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The
first version used a tiny 28 card deck (the size inspired by my
favorite trick taking game
TWILIGHT), and almost all of the current cards. Taking an idea
from STRATEGO, I made the low 3's remove 10's from the current
trick. The real twist was in reversing the definition of what
suits do in a card game. In mine, you can only play suits that
have not already been played in a hand. (Curiously the idea was
a reaction to a post forcefully pointing out that you could not
design a decent trick taking game without making people follow
suit. He missed the point a bit. You must have some way to Limit
what people play, but there are likely more unusual variants on
that yet to come.)
In
that first version, I whimsically decided to include a special
powers set of rules. This worked similarly to trip tickets in
WILDLIFE ADVENTURE. Playing the game, I thought once
again....that it sucked. (There is a lot of this in game design
I've discovered.) But there was a kernel of something
interesting underneath. However, it was buried in a mire of
chaos caused by all of the special powers. We found that we
could block each other's card plays.
Play
2: No special powers. The game shined. A bit dull still, but we
were now able to get some idea about who had what cards, and
some clever plays emerged with the reverse suits. Swap cards
came in quickly to allow you and your partner to gain knowledge
about each other's hands.
I
still had two problems. (1) You had absolutely no knowledge
about your opponent's hands, and (2) with only three hands in a
game, a strong hand gave the win to one side. Adding the dreaded
exchanging gifts rule solved both of these nicely. When a team
takes a trick, they now took a potential penalty, which weakened
the effect of a strong hand. And cards were now migrating a bit
between opponent's hands.
It
took just a few more plays to finalize, deciding which cards
were black, and adding the 0's to reduce the effect of blocking
just a touch. But it still took about a dozen plays looking
desperately for something else to change. As many of the final
round of playtesters wanted to play MUERTOS a second time
immediately after the first game, I could at least tell it was a
decent game.
Actually
producing the thing of course is another story. One which
invariably involves lots of people who can deal quickly, ziplock
bags, big piles of cards, and hand waving. Someone remind me not
to do THAT again.
Frank
Branham is, among other things, a game collector, an all too
often taken for granted provider of German game translations on
the Internet, and the designer of a good card game.
GERMAN
DIPLOMACY! HOW TO GET SOME OF THE WHEEL AND DEAL OF THE OLD
CLASSIC IN GERMAN FORM
an article by Neil Carr
DIPLOMACY
can safely be said to be a classic in the world of boardgaming.
Over forty years have passed since the game was first published
and a small but healthy community of fans have followed the game
in its many permutations. First face to face gaming, then play
by mail and now play by email, the game thrives on its simple
mechanics, dynamic gameplay, and ease to play over great
distances. Avalon Hill/Hasbro has recently reissued the game
with perhaps the highest production values yet seen in
DIPLOMACY's history.
DIPLOMACY
however is not for the meek since it requires a good ability to
read other people, build trust, and then backstab your allies at
the right time to further your position. For those who have
largely moved over to German gaming over the last couple of
years DIPLOMACY seems to have fallen by the wayside, either
because of personal distaste of backstabing or because fellow
gamers have that bad taste in their mouths.
As
with my previous articles about wargames and German games in
this article I'd like to detail some German titles that can
perhaps give some of the effects and dynamics of DIPLOMACY,
while nonetheless providing the shorter time length and more
friendly atmosphere that are staples of the German game market.
None replicate DIPLOMACY in any complete sense but they should
provide some of the social elements that make DIPLOMACY such a
dynamic game.
First
off I would suggest BOHNANZA by Uwe Rosenberg and published by
Rio Grande Games. Some might be surprised that this simple card
game would be suggested but when you look at the game it all
boils down to negotiating deals and managing your resources as
they evolve in the gameplay. In BOHNANZA players are bean
farmers who are trying to maximize the profits from their
yields. To do this players attempt to make as large a set of
cards in their two or three fields before they have to be dug up
and scored. Players hands have a fixed card order and determines
when particular cards are played. Because of this players have
to constantly be thinking a turn or two ahead and strike deals
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that keep
them in control of the game. The player that thinks
strategically and takes the initiative on deal making is always
going to be at or close to the top.
