So, I've been thinking about roll and write games quite a bit lately. It definitely seems like this is one of the current fads in games; compact games that you play on a pad of specially-made score sheets, using dice and a pencil. Of course, Yahtzee (and it's predecessor, Yacht) has been around for a long time, pretty much being the first roll and write game. But the genre has been booming lately.

I know a couple of my designer friends have been trying to make roll and write games. They're not bad; in particular, one friend is making a casino-themed roll and write game with cards and dice that is shaping up really well. I also tried making my own, though my first playtest of that was a pretty big failure. Still, there might be something to my game, if I can just figure out where I went wrong.

I'm thinking I might not truly know what makes a roll and write game fun. Or, alternately, maybe this type of game does not appeal to me, and I'm going down the road of trying to create a game that I ultimately won't enjoy playing. To that end, I've been trying to get my hands on various roll and write games out there. (Playing board games and calling it research! :) Gotta love this hobby.) Sure, I've played Yahtzee lots of times, so I know how that flows. Ganz Schön Clever is a step up from that, with multiple colored scoring areas and different rules and point values for each one. Noch Mal! adds a two-dimensional aspect to the game, as you can only score places on the grid that you're adjacent to. The Castles of Burgundy dice game is another step in that direction, with a hex grid and adjacency restrictions, as well as one-use special abilities that can be obtained by marking hexes of certain colors. And the newest one onto my scene is Welcome To..., which is a card-flipping game where you are filling in house numbers on streets, with special powers associated with each of the available number cards.

I've noticed a trend in these games, one which I think might apply to the genre as a whole. Each of these games on some level creates tension by reducing the player's options over the course of the game. When these games first start, you have a blank slate to work with and the ability to place marks anywhere, subject to some sort of placement rules. But as the game progresses, your options on your turn become progressively more limited. Sure, games like Noch Mal! and Castles of Burgundy dice game have a map that you spread out on, so your options expand initially, but as the map fills up you are again left with diminishing possibilities. This forces you to plan ahead, both mapping out your strategy and trying to leave leeway for bad dice rolls or card flips. Some games have ways to mitigate bad luck, but those are finite and often run out just before those last few turns of the game when you really need them.

Other more traditional board games generate their tension in other ways. I'm know there are typical strategy games out there that try to amp up the game tension by having options run out. However, those often have other mechanics that you have to navigate, and the disappearing possibilities are often because other players have chosen those options, making them inaccessible for the remainder of the game. Roll and writes seem to be heavily reliant on this idea of you limiting yourself later in the game, forcing you to really think ahead.

So, what if there was a roll and write game that created interesting decisions without using this shrinking decision space method? A way to continually open up possibilities over the course of the game, rather than reducing them? Better ways to interact with other players and be affected by their choices? (The norm for roll and writes seems to be that all players can pick from the same pool of possibilities, though the 'active' player gets something extra. Great for asynchronous play, bad for interactive moments.) Ways to mark other players' boards? Ways to erase marks? Ways to temporarily have resources without marking a board? (Mind the component count, though; one plus of roll and write games are how light and compact they are.) I know I've only played a small sliver of the roll and write games out there, but I know the entire design space hasn't been traversed yet. There's plenty of room for adventurous designers to do some trailblazing here.

Maybe I'll end up making something unique, eventually. Here's hoping.

Ugh, it's been too long since I posted again. I thought I was getting better at this, but I guess not. No worries, tho... I have been busy.

The bulk of my attention is still devoted to developing Sky Pirates. I'm hoping that by the end of this year, I will be able to print a few early prototype copies and send them out for blind playtesting. Part of this process is writing the rulebook, which I have started on, even if it's really early; at this point I'm just deciding on how I want the rules to be organized. At least there I can start with how the Manaforge rulebook is set up (which I think came out passably good) and work from there.

However, the rules for Sky Pirates are still evolving, if only a little, and so I need to make sure those are stable before I can really write the rulebook. The tokens shown above are one of the ways that the rules have changed since I last posted.

