Tag: Nova Raiders

Nova Raiders gets Facelift

2021-05-20 / / 0 Comments
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484637697 Click on the link to try it out on TTS

Nova Raiders (AKA Pirates of the black hole) has gotten a complete redesign, both inside and out:

  • I discarded about half of the movement rules to streamline the game
  • Introduced the “Telleport” spaces
  • Re-structured the turn order so players wouldn’t fall asleep in between turns
  • Made the dice more prominent to encourage tactical play
  • Gave it a complete graphical face-lift
  • modified the end-game to increase the tension
  • opened up the movement rules to give players more flexibility
  • and gave it a snazzy new name.

I was a bit worried that I may have broken the game with so many changes, but it played fairly well in the last play-test. I would like to thank the game designers for the time they spent testing the game and for the frank and honest feedback. I managed somehow to maintain the fun parts of the game while fixing the bugs.

Of, course there were a few new issues as expected with such a drastic overhaul. It appears that I might have opened up the movement possibilities a bit too much, making the game a bit less challenging. I also had too many restrictions on bringing new player pieces into play. My next challenge will be to increase the opportunities to bring in more components, while at the same time, restricting movement just the right amount to make things more challenging. I’m gonna have to put on my thinking cap for this one.

The next issue is the counter-intuitive scoring system. There is some type of thematic or behavioral dis-connect that I have to iron out. The system works, but seems weird. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to sort this one out. There has got to be a simple solution, I just have to find it.

All in all, it was a great test. Only about a thousand or so more to go…LOL

Black Hole Play-Tests Show Some Promise

2021-04-15 / / 0 Comments
Pirates of the Black Hole Version 9a

One and a Half hours into the play-test of what’s supposed to be a 45 minute game, the players didn’t want to quit. It’s a great sign, when the players want to see the final outcome. In fact. was doing my happy dance inside my head when this happened. The game has a few kinks at this point, but it seems to be firing on all cylinders. Happy Days!

We ran into an energy shortage at the end of the game which intensified the game-play but also caused it to drag on very very long. This can be fixed. I will introduce a deck of cards which will control the generation of energy throughout the game. The end condition has to be tweaked as well as as the number of ships for each player and a few other things. The Pirate theme doesn’t quite fit so I will be changing it to scavengers or something more suitable. It is worthwhile to spend some time on the graphics to make it more clear and shore up the theme a bit, now that this game seems to function well.

I will also introduce different types of energy with special effects, as well as reworking the dice tokens a bit. The Marauders market mechanism I planned on adding may not be a good fit for the game. I can encourage more player interaction through other means so the player negotiations will emerge more organically. This will have be in later revisions, for now I just have to fix what’s broken.

You can check out the latest TTS version here Pirates of the Black Hole.

The rules are coming soon. If you have any questions you can send me a quick email at rogerdogergames or leave a comment on the post.

Where’s the Beef?

2021-03-28 / / 0 Comments

Looking at my latest iteration of “Fight Night in Canada”, I keep picturing that lady in the old hamburger commercial yelling “Where’s the Fun”. It’s in the game somewhere buried under a pile of pasted on mechanisms and ill fitting fixes. It’s time for some drastic measures, time to “Kill my Darlings”.

Lets’s start at the beginning. I came up with a really cool system of resolution conflict, combining dice and a type of area majority/worker placement. I had to find out from some local game experts if this has ever been done before, as well as show off my my new toy. “Fight Night in Canada” was born. I made a quick prototype and showed it to Moe and Sean (Of TabletopBellhop Fame).

Fight Night in Canada version 1a

It turned out that this is likely a new idea and it could be fun, so I decided to pursue it. After man play-tests and redesigns, I found myself at version #7, an over-complicated, sometimes fun, but way too complicated mess.

Fight Night in Canada version #7

I thought I had nailed it on version #2f, when I wrote the full rules with illustrations, but certain issues kept rearing their ugly heads, and no matter how many ways I tried to rework the attack dice. I just couldn’t give the players enough interesting choices without introducing too much complexity. After all, this game was nothing more than a simple two player “dice chucker”; a 45 minute teach was not acceptable for a 20 minute game. My last attempt (version#8) to streamline this mess helped a bit, but not enough. It’s time to take some drastic measures.

I looked at what worked well and put everything else, including the attack dice which were part the original foundation of the game on the chopping block. In design circles, this is known as “Killing Your Darlings”, a brutal but sometimes necessary part of a game design. I am keeping the defense dice but I’m “Chucking” the attack dice and any other component which is not working or creating complexity. Version #9, here we come!

I will post the new version as soon as it is completed so you can judge for yourself whether or not I was successful.