Reflection #4

So for this last play session I changed the core rules and even the map layout for the game. I decided to ditch the cumbersome and slow movement options and the weirdly explained “tiles” and opted to go for a mario party approach where players are going on the board to get “buffs” while the mastermind tries to impede their progress to objectives. The way combat works instead now is at the end of every move turn and the mastermind has to worry less about setting up a whole board of monsters and encounters and instead has a free fire encounter of just sending different types of enemy groups or Hordes. This adds a more fast paced and easier to understand play style. Combat was also reworked to no longer include attack roles on most enemies — adding to the speed of the game.

My in-game class test helped a lot with realizing that the rest of the game’s mechanics are still dated with the first version of it. Mana and overall the price of cards are cumbersome, lacking, inefficient and unusable. That was a huge flaw to realize because I was more so focused on trying to making the game less clunky and cumbersome, causing combat to take a hit. So when I tried it with my friends, I instead reduced the cost of mana on everything across the board. Keeping the mana scaling, and giving healer 2 mana at turn 1 really helped things out. With this overbuff I also buffed monsters slightly and nerfed rogue significantly so combat wasn’t boring and a “I attack and kill” fest. It was overall a better change that added choice to the game.

Then, I never got to test this but I noticed playtime is long and you very rarely get “choices” on the hero side of the game. If there is one thing I’d change is adding a rogue lite mechanic in the form of a new tile that basically lets you draw from your class’ “orb deck” (WIP title). Essentially they would draw 3 cards from their exclusive deck and pick 1 of the options. These cards act as buffs or choices with consequences that let you build an entirely new playstyle and character. An example would be a new sword card for the hero, which buffs his damage a little and lets him use it to exorcise ghosts who are immune to basic and physical attacks. Another example would be a “consequence” orb card, like for the Healer who loses a lot of healing spells that turn into holy smiting spells that do damage or blinding them. Or even orbs with less consequences that buff a specific card. Healer’s could grab a bunch of cards that buffs circle of protection as the game moves on, letting the healer be a more buffer/support role instead of strictly healing. The Tank also had cards that buffs their drinking cards, or turning them into thoughtless hulking monsters that lose taunt in exchange for high damage and low self sustain. The rogue would have a consequence route that causes them to not be healed by holy magic, but lets them have some self-sustain and strong shadow magic spell cards. Overall if the game sessions are long it would be more interesting for the heroes to “build your deck/class” as you play. Overall I am a bit disappointed that I came up with this idea after the class play session, but also enjoyed the ideas that came with it a lot.