Short game variant?

[jwolfe]

The OotS game is rated at three hours play time. That's fine as a replacement for a role-playing session, but I'll never get it to the table with my boardgaming group if they have to set aside three hours for it. Are there any 30-60 minute variants (official or otherwise) other than just "play until you're tired of it"?

[The Giant]

So far, I'm not aware of one...the game was primarily designed as an activity for when someone can't make the D&D session, or as a break from more serious games. It doesn't really function in a 30-minute game session as-is. However, once the game is out, I imagine someone will work up a way to do it.

It can probably be sped up to two hours if you start the game with a few extra shticks dealt for each character, I imagine. Less than 4 players playing also speeds the game considerably. Also, if all the players are fairly aggressive and willing to take risks (instead of playing it safe), the game goes faster.

It's actually much easier to ADD time, to make a game an all-day affair. If you have all 6 players and use all cards to make a giant six-level dungeon and everyone resists taking unnecessary risks, you can easily blow a whole day if you want. We call that variant, "The Weekend-Killer".

[jwolfe]

I don't doubt that my role-playing group will play the game exactly as intended.

But I suspect the hard-core boardgamers I know won't want to spend much more than an hour playing a game they will perceive as "light." The really hard-core won't want to play it at all, of course, but there are some who would try it out if it's quick. Thus my interest in an hour-or-less variant.

If anybody comes up with anything, please post it here.

Thanks.

[apegamer]

Hey, my boardgame group played Caylus last night - 3.5 hours!

[jwolfe]

Hey, my boardgame group played Caylus last night - 3.5 hours!

That's my point. If they're going to spend 3 hours playing a game, they're going to want to play Caylus. Or Age of Steam. Or....

[BelkarsDagger]

And then, you can always invent a short version yourself, as like a house-rule thing (dont make money off of altered versions of games... baaaaad move.)... one time I had an hour to kill, and me and my friend were playing Munchkin with random encounter tables... yes, TABLES. Fun times... fun times...

[Traveling_Angel]

And then, you can always invent a short version yourself, as like a house-rule thing (dont make money off of altered versions of games... baaaaad move.)... one time I had an hour to kill, and me and my friend were playing Munchkin with random encounter tables... yes, TABLES. Fun times... fun times...

Tables????

[BelkarsDagger]

I'm sorry, but my houserules are copyrighted. ;)

[Justin_Miller]

We could start making game variants right NOW if they'd post the rules... (hinthint... begbeg)

[Silverspine]

Fastest and easiest way would be to play the game three times and inventory each character and what dungeon level the game is at two hours into the game. Then randomly assign abilities / items equivalent to the average power and start on the average ‘level’. Call it ‘character background’ and just play the last third of the game.

Course I am saying this with out ever having seen the rules – so it could be a junk suggestion.
:-X

[cripple]

Purchased the game Thursday at Gen Con. Four of us had an hour and a half to kill between games and decided to see how far we could get into the game. We were moving slowly due to not knowing the rules and not taking many risks and ended up just exploring one level ...

... but we had a good time!

Short variants could include changing the goals to achieving a certain number of shticks or loot either individually or as a team. (If working as a team, I'd suggest not choosing Belkar ...).

Other shortening variants:

-- As Rich suggests, start w/ extra shticks (or loot)
-- Use a house rule that bumps up the attack/defense of various shticks or bumps down the attack/defense of the monsters.
-- Bump up the value of asking for aid. Bump up the value of the loot or the experience.
-- Allow players to aid each other even w/out having to distribute loot. (This is a major change if it means you're getting +10 to every attack or defense, probably way too much.)

[tgva8889]

From the sounds of the game, you could probably shorten game time by quite a bit if you only played through one level of the game (perhaps the first level as cripple did, or perhaps the last level so you get to kill Xykon), but not through the end-game. That way you can shorten game time, but not necessarily complete nothing.

[Dinubabear]

Well, we got the game to run under 2 hours by dealing 2 random shticks to each player after picking their 3 and dealing out 5 treasures at the beginning. Also we remove one level, so there's only 2 levels before the Xykon level and the floor width was 4 rooms. The width was because it was what would fit on the coffee table, but it might have helped. It lead to more agressive play anyway since everything was explored early. We kept the 7( 8 )/8 treasure/loot requirement to get to Xykon's lair, so weaker characters needed to run around more to battle monsters to collect Shticks, but still everyone managed to make it to the bottom level before Xykon was killed.

<edit was to fix the Smiley that jumped unexpectedly into my text>

[Baka]

(Oo, first post)

I've played the game twice now, and both times it was LONG. We only finished the second game because we cut off the third floor!

I'm thinking that if you don't have a day free, just an evening, then cutting off floor 3 (but still using Xykon's lair, obviously), and dealing out more starting schticks and loot would be a good one.

Also, we're adding in the 1 and 12 rule, because, well, it's based on D&D. Fumbles and Crits seem right somehow...

[chibibar]

We played under 2 hours.

Pick 3 of Red Schtick + 3 normal random schtick
Each player starts off with 5 loot.
We had first floor randomly made with about 5 rooms and kinda go from there . (the monster is layout per rule when the first character reach it and stop)


3 floors + Xykon (and mininum requirement to meet xykon) work out fine.

Premise: basically you had a torn map of the dungeon that you think it will lead to Xykon and you are heading there. (hence the 5 room start)

[Penny]

I played it with my boardgame group last night. In the interests of a shorter game, we declared it finished when Xykon was killed, without having to escape the dungeon. Even with that modification, a short game took us 4.5 hours to finish.

[Adeptus]

That's my point. If they're going to spend 3 hours playing a game, they're going to want to play Caylus. Or Age of Steam. Or....

Having just played the game yesterday, I'm pretty sure you are dead wrong. The game is brilliant.

The only complaint is that it took really, really long. We had five players, and a medium game run from four in the evening until past midnight. Admittedly we spent a lot of time laughing at the cards and passing them around :D