I told a group I played with that there was a variant to allow for more than five players. I searched the forums for a bit and realized they were criticized for being too long, so I started working on my own variant. I'm expecting maybe 7 players who might want to play (9 in the worst case) for Friday, so I thought I would share what I am working on.
The rules I came up with had the players playing at the same time, giving players a collective turn. With this everyone would resolved start of turn effects, every player would play a card and resolve it, every player would use powers and resolve them, then finally every player would draw a card and resolve end of turn effects.
The first solo play-test I pulled out Baron Blade and Voss, Megalopolis, and I pulled out 7 hero decks (Legacy, Argent Adept, Ra, Bunker, Expatriette, Fanatic, and Visionary). I set H equal to 4 and skipped Voss first turn because he pulled out enough to do 10 damage to each and blade pulled out hasten doom and elemental re-distributor. I played long enough to get a feel for the problems I might have and I thought I might put up my notes for how it played.
- With everyone playing at the same time, Galvanize only worked during the power phase, which meant we weren't wiping the floor, but we were doing decent damage. This also made the math a bit simpler.
- Argent Adept died way too quickly and I am worried about how to handle player elimination.
- Voss dealt a crazy amount of damage, which might mean I need to have H=2 during setup, and 4 during gameplay, although he did pull his flagship in the beginning
- Blade was less effective, but his ticking clock would have eventually made the game a loss.
- Megalopolis is very restrictive (Hostage Situation pulled twice, Paparazzi on the scene pulled once, police backup pulled twice)
- I also considered if I wanted to extend the game, shuffling another villain's rules into the Environment deck and having that villain added to the game if drawn, but I never implemented that.
- Because of the difficulty, I changed the rules in the game to allow each hero to play a power as wanted, so no real player turn order existed. I also skipped Voss' first turn, which made the game a little easier.
Any thoughts on this?
Play two seperate games. That's not what you want to hear though, is it?
Just assume I'm always doing that.
Damn it, Ronway!
No, but I assume you are right, that seems to be the way to go about it.
Although I think I will keep looking for a solution until I'm satisfied that a solution just isn't possible. Worst case I bought Eldritch Horror so I have a backup assuming I don't go insane and start making a new board game.
I like the idea of simultaneous play during the rounds. The overpowering aspect of it could be balanced partly by giving the players only a short amount of time (20 secs) to discuss/decide on their actions during that round and then select their card/power. Such may support the idea of the heroes being in an actual fight.
I have thought of (but not tested) a tag in varient where you play two teams versus two villans but you are targeted to the villan of your choice at the start of your turn and can only target that villan, and there must be an even number of heros on each villan.
Fancy
Hmmm... I have been putting some thought into this.
1 thing is certain there is no "1 rules" fits all villains for a 6 player games.
Howerver I have been working on a sheet of rules for specific villains....
Each villain will need a seperate set of rules for the 6+ player since many work differently.
I don't suffer from insanity... I actually enjoy it
This might be a silly question, but what is the point of the variant? It would be easier to solve the problem if someone can list the specific goals and how simply adding more players doesn't meet that goal.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
I agree Pydro... due to the nature of the villains there can be no "one rule fit all" ...
So far I have come up with a few villains that have a starting increase hitpoints (generally +20%) (except for the Dreamer) and a list of a few specific cards that are put into play at the begining of the game.
It will take time to playtest them as I get to them.
I don't suffer from insanity... I actually enjoy it
I think the nature of Pydro's remark was "What is the intention behind the 6+ model that is being hindered by just adding more players and playing with that (H) amount?" Once we understand what is trying to be accomplished we can give more detailed, helpful advice.
That being said, I'd rather see a room filled with 3-5 player games of every hero, villain, and environment possible with minimal repeats than mod the rules.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
> What is the intention behind the 6+ model that is being hindered by just adding more players and playing with that (H) amount?
That is a good question. I want to try and make the game feel faster for larger numbers of players. I also think the game is fairly easy with more than four players, but I don't want to modify H because I feel it translates into straight damage too often and doesn't leave as much of an even distribution of damage.
Never tried this, but for 6 players could you play with H=3 and activate all H-related effects twice? This would sometimes result in doubling the effect (like H=6), but it might spread the damage around a little more and damage boosts / DR would get counted twice. Iron Legacy would be a beast...er, more of one.
Maybe try (H) = villian x2-1 + #heros if your sticking with the multivillian approach otherwise maybe try (H)= #heros max 5????