Sky Pirates has always had one glaring flaw: going first is a disadvantage. You become the automatic target for scouting by everyone else, and you get fewer chances to react to everyone else's plays. My first attempt to get around that was the addition of a '6th round' to the game, where instead of playing cards, everyone gets one free scout effect and that's all. I figured that would give the first player a chance to scout something put down by the other players on the last round. It helped a little, but it always felt really awkward having an extra 'turn' that didn't really do much. And I don't think it went far enough.

Additionally, and not related, I also had a couple of people complain that it was easy to get a run of bad cards. A bad hand at the beginning of the game could easily put you behind, and bad draws throughout the game could mean that you have no way up keeping up with everyone else. (Of course, I'd like to think that there are no 'bad' cards, but I know on some level that's not exactly true. At best, there are cards that are only situationally useful, and it's those that you don't want to get too many of.)

At some point, I had an epiphany. The extra scout was useful but the 6th round didn't work, so that needed to change. I got the idea of pulling that mechanic out of the turn structure and creating a player power out of it instead. So now, each player gets one token (called a 'command' token in this iteration, though that will probably change) that basically says 'scout once'. You turn in the token and you get a free scout, with no time restrictions at all; you can use it literally any time, even if it's not your turn, up until the game ends and all the cards are flipped over.

Plus, to address the problem with drawing bad cards, I added a second option to these tokens. Instead of scouting once, you can 'recruit' twice. (Recruit being a keyword in the current iteration that states 'draw X cards, then discard X cards'.) So you have the option of improving your hand, or gaining information, usable any time, but only once.

I think the addition these tokens definitely improved the game, addressing three different problems all at once. Players each have one more option to fix a bad situation. However, there was still traces of the original problem lingering around, where going first is a disadvantage. I had someone suggest that the command token for the first player should be buffed up a bit to try to compensate for that. So I'm currently at this latest iteration, where I now have a pair of +2 and +1 command tokens, given to the first and second players respectively, that are stronger than the standard ones. Additional scouts or recruits, plus a third option: each token has some attack power symbols on the opposite side (not pictured here) that you can add to any fleet. Again, each can only be used once, and only for one of their options, but it hopefully will offset the going first penalty somewhat. I'm a little concerned that I made them too strong, but I can only determine that by playtesting.

With fingers crossed, I'm hoping the rules will settle down soon. It seems like I'm close; it's all balancing changes at this point. With a lot of luck I will be able to launch this as a Kickstarter in the first half of next year.

So, my attention has been split a lot lately. My current 'main' project is Sky Pirates. That one is going well, with a slow but constant flow of positive playtests and minor tweaks. I've also been in design mode for the Manaforge expansion. I've had to change direction on that one, as some of the feedback I was getting made me realize that I wasn't designing for the correct audience. Progress there has been slow but at least it's going.

However, there has also been one more distraction to work around. With the proliferation of roll-and-write games coming out on the market right now, plus a couple of the same currently being designed by my friends, somehow I got it in my head to try making one of my own. Normally I would've ignored the idea, as I have little experience with that type of game. However, this was another one of those persistent ideas that kept calling for my attention, and I've found that the best way to get rid of those is to get it out of my head and make a prototype. (But then, that's how Manaforge started.) So, here's my prototype.

Without going into too much detail (it's a novel idea and I'm not ready to tip my hand yet), I did manage to get one playtest in of this monstrosity. It went better than I expected. That does not mean it went well; this game is boring. I noticed several players quickly stopped paying attention, making a long game drag out even longer. I ended up calling it off after a few rounds. However, while the execution is very flawed, everyone there agreed that the core mechanic is solid, and I just need to make the decisions more interesting. High praise for an almost completely untested game by a designer with little experience in the genre.

I definitely need more experience with roll-and-write games, so I've been picking up and playing a couple just to see what makes them tick. Looking at those, I think I see some of what I did wrong with my game. I'm paying attention to the way the scoring and player special ability mechanics need to interact, and I have many ideas for how my initial prototype could be improved. All things considered though, this is just a side project, so I don't know how much attention it will get right now. But, good or bad, it is one more thing that I'm officially 'working on' right now. We'll see where it goes from there.

[Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the artwork pictured here. This art is being used for prototype purposes only and will not be a part of the final game.]

