Knizia RPG: First Real Playtest
Played the first real playtest of it on Wednesday. It was pretty late and I was a little hesitant to start a game that late but they seemed eager so you don't waste that.
It went well.
That was two days ago. That's about all I can remember.
They initially had the same criticism about it that I did: the different roles should be more different. Right now they're all exactly the same except for which attribute is their primary, and that only comes into play with their special abilities. So at the beginning of the game there is no difference because no one has any special abilities. As the game goes on and people get new special abilities though, and their special abilities are only powered by their primary, the characters start feeling a little different.
Keep in mind that I didn't originally have that (different characters) as a design goal. But I like this.
What's I thought was cool was that have the special powers be powered by the primary attribute encouraged the players to go for equipment that made sense thematically. For example, Brian the Rogue was using all of his Stealth cards to power his special ability - or at least saving them for it. So he couldn't use those cards to solve quests. That forced him to go for equipment that helped Stealth, which is exactly what a Rogue would do.
It was suggested that each role gets one permanent icon of its primary attribute. I don't think I want to do that....
I'm also thinking that the special abilities could be reserved for the "advanced" rules, while the simple upgrades could be in the basic rules.
The scoring of the Amulets was 1VP/icon of that type in the player's hand at the end of the game. Since this encouraged a player to horde cards of that type, I might do something else there -- even if it isn't unbalanced, it encourages anitthematic actions.
They had a few suggestions for layout (icons on both sides of the rows/columns and the relative sizing of the icons on the cards). Could also print the icons right on the grid hexes. Maybe instead of icons make them a board element - monuments....