[Evolve mod] first try (split)

[Altharis]

Well..... I really must be boring people, my first post and I haven't recieved any feed back as to how other people faired with Evolve and stuff.
I had a good game the other day and I'm starting a campaign with friends, The winner of the last epoch (And the first...) Won by eaming up with the scuttling rover-mouse and fought off the gunoody beast, whereas one of the two winged splorkel-mice died and the other was severely wounded.
His mouse also had an extra mate point over the competition.
Cheers,
Altharis

[Ron Edwards]

I can guarantee you that if you whine about "no one's paying attention to me," no one will post to your threads. It's up to you to present topics which are worth discussing. And why would anyone else playtest it, when you haven't? So I'm telling you now, quit whining. It's pathetic.

The good news is that you really did playtest, which is totally the opposite of pathetic. It's awesome. You're in a new forum! Tell more about it. What was play like? Who played? You've only presented a teeny little bit - there's nothing to talk about. So explain.

I'm very intrigued by the game, but I want to know more about the tactics and especially the real people's interactions during play.

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Whoops, forgot to add the link to the original thread regarding Evolve.

Best, Ron

[Altharis]

Thanks, i'm sorry for whining, I didn't mean to annoy anybody.

Well, I LOVE to test new games almost every second of my life, problem is I usually don't have anybody to playtest with.
Solution, playtest at school! So I gathered together a bunch of my good friends, Angus, Paul, Jacinta and Jes, and decided to playtest. The base organism was a Slug.
Angus started off things by creating his Karma-Sutra-Slug, with an extra point in Mate and the trait "Special Techniques". Angus has a sick mind.....
Paul created the Slippery-sliding-slug, with an extra point in Run and the trait "Slippery Slime".
Jes and Jacinta both created identical twin winged slugs with an extra point in Run and the "Winged" trait.

All the slugs woke up in their nest with one desire: FOOD! Jes and Jacinta flew off  to eat the candy-floss like clouds, Angus chewed on some dried meat around the nest, and Paul tried to steal what Angus was eating. Some dice rolling later and Jes and Jacinta found some yummy pears to eat, providing them with a nice litlle lump of evolution dice. And Paul managed to nick Angus's food, but found that it wasn't very nutritious though.

Jes and Jacinta came to an impasse and decided to try and get over it. And Angus went hunting with Paul tailing close behind...... Jes fell and hurt herself and Jacinta had to call for their mum. Angus caught some fresh childermouse and was enraged as Paul stole it. but then they teamed up, with paul giving half back.

Jacinta's calls only attracted a predator! and Jes was in firing zone! Paul and Angus teamed up to raid an entire nest of Childermice. The last bit of dicing later, and Jes was near killed but her and Jacinta both managed to run away. And Angus and Paul decimated the Childermice, gaining a ton of evolution dice.

And that was game, so we rolled all our evolution dice, and Angus won by a hair thanks to his extra point in mate!

Things Learnt:
1) A good way to introduce people to traits  is to ask them how they got that extra point in whatever i.e. Why is your mouse so good at running?
2) In the early stages of the game, Mate, although not being useful in-game, is an end game winner.
3) Working together is the basis for the game, and it shows.
4) Wings as a trait are broken. Maybe replace them with Gliding ability.

There you are,
Altharis

[tj333]

I'm wondering how are wings a broken trait?

And are you using rules that are any different then the ones linked to in the last thread?

[Altharis]

Thank you for replying to my topic! (Rah Rah shisboombah!)

Yes I am using the rules provided, it is just that I feel that an organism with wings can out fight and out maneuvre any opponent.
I mean how interesting is "I fly away." whenever a threat emerges?

I think a substitute is going to be needed for further play.....

Cheers,
Altharis

[MW]

Yes I am using the rules provided, it is just that I feel that an organism with wings can out fight and out maneuvre any opponent.
I mean how interesting is "I fly away." whenever a threat emerges?

How about a flying threat? That would also encourage teamwork on behalf of the players (they'd need to work together to kill/hide from it).

Maybe there could be areas covered with some kind of tiny shrub that hides players from the flying predator? Then only organisms that tried flying (or climbing up the shrubs) would be at risk.

Maybe you could limit the amount of time an organism can fly based on it's Run score.

[Altharis]

Hey MW, thanks for taking interest!
A flying predator, eh? Interesting.... (Evil DM smile)
I really like the idea of having time based on Run score.... How long per point?
I'd like to have a kind of "Tech Tree" of traits, maybe a branch for flying.
Cheers,
Altharis

[MW]

How long per point?

Maybe ten minutes of in-game time?

You could incorporate different levels of flying traits into your tech tree idea, with each consecutive level having an exponentially increased flight time.

Maybe you could even have several different branches in the flying section, like Manuverability and Speed branches.

[Altharis]

Sorry I haven't replied in a long time folks, I've been working on another project.
Check the New Ideas board for details.
Cheers, Altharis