Here is another photo of my Sky Pirates game prototype as it stands right now. This has evolved slightly from the previous post I made about it on here. Some of the significant changes I have made from the previous version are:

• The location that each ship is going to has been removed from the ship cards themselves and placed on separate location tokens. This is the most important change from the earlier version in that it solves several of the problems I was having. One location token is now played together with the first ship of every new fleet, and the locations are separate scout targets from the ship cards.
• Each location now has a 3rd place VP value, only used when playing with 5 players. Only the 1st place value is used when playing with 2 players.
• The "no token no treasure" rule: if you don't have a fleet pointed at a particular location, you cannot gain VP from that location, even if you manage to win due to just long-range attack power.
• The wall of text has been removed from the cards' rule boxes and replaced with equivalent keywords. The effects of each keyword are spelled out on a separate cheat sheet.
• The point values of the locations and the power values of the ships have been rebalanced.

I have playtested this new version a few times. Overall, the changes have been positive; there is less confusion about how to stack the cards, and more meaningful decisions for the players. The ship cards are apparently still not quite balanced correctly; some cards are definitely better than others, and even with a new card cycling ability added is it still possible to get stuck with a hand of bad cards. I still need to play with the card numbers and abilities. However, the core mechanics of the game seem to be solid. You know the game is making progress when you are no longer making major structural changes and are instead just doing balance tweaks.
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Now I just need to figure out what route I'm going to take with this. While Manaforge is definitely *my* game and I am publishing it (and its expansions) on my own, I am open to the idea of handing Sky Pirates off to another publisher. (My free time is finite; should I spend it publishing or designing more stuff?) Anyone know of a publisher looking for a filler card game? :)

Mystic Tiger Games is happy to announce that the mana abacus accessory for Manaforge has been designed and is now available for download!

What is a mana abacus, you ask? It's an additional player board used to track the amount of mana that the current player has in their reserve. Since some players aren't used to having to keep track of their available mana in their head, this board helps out by allowing a player to easily record how much mana they have available. Simply slide gem tokens right and left on the tracks as you gain and spend mana, reading the number immediately to the right of the token.

We are planning on including a professional version of this abacus board with the upcoming expansion set for Manaforge. But in the meantime, it's available here to print and use.

All that is needed is one of each of the four gem tokens from the game and you're set! No additional materials are required aside form the sheet of paper (or card stock) you use to print on. For added sturdiness, you can also choose to mount this on a section of cardboard or project board. 

This is a PDF format file. It includes simple directions for cutting out and using this new board.

Click here to download the mana abacus PnP file.

Enjoy!

So, I haven't posted on here in a while. But there's been a good reason for that: I was at Dice Tower Con a couple of week ago. What a great convention! Five full days of nothing but board games and the people that play and create them. This was my third time going to this convention, and for me it's gotten bigger and better every year.

However, the thing that surprised me most about this convention was the amount of *work* it was compared to previous years. Before, when attending Dice Tower, I was going to play new games, meet new people, learn about being a developer and publisher, and just have fun. But this year, I spent about half of my time in the vendor hall demoing Manaforge. definitely work, but the good kind of work. I was able to use one of the demo tables in front of the Indie Game Alliance booth, where my games were being sold (along many others). It seems like from the time I started demoing, to when the vendor hall was getting ready to close, I had demos running almost continuously. Tiring to be sure, but definitely a good problem to have! Within ten minutes of one demo finishing, there was another group of people ready to see the game. I lost track of how many demos I did, but I do know I spent well over twenty hours demoing across the entire convention.

Totally worth it, though! Because of all time spent demoing, plus the lure of being taught the game by the designer, and the felt component bowls we were giving out with the games, the IGA booth actually ran out of games. That's right, I now have "Achievement Unlocked: My Game Sold Out At DTC" to add to my list! Great feeling!

Aside from games, I also attended a couple of panels, with various board game media celebrities. One was a talk about media content creation and interviews with some of the personalities, and the other was a 'game show' styled panel of the audience trying to guess how the celebs would answer various questions. Good stuff!

