Board game, now with cards

The board game I am working on has undergone the slight redesign.

Where it previously was only tile based I have now designed and printed cards to decide/limit players in what option they have for interacting with the game. Previously players would pull a tile from a bag and then place it, whereas now they keep a hand of 3 cards, on which they can pick 1 out of 2 options. The following issues led to this decision as it helped solve them.

Issue 1: Previous variants of the prototype have mostly offered up a random way for players to interact, as it was based around drawing a tile and then deciding on where to place it.

Issue 2: This was a more hidden issue, but the above tended to add a slight amount of extra time to each turn as players did not have time to plan ahead and had to think more on the spot.

How do cards solve issue 1? Because players keep a hand of cards with multiple options on them, a player will have up to 6 options to choose from, depending on any options reappearing amongst the cards on hand. While there is still an element of randomness due to the nature of having to draw cards, this offers more control for the players.

How do cards solve issue 2? By using cards and having the player draw back up to 3 cards at the end of their turn, they are provided with enough information to try and plan their next turn. This makes each players turn progress slightly faster on average compared to previous versions of the prototype.

I did another test with players at the start of July and the feedback has been mostly positive. The above changes were very well received.

The setup step. Players roll their dice to randomize starting positions that need to be connected. On this image left to right is the player whose cards are on the left and top to bottom is the player whose cards are on the right.

The end of game. The player whose cards are on the left placed the final piece to connect their two starting points.

I decided to also add a new special tile, a storm cloud, which can be placed and controlled via playing cards with the cloud symbol on them. This did not get played much during the playtest games, as players reported back that they didn’t quite see the reason to use it, and it seems like this may be another layer of play/tactics that would work better as ‘optional rules’.

Development continues, and I am now considering trying to learn how to use Tabletop Simulator to try and test with people not physically located in the Copenhagen area.