Kind of a quick update...
My original intent was to open Nebula up for everyone to be able to playtest. I had started hammering out the rulebook, trying to make it usable for blind testing. I was also starting to plan out how I was going to get attention for the game, dropping open playtest requests on Facebook groups and Discord servers and such. Started polishing my own Discord server, figuring out how I would schedule playtesting events, getting my mailing list working again, etc.
And then, my muse struck. <dramatic music>
Although I'm happy with Nebula overall, there have been two mechanics in the game that felt 'squishy'. (Opposite of 'solid', vague feeling that they don't quite fit properly.) One was the 'goal' tiles; I like the way that they give players direction and offer the incentive of extra VP, but many times they were ignored or didn't have enough of an effect on the game. The other is the draft; it accomplishes the purpose of adding some player interaction and of distributing cubes to players, but it was too slow and fiddly. So, after thinking through both problems for a while, I was hit with an inspiration on how to fix the goal tiles...
Missions
The mechanic I came up with is a direct replacement for the goals. Instead of each player having two different micro-objectives to work towards, instead I'm giving each player a unique set of objectives that grant both victory points and unique bonuses.
This was inspired by two things. First, I was testing a mechanic for the Manaforge expansion that I called 'relics'; each was a complex mega-item with prerequisites to construct it, an energy tracker that marked how 'charged' the item was, and a bunch of various special abilities. It was an interesting concept but didn't really feel right. Second, I was playing World of Warcraft for a while, and I was inspired by the quest 'chains' in that game. Do this thing, which gives you a reward, then go over here and do this thing, for another reward, then go to this spot and beat this boss, which you turn in for a mega reward. I wanted that same sense of progression, working through a set of goals with small rewards along the way, until you reach the end of the chain and get a big payoff.
I'm not sure what I ended up with fits that exactly, but I think it's a great first step. These 'mission' cards give a series of tasks that may or may not need to be accomplished in a specific order, with rewards for each task consisting of straight victory points plus bonuses that cannot be obtained any other way. Some of these missions might change the way you play the game, or change the balance of the game overall, so each different mission is almost a different game. (Well, that's what I'm hoping for anyway.) Additionally, each mission has a general theme, even so far as giving a little story blurb explaining what you're doing out in deep space in the first place.
I've only playtested these new mission cards once so far, but that first playtest went fantastically well. Of course they're horribly unbalanced, and some of the missions don't really make a lot of sense at the moment, but for a first attempt it clicked better than I could have hoped. I am working now on a second iteration, with more understandable instructions, a little better balance, a larger variety of missions, and more unique powers.
During the feedback portion of that one playtest, I also asked the playtesters about the cube draft phase, saying that I didn't like how it was but wasn't really sure what to replace it with. After chatting with one of the testers, both during the feedback session and offline afterwards, we came up with an idea that sounds like it should be a vast improvement...
New Cube Draft
The purpose of the cube draft phase is to give free resources to each player, but also to create a little bit of player interaction and make players feel like they have some agency as to what cubes they get.
The current cube draft has the lead player put groups of three cubes in a line on a special draft board, one more group than the number of players. Each player gets to pick a group of cubes in turn order, but the caveat is that a player must pay energy to skip ahead in the line. This system works well enough for fulfilling the objectives; players might take groups of cubes that the others want, and have to think a little on if they want to take the 'free' cubes or pay to get a better choice.
However, this system is too slow for what it does. Players often just take the 'free' cubes, since energy (the cost to skip cube groups) is precious and can be used to gain more cubes anyway. Plus, the ability to hate draft cubes that others might need isn't really useful.
The idea we came up with was to ditch the draft board entirely and instead have each player pull their own group of three cubes, placing them out on the table. Each player then simultaneously takes one cube from their group, then one cube from the group of the player to their left, and finally the last remaining cube from the group of the player to their right. This should still accomplish the goals of interacting with the other players and giving agency, but should be significantly faster since the grabs are simultaneous and the fiddliness is distributed.
I have not playtested this mechanic yet, but it will definitely be a part of the next game I run. Fingers crossed!
So, with both of the new mechanics in the works for the game, it looks like getting it opened up for public testing got pushed back a little bit, if for no other reason than I'm going to have to rework the rulebook for these new rules. (Which in a way is good, as I was having trouble with the organization of the rulebook. Having something shake it up might make other pieces fall into place.)
That said, if you're interested in trying an early prototype playtest of Nebula, feel free to contact me. I can always be reached at my business email address [email protected], and I can also be contacted via my business page on Facebook. I also frequent many of the playtesting Discord servers if you want to reach me there.