And, of course, there was getting to see and chat with old friends. And meeting new ones. And attending parties and mixers. Plus something I'm still not used to, random people coming up to me and saying hello. (I have a terrible memory for names and for people that I only meet for a couple of a minutes. Please don't take it the wrong way if you come up and chat with me and I don't remember who you are.) I suppose I should be flattered but really it's more the introvert in me bubbling up and making it an awkward meeting.

As far as game development went, I had a little bit of progress there. I got in two plays of Sky Pirates with a couple of friends. It was good to see my latest round of changes in action. I have to say that separating the locations from the ship cards was an excellent idea; I'm hoping that will be the last major design change to the game, and the rest of the development will be balancing the cards and effects.

For actual games played, I really didn't get to do much. Not for lack of wanting, just that there wasn't time. Here's the stuff I did play (in no particular order):

- The Expanse (1/5 Hated: would not play again)
Area control game based on the sci-fi series. Fly ships around the solar system, drop influence cubes, and score points based on who has dominance. Very interesting dual-use cards; you can play a card for it's Action Points (more powerful) or it's Special Ability (many varied effects), but if you play a card for it's AP then others players have a chance to use the Special. Overall, I didn't like this, because it's a very cutthroat game and I'm more of a carebear player. Just not my type of game. Also, the card special abilities were *too* varied, with no iconography, meaning a pause in the game every turn to decipher the wall of text on each card. 

- Fantasy Realms (5/5 Loved: definitely want to play again, would suggest)
Bought this game on the spot after I played it. Simple filler card game about building the best hand. Start with seven cards, each turn draw one then discard one. Cards have point values, plus many varied special abilities that combo with other cards. Build the best hand of cards before the game ends. Simple, quick, plays a lot of players, and the only learning curve is learning what cards are in the game. Great fun!

- Heaven & Ale (2/5 Disliked: might be convinced to play again)
This was one on my want-to-play list. Rondel action selection, tile placement on personal boards. Move around a track on the main board, taking actions you can afford. Take hex tiles and add them to your board, then activate them for their benefit by taking other actions. Beware, though: each method of activating tiles can be used only once, so you have to think ahead about which tiles you take and how you place them. Benefits include money (needed to take tiles) and resources (needed to score). At game end, the resource you have the *least* of determines your score. I found the game play to be enjoyable, but I didn't like the scoring system at the end because it was both convoluted and unforgiving. If you're unable to get all of your resource markers above the zero line at the end scoring (they start at negatives), then you score *zero* points for the game. The confusion at the end was because you are required to move your highest-valued resources down in order to move your lowest-valued resources up, but the exchange rate between the two is horrible (sometimes as bad as 5:1). Might give it another try now that I understand it better but I'm not in a hurry.

- Lords of Xidit (3/5 Lukewarm: would play again but not suggest)
I own this one but had never played it. Action programming, pickup-and-deliver, area control. You must plan moves ahead; each round you dial in five actions onto a personal board, then everyone reveals their boards and performs their movements. Move around the board, recruit fighters, then 'spend' those fighters at monster spaces to kill the monsters. The reward is to either gain coins or place one of two types of control markers on the board. At the end of the game, rather than counting victory points, instead the player(s) with the *least* of a particular reward (coins or control) are eliminated, meaning that to be successful you must gain spoils of three different categories instead of focusing on one. Would have been a good game if not for that wonky winner selection system.

- Puerto Rico (3/5 Lukewarm: would play again but not suggest)
I own this one, played it a few times. Classic role selection and resource management game. Build plantation tiles, hire workers, gain resources, sell resources for money to buy more plantation and building tiles, or ship resources for victory points. Players take turns selecting role cards; each player does the role action but the player that selected it gets an extra perk. Points come from shipping produced goods and what tiles are on your board at the end of the game. I do like this game, though I'm not particularly good at it, but it often gets ignored in favor of newer, shinier stuff.

