ive been working on my game for a while and this is what ive made this is very roiugh rules expect changes but i need some initial feedback. it is a lot so sorry about that. would love feedback. If its tl the short summary is you build a wild west town by gathering and managin resources whilst defending from other players tryna raid your town. During high noon its your time to invade your enemys. person wiht the most gold at the end wins!

**BOOM TOWN**

**Official Rulebook - Prototype v0.1**

*A Wild West Town-Building Card Game for 2–4 Players*

**QUICK OVERVIEW** Build your western town. Gather resources. Hire outlaws. Survive High Noon. Raid your enemies. Protect your vault. The richest sheriff standing at the end of 10 rounds wins.

**1. COMPONENTS**

**Card Decks**

* Event Draw Pile - Drawn once per round after all players have taken their turn.

* Buildings Draw Pile - Buildings available to purchase and place in your zone.

* Bounty Draw Pile - Outlaws cards available to hire and place in your crew (hand).

* Wanted Posters – Wanted Posters available to drawn and collect.

**Resource Tokens**

* Gold (G) - Primary currency. Used to purchase buildings, outlaws and pay costs.

* Timber (T) - Construction resource. Required by most buildings.

* Ammo (A) - Combat resource. Used only to hire Outlaws in conjunction with Gold.

**Other Components**

* Wanted Poster Cards - Placed in front of raiders after successful or failed raids.

* Worker Tokens - Represent workers sent to the dead zone to gather resources.

* Sheriff Cards (x6) - One per player, chosen at game start.

* Emergency Outlaws – 5 Outlaws to be used in dire situations.

**2. SETUP**

**The Board:** The playing area is divided into two zones:

* Player Zones - Each player has a 5×2 grid for placing their buildings. Your zone is your town. (Each player zone grid is as big as one card)

* Dead Zone - A shared 8×8 space containing Mines, Forests, and Ammo Stores scattered throughout. Players cannot place buildings here. Workers travel to and from this zone to collect resources. In the 2 diagonally opposite corners of the Dead zone lay the Forest which is where you get wood and take 1 turn for your workers to go and come from. In the remaining corners lay the ammo stores (not to be confused with the gun store building) which is where you get ammo from and also take 1 turn for your workers to go and come from. In the middle of the board is the mines which takes 2 turns to go and come from (except for Ranger Roy which takes 1 turn) and is where you get gold from. Each worker sent collects 2 of that resource when they come back. (The dead zone should be approximately 20x20cm).

**Starting State:** Each player begins the game with:

* 1 Bank card placed in their zone (the vault is part of the Bank).

* 3 Outlaws drawn randomly from the Bounty pile.

* 1 Sheriff card of their choice.

* Starting Gold, Timber, and Ammo. - ***TBD once economy is finalized***

**Sheriff Selection:** Each player chooses 1 unique Sheriff.

**3. TURN STRUCTURE**

On your turn, choose ANY 2 of the following actions:

**TURN ACTIONS - CHOOSE 2**

1. Construct a Building - Draw and place a building to your zone, paying its cost.

2. Hire a Worker - Pay a cost and add a Worker token to your supply.

3. Send a Worker - Deploy a Worker to the Dead zone to collect resources.

4. Recruit an Outlaw - Draw an outlaw from the bounty pile and pay its cost.

5. Turn In an Outlaw - Return an outlaw to the Bounty pile; get half its resource cost back (rounded down).

6. Scrap a Building - Destroy one of your own buildings; get half its resource cost back (rounded down).

**Workers:** When you send a Worker to the middle zone, they take time to travel and return. The number of rounds the worker is away depends on how far their destination is:

* Resources marked '1 round' - Worker returns next turn.

* Resources marked '2 rounds' - Worker returns 2 turns later.

