So I decided that revising one of my games that everyone seemed to like was a good idea for this game challenge. I picked the maze game, and added some new aspects to how it is played, hopefully balancing it to everyone's expectations!
Rules:
This game is for 4 players. All you need is a flat table and the cards!
There are 1 start, 4 finish, 10 'T' cross, 30 curves, 30 straights, and 6 dead ends.
To start the game, the card marked with 'Start' is facing up in the middle of the table Red color is 'R', Blue is 'B', Green is 'G' and Yellow is 'Y'. Each player starts on this spot. Shuffle the remaining 80 cards and deal them out, each player should have 19 cards. Keep the 4 finish cards for later.
Player 1 will pick one card from the hand he was dealt, you may look at it, to play on any players maze except your own. You may not play a dead end card unless that player has another way to go. For example, Player 1 could not play a dead end card on Player 2s maze, unless there was a 'T' cross that did not already have a dead end. Once a card has been played, the player who had the card on their maze moves towards the new placed piece. Once all the cards in every players hand have been played, the finish cards will be given out. Each player takes their own finish, and gives it to the player on their right. Once the finishes have been placed, players take turns moving their piece towards their finish. Players can cross mazes only with a T cross.
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Nick,
ReplyDeleteWhat prompted the change in the number of T crosses and dead ends?
Also, it looks like your rules are a bit smoother, but only way to tell how well this works is to test it out. How did the playtest go?
-Devin Monnens
I changed the number of T crosses and dead ends for two reasons. The first reason being that with the same number of T crosses as dead ends, this allowed players to use all their cards. After I thought of that, I decided to let mazes be joined, but I wanted to make sure that there was always space for all 4 finishes, which prompted the removal of 4 dead ends.
ReplyDeleteThe game ran much smoother than the first time I tested this, an issue that appeared for both tests however was that the play space was to limited, pieces started to overlap each other and caused confusion. This particular problem has me stumped because I don't want to make a grid to play on as that limits what a player can place and where, the point is to be free flowing.
I believe it was Kate who brought up an issue with my rules too, "Player 1 will pick one card from the hand he was dealt, you may look at it" this implies that you don't get to see what cards you have which is not true. Another fact that I had not considered, is that when you join two mazes together, neither of those players can play on that maze. In the test, we had three mazes joined and I had to change the rules to allow pieces to be played on your own maze, but only once they have been joined.
I think another version of the game will try to keep the play field organized to not cause confusion while still letting players be free as to placement of pieces.
I believe the changes made the game work out a little better as there was less stress about what was and wasn't aloud since there really wasn't a way to keep the game from ending. I also am still a fan of the idea that you need to work together to win without working together.
ReplyDeleteThis time around, the game was a lot less confusing in regards to what we could and couldn't do! Joining the mazes was fun, but -almost- really bad, since it sort of became an us-Cameron situation, since his maze was only non-connected. I think maybe the ending needs to be switched up a little, instead of just 'race to the end'.
ReplyDeleteOh! I just had a card idea, what if one of the maze peices started rotating as soon as the 'end' run to the finish started?
It was a quality revision. The gameplay worked out better, but I'm not convinced that the maze connections is a good idea. I think it made it really easy to win if you can avoid being connected. That's basically what happened with Cameron in in our game. However, things worked out well. It made the game easier to play and more enjoyabe. In terms of game creation, I think things would work out better if the cards were square or we were able to play on a grid.
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