Polynesia card game

[TrueMikeBrown]

Since July of last year I have been working on designing a card game. It is a Polynesian themed game which tries to achieve a balance between being satisfyingly strategic and simple enough (and short enough) that my wife is willing to play.

I have play-tested it fairly extensively with people from my work and with my extended family, however I have always been present whenever new people were introduced to the game, and because of this the rules documents have not been read by very many people.

I am interested in having people help me read the rule documents to make sure that they make sense without me explaining them, and then play-test the game.

Here (https://picasaweb.google.com/115513971179107148777/Polynesia?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNr19PXr9tXqPA&feat=directlink) is a picasa web album of the cards in the game.

Here (https://picasaweb.google.com/115513971179107148777/BnW?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNHNldHk2erurgE&feat=directlink) is a B&W version of the images

Here (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzJZyTEtuosiNzhiYmY5M2MtN2ZiZi00ZGZhLTlhM TktNTk3NmY4Mzg2ZmMz) are the rules

In order to make this game available to more than just print and play gamers, I have also made a Vassal module for it.

Here (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzJZyTEtuosiNGMxYTczNzEtZmE4Zi00NjYyLWIyZ GEtYzM1NzdlZmFlNDQ4) is the module

Vassal is a board/card game engine.
You can get Vassal here (http://www.vassalengine.org/download.php)

If anyone is interested in printing it up, I have full page pngs with 9 cards per page that can be printed on a color printer and cut out.

If anyone is interested in testing it out, please post here with your intentions (so that we can get some vassal games running online) I do not intend to participate in any games because my goal is to test whether the rules are well written (though if anyone does play a game, I would appreciate a vassal log file of the game so that I can see if anything is done wrong, and correct the rules to make them more obvious.)

tl;dr - post here if you want to help me playtest my card game.

[TrueMikeBrown]

I am going to bump this once and then let it die if no-one posts. (I was really hoping that someone would post as I put a lot of work into it).

[Zale]

It looks interesting...

If I can find the time, I'll look over the rules.

[TrueMikeBrown]

I appreciate your willingness to help. The document is only a few pages long (though it is not very light reading). If you find anything interesting (or confusing) please post it :)

[Brother Oni]

Looking over the rules at the moment. Will edit post with comments as I read through them.


Gods Step mentions a Gods section below, but I don't see one listed.

Strategy Step sections mentions a Strategies section later in the document, but I don't see one listed later.

Draw step:
Discarded cards are placed face up or face down in a discard pile? Are the discard piles from the Resource, Military, Points and Special decks recycled in the same way as the Gods deck, or are they one shot only?
I assume that the discarded cards must be from the ones you've just drawn?


Actions:
Minor typo of weather = whether in the Destroy and Steal sections.
Attack Actions can only be played in the Attack step?


Attack Step:
Clarification - in the Resolving the battle section, you state that cards that have their defence reduced to 0 are discarded, but the Recovering Points section states that they are razed instead. Presumably you mean razed in the earlier section?
Clarification: can a player attack multiple islands in a single turn?


Cleanup Step: How does a player get the token of the gods’ favor and what does holding the Gods deck do? Are all the Gods cards (drawn and discarded) reshuffled at this phase or only when depleted?

Other questions: When resources cards worth points are razed, does the defending player lost the points they were worth? I assume that players can't attack themselves to score double off a card. :smalltongue:
The Mercenary card - do the other players have to pay the 3 goods cost to use it to attack you? Typo in card text for mercinary = mercenary.

I hope this is useful and I apologise if you find my comments overly critical.


When I get an opportunity, I'll get the cards printed out and see if anything else crops up during a test game.

[TrueMikeBrown]

Thanks Brother Oni! (Arigato Oniisan Oni?) I appreciate all of your feedback (and will try to respond to all your questions (and will also try to clarify them in the rules document)).


Gods Step mentions a Gods section below, but I don't see one listed.
Strategy Step sections mentions a Strategies section later in the document, but I don't see one listed later.

These were both referring to sections in the document that got removed. I tried to sum the steps up in the order that they came. I will remove the references.


Discarded cards are placed face up or face down in a discard pile? Are the discard piles from the Resource, Military, Points and Special decks recycled in the same way as the Gods deck, or are they one shot only?
I assume that the discarded cards must be from the ones you've just drawn?

Discarded cards are face up. The other discard piles are also re-shuffled if the decks are emptied.


Actions:
Minor typo of weather = whether in the Destroy and Steal sections.
Attack Actions can only be played in the Attack step?

Thanks for catching that typo - I always do that!. Yes, and offensive action can only be played in the attack step.


Attack Step:
Clarification - in the Resolving the battle section, you state that cards that have their defence reduced to 0 are discarded, but the Recovering Points section states that they are razed instead. Presumably you mean razed in the earlier section?

Cards are only considered to be 'razed' if they were destroyed with an attack action (a card with 'action-attack' in the type line). Cards reduced to 0 defense by other offensive actions (such as destroy effects, or steal effects) are still destroyed, they just are not razed.

The difference here is that razed cards allow the attacking player to recover points and destroyed cards do not (so if someone plays 2 plagues and destroys all of the woodlands in the game he does not gain 1 point for each woodland destroyed in this way because he destroyed them with a destroy effect and not an attack effect.)

I will attempt to figure out how to explain this more clearly in the rules document.


can a player attack multiple islands in a single turn?
Yes, you can attack islands by multiple players, or if you destroy a players outer island completely you can attack the next island with your next attack.


How does a player get the token of the gods’ favor and what does holding the Gods deck do? Are all the Gods cards (drawn and discarded) reshuffled at this phase or only when depleted?