*Ranger Roy's workers always return the very next turn regardless of destination distance.*

**Resource Returns (Turning In / Scrapping):** When turning in an Outlaw or scrapping a Building, you receive half the original resource cost rounded down. Example: an Outlaw that cost 2 Gold and 3 Ammo returns 1 Gold and 1 Ammo. The card goes back to the bottom of its respective pile.

**After All Players Have Taken Their Turn:** Once every player has completed their 2 actions, draw 1 card from the Event Pile and resolve it.

* High Noon cards cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds. If drawn in rounds 1–3, discard it and redraw.

**4. RESOURCES & ECONOMY**

**Gold:** Gold is your primary currency used to build your town and pay various costs. Your Bank produces 1 Gold per round automatically. The Bank can be upgraded to produce more. Gold is also what opponents can steal during raids - protect it carefully.

**Timber:** Timber is used to construct most buildings. It is gathered by sending Workers to Forests in the middle zone or from certain buildings that produce it. Not all buildings require Timber to build.

**Ammo:** Ammo is used exclusively to hire Outlaws from the Bounty pile. Gather Ammo by sending Workers to Ammo Stores in the middle zone or from certain buildings that produce it.

**The Bank & Vault:**

* Every player starts with a Bank. It produces 1 Gold per turn automatically.

* The Vault is built into the Bank and cannot be destroyed.

* The Bank can be upgraded to increase Gold production per turn.

* When raided successfully, your Vault loses half of your gold but is not destroyed.

**5. OUTLAWS**

Outlaws are your fighting force. They are hired using Ammo and are used to raid enemy towns during High Noon. Each Outlaw card has two stats:

* Strength - Used when your outlaws are attacking a town during a raid.

* Defence - Used when your outlaws are defending your town from a raid.

**Outlaw Limits**

* Maximum 8 Outlaws in your crew (hand) at any time.

* If at the cap, you must turn one in before drawing a new one (this does count as one of your turns).

* After participating in a raid, Outlaws are placed face-down for 2 turns (rest).  When outlaws are resting, they cannot be turned in or used in a raid. *Hunter Henry's Outlaws rest for only 1 turn.*

**Emergency Outlaws:** If you are raided and have fewer than 3 Outlaws available, you may hire an Emergency Outlaws for free until you have 3 for the duel. Emergency Outlaws have 2 Strength and 2 Defence and are removed immediately after the raid ends. You cannot use a resting outlaw for a raid even if you lack outlaws for a raid, you must hire an emergency outlaw.

***Full outlaw list to be added to a later version.***

**6. HIGH NOON & RAIDING**

When a High Noon event card is drawn, all players take turns raiding in normal turn order. You may choose any opponent to raid. High Noon cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds of the game.

**Step 1 – Declaration:** The active player declares which opponent they are raiding. Both players must be able to field 3 Outlaws. Resting Outlaws cannot be used. If there are under 3, use free Emergency Outlaws (2 Str / 2 Def) to make up the difference.

**Step 2 - Selection & Hidden Order:** Both players choose 3 Outlaws (revealing which outlaws they chose) from their available crew (hand) and arrange them face down in any order.

**Step 3 - The Duel**: Players take turns simultaneously revealing one card at a time resolving any effects in the order of defender first then attacker.

* Compare Raider's Outlaw Strength vs Defender's Outlaw Defence.

* Higher number wins that individual round.

* Ties: the Defender wins the individual round.

Each Outlaw fights exactly once. The overall result is best of 3 rounds.

**Step 4 - Outcomes**

|**Result**|**Consequence**|

|:-|:-|

|Raider Wins (2-1 or 3-0)|Raider takes: 1 Outlaw of raider's choice, half of defender's Gold rounded down (***capped TBD***), destroys 1 building of defender's choice. Raider draws 1 Wanted Poster.|

|Defender Wins (1-2 or 0-3)|Raider loses: 2 of the duelling Outlaws - defender chooses which. Raider draws 2 Wanted Posters.|

|Tie (Somehow)|Raider draws 1 Wanted Poster. Nothing else happens.|

**Step 5 – Rest:** All Outlaws who participated in the duel on both sides are placed face-down for 2 turns of rest regardless of outcome. Hunter Henry's Outlaws rest for only 1 turn.

