As someone who loves game design but focuses on TTRPGs, this was a fascinating listen! Much of it went over my head of course, due to... not actually playing board games, generally. Although there is some overlap, and points to compare and contrast, so stumbling in here was well worth the hour for me. I do have one relevant question though, on a bit where my experience does apply: Could the swingyness of the jobs be mitigated by declining selecting on in favor of a more universal resource? My Two Cents on this: 1.) Mechanically: It looks like an awkwardly skewed opportunity cost. One that seems to sometimes Feel Bad, which is not typically a game design goal. 2.) Thematically, I feel choosing to not take any job should offer some form of recovery or increase in other gains or opportunities. Abstracting from that a bit, choosing not to pull a card once could allow drawing an extra one later? My brain jumps at the chance to house rule ANYTHING, regardless of knowing what I'm doing, so sorry in sdvance if this came across as sorta nonsense. Followed, and cheers!
Thank you! You bring up an interesting thought, I’m sure I would be able to come up with a better answer with more plays, but I wonder if focusing on the immediate buildings on offer, which have the same one time actions as the jobs, which perhaps aren’t as lucrative but give you points. Cheers!
Appreciate you highlighting and diving deeper into the game. Have gotten increasingly excited to play this, looks gorgeous and I prefer worker placement to Glass Road’s action selection system. Haven’t tried it yet but got a 4p game scheduled next week and really looking forward to it even if it might take a while. I haven’t played Ora et Labora so the first comparison I thought of outside of Glass Road for this was Caverna. Seems like they improved on Caverna here in that there’s both a variety of large buildings and the small buildings are double-sided. I wonder if this would be a candidate for a “more buildings” expansion as he has done with some other games, or if instead it won’t be touched much/at all as he has with some others. One last thought - if you found the jobs to be problematic as implemented, wonder if possibly another houserule might be in order such that you put a set number of face-up jobs out at the beginning of the game and don’t replenish them at all during the game. So, like the buildings, players know what is available and have a sort of goal to choose for. Alternatively, maybe drafting them (from a subset of randomly chosen ones) at the start of the game in reverse player order and they become personal jobs only you can fulfill once you get to the appropriate spot of your resource wheel (or maybe the resource wheel tracker can trigger the draft? Idk).
Hope you have fun! And I like the Caverna comparison too. On one hand I can see Rosenberg being done with this game since it took so long to develop. But on the other hand, maybe with Lorenz being involved, future expansions are possible? I like that house rule, I would totally play that way!
I was pretty excited for this game and I've enjoyed it pretty well so far. However, one aspect I don't enjoy is having to re-evaluate action pairings and proximity every game. I know it's supposed to add to the variety but I just find it kind of annoying to figure out every time things change.
Thanks for the deep dive.
Black Forest looks like it can be quite compelling. I'm a fan of Glass Road; looking forward to trying this one.
I love this DEEP Dive Review style. Really awesome man!
As someone who loves game design but focuses on TTRPGs, this was a fascinating listen! Much of it went over my head of course, due to... not actually playing board games, generally. Although there is some overlap, and points to compare and contrast, so stumbling in here was well worth the hour for me.
I do have one relevant question though, on a bit where my experience does apply: Could the swingyness of the jobs be mitigated by declining selecting on in favor of a more universal resource?
My Two Cents on this:
1.) Mechanically: It looks like an awkwardly skewed opportunity cost. One that seems to sometimes Feel Bad, which is not typically a game design goal.
2.) Thematically, I feel choosing to not take any job should offer some form of recovery or increase in other gains or opportunities. Abstracting from that a bit, choosing not to pull a card once could allow drawing an extra one later?
My brain jumps at the chance to house rule ANYTHING, regardless of knowing what I'm doing, so sorry in sdvance if this came across as sorta nonsense.
Followed, and cheers!
Thank you! You bring up an interesting thought, I’m sure I would be able to come up with a better answer with more plays, but I wonder if focusing on the immediate buildings on offer, which have the same one time actions as the jobs, which perhaps aren’t as lucrative but give you points. Cheers!
Appreciate you highlighting and diving deeper into the game. Have gotten increasingly excited to play this, looks gorgeous and I prefer worker placement to Glass Road’s action selection system. Haven’t tried it yet but got a 4p game scheduled next week and really looking forward to it even if it might take a while.
I haven’t played Ora et Labora so the first comparison I thought of outside of Glass Road for this was Caverna. Seems like they improved on Caverna here in that there’s both a variety of large buildings and the small buildings are double-sided. I wonder if this would be a candidate for a “more buildings” expansion as he has done with some other games, or if instead it won’t be touched much/at all as he has with some others.
One last thought - if you found the jobs to be problematic as implemented, wonder if possibly another houserule might be in order such that you put a set number of face-up jobs out at the beginning of the game and don’t replenish them at all during the game. So, like the buildings, players know what is available and have a sort of goal to choose for. Alternatively, maybe drafting them (from a subset of randomly chosen ones) at the start of the game in reverse player order and they become personal jobs only you can fulfill once you get to the appropriate spot of your resource wheel (or maybe the resource wheel tracker can trigger the draft? Idk).
Hope you have fun! And I like the Caverna comparison too.
On one hand I can see Rosenberg being done with this game since it took so long to develop. But on the other hand, maybe with Lorenz being involved, future expansions are possible?
I like that house rule, I would totally play that way!
I was pretty excited for this game and I've enjoyed it pretty well so far. However, one aspect I don't enjoy is having to re-evaluate action pairings and proximity every game. I know it's supposed to add to the variety but I just find it kind of annoying to figure out every time things change.
Can’t stand Uwe games from a solo perspective because they’re all a beat your own score affair. No automa. Horrible.
What game(s) do you enjoy/recommend for solo play?
AFFO is an amazing solo game, an automa would have been horrible
@ nah. It’s possible to make one. I’ll work on it