The token of the gods favor used to be used in the game but has since been removed. I don't know how I missed that reference to it. Holding the gods deck meant that you got to draw gods first, but since there are always enough gods unless someone plays the Shrine card I moved the info regarding who draws first to the 'Card Interactions and Explanations' section. The god cards are only reshuffled when depleted.


Other questions: When resources cards worth points are razed, does the defending player lost the points they were worth? I assume that players can't attack themselves to score double off a card.

Yes, players lose the points that a card is worth if they lose the card. You cannot raze your own cards either.


The Mercenary card - do the other players have to pay the 3 goods cost to use it to attack you? Typo in card text for mercinary = mercenary.

The mercenary can be used by other players without paying - I will add that to the rules. Thanks for the typo info as well.

Don't worry about being overcritical - I want people to look a this critically and point out things that they didn't understand.

[Brother Oni]

Thanks Brother Oni! (Arigato Oniisan Oni?) I appreciate all of your feedback (and will try to respond to all your questions (and will also try to clarify them in the rules document)).

No problem! Without the honourific, it's oni oni, Oni oniisan with (a little bilingual joke on my part).



Discarded cards are face up. The other discard piles are also re-shuffled if the decks are emptied.

One question you've missed - when you draw and discard cards during the Draw Step, must the cards you discard be from the ones you've just drawn?



Cards are only considered to be 'razed' if they were destroyed with an attack action (a card with 'action-attack' in the type line).

So the Mercenary's attack will destroy a card, not raze it as it's a Resource type?



The difference here is that razed cards allow the attacking player to recover points and destroyed cards do not (so if someone plays 2 plagues and destroys all of the woodlands in the game he does not gain 1 point for each woodland destroyed in this way because he destroyed them with a destroy effect and not an attack effect.)

I will attempt to figure out how to explain this more clearly in the rules document.


I think it's fairly clear as it is - as I don't have the cards in front of me to play with, I keep on inserting my other CCG experience into it by accident.

May I suggest changing the line "If a card's defence is reduced to 0 by an Attack action..." to "... by an Action - Attack card..." to highlight this special ability to raze stuff.



You cannot raze your own cards either.


You may want to explicitly state this, although by your explanation, you can hit your own cards with a destroy effect to deny another player razing it for points?

A clarification - do players also lose points if their card is razed, or is that implied when it gets discarded after the razing player scores it at the end of the Attack Step?



The mercenary can be used by other players without paying - I will add that to the rules. Thanks for the typo info as well.


Ouch, that makes the Mercenary a bit of a liability if you're on the back foot and have lost some of your goods production.

Looking at the cards more carefully, you appear to have multiple cards with the same name but different effects (Warrior and Craftsman for example).
Could I suggest renaming them so that functionally different cards all have a unique name? For example, rename the 4 strength Warrior to Warrior Party to distinguish it from the 3 Strength version.

I could help suggest some names if you like, but you're far more qualified than me to vet their accuracy.

[TrueMikeBrown]

I have uploaded a new version of the rules document (with changes based on Oni's suggestions (and other things that I saw as I was looking at the document again)) here (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzJZyTEtuosiNzhiYmY5M2MtN2ZiZi00ZGZhLTlhM TktNTk3NmY4Mzg2ZmMz)

The rules document now includes information about how many copies of each card are in the base game (as well as each expansion) in case anyone decided to print it.

Now, in response to Oni's last post:


One question you've missed - when you draw and discard cards during the Draw Step, must the cards you discard be from the ones you've just drawn?
Yes, They must. I added that to the rules document, but forgot to respond here about it.

About the Mercenary's attack, it is intended to be treated as an attack (and should therefore raze any card it hits). It says on the card that it is supposed to be played 'as an attack'... perhaps I should change that to 'as an attack action' to make it more clear?

I have changed the wording of the attack descriptions to attempt to clarify these types of questions. Now the attack phase has been renamed to war, and Attack actions are still Attack actions. Attacks raze things, Destroys destroy things, and Steals steal things.

Additionally the resource deck is now called the Economy Deck to reduce the confusion about there being multiple meanings of resource.


Can [you] hit your own cards with a destroy effect to deny another player razing it for points?

I never intended for that to happen, but I don't see why it shouldn't. You have to remember, however, that everyone only gets one chance to attack (and so you can't hit your own cards in the middle of someone else's attack to mess them up).

It would seem to me that a player that was sure that they were going to have their stuff destroyed by other players would just pull it back to their hand during the recall step (since they could then re-play it if they felt that the threat had passed.) I will update the rules document to specifically note that it is possible to destroy your own stuff, but that you do not get points for doing so.


A clarification - do players also lose points if their card is razed, or is that implied when it gets discarded after the razing player scores it at the end of the Attack Step?

Yes, they do lose their points when the card is discarded (after the attacking player gains the points.) I should update the rules document to include that as well.


Looking at the cards more carefully, you appear to have multiple cards with the same name but different effects (Warrior and Craftsman for example).
Could I suggest renaming them so that functionally different cards all have a unique name? For example, rename the 4 strength Warrior to Warrior Party to distinguish it from the 3 Strength version.

I like the sound of Warrior Party for the stronger warrior card, however the problem of same named cards is pretty common. There is also Hero, Trade agreement (4 types), Crafts (4 types), Sneak attack, Army, Craftsman, and Trade Island to rename if I start to rename cards to remove identically named cards. I will try to come up with names for more of them, and make another post when I do.

Off the top of my head, Master craftsman and Ambush (for the other sneak attack) would be good new names.

Perhaps adding Great before anything that is larger would help. (or for the trade agreements, 'meager', '', 'profitable', and 'lucrative')

Either way, Thanks for your help. I appreciate your insights.