**7. WANTED POSTERS**

Wanted Posters represent the heat you draw from raiding. They are placed face-up in front of you and are visible to all players.

**Earning Wanted Posters:**

Based on the outcome of the raid, the raider draws:

* Successful raid - draw 1 Wanted Poster.

* Failed raid - draw 2 Wanted Posters.

* Tied raid - draw 1 Wanted Poster.

The Defender does NOT draw any wanted posters.

**Bounty Values:** Each Wanted Poster has a bounty value printed on it. When another player successfully raids you, they receive the bounty value of all your current Wanted Posters as bonus Gold on top of their normal raid rewards. This makes heavily-wanted players extremely tempting targets.

*High Roller Harry's Wanted Posters have +1 to their bounty value.*

**Expiry:** If you are not raided for 3 consecutive rounds, all your Wanted Posters are discarded. You laid low long enough - the heat has died down.

**8. SHERIFFS**

Each player chooses 1 Sheriff at the start of the game. Sheriffs provide a unique passive ability and sometimes a secondary bonus that shapes your playstyle throughout the game.

|**Sheriffs:**|**Primary Ability:**|**Secondary Ability:**|

|:-|:-|:-|

|Ranger Roy|Workers always return next turn regardless of distance.|\-|

|Carpenter Carrie|Rebuild raided buildings at half gold cost (rounded up).|Voluntarily scrapping a building returns +1 Gold & +1 Timber bonus on top of normal returns.|

|Marshall Morgan|Outlaws have +2 Strength / -1 Defence (minimum 1).|\-|

|High Roller Harry|Bank produces +1 Gold per turn.|Wanted Posters against you have +1 bounty value.|

|Mayor Mandy|Exchange up to 3 resources per turn, 2-for-1, any type including same type. Free action, does not cost a turn action.|\-|

|Hunter Henry|Your Outlaws rest for 1 turn instead of 2 after a raid.|\-|

**Sheriff Notes:**

* Marshall Morgan: The -1 Defence penalty cannot reduce any Outlaw's Defence below 1.

* Mayor Mandy: Resource exchanges are a free action and do not count toward your 2 turn actions. She may convert the same resource type up to 3 times per turn.

**9. BUILDINGS**

Buildings are the backbone of your town. They provide passive income, resource bonuses, defensive effects, and synergies with other buildings. Buildings are placed in your 5×2 Player Zone.

**Placement Rules**

* Each building occupies 1 tile space.

* Buildings cannot be placed in the middle zone.

* Some buildings may have restrictions on adjacency — check individual cards.

**Building Costs** Buildings cost Gold and sometimes Timber. Not all buildings require Timber. Costs are shown on the card. When scrapping a building you receive half the original cost back rounded down.

**The Bank (Starting Building)**

* Every player begins with 1 Bank.

* Produces 1 Gold per turn automatically.

* Contains your Vault — cannot be destroyed.

* Can be upgraded to increase Gold production.

***Full building list and synergies — to be added in a future version.***

**10. EVENT CARDS**

One Event Card is drawn after all players have completed their turns each round. Events are public - all players see and are affected by them.

**Event Types**

* High Noon - A raid phase begins. All players take turns raiding in turn order.

* Other Events - Various effects including resource bonuses, catch-up mechanics, hazards, and special conditions. ***Full event list to be added in a future version.***

**High Noon Protection:** High Noon cards cannot trigger during the first 3 rounds of the game. If a High Noon card is drawn during rounds 1-3, discard it back to the event card pile and draw a replacement card instead.

**11. WINNING THE GAME**

The game lasts 10 rounds by default. Players may agree before the game starts to play more or fewer rounds.

