by Vascariz
JustinDJacobson wrote:
To clarify our design approach:
One of the biggest problems with the old game is that you have no certainty about your actions on your turn and absolute certainty about the fireballs. On your turn, you roll the die and do what it says. You aren't making any choices, but it's not even something you can plan. Pure chance. Conversely, if you roll a 1, you get to pick the fireball and path you want to activate, and there is no uncertainty about what will happen. The marble will go down the chute you pick, won't vary at all, and will hit anything in its path.
That's exactly flipped from how it should be. Your decisions about your movement should be meaningful and strategic. (This is why most gamers have a fundamental problem with the roll-and-move mechanic to begin with.) On the other hand, there should be some chaos with the kinetic side of the game. Not pure chance, but some uncertainty.
Here's an example of how that could work (keeping in mind this is not set in stone for the final game). There could be a fireball chute where the walls of the chute slowly recede, and the marble is rolling down, essentially, an elevated path. Then, the marble might roll off either side at any point or, rarely, might continue down the path to its endpoint. So, we have uncertainty but not pure randomness, which makes it interesting.
On top of this core approach, we are adding a bunch of fun bits too. Some of them might involve dexterity elements, but the plan is that these other elements are modular, so you can leave them out if you like.
Hope that helps. Thanks for your interest in the game. We're working hard to make it great for all the fans.
One of the biggest problems with the old game is that you have no certainty about your actions on your turn and absolute certainty about the fireballs. On your turn, you roll the die and do what it says. You aren't making any choices, but it's not even something you can plan. Pure chance. Conversely, if you roll a 1, you get to pick the fireball and path you want to activate, and there is no uncertainty about what will happen. The marble will go down the chute you pick, won't vary at all, and will hit anything in its path.
That's exactly flipped from how it should be. Your decisions about your movement should be meaningful and strategic. (This is why most gamers have a fundamental problem with the roll-and-move mechanic to begin with.) On the other hand, there should be some chaos with the kinetic side of the game. Not pure chance, but some uncertainty.
Here's an example of how that could work (keeping in mind this is not set in stone for the final game). There could be a fireball chute where the walls of the chute slowly recede, and the marble is rolling down, essentially, an elevated path. Then, the marble might roll off either side at any point or, rarely, might continue down the path to its endpoint. So, we have uncertainty but not pure randomness, which makes it interesting.
On top of this core approach, we are adding a bunch of fun bits too. Some of them might involve dexterity elements, but the plan is that these other elements are modular, so you can leave them out if you like.
Hope that helps. Thanks for your interest in the game. We're working hard to make it great for all the fans.
Completely love this approach!
I think dexterity components is essential. Also ways for the players to modify the path or likelihood of the path to add a strategic/tactical component, not just an inherent baseline uncertainty.