Dragonslayers - A game in the making!

Dragonslayers is a game about treasure, gold and glory - and of course slaying dragons. I sent out copies of the game to a crafty and trusty lot of playtesters. In this here blog my playtesters and I will discuss the game, how it plays out, what works well and what less, what is obviously broken and how we could change the rules to make Dragonslayers an enjoyable experience for gamers old and young!

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Downtown play (notes from others)

Posted by Michael

14 Jun 2011

Michael

(mylittlepwny)

United States

Nebraska

So I took Dragonslayers downtown today to the local video/board gaming scene. I played a game of 2p competitive and by the end of it we had 3 or 4 spectators too. They all had notes to offer so I thought I would share them here.

They said thematically it had some issues: The tax collector card seemed a bit off to them. "What's a tax collector doing out wondering through this swamp with us? Can't we just fight him?" They had similar issues with discovering various shops while dungeneering.

There was also some issues during the start of non-turns. By this I mean turns where you don't do anything but avoid a large monster. Since each player has an equal probability of getting these non-turns, it's not really a balance issue as much as it was a game flow issue. The top half of the deck was heavy with strong monsters, so a lot of the game was just passing back and forth doing nothing. My opponent said he would like the game better if there was more action/decision making early on.

The game they most compared it to was Munchkin

Dragonslayers

2 Comments

Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:18 am

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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Quote:

The tax collector card seemed a bit off to them. "What's a tax collector doing out wondering through this swamp with us? Can't we just fight him?"

True enough! I guess you have to use your imagination for that kind of situations

Edited Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:07 am
Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:06 am
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Robert Seater

(rseater)

United States
Ashland
Massachusetts

Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory

Feed me...games...

The tax collector should be renamed, along with other cards that don't belong in a dungeon or wilderness. The other locations don't bother me as much, since I imagine wandering around the countryside and stopping in at small towns for supplies. But I'd never stop to visit Mr Taxman.

I wonder if, in competitive play, you should continue your turn until you hit either a location that you choose to visit or a monster that you choose to fight. Then pass the turn to the other player, who does the same. It isn't all that different, but it feels less fiddly and pointless if you only pass the turn after you accomplished something. There's a risk that players will then just avoid every monster until they find the exact one they want to fight, but that should be fixed by other suggestions I've made (about forcing fights with lower level monsters).

If the game ends up being "The game that's like Munchkin but fun" then that's good. It it's "The game that's like Munchkin but not as funny" then that's bad. Making it quick, hard, and filled with more interesting choices will help put it into the former category. Simultaneous turns is also a big plus, especially for the kind of casual player who likes Munchkin -- waiting for people to take their turns is boring. Simultaneous play (whether coop, competitive, or semi-coop) is always a big hit when you can make it work.

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:11 pm
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Dragonslayers - A game in the making!

Downtown play (notes from others)

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