- Sometimes, randomness is not such a bad thing. While it reduces the deterministic aspect of the game, it creates situations with calculated risk that’d at least give a bad choice some chance to make a comeback.
- Trying to resolve combat from a single card choice was probably a disastrous idea. Without a series of shifting parameters and each card choice giving the same probability to win or lose, the choice becomes completely random even if the decisions are weighted differently – as long as there’s exactly one hard counter to each possible choice, players are still forced to consider each choice evenly.
- And building on the previous point, there really needs to be some way to predict player behavior in order for players to decide on an action instead of randomly picking one.
While still themed around pirates, the game is no longer about ship to ship combat with captain and crew – now we’re down to fighting over treasures on an individual level. A simplified list of rules is as follows:
- Each player begins combat with 5 cards.
- Each player plays a card each round.
- Higher priority cards are resolved first. If multiple players have cards of the same priority, the player with higher initiative takes precedence.
- As a player’s action is being resolved, grab the highest priority token that’s not yet taken.
- If a condition is applied to a card’s action, resolve them in the order they’re listed on the card.
- If a player takes damage and that player’s action card has not completely resolved, apply a stagger token to that player’s action.
- If a focus token is available, consume it whether the card has a focus condition bonus or not.
- A player who takes 3 points of damage or more is knocked out.
You can unload guns on a player that’s standing around ready to parry for a 1 in 3 chance to deal 3 damage (in most circumstances, winning outright). Better yet, you can play focus to gain the focus buff. The buff makes the next gun attack 100% accurate.
However, since focus has lower priority, the bottom player gained initiative that round. In the next round, the players have the same priority, but since the bottom player maintains initiative, the bottom player brutally finishes the top player off by dealing 2 damage. Mmm, this is not exactly what I want to happen… Yup, changes are a-coming.
Next week: Justify your game.