3 player playtest

We had a 3 player playtest with 3 experienced players. The game was odd in that 6 of the game turns were 5 actions or more, which is statistically very unlikely. The game was relatively close between 2 of the players. Once again, the "production explosion" was a factor, with players having such enormous production that they could easily bottom out their Unrest and then build out their entire hand of structures. I don't think this promotes the tough choices I want to be central to the game. Despite that, it was a fun session. A detailed recap is posted at the game's DropBox folder.

3 player playtest

We had a 3p playtest on Labor Day in which 2 of the players set up a lucrative network of Bazaars in the Med, connected by Roads. This led to a network of Cities, and from there, to many points. The recap, and some potential (small) changes, have been posted in the game's DropBox folder.

New rulebook uploaded

I have uploaded v15.4 of the rules and the latest Advance cards to the game's DropBox folder. This latest version removes the "Discovery" cards from the previous version and groups the Advances into three decks, by achievement category. It also adds 3 new Advances, bringing the total to 24 unique Advances.

3 player playtest

Last night, we had a 3 player playtest that took a more militaristic turn than previous sessions have. It was enjoyable to see the game go in that direction, and it still held together just fine. I've posted a full session report at the game's DropBox folder.

The Goal

A while back, I posted a comment to a
blog article by Shannon Appelcline that captures what I think a civ building game ought to include. I'm posting that here as a good summary of the overall goal of this project:

I would say that the following are elements that a Civ game needs to provide to really communicate the right feel:

* Growth: The player's empire gets larger both in its footprint on the board and in its population. Population growth creates additional capabilities but also brings pressure to expand. Territorial expansion also brings benefits but results in interaction with a player's neighbors, which can lead to conflict as space becomes scarce.

* Enhancement: The players have ways to receive additional abilities or upgraded forms of existing abilities that they do not possess at the game's beginning; their civilizations grow and progress as the game proceeds, and players can steer that progression.

* Differentiation: The particular set of enhancements that a civilization acquires is different for each player and, ideally, different in each playing; it isn’t necessarily forced upon the player by the game.

* Specialization: As players progress down a particular path of differentiation, it becomes either easier to continue down that path or more difficult to switch to following a different path.

* Multiple paths to victory: The scoring system accomodates the different cultural paths that players will follow, and allows a variety of paths to lead to victory. These allow a player to attempt to emulate different historical civilizations as well.

* Cooperative interaction: Generally implemented via trade, but the idea is simply that players can interact in a way that results in a mutual benefit as opposed to a diminishing of one player's position by the direct action of another.

There are a couple of additional elements that I think are important to the theme, and that haven't been incorporated into any game terribly well yet (which is why I'm trying to incorporate them!)

* Self-aggrandizement: What we know about the ancient world comes primarily from historians who wrote about what they observed or heard about, and from rulers who boasted about their accomplishments. By making sure that much about your civilization is recorded, you can insure that tales of your greatness will survive the test of time.

* Political control: Growing an empire involved conquering territories, but then the real work of managing and governing began, and some empires succeeded at this better than others. The idea that a smoothly-administered empire will be more successful should be communicated by the game in some fashion.

* Cultural diffusion: The idea that your culture can "rub off" on the foreign civilizations you interact with.

Welcome

I've created this blog to discuss progress and updates on my game design efforts, centering mostly on my civilization-building game The Sands of Time. Most of these updates will consist of announcements that new files -- rulebook revisions, playtest recaps, etc -- have been uploaded to the game's DropBox (http://www.getdropbox.com) folder, which some people have been invited to access.