After 10 rounds, all players count their total Gold supply. Players also scrap all their buildings, turn in all their outlaws, collect any resources from workers that were send and exchange timber and ammo to a 1:1 ration into gold. The player with the most Gold wins.

Gold sources at end game:

* Gold held in your vault/supply.

* Gold produced by your Bank and other buildings during the game.

* Gold collected from successful raids.

* Bounty Gold earned from raiding Wanted players.

* Buildings Scrapped at the end of the game.

* Outlaws turned in at the end of the game.

**Tiebreaker:** If two or more players are tied on Gold, the players will draw 3 new outlaws and have 1 final duel with them. The winner will come out on top.

**12. QUICK REFERENCE**

**Turn Summary**

* Choose 2 actions from the Turn Actions list.

* Actions: Place Building /Construct Building / Hire Worker / Send Worker / Recruit Outlaw / Turn In An Outlaw / Scrap Building.

* After all players act - draw 1 Event Card and resolve it.

**Raid Summary**

* Both players pick 3 Outlaws and arrange face-down in secret order.

* Flip simultaneously, in any order they want.

* Raider Strength vs Defender Defence - higher wins each round.

* Ties go to the Defender.

* Best of 3 determines overall winner.

* All duelling Outlaws rest for 2 turns after (1 turn for Hunter Henry).

**Wanted Poster Summary**

* Win raid = 1 poster / Lose raid = 2 posters / Tie = 1 poster.

* Posters add bounty bonus to anyone who raids you.

* Expire after 3 rounds without being raided.

**Key Limits**

* Max 8 Outlaws in hand.

* Outlaws rest 2 turns after a duel (1 turn for Hunter Henry).

* High Noon blocked in rounds 1-3.

* Game lasts 10 rounds (adjustable).

* Mandy: max 3 resource exchanges per turn.

* Morgan: Outlaw Defence minimum 1

Informal rule variations are everywhere, but there's no good way to capture or share them.

Every time I play Rummy or Dutch with a different group, we spend 10 minutes arguing about rules before the start, or worse, mid-game. And for games like Monopoly Deal where I've played 100's of hours, the official rules don't cover edge cases and my group has developed our own solutions over the years.

So I built MyHouseRules. A free browser tool where you can:

• Store house rules for any game on your "shelf"
• Add friends and see what rules they use for the same games
• Compare rulesets side by side and copy the ones you want to adopt

I'm curious whether this resonates with people who think seriously about game design. A few things I'd genuinely love feedback on:

• Is the function of adding house rules clunky?
• Are the rule categories inclusive enough?
• Are there functions you'd want to this to have that the current app doesn't?
• What would make you actually use something like this?

Free to use in your browser or on your phone: myhouserules.io

Happy to give anyone who reaches out access to a bulk upload feature if you already have rules written down somewhere digitally. Would love to hear what this community thinks!

Hi folks,

Been working on a wargame and dabbling on designing my own 3D printed hex tiles. The tiles connect to each other and get removed from the board when a unit is defeated, so they need to be somewhat modular.

Each tile needs to track a few things — HP, status effects, and the unit's current level (only 2 tiers). For the level specifically I wanted something visually distinct from the side slots, which are already reserved for damage and status tokens. My original idea was a small peg in the center where you stack rings, but placement is tricky.

The issue is I'm still figuring out miniature scale — probably supporting both 28mm and 32mm bases. With 32mm the center gets crowded, and moving the peg to the edges risks breakage and might mess with how tiles connect.

Any feedback is most appreciated!

PS: the hex bases have different orientations on the slots as i was still experimenting with how to position them best.

Hi all,

My name is Renato and I’ve spent a lot of time working on crowdfunding campaigns across Kickstarter, Gamefound, and BackerKit.

Now I work as a consultant in the space and instead of doing some tedious self-promotion.
I’ve doing every friday a free 24-hour check-ups for creators here.