- Coimbra (4/5 Liked: want to play again, might suggest)
I hadn't even heard of this one before DTC. Dice drafting, dice placement, resource management, card drafting. Draft dice, then place them to be able to purchase cards. Highest-numbered die gets first choice of cards, but also pays the most to buy the card. (Cool mechanic!) Dice color determines the type and amount of income you get at the end of the turn; push your counter up on the color tracks to get more income from that color of die. Move your meeple around the map and drop markers to gain one-shot bonuses. Took a couple of rounds to really grasp the flow of the game, but after that it was great fun! Might have bought a copy, if there were any left; I think I heard this was a pre-release batch, so they only had a *very* limited stock. Sold out on the first day if I understand it right.

- Rajas of the Ganges (4/5 Liked: want to play again, might suggest)
This was another one on my want-to-play list. Heavy euro with worker-placement, tile-laying, and resource management where the dice *are* the resources. Innovative scoring system, similar to Red Dragon Inn: you gain money (which can be spent) and fame (only goes up), but the tracks are pointed in opposite directions. When your two tokens on the two tracks cross each other, you win! Various worker actions gain you dice, which you roll and store. Other actions expend dice, returning them to the pool. Some actions require high dice values, others low values. Buy tiles to add to your personal board for money and fame, plus build routes on your board for extra one-shot bonuses. Enjoyed this a lot! Could possibly buy this in the future, though because of the game weight it might be difficult to get to the table.
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And that's my Dice Tower Con, in a nutshell. This is really the only major convention I can attend, due to time and money constraints. Hopefully in future years I will be able to travel to others, but for now this convention is really my only big chance to catch up with a lot of people. Already looking forward to next year!

[Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the artwork pictured here. This art is being used for prototype purposes only and will not be a part of the final game.]

So this is a photo of the game that's currently at the front of my queue. Being an early state prototype, it doesn't have a proper name yet; at the moment I'm just calling it "Sky Pirates". Dunno if I'm going to keep that or not; I assume it's being used somewhere else so I'll have to see if I can get away with using that name or not. A quick description for Sky Pirates is that it is a hidden information, area control card game that can be played with from two to five players and that plays in less than a half hour.

The theme of the game is that each player is a pirate lord, hungry for treasure. The setting is a steampunk world with cities in the sky; some are built on islands of floating rocks, others are complex contraptions that simply hover in the air, and a couple are built on high locations such as the tops of mountains or a giant pillar extending from the ground up to the clouds. Regardless of where they are, each location has loot that the players are trying to obtain.

In order to get loot, players must deploy their ships to go and get it. Ships consists of basically anything that can fly; blimps, airplanes, helicopters, and even personal flight packs all serve to get your underlings to the loot. Unfortunately for the players, there is only enough treasure at each location for two pirates. The players decide who gets the loot by calculating which players have the most firepower at each location. Each of the ships cards has a combat value that indicates how much it contributes to the fight. Cards are played into stacks, with the top card of each stack dictating the destination of all of the cards in that stack; each card has a location printed on it, and the location of the card on top overrides those of the cards underneath.

There is a catch, however. Cards are played into their stacks face-down! When an opponent plays a card, you don't know how powerful it is or where it's going. That is, until you 'scout' it. Each player gets a limited number of scout actions that can be used to flip up one of an opponent's cards. Worried about that huge stack that an opponent has in play? Scout the top card so you can figure out where it's headed? A couple more scouts will tell you if the cards in the stack are tiny or powerful. But be warned that the opponents are trying to do the same to your cards.

Some cards also have special abilities. However, there is a catch there too. To use a card's ability, you have to play it face-up instead! This can be powerful depending on the ability but it also means one less piece of hidden information for you to hide behind. And you don't want to reveal too much of your strategy. Additionally, some cards have special abilities that trigger at the end of the game... if they manage to stay face-down until the end of the game. So if those cards get flipped up, poof there goes their bonus.

Once the game ends, all of the cards are flipped up, and you total the combat power of each stack to determine who winds each location. Locations have loot point values printed on them, a large value for '1st place' (whomever has the most power), and a smaller value for '2nd place'. Add up the loot points and determine the winner!

So far, this game has received generally good responses when I've brought it to playtest sessions. There are definitely some glitches left to iron out, though. The way the cards have to be stacked to keep the 'top' card the same is confusing to players and will need to be reworked. The process of counting up combat values at the end of the game can get tedious and might need a player aid or something to make it easier. And players have a tendency to play the special abilities of as many cards as they can, leaving all of their information exposed and nothing for the scout effects to do. So there is definitely still work to be done, but I have received some good feedback and suggestions so at least I have a clear path forward.

