Card game ptest (GenCon Forge-ies take note)

[btrc]

FYI, the typeface is called DOA, going for that "haven't cleaned the typewriter in 20 years" look. Seemed to suit the mood and theme of the game concept.

Greg
BTRC guy

[btrc]

Having had a chance to sit down and play it, some thoughts from the designer:

1) Laughed my ass off.
2) Too many cards. That, or you have to use a smaller deck for small numbers of players.
3) First player can play *any* card, not just a verb.
4) Scoring is tedious. Suggestion: Cards have point values only for trumping other cards. End of game score is 1 point per card, with special cards counting their listed value.
5) Cards can only be played upright. That is, a card might fit in a slot inappropriately if it is upside down.

All for now,
Greg
BTRC guy

[Daniel Solis]

Something's up with my email, I think. Can someone send me the document over AIM? My username is gobi90.

[btrc]

Has *anyone* had a chance to test the game yet? I'm sort of disappointed that all the people who said "me! me!" have dropped off the radar...

Greg
BTRC

[ethan_greer]

Guilty.  What can I say?  I have no excuse, other than I've been busy.  I haven't even had a chance to open the damn pdf yet.  I so want to playtest this game, though.  I'll try my hardest to get to it this week, 'kay?

[lumpley]

I'm having trouble coming up with enough of the wrong sort of person.  Last game night, my little sister showed up.

-Vincent

[Valamir]

The irony of hearing this from Mr. Kill Puppies himself is simply wonderful.

[Daniel Solis]

I've got the cards all printed and ready to go. Alas, there's been trouble even getting one person to sit down and test it out. :(

[btrc]

It's clear you folks need to spend less time at prayer meetings and more time drinking, whoring, blaspheming (and gaming). Wake up that drunken, syphillitic, louse-infested doxy you call a mother, and get that gaggle of inbred cretins and siblings that probably includes your father, and get them to play the game with you!

And Valamir is right. Mr. "Kill Puppies for Satan" really has no excuses...

Greg
BTRC

[DevP]

Could some spin me a copy quick? (Greg said it's okay.)

And I *WILL* find some middle school kids to play this with! Or at least middle-aged people.

[ethan_greer]

Done, Dev.  It's on its way.

[DevP]

I played it! I *did* find some random high school kids to try playing the game with, but I backed out at the last second for legal reasons. (Sorry. I did shock some older women in the copy shop where I was cutting the cards.)

First time I played: with one friend, and we were both kinda tired and quiet. It didn't go anywhere; so it's not that kind of game.

Next game: much better. Four people, all in a kinda louder mood (it helps to add people), *AND* I explained very basic strategy I didn't figure out at first (i.e. don't put down the noun if you want to win), and made a rule that when a sentence finished you had to pick someone and lambast them with it. It was really fun, and one non-gamer friend says she'll come around more often to play this. Great!

A very few issues/rules I thought up but didn't try:

(1) We thought of having a player pick up only one sentence at a go, and leave the rest in place for people to build on. This way you don't lose some more interesting cards. (Letting people start with non-verbs should help a lot.)

(2) We scored by number of cards, because point value was, indeed, too tedious. (It didn't really matter, of course.)

(3) The true "goal" of the game is to build long and terrible phrases as much as possible; the shtick is that you're trying to finish phrases for points, and some kind of game "gimmick" is needed to draw people in, no matter how flimsy. (The game Apples to Apples is a good example; the point of game is to come up with funny conflagrations of adjectives and nouns, but the mechanic of the game is that you want to win each round.) There are times when the point-winning rules gimmick begins to run against the Make Fucked Shit Up gimmick.

It's really tempting to finish the sentence as soon as possible, because usually it is the case that if you don't, then (3 turns later, at least) someone else will. One odd solution could be team-style play: perhaps two teams, and every other person is on the other team. Then there *might* be encouragement to take a risk in extending a sentence even if you can finish, because if the guy to your left can't finish it then you get even more cards scored; but of course if you communicate this then the other team will know, etc...

I noted this because there was the situtation where K had a great noun ("Jesus Christ"), and H had a great ender ("for Jesus"), so they had a great thing they were trying to work together, and were putting aside individual gameplay for this sake; however, R was in the middle and felt that she needed to win it for herself; luckily, she had another good ender ("with a roadflare") and everyone was happy. But I wonder if it would make sense ot make this tension part of gameplay?

(4) For really enjoyable sentences (key example: "Club Innocent Seals for Jesus"), if there is a quick consensus that it rocks, give the winning player a free turn.

This game will come back in my group. Nice!

[btrc]

Hoorah!

Keep playing. Add any house rules you want. The point is to have fun (and let me know what is the most fun). Winning is secondary and just bragging rights.

Any ideas for "special" cards that would improve game play (like get a free turn if you collect this card)?

I've found that it is difficult to pick up the entire board with one phrase completed, even ifg you get two phrases at once. Remember that as long as the cards match on all sides, you can put them anywhere. We've played where cards have had been completely surrounded, even on the corners, or with huge vertical and horizontal "blocks" of adjectives where everyone is desperately trying not to play a card that will let the next player complete a phrase.

And also remember that you can only have three adjectives in a row.

Greg
BTRC

[DevP]

I just tried it out, allowing a sentence to start with any word (not just a verb). Wow, it was a bit more cerebral as a game. (The cussing was still good.)

Players still gave up winning points because others plead for a chance to make "the really awesome sentence", which is fine except it puts pressure on and such... I still think that teamplay is the key here. With an even number of players, every other person is on a different team; if there is an odd person out, he's the "Asshole", and on any turn that someone else can't play, they can get a free card swap (pick up a lower valued card, leave a higher value one). Alternately, maybe the Asshole can do this after every turn, but can still can only ever swap cards (instead of putting them down); the result is that the player's sole job is to make filthy phrases filthier.

[btrc]

I'm off to a battlebot competition, but I'll be taking a ptest copy with me. So far, it's been what, 3 weeks and I have I think *one* playtester who has actually gotten a game or two played...

Sigh.

Greg
BTRC