If you send me your page or your project, I’ll reply with a short personalized report covering:

• what’s working
• what feels unclear
• what might be hurting conversion
• 3 practical fixes to prioritize

I’ve worked on 30+ campaigns tied to $40M+ in combined funding, mostly around campaign clarity, positioning, conversion support and ads management.

No charge, no catch.

Also, here's my link, so up unil the system holds, I'll review your project for free in 24 (or 48 someimes I've got to sleep) hours.

I already handed more than 100+ reports in the past month, with some heart-warming messages :)

Feel free to send what you have and... talk soon!

Hello Reddit! I have never used this platform but thought it would be a good idea to pick everyone's brain on a boardgame I am developing and plan to go Kickstarter with. I have art being commissioned, lore, and have play tested the game. If I could just have any feedback that would seriously mean the world to me. Unknown is meant to be a fast-paced, chaotic, whimsical, fantastical game that tells a story of the cards being used in it. I wanted a game where mechanics funded the entire theme for that round of game being played. In my play testing I have found that a game typically doesn't last longer than 15 minutes and sometimes can go over if things get crazy. Here is some lore that I drafted, a quick summary of some of the rules on how to play, and some art concepts that I am working with now! Please let me know any feedback you have as I know I don't know everything. I really just want to bring this game to life as I think it has potential, as I found through playtesting. Be critical, I won't get hurt feelings and you may even see your change in the game for release. After a year I do NOT expect this to be perfect in any way.

Story Lore:

In the universe of Myxphoria, a world of chaos, whimsical life, and fantasy lies the hearts of the beings that dwell here. The solar system Bredth encompasses the main focus of where our story is told. Bredth was founded by an ancient triage of myhtical beings. Chronos, Eucalyptus, and Blazenbran all had a share when they were birthed into this universe from an outer source that wished to see nothing but destruction on the lower parts of his Mt. Ghiemaera. Destructor, King of Mt. Ghiemaera, Son of Lyxinblood is the omnipotent being that rules over the multitude of universes that live upon his celestial metaphorical but physical at the same time mountain, where he is at the peak. Peace reigns in the upper parts of the mountain, suffering in the middle, and nothing but chaos in the lower parts where the universe of Myxphoria is. Sent to turn the chaos into an enjoyable amusement, the triage of order that control time, peace, and war were sent to create a multitude of beings for destructors entertainment. Together they created a material planet for their creations to coexist known as Asphania. Unable to touch the phsyical beings in this universe they had to create beings capable of doing the deeds they needed to bring their imagination come to life. They created beings such as the omnipotent terraformer to create the planets in the universe, The Forgotten Necromancer to consistently raise their creations to continue battling, a Dog God King to rule over the soldiers that battle against their natural enemy the Cat Goddess Queen. They even went as far as to create the human race, due to their evil nature to invent and destroy as their greed consumes them over time allowing for a wide range of inventions to help defend themselves on this chaotic planet. Creating things like the sun to give energy to life and sustain an ecosystem, mana to give everyone the ability to wield magic to continue the chaos and give Destructor the entertainment of his life. All are just tools created for entertainment in this universe sitting as a footrest for amusement.

Basic Game Mechanics:

1. Win Condition: Have no cards in your hand.
2. Turn Actions: On your turn you may Draw 1 or Play 1.
3. Starting Hand: 1 Rule Card and 9 Game Cards.
4. Rule Deck and Game Deck: Rule deck includes cards that must be played when obtained that can affect just the player or everyone at the table. Game deck are the cards that will be played to win the game.

Concept Art/Art Style:

- View attached images for idea (Commissioned art coming soon)

https://preview.redd.it/n8gc1gms2otg1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6f93b5f2e5caef8958d9e6b2d16274c54d0bfa1

https://preview.redd.it/55llagms2otg1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3cff97dccb0544942cb7903a2018e060e10b6101

https://preview.redd.it/6xr29jms2otg1.jpg?width=1462&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d16293eb0c4fb0ac6c7f04af868bcce591d35394

- Art Style: Dark Fantasy Cartoon/Indie Comic Style

Hey all!

