Refreshment

[Valamir]

I'd like to ask playtesters to really look hard at the Refreshment mechanic because as it is completely new to V6 it has never been tested.  Particularly the amounts given are completely speculative.

Currently Refreshment gives the first player to Refresh 2 Coins per player in the game.  Scaleing down until the last player gets 2.  This simply seemed an easy to remember and convenient measurement.  I'm not really sure what effect it will have on play.  

If the amount is too little, Refreshment will happen often.  Would that be a bad thing?  Should more Coins be handed out to reduce the frequency of Refreshment, or is frequent Refreshment just fine?

Does the game play and play strategies differ based on how frequently Refreshment occurs?  My initial belief would be yes, but I don't know by how much or what the optimum might be.

Should the amount Refreshed be identical for all players?  It would be simpler, but I like some of the effects the declining amount yields.  Namely, that tends to encourage rather than discourage spending.

What kind of odd game effects does it lead to...and are those "bad" or just odd.  For instance I can see the possibility that until the first person runs out everyone will be motivated to spend in small amounts so as not to be the first one out and sitting on the sideline...but then once one person is out, the motivation would be to launch into a giant expenditure in order to be the second one out and get the most Refreshment Coins (having the indirect effect of making your big expenditure cheaper because of the extra Coins you got).

I can see an arguement that this would be bad, because it is (if it actually happens) a pure mechanical artifact and not motivating any kind of real story behavior.  On the other hand, I can see an arguement that this is actually good, because it will serve as a natural paceing device causing expenditures to be made gradually with occassional bursts of activity.  Obviously this is all speculation until it actually gets played.

Mike and I will be playing our first game of V6 (presumeably) this weekend.  Hopefully I'll have a full analysis of the game to post.