Dev Log: FissureVerse #39 - Backs, and Tokens

Hold up! I gotta rethink this.

With the previous version of FissureVerse (when it was called Vortex), my sister and brother-in-law playtested the game.  The playtest devolved into a game of War very quickly: they would reinforce with a Devotee or two, and then on their next turn immediately Crusade and snatch up the other player's Devotee.  They had picked non-opposite factions (like Blue & Green, I think), so the two attributes they kept comparing were always close and worked out simply.  They never Frenzied or played Rogations.  It was just a quick swap back-and-forth.  By the end of the game, it was the luck of the draw that determined the winner.

Clearly, that was not a particularly good thing to be happening.

That was one of the reasons I reworked the Action phase a little, in hopes that such a thing would not occur, and that players would use the other card types.  Or, at least, give players who wanted to use other strategies a fighting chance.  If using nothing but Crusaders is a dominant strategy, the other cards don't need to exist.

However, I had a dream last night, wherein two friends played FissureVerse in an almost identical fashion to the way my sister and brother-in-law had, even accounting for the reworked Action phase.  The new way to play doesn't give Players who want to Frenzy a chance to do so.  Not really.  You have to get lucky with the Turn Order on each Location Card to pull it off.  And even then, you might as well just Reinforce again, to cap out your Field of Play.

I don't want to rework the game further to completely eliminate that strategy for players who want to use it, but I don't want it to be the only way to play.

This back-and-forth is mitigated somewhat with three players, and even moreso with four, but that's not quite good enough.  Two players need to be able to play the game without such an issue.

Currently, I'm trying to come up with some rules that don't force me to redesign the cards to add anything.  I've considered ways to basically Tap Crusaders (like in Magic: The Gathering), either upon being put into play, or after a Crusade, but I think that only delays the inevitable, and gets confusing because of the way Rounds work.  I could do something like "You can only Crusade if you have no cards in your hand", which would now most certainly force players to do more, but that does not seem like a pleasant solution.  I think players who want to Crusade often would just discard their hand whenever possible, just to be able to Crusade, and nothing is achieved.

Another possibility is to say you can only Crusade when you are not first in Turn Order, so you are in a Location which you do not have control over.  That way it makes sense that you would Crusade where your Opponent holds domain, and wouldn't Crusade in your own home.  But due to the random nature of the Locations, you may have a few rounds of Catan Dice Syndrome before you can Crusade.  You'd have your Crusaders all set down, a few Frenzies even in place, and you don't get the chance to Crusade before your whole army is wiped out because of an unlucky streak of Locations.  Ouch.

I could also add Crusade tokens, which perhaps require you to spend them to Crusade with a Devotee, though Crusading with a Zealot perhaps doesn't use them, and then the tokens get refreshed... somehow.  I'll have to think about that possibility.  So far it seems to have the likeliest chance of going somewhere.  I've considered adding tokens to the game in terms of placing them on Crusaders and having them change the way the Crusader is played, but I wanted to wait on those for a while and keep the game purely card-based until the kinks were worked out.  But, if it's what works...

...Yes, indeed.  New rule: at the end of every Round, if you have Reinforced, Frenzied, or played a Rogation during that round, you gain one Crusade Token (one for each, so if you played a Rogation and Frenzied, for instance, you get two Tokens).  When you wish to Crusade, you spend a number of Crusade Tokens equal to the value of the Attribute you're using as Offense.  So if you're Crusading with Reason, for instance, and the Reason attribute on your Crusader is 4, you have to spend 4 Crusade Tokens to do so.  But this also takes into account Frenzies, so if you have a Frenzy on that previous Crusader which gives a -1 on the Reason attribute, you now only have to spend 3 Crusade Tokens to Crusade the way you want.

I like it.  It may need a little balance or figuring out the exact proper way to distribute Crusade Tokens (perhaps Refilling should give you a Token, perhaps Reinforcing should not, etc.), but I think that may solve the problem.

This also helps to give a bigger advantage to Blue, who has always been on the short side of Offensive Attributes, by making Crusading a typically cheaper affair for Blue than for others.  Though that may make Blue too powerful.  The trials of game design...

Anyway, here are the new card backs, courtesy of Spellbound.

Pretty!

I'm getting better at asking about using art before applying it.  They say it's easier to ask forgiveness that to ask permission.  Not true.

I'll also start adding the credits and links directly on the blog in a single spot, not just the name on each card and a credit in the instructions.  That way it's easier for people who like the art to see the originals.