Like most pen-and-paper people I know, I've been trotting around the idea of making my own pen-and-paper RPG (DnD-esque) for a long while now and, after getting inspirations here and there, I had in mind a modular class system that I would be curious to hear your opinions about.

It would be setting-neutral (not in a specific world or time period, but with the basic medieval-fantasy framework in mind) and, for now, heavily focused on the mechanical aspects.

What I'm focusing right now are:

1. ways to gain resources (Power Sources)

2. ways to spend resources (Archetypes)

I want them to be modular so any power source can be matched to any archetype and that combination determines your "class" (inspiration from DnD 4th ed). Power sources would be the biggest narrative influence and the archetypes would influence mechanics mostly (and partly narrative).

Currently, each Power Source has different ways to gain their resources (some easier to play than others) and Archetypes would be what determines your abilities and such. Power Sources are kinda fleshed out (no numbers, but yield and scaling principles are determined)

The Power Source I developped for now are:

1. Animism (druidic-like - attuning to natural concepts give a steady amount while you follow thematicallt-appropriate action restrictions.

2. Arcanum (wizard-like - invoking your personal constellation of glyphs that yield when triggered by the presence of their associated meaning)

3. Ardor (WtA's Rage-like - an escalating threshold based meter rises with emotion-based triggers and yield increasingly more until Burnout)

4. Cadence (mastery of timing and controlling when one's turn occurs in the Initiative Wheel determines the gains)

5. Covenant (cleric & warlock-like - submitting yourself to extraplanar entities's whims give random resources and push-your-luck mechanics can stop the yield altogether)

6. Noetic (monk & psion-like - restraint and meditation extend your psychic field's range so that others' sentience fuels you)

7. Praxis (fighting game & Pathfinder 2e inspired - every archetypes abilities have tags and chaining the proper tags into flows yields

Archetypes arent fleshed out yet, but I'm trying to take inspiration from general tabletop stuff and loosely Darkest Dungeon):

1. Vanguard (aggressive frontliner)

2. Lurker (burst skirmisher)

3. Conduit (support midfielder)

4. Channeler (long distance artillerist)

5. Cipher (versatile all-rounder)

With these, an Arcanum Vanguard would be something like a Rune Knight, a Praxis Conduit would be a Warlord, and an Animism Channeler could be a Druid/Ranger.

What do you guys think? Any glaring flaws I'm blind to?

When first building our dice system design for of Hearth and Horror, we first started with one idea: 

We want to roll more d12s. 

From there, we really had 3 core concepts that led to our system: clarity, brutality, and flexibility.

We became fatigued by the lack of clarity of some existing dice systems. We all know that good feeling of thinking you rolled well, only to have the game master tell you you didn’t see anything. The line between “oh damn, it’s strong” and “you’re just making it up” is as thin as the veil. Because of that, we wanted our dice system to be crystal clear for players and Conteurs alike. You’ll know what your number means when you roll it. To do that we built our system around Roll Outcome Thresholds, which go from Failure to Success with everything in between. This includes Moderate Successes and Failures, as well as Complete Success Pluses, when you roll above the dice’s maximum. 

Each threshold is listed out, so once those dice stop spinning, you know exactly where you stand. This removes the ambiguity of rolls while keeping that feeling of “oh crap what’s next?” Additionally, this also gives the Conteur a gradient of options, with Moderate Successes and Failures requiring a bit more nuance to describe. Perhaps an enemy combatant moderately success Misinformation on the results of your Insight roll. The system also has Critical Successes and Failures by rolling the highest or lowest numbers on both dice. Knowing that this is MUCH harder than a single die system, each with a 1:144 chance, these effects come with some extra mechanics to make sure your table really feels the rewards…and pitfalls.  

of Hearth and Horror is at its core, meant to be a survival horror style experience, so we wanted to make a dice system that really made you grit your teeth when you choose to use it. Because of that, the Roll Thresholds are, at their base, always stacked against the roller, whether that is you the player, or your Conteur. This means that each point you can put into your Roll Bonus by gaining Skills or raising your Trait Scores can be the difference between rolling an attack or rolling a new character. This gives each character a lot more room to grow and specialize with their Skills and Talents, to turn the tide of each roll more in their favor. 