CHINATOWN
by Karsten Hartwig and published by Alea is another game that is
built around negotiation. Players attempt to make and develop
lucrative businesses in CHINATOWN. Money is the scoring
mechanism in the game so what players barter with are plots of
land and business chits. By creating blocks of continues land
plots and creating as large a chain of business chits players
generate money. The earlier these sets can be created the more
money will be gained over the course of the game. To win the
game requires players to get involved, wheeling and dealing
property and business on a constant basis to maximize their
investments. If you don't take the initiative then you may do
adequately, but you won't win.
The
above two games can be looked at as games which require
negotiation and the need to manage resources as they come to
pass for the player. The next two games are different as they
are built around negotiating and voting. The currency of
negotiation is the positions the players have on the board at
the time and their game score. Because of this the next two
games come closer to emulating DIPLOMACY. This is because
voting, unlike bartering for property, requires building up some
trust from phase to phase that your allies will vote for you
even when it is not their optimal move at that moment. Thus its
possible to hang em out to dry although the severity is no where
near as close as it could be in DIPLOMACY.
RETTE
SICH WER KANN by Ronald Wettering and published by
Spielewerkstatt is a game about shipwrecked sailors attempting
to make it to the safety of shore. It's everyone for themselves
as players jump from rowboat to rowboat attempting to avoiding
getting a leak and getting tossed from a full boat, but also
trying to be on the right ship that can move ahead towards
shore. Every phase is a voting round which determines the leaks,
who gets tossed on overcrowded boats, and which boat advances.
There is a revolving first player who breaks ties in voting so a
great deal of the voting strategy is working around this
rotating swing vote. However one must also look ahead to how
that swing vote moves so that you can best position your group
of sailors so that you can make the most out of your situation
each turn. I should also mention that the bits for the game are
great with large wooden boats, little wooden people and little
blue cylinders for leaks.
EUROPA
1945-2030 by Duccio Vitale and Leo Colovini and published by
Eurogames is another wild ride through voting rounds. The game
details the formation of the European Union over eighty five
years. Players have to manage their population resources which
grow depending on how successful they are in being a part of
winning coalitions. Each turn players have a number of little
wooden people (both male and female) which they have to
distribute between countries that are viable for entering the EU
on that turn. Each country has a limit on the number of people
that may occupy it and also have a population value. If you win
a particular vote then your population value goes up for the
next turn and you get to redistribute your people onto new
territories. The winner however is the player who has the most
victory points, one for each successful coalition. Thus just
because you have lots of resources doesn't mean that you'll win
the game since the smaller countries, less valuable in
resources, are still equal in value to overall victory. In this
dynamic environment players have to make deals with one another
which have to take into account future positions and votes. As
with RSWK above I have to say that the components for the game
are great, almost over the top. Mounds of wooden little people
and rather than providing little counters to show which
countries are in the EU, instead the game provides blue overlays
of each country. The board itself is sprawling and makes for an
impressive sight.
Neil
Carr recently moved from Texas to Vermont where he probably
misses the food, fun, and fellowship of the Dallas Metrogamers
.
ROADS
& BOATS
a review by Joe Willette
One of the more interesting companies that has started producing
games in the European market is Splotter. This Dutch company has
produced several games in small print runs that have been
received with near universal acclaim. [TETRAGONS, ROADS &
BOATS, D'R AF, and BUS -ed] The game that has probably gotten
the most attention is ROADS & BOATS. While the first print
run sold out very quickly, a second edition was released at
Essen with a larger print run of 500 copies, some of which are
still available. The game components are printed in English.
One
of the most unique things about ROADS & BOATS is how
different it is from the typical "German Style" game.
This is no abstract game with a theme pasted on. Rather this is
one of the most detailed economic simulations to ever hit the
game table. The huge 20" x 12.5" box and the stats on
the side are the first indication of the depth of this game: 1-5
players, ages
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