Category: Show Notes

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Tower Building Game Playtest

Let us know your comments about the game!

– Rob

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[Powerpress]

I was really happy with this playtest.  While, it did expose that the game is ridiculously unbalanced, it also provided some great ways to fix those problems.

The main issue seemed to be that the Developer was able to consistently build a lot of locations all while depriving the Conservator of the ability to do anything.  So yeah… unbalanced.

So how do I fix those problems?  My first inclination was to just try rebalancing all of the current cards for both players.  However, as Rob and I discussed the game I realized that the way to make it better lies within making sure the flavor of each role is accentuated.

So how do I accomplish that?  To me, that answer seems pretty easy.  The Developer will continue to focus on getting a lot of money and using it to build a ton of expensive locations based on their business ventures.  The Developer’s action cards revolve around gaining money and screwing over the Conservator.  The earning money cards are great but I now believe that some of the take that cards need to be changed.  They need to not focus on bankrupting the Conservator but instead creatively slowing them down.  Allowing for the Conservator to at least have a chance to bounce back.

As for the Conservator, they need with their locations to be able to place in a larger variety of places and also to be able to cheaply restrict the Developer via actions that represent real world things.  Protestors chaining themselves to trees or using legislation to stop locations from being built.

Finally, in the general rules, I need to more accurately scale location prices based on where you can build.  I did this originally by making locations that can be built anywhere cost the most.  Now I need to continue that backwards down to locations that can be built on only one area and making those very discounted.

So listeners, what did you think of the episode and of the notes here?  Leave a comment and let me know!

– Jason