[The Nighttime Animals Save the World] Rules questions

[Andrew Morris]

I'm planning on playing Nighttime Animals once the weather gets nicer. But, after reading the rules again, I have a few questions I'd like to clear up first.

1) Can the players make up their own nighttime animals, or are they limited to those mentioned?

2) Should everyone have the same set of coins? That is, if there are three people, should there be (for example) three pennies, three nickels, and three dimes?

3) Does the GM show the coin when they hold it out? If so, can the player then change their mind?

[lumpley]

Yay!

1) You can make up your own. I used think you shouldn't, but I don't remember why.

2) Everyone should have different sets of coins - that is, make no effort to make the sets the same. Plus, all 4 coins should be represented at least once. I get together 12 coins (for instance) and just hand 'em out randomly.

3) The GM holds out a coin first, showing it. The kid looks at it, looks at his or her collection of coins, and decides which coin to use to respond.

-Vincent

[Andrew Morris]

Thanks!

1) You can make up your own. I used think you shouldn't, but I don't remember why.

Well, I think you should. And what do you know anyway? You only wrote the game, after all. Seriously, this is probably the first thing that will be questioned, because the two kids I've got in mind wouldn't want to be anything other than bunnies. You never know, though.

Also, another thought just came to me. You only mention the four everyday coins. Why not include half-dollar and dollar coins? Any particular reason, or just because most people don't have those in their pockets?

[lumpley]

I haven't tried playing with more kinds of coins than 4, so your guess is as good as mine!

I bet that if you include a half-dollar in the mix, the game comes to be all about who's holding the half-dollar. Not socially (or not just socially) but mechanically. Do you hold onto it as a trump? Do you give other people their turn? Can I get it from you?

You could mitigate this by having more than one half-dollar. But you're only playing with 9 coins total probably, and every half-dollar you add, you drop some other coin, right? Pretty soon you've cut one of the other kinds of coins out and you're back to 4 kinds, or you've marginalized a couple of other sizes to the point where you've got functionally 4 kinds.

Also I don't happen to have any in my pocket.

(What did I do with all those Sacagaweas I had at Dreamation, come to think of it? I can't have spent them or I'd remember...)

-Vincent

[Andrew Morris]

Yeah, that's true. I actually thought about the quarter being that way in rules as written, and thought that more variety might lead to that happening less frequently.

If I can, I'll try it both ways and see how they play out.