I've read through the initial playtester's pdf twice now.  I gotta say, I like what you've done so far John.  I look forward to seeing what's in the next version.

The thing that really grabbed me was the use of the geomorphic tiles.  I LOVE the tiles.  I'm a sucker for tile laying games, Carcassonne and Entdecker being my favs.  I love watching a map being created by the laying of tiles, and I get that feeling from the ST tiles.

Question: how many different ones do you plan on having for the completed game?

Tony is going to do at least two more sheets, for a total of 24 tiles. I hope to wrangle some more out of him in the future, which will probably be offered as free downloads from the website.

I agree: the tiles are AWESOME, and should add another dimension to the game that I am really looking forward to.

Definitely wrangle Tony into doing more!!

I agree, too.
One concern I had: the tiles have names on them, which is great for character and inspiration, but might limit reusability. Would it be worthwhile to include copies of the titles with the labels removed?

Darren, you have to stop reading my mind. :-)

If only I could, John - such is my burden :)

In the tiles section, it says players get 1 tile per level of Scale. It also says that the GM gets 1 tile per player. Is this per player per scale, or just per player with no scale multiple?
Also, when laying tiles out, do players place all their tiles (taking turns presumably) and then the GM places his after all player tiles are down, or does the GM get a turn as the players are putting their tiles down?
Is it necessary to have the GM get a different number of tiles to the players? I know it might be a bit limiting having a total of 3-4 tiles at scale 1, but at scale 2+, it's probably fine, and it reinforces the idea of the GM being just another player. Mind you, I have no idea how the printed system works in practice so any suggestions I make here are obviously not informed by any actual knowledge :)

The GM gets one tile per player, no scale multiple. Think of it as a little flourish of tiles after the players have arranged the map. The GM gets a lot of input beforehand, since he selects which tiles the players will use for that adventure.

I think tiles go down in turns, one per player, clockwise around the table. Then the GM places all of his tiles last.

"The GM gets a lot of input..."

Ah I see, so he does. I imagined that players could choose freely from the master set of tiles. My mind reading is failing...

Glad you all liked the tiles. After reading John's latest draft, I had another burst of creativity and pumped out some more tiles.

Here's an idea: a second set of tiles as free download - same tiles, but different locations are labeled and the labels are different.

Thought for the future-

Tiles could eventually include locations in the Wild, if you could find some compelling reason to make situations out there...

Chris

This whole tiles business... well, it's being stolen, mister. So kickass.

Geomorphic tiles: the roleplaying craze that's sweeping the nation!

Chris: Agreed about tiles for the Wild. Also, I imagine a player saying, "Where am I? I'm here" while pointing to a part of the table with no tile. That's the Wild.

John wrote:
I think tiles go down in turns, one per player, clockwise around the table. Then the GM places all of his tiles last.

The GM gets a lot of input beforehand, since he selects which tiles the players will use for that adventure.

The tile placement method probably doesn't matter very much. It certainly doesn't need to be all that serious and regimented. I think the text will say something like: Put 'em down, move them around, swap them out, whatever... til everyone is happy. There's certainly nothing strategic about it.

The tiles don't have to touch. You can put one off in space if you want. We did that in our first playtest. And no one went over there. It was interesting.

The GM chooses the possible tiles beforehand. He can have a gigantic pile, or only enough for the current scale, or some amount in between. GM's choice.

I find myself strangely disappointed at that (it's not important to place tiles in some kind of hard & fast sequence, and feel free to shift them around) for some reason. I'm not sure why. Weird.