stations instead of the bars used in many 18xx games. Also, the income value of each tile is shown in a diamond instead of a circle, so that it is a different shape from the station spaces.
The double-town, double-city and triple-city have different track layouts from the usual OO and double-town tiles. Rather than lay track to both (or all three) towns and cities at once, the yellow tile connects one town or city and the green tile connects the second. This reflects the multiple companies that built their own track in an area covered by a small map. It also gives a different track layout from game to game, and happens to yield an interesting take on 18xx track placement by insisting that the company must be able to trace a route to the new track on the new tile.
The layout of the double-town tiles is different from the standard tiles that have the same layout. This is an attempt to make the change from the green tiles to the more complex brown tiles easier to follow.
The plain track tiles are standard. Indeed, I use the bitmaps from John Tamplin’s 18xx.info site.
For the town and city tiles, the income values are 1/10th those of standard 18xx games. The money system in 18GB divides all values by 10, thus removing the need for notes or chips of values less than 10. In fact, this decision makes it possible to use a track for recording player’s cash rather than needed notes or chips at all. This is intended to speed play.
Apart from the difference in values, the single- town and yellow single-city tiles match those in other games. The green single-city tiles have only one station space instead of two and the brown single-city tiles have value 30 instead of 40.
As the tiles had to be redrawn anyway, I have taken the opportunity to make the graphic design more consistent. So the yellow single-town tiles use circles to represent stations instead of the bars used in many 18xx games. Also, the income value of each tile is shown in a diamond instead of a circle, so that it is a different shape from the station spaces.
The double-town, double-city and triple-city have different track layouts from the usual OO and double-town tiles. Rather than lay track to both (or all three) towns and cities at once, the yellow tile connects one town or city and the green tile connects the second. This reflects the multiple companies that built their own track in an area covered by a small map. It also gives a different track layout from game to game, and happens to yield an interesting take on 18xx track placement by insisting that the company must be able to trace a route to the new track on the new tile.
The layout of the double-town tiles is different from the standard tiles that have the same layout. This is an attempt to make the change from the green tiles to the more complex brown tiles easier to follow.
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