View From the Tabletop: Equipment

I’ve taken a break from the higher-priority expansion work and switched focus to equipment. Partly this is so that I can leave the other stuff for my subconscious to go over, partly it’s so that I can see if adding equipment will break anything I’ve already done. Mostly, though, it’s so that I don’t burn out by focusing on one topic for too long. Burnout is a real thing, and I find changing the task I’m doing can help with preventing it. I also thought it might be interesting to get a sort of snapshot view of part of the playtesting process.

At the moment equipment cards are divided into six decks, one for each squad type, with ten cards in each deck. Some equipment items are common to all decks, some are specific to that squad. The player draws a few cards at the start and has the chance to get a few more during play, but each card is one-use. The intention is to balance these out with mutations, which give advantages or opportunities to the bugs. When everything is working as intended, both sides should feel that they need the content in the expansion – the troopers should feel that their equipment is making a crucial difference to their success, and conversely that they would be almost unstoppable if it wasn’t for the mutations that were appearing. The same for the bugs, but with roles reversed of course.

Although the basic outlines are done, I knew that it would probably need some alterations. This first round of playtesting was just to get a feel for how much work might be needed on this expansion. Intensive playtesting, with more games under more diverse conditions, will follow once I’m confident that the basic functions are sound.

What are the results? Well, good news first – the equipment cards do more or less what I want them to. Generally they’re useful and thematically appropriate for the squad they belong to. Some of them are a bit underwhelming, others may be overpowered, but they significantly enhance the troopers’ ability to deal with the situations they encounter.

The bad news is that the bugs’ mutations are not balancing this out. Some of this is because some of the mutations are just a bit weak, and that’s okay – that’s expected at this stage of development. But some of it is because the games are over before the mutations have a chance to come into play, and that’s not okay.

A case in point is the ‘Armour’ equipment card, which allows a trooper to ignore a kill result against them. Seems like a reasonable thing to have, and the effect is simple enough, right? However it might take the bug player all their actions for a turn to get that kill result, which means that an entire turn of work has just been negated. The bug player faces a race against time, to kill or disrupt the troopers before they complete their mission. The first kill can play a crucial role in slowing down their progress long enough for the map layout and bugs numbers/mutations to take effect, and if that first kill can be ignored then the bugs have just suffered a major setback.

I suspect, but I’m not sure, that something like this is at the root of the problems with this expansion. The currency of the game is actions, and equipment effectively either gives the troopers more actions or denies actions to the bugs.

The question then becomes “what do you do about it”? And at the moment I’m not sure on that, either. One option is to increase the number of tiles that get added to the deck by the expansion – that might slow the troopers’ progress enough for the bugs to have a chance. I also think that putting more development work into the bugs’ mutations will be necessary. Apart from any mechanical game effects, at the moment they feel a bit lackluster. I want everyone who plays to feel like they’re getting some cool new stuff in each expansion. I have a few other ideas as well, so I’m confident the problem will be resolved eventually.

As I said at the beginning, this isn’t the highest priority task for me, so I don’t need to exert a lot of effort on it yet. But it’s good to look ahead and see what’s coming up. It also helps me get a fresh perspective on the higher priority tasks when I come back to them! All in all, I think that was a pretty worthwhile exercise.