Creating a brutal dice system was such a balancing act because we wanted it to not only be scary, but also strategic and fun. That’s where the system’s flexibility shines through. Some major pieces to the system are different ways to manipulate your rolls outside of increasing your skills. Our favorite is the Favor system. Based on your planning (or lack thereof), your Conteur can make your roll Favored or Unfavored, which can automatically increase or decrease your outcome threshold. Another is Rolling with Zeal. We won’t spoil this yet, but just remember that we wanted to roll more D12s. Basically, between how you build your character and how you play your character, you have the ability to flex the dice system in your direction just enough to stay alive. 

How do you all feel about rolling more d12s? Any feedback as to how they have changed your TTRPG development?

I’ve been building a 4X (really 3X because there’s not much ‘explore’ going on) game for a while now, and I’m struggling with how to structure the turns/round part of the game.

I want to be concise because I don’t think every ounce of my current rules is necessary to get y’all’s opinion on this, but I’m also going to try to be exhaustive so you can actually give feedback.

In essence, it’s kind of a hodge-podge of Blood Rage, TI4, AoEII, Inis, Kemet, and Scythe (of varying degrees). And yes, before you lose your cool and think that there’s probably way too many subsystems, I genuinely have put a crazy amount of time into making it as lean as possible.

The way I see it, I really have two different possibilities:

1. Structured - This one is going to sound incredibly lame/uninspired, but bear with me. The general idea is that a game has a set number of rounds, and each round has a set number of turns (ie. 7 rounds of 4 turns each). The idea is that it would allow players to pace themselves, have a sense of their ‘budget’ in terms of the turn economy, and would keep the ‘creativity’ on the board. Then, it would be just the total number of VP’s earned at the end. I’m also considering adding a caveat (mercy rule), where if the leader leads by X amount over second place at the end of a round, they win (but this amount would be high enough to never really happen in competitive play.

2. Tug-o-war - This would be more akin Inis, except instead of just 1 win condition held, it would likely be a ‘win by 2’ scenario. Where it’s slightly easier to gain them than in Inis (only slightly), but there’s also a signal that someone’s pulling ahead. I like this one, but I am kind of worried that a competitive game could last a really long time.

The way that I justify to myself liking the first one, is that a) it kinda feels like a sport to me. We’re very used to there being a set number of periods (quarters, half’s, innings, etc) in a game. It helps to keep track of it and adds built-in tension. And b) it’s the most recommended by chat (over and over again in separate brainstorming sessions). I don’t really rely on it too heavily, but if it keeps coming back to something I try to keep an open mind.

The second one seems like a cool idea, but I’m worried that it would sometimes drag on, or be over way too quickly. I understand that’s sort of the trade-off with a game like Inis, but I’m looking for something slightly more predictable I think. Thought I also recognize that when I did a poll for this a while ago, the overwhelming response was that this more organic/emergent end-game/win trigger was preferred.

And before you say, “it really depends on the rest of your game,” I promise, it doesn’t. I genuinely could tweak just a couple of things and it would completely work for either structure. I get that not everyone in here is going to prefer going for the mainstream and that purists would typically lean toward more of what was conceived of by the designer. But I feel pretty confident in the rest of the game (at least for where it is right now, I know much will change as it continues in development). Right now I’m genuinely looking for a) crowd-appeal, and b) y’all’s personal opinions on how to approach this.

Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoy this thought exercise with me.