Friday, April 20, 2012

First Playtest Results

I have the first prototype copies in and the first few games of Battle For Souls have actually gone better than expected.

We did not see the "runaway leader" problem that I was worried about and in each game the winner was only ahead by 3 to 5 points.

I have updated some of the devil powers. Some of the text was just too much and caused some confusion, so I will be working on simplifying the cards as much as possible without "dumbing down" the game.

For example, Beelzebub has a completely new power that simply allows the player to draw up to 6 cards into their hand each turn instead of 5. This is simple, desirable and worked better. I am using tape on the face of the cards to make changes as we play test to see what works the best.

I have changed the card  set rules and was happy with the set-building mechanic. It made for a lot of great decision points. Here are the new set-building rules. There are a lot of them, but shipping the game with a cheat sheet will alleviate any confusion for players until they memorize the rules.


    • Pair: Allows a player to take a victory point card for each pair played, but they must be placed in the player’s discard pile
    • Two Pair: Allows a player to take a Sin/Intercession card, draw up to a full hand and take another turn 
    • Set of 3 different colors:  Allows the player to add 1 holy/unholy point to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color as any one of the cards played
    • Set of 4 different colors: Allows the player to add 2 holy/unholy points to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color as any one of the cards played
    • Set of 5 different colors: Allows the player to add 3 holy/unholy points to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color as any one of the cards played
    • 3 of a kind: Allows the player to add 3 holy/unholy points to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color
    • Full house (3 of a kind and 1 pair):  Allows the player to add 3 holy/unholy points to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color as one of the cards played, AND/OR gain a free holy/unholy relic card
    • 4 of a kind:  Allows the player to add 4 holy/unholy points to a soul with a spiritual strength/mortal weakness of the same color, AND/OR gain a free holy/unholy relic card
    • 5 of a kind: Allows the player to add 5 holy/unholy points to ANY soul, AND/OR gain a free holy/unholy relic card

Some of the above are new as we found that the Sin/Intercession and Relic cards were not being bought that often. Players went for souls and angels only, so the two pair and full house rewards were added to get these cards in the game more. I am looking forward to seeing how this works out. Another option is to lower the cost to buy the cards to pull them into the game more. Sets of different cards were the most prevailing, although we did see a bunch of 3 of a kind hands and a few full houses. But we did not really explore building our hands much, mostly players played what they could every turn, but discarding instead of playing may be a viable strategy to build better hands. We will see how this plays and maybe increase the rewards for 3 of a kind and above if the balance isn't there.

We also found people did not buy victory point cards, but I am not convinced they won't be part of a solid strategy. The close nature of the games we played means that incorporating the purchase of victory points cards into a strategy could have resulted in a different winner.

An interesting part of the game is that once you can get a single holy/unholy point on a soul it's easier to gain more points on that soul since there are more ways to add points than take them away. So any time the other side gets a point on a soul tensions rise to remove that point, or counter by getting a point on a remaining neutral soul. I have a thought that maybe we should make relic cards be what helps subtract points from the opposition?  

The mechanic does make for the feeling of a "battle" and fits the theme well. Also, when the other player does max out, or reap a soul, it did not seem to tilt the balance since when your opponent does this a new soul comes into play and you have first crack at it. Reap cards were also used to reset souls, which I though added a good balance mechanic. For example, if the soul draw favors your opponent because the colors needed match the angel/demon cards they have in play you can play reap to send the souls to purgatory and get fresh souls that you may have a better crack at. To eliminate a constant refreshing I incorporated a rule that to reap, the souls must have a minimum of 5 holy/unholy points in total in any combination. This seemed to work very well and I expect it will become a final rule.

The game seemed complex to some and there was a lot to think about once a player got a bunch of angel/devil cards down, and will become even more complex when multiple relic cards are in play as well. There are just a lot of abilities to keep track of, and if the complexity turns out to be too much, or if it causes too much analysis paralysis I will need to work on simplifying the game. 

One thought is to completely remove special abilities from angel and devil cards. Their natural ability to move a matching color on a soul's track once per turn, and the 3 victory points they are worth may be quite enough. This would also make Sin/Intercession and relic cards more interesting. This is a main point of focus for me right now as play speed will be important. I hope to do some videos soon so you can see more of what it is like, please share!