My original intent was to open Nebula up for everyone to be able to playtest. I had started hammering out the rulebook, trying to make it usable for blind testing. I was also starting to plan out how I was going to get attention for the game, dropping open playtest requests on Facebook groups and Discord servers and such. Started polishing my own Discord server, figuring out how I would schedule playtesting events, getting my mailing list working again, etc.
And then, my muse struck. <dramatic music>
Although I'm happy with Nebula overall, there have been two mechanics in the game that felt 'squishy'. (Opposite of 'solid', vague feeling that they don't quite fit properly.) One was the 'goal' tiles; I like the way that they give players direction and offer the incentive of extra VP, but many times they were ignored or didn't have enough of an effect on the game. The other is the draft; it accomplishes the purpose of adding some player interaction and of distributing cubes to players, but it was too slow and fiddly. So, after thinking through both problems for a while, I was hit with an inspiration on how to fix the goal tiles...
Missions
The mechanic I came up with is a direct replacement for the goals. Instead of each player having two different micro-objectives to work towards, instead I'm giving each player a unique set of objectives that grant both victory points and unique bonuses.
This was inspired by two things. First, I was testing a mechanic for the Manaforge expansion that I called 'relics'; each was a complex mega-item with prerequisites to construct it, an energy tracker that marked how 'charged' the item was, and a bunch of various special abilities. It was an interesting concept but didn't really feel right. Second, I was playing World of Warcraft for a while, and I was inspired by the quest 'chains' in that game. Do this thing, which gives you a reward, then go over here and do this thing, for another reward, then go to this spot and beat this boss, which you turn in for a mega reward. I wanted that same sense of progression, working through a set of goals with small rewards along the way, until you reach the end of the chain and get a big payoff.
I'm not sure what I ended up with fits that exactly, but I think it's a great first step. These 'mission' cards give a series of tasks that may or may not need to be accomplished in a specific order, with rewards for each task consisting of straight victory points plus bonuses that cannot be obtained any other way. Some of these missions might change the way you play the game, or change the balance of the game overall, so each different mission is almost a different game. (Well, that's what I'm hoping for anyway.) Additionally, each mission has a general theme, even so far as giving a little story blurb explaining what you're doing out in deep space in the first place.
I've only playtested these new mission cards once so far, but that first playtest went fantastically well. Of course they're horribly unbalanced, and some of the missions don't really make a lot of sense at the moment, but for a first attempt it clicked better than I could have hoped. I am working now on a second iteration, with more understandable instructions, a little better balance, a larger variety of missions, and more unique powers.
During the feedback portion of that one playtest, I also asked the playtesters about the cube draft phase, saying that I didn't like how it was but wasn't really sure what to replace it with. After chatting with one of the testers, both during the feedback session and offline afterwards, we came up with an idea that sounds like it should be a vast improvement...
New Cube Draft
The purpose of the cube draft phase is to give free resources to each player, but also to create a little bit of player interaction and make players feel like they have some agency as to what cubes they get.
The current cube draft has the lead player put groups of three cubes in a line on a special draft board, one more group than the number of players. Each player gets to pick a group of cubes in turn order, but the caveat is that a player must pay energy to skip ahead in the line. This system works well enough for fulfilling the objectives; players might take groups of cubes that the others want, and have to think a little on if they want to take the 'free' cubes or pay to get a better choice.
However, this system is too slow for what it does. Players often just take the 'free' cubes, since energy (the cost to skip cube groups) is precious and can be used to gain more cubes anyway. Plus, the ability to hate draft cubes that others might need isn't really useful.
The idea we came up with was to ditch the draft board entirely and instead have each player pull their own group of three cubes, placing them out on the table. Each player then simultaneously takes one cube from their group, then one cube from the group of the player to their left, and finally the last remaining cube from the group of the player to their right. This should still accomplish the goals of interacting with the other players and giving agency, but should be significantly faster since the grabs are simultaneous and the fiddliness is distributed.
I have not playtested this mechanic yet, but it will definitely be a part of the next game I run. Fingers crossed!
So, with both of the new mechanics in the works for the game, it looks like getting it opened up for public testing got pushed back a little bit, if for no other reason than I'm going to have to rework the rulebook for these new rules. (Which in a way is good, as I was having trouble with the organization of the rulebook. Having something shake it up might make other pieces fall into place.)
That said, if you're interested in trying an early prototype playtest of Nebula, feel free to contact me. I can always be reached at my business email address [email protected], and I can also be contacted via my business page on Facebook. I also frequent many of the playtesting Discord servers if you want to reach me there.
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