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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Printer friendly playtesting cards!

Posted by Andreas Propst

30 Jun 2011

Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Fellow playtesters!

I made a printer friendly version of the new Dragonslayers cards as proposed by Robert. You can download them here:

http://ap.o-nan.org/wp-content/uploads/Dragonslayers-Playtes...

I left the stats on Heroes, Monsters and Items blank so you can add them with a pencil and make adjustments easily (speaking of balancing). You can find the current values on the excel spread sheet here:

http://ap.o-nan.org/wp-content/uploads/draft-overhaul-6-17-2...

Just so as you know: Asking you to print and cut out 15 pages of cards is a bit much to ask so you don't need to go the extra mile unless you wish to do so. You guys helped me out a lot already anyways.

Dragonslayers

17 Comments

Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:41 pm

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Robert Seater

(rseater)

United States
Ashland
Massachusetts

Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory

Feed me...games...

Any chance you could also provide a version of the heroes with my (draft) stats filled in? That's a good starting point although I wholeheartedly expect massive revisions of the heroes, but I'd find it convenient to just print-and-cut rather than pencil in status up front.

I'm also still very keen on new ideas for heroes who would provide a unique gameplay experience or open up an alternate strategy (when used as a starting character). No idea is too crazy!

Thanks!

Posted Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:19 pm
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Robert Seater

(rseater)

United States
Ashland
Massachusetts

Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory

Feed me...games...

rseater wrote:

Any chance you could also provide a version of the heroes with my (draft) stats filled in?

and the non-heroes too! The blanks will definitely come in handy as changes are made, but a kickstart would be handy!

Posted Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:31 pm
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Andrew Tullsen

(Howitzer_120mm)

United States
Tigard
Oregon

Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD

rseater wrote:

Any chance you could also provide a version of the heroes with my (draft) stats filled in?

and the non-heroes too! The blanks will definitely come in handy as changes are made, but a kickstart would be handy!

+1
I can print these and I can always cross out a number, but I would rather not fill in all these numbers by hand.

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 12:17 am
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Agreed!

Working on a version of the cards with filled in stats as I write this!

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 12:21 am
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Your wish is my command! laugh

Here is a version of the playtesting cards with stats filled in.
Please point me to any mistakes or typos I may have made...

http://ap.o-nan.org/wp-content/uploads/Dragonslayers-Playtes...

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 12:40 am
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Michael

(mylittlepwny)

United States

Nebraska

Sweet, thanks for making these

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 2:37 am
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

You're welcome!

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 2:41 am
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Robert Seater

(rseater)

United States
Ashland
Massachusetts

Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory

Feed me...games...

Note: for a full set, you need all the cards in the 'stats included' set plus the terrain (last page) from the 'blanks' set (since they were already filled in completely)

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 11:47 pm
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Right! Thanks for adding that Rob...

Posted Fri Jul 1, 2011 11:52 pm
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

CORRECTION: Kazzar the Lizardman should only have 1 LP.

Posted Sat Jul 2, 2011 12:30 am
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Andrew Tullsen

(Howitzer_120mm)

United States
Tigard
Oregon

Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD

Do you have an updated rule sheet?

Posted Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:40 pm
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

The current rules changes can be found here:

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/7rt5zxue9e/revi...?

I think they only apply to solo play. We gotta work out a way to scale that up to 2 and more players...

Posted Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:18 pm
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Andrew Tullsen

(Howitzer_120mm)

United States
Tigard
Oregon

Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD

What about having each player take a hero. Each hero takes a turn, goes through the "solo player" bit - so each player in essence controls their own party. The monsters only attack the active player.

There would be a total of 5 years (-1/player) - so 4 years w/ 1, 3 years w/ 2, 2 years w/ 3, 1 year w/ 4. The goal is the same, but the player with the most killed monsters wins.

The idea is that the player are mercenaries or something, in charge of killing monsters, so they are fighting the same guys, but not together.

Grimlock could be buried in the last 10 cards, if he wasn't defeated by player 1, the next player in turn could have a chance. He is worth 2/3 monsters.

Posted Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:57 pm
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Andreas Propst

(jilocasin)

Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria

Interesting concept Andrew. Feel free to test it like that.

I was thinking of something like that:

Each player chooses a hero at the beginning of the game.

There would be a rotating leader mechanic where each player gets to make decisions when it is his/her turn starting with the youngest player, then going clockwise around the table.

In monster battles the monster would attack each player once. If a player controls more than one hero, the monster would attack the one with the lowest DEF. Attack order would be decided by INIT stats. When there is a tie between Monster and hero INITs the hero would always go first.
The spoils would be divided as the current leader wants to (he can keep all the gold and treasure for himself but can give some to other players as well). The kill would be scored by the player who dealt the finishing blows to the monster.

The game would last 4 years, with the final battle against Grimlock and any remaining monsters taking place at the end of year 4.

Who wins in the end would be determined by the number of kills a player scored as put forward in that "fiddly table" Rob, Michael and me were discussing here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/2932/ds-as-a-pure-coop...

Note to Rob: Could you please come up with the final table?

Edited Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:42 am
Posted Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:41 am
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Andrew Tullsen

(Howitzer_120mm)

United States
Tigard
Oregon

Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD

Eh, I saw that. I really don't like "fiddly tables" as such, except in wargames.

If it's determined by number of kills, I foresee the current leader just taking all the loot. Think about it. If the leader ONCE decides to take it all, then the next leader isn't going to say "oh, I'll be nice, have some loot", he will keep it all too. And the next leader, etc.

What about a VP system, a la Thunderstone - each monster is worth an amount of VP, dependent on how good he is. This is kept face down in front of a person.

Posted Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:23 am
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Andrew Tullsen

(Howitzer_120mm)

United States
Tigard
Oregon

Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD

Also, the rotating leader - what you're pretty much saying is that each player takes a turn FOR THE ENTIRE PARTY. I dislike this mechanic in coop games a lot - It's pretty much a solitare game that works for one, but can play more just by the rules saying who gets to make the decisions.

All co-op games have some element in which you HAVE to interact with other people and you CAN'T just take over their roles. Some do it better than others.

Pandemic - each player has a hand of cards, of which you aren't allowed to say exactly what you have.

Space Alert - Hidden hand of cards, plus real time, so you can't spend that much time ordering other people around.

Take what you will, that's just my 2 cents.