I hope to work some more on this after Dice Tower, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I don't think I'll get anything done on the game before then.

For this snapshot, I'll start by announcing that I'm planning on being at the Dice Tower Convention again this year. Yay! Five straight days of board gaming! If you like board games, live anywhere near Disney World, and have never been to this convention, then definitely do some research into it! The tickets are technically sold out but if you look around a little you can usually find someone selling some.

Okay, now for the image...

This is a photo of the stuff I'm planning on having available for sale at the convention. I will have plenty of copies of Manaforge on hand, and I'm planning on offering a small discount on any games that I sell in person. (Since I don't have to deal with shipping costs, it makes sense to pass on some of the savings as an incentive.) I also have some 'dented' copies of Manaforge that had a bit of an incident on their way to my home. If there is demand for them I might be selling some of those at a big discount.

I will have a good number of my felt component bowls (pictured top left). I'm still assembling these things and should have a lot more than is pictured here by the time the convention starts. I'm offering them for $4 each, or 3 for $10, and they are available in a huge variety of colors. (Kinda hard to tell from this photo, as the colors got washed out a little, but I think there are roughly 25 different colors.) Also, anyone that buys a copy of Manaforge from me personally gets one bowl free!

I also have seven Mystic Tiger cubs remaining (pictured top right). Handmade by the wonderful Crochet Critters, these cute and squishy blue tigers are small enough to accompany you anywhere. I'm planning on selling these for $10 each.

I will try to keep my business email and social media contacts open as much as possible during the convention if you want to arrange a meeting to buy something. I intend to hang out in the gaming area near the vendor booths if possible to run Manaforge demos, but I don't have a reserved spot so I might drift around as the situation demands.

Oh, and as a plus, I recently got my hands on a Square payment collector, so I'm able to take credit cards on the gaming floor. (Provided I can get a stable internet connection; I will definitely be testing out the wifi beforehand.)

Hope to see you at the convention!

Okay, I know I've been terribly remiss lately about posting new material on here. It doesn't help that I've been sick for the past couple of weeks, plus dealing with some family problems, and haven't had a lot of time or energy to put towards designing new stuff. I'm hoping this will help that.

I'm going to try a new format for some of my posts. Take one photo of something I've been working on over the past week or so, and write a post about that. This should be doubly helpful because I can post this to Instagram as well, a platform that I usually have trouble coming up with good content for.

So for this particular Snapshot, let's try this photo:

Yeah, I know this isn't a board game, but it's what has been taking up the majority of my energy recently. Pictured here are my take on 'bit bowls'; 6" felt squares with snaps attached near the corners. When the snaps are snapped together, the resulting bowl shape can be used to hold game components. (Like, oh say, gem tokens from Manaforge. :D )  When you're done with them, they unsnap flat to fit into just about any game box.

I've been hand-crafting these things for a while now; I have a plastic box with a few dozen in it of various colors, and I have materials for more in the way. I figure I'd sell them for a few dollars each. So far, I've had a few takers; it helps when I have them out while I'm demoing Manaforge.

I will definitely be selling these at Dice Tower Con. If you're interested in buying a few, I will try to keep them on me as much as possible, and I can probably be found in the game rooms. If I'm demoing, I will try to set up camp as close to the vendor area as I can.

I'm also considering selling these on my web store. Not quite sure how to make the shipping price fair yet, but I'll figure it out if there's enough interest. Want to see these for sale? Email me or ping me on social media so that I know that someone is listening!

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And that's it for now. Let's see if I can keep this up. :)

Quick recap of my two days...

Cool Comics and Games 5/19
Manaforge played: 2 times
Game copies sold: 3
Bit bowls given out or sold: 1
Tiger cubs given out or sold: 1

Dungeon Games 5/20
Manaforge played: 2 times
Game copies sold: 4
Bit bowls given out or sold: 7
Tiger cubs given out or sold: 1

Tired now. May post more later.