Please check in here and propose any house rules you might like to play with. Space mines and facilities are out.
A method of galaxy creation needs to be decided on. This was going to be the rich center game, but after created the map as originally outlined it became obvious it wouldn’t work well - the center ring was amazing and the rest was almost a barren waste. The change I propose is a GM created “fair” map with emphasis on a healthy middle ring, but not foring all the good planets to be there. This is definately open to suggestion and input as you check in would be greatly appreciated.
Also, newbie GM mistake - race selection was going to be random draft of 3 per player, but then I remembered there are 17 races… I’m going to do random draft of 2 per player unless something better is suggested and agreed on.
For race selection, my FtF does a 2 round 2 draft pick. This adds a little time in a PBF, but gives 3 options total. Basically you get 2 races randomly, out of which you choose 1 and return 1 to the pool. The pool gets shuffled, and 1 race is dealt to everyone again. You choose which of those two you want (between your first choice and 2nd draw). Everything is done in secret. I’m up for anything though.
I know some of you by name from playing in the wiki site and look forward to playing with you.
I’m fine with all rules proposed. One question, will Assembly give the person control of speaker, 2 PC, and 2 TG?
Another note, At the moment there is a glitch in the transfer section. So when the GM puts a card in your private
area, you will be able to move it, but won’t be able to view it. To fix this, move the card to the setup under search-able.
It might work in other places, but that is the only place I’ve tested it. If it gets moved to transfer, anyone can touch it.
Once you move it to search-able, you can see what it does. Since you should have your own logfile and you won’t be submitting
them to other people, no one else should be able to see the card.
As for races, maybe it might be nice to have everyone submit there top 3 choices?
My personal list of house rules is so extensive that I’m hesitant to suggest any of them for fear of running amok. That having been said, I will suggest an altered version of Bureaucracy, adjusted to work with the old Age of Empire variant from the base game. Essentially, all the Public Objectives are face-up from the beginning of the game, but all but the first are “locked” when the game starts. (I’m kicking myself for not using this option in the latest PBF I’m GMing.)
I vote “no” on Space Mines and Facilities.
I’m easy when it comes to race selection. I usually just take a random one when playing FTF.
Correct, but the only way you are getting rid of one of those political cards is if it gets picked to be voted on. The idea is to increase the pool of political cards in hopes of increasing the frequency of meaningful laws getting voted on while also keeping people from throwing away very fun laws because they want the extra production.
JP is right about the transfer section. Once we get past fine tuning of rules I’ll have a post about the things people need to know - Vassal isn’t perfect for this, but it is pretty easy to use, especially for the GM!
I think the GM created galaxy is fine and will let the game start faster.
I also think 2 random races per player is great and will let the game start faster.
Furthermore, I am fine with random seating since I don’t know anyone’s play style.
Additionally, I am fine with the currently proposed house rules for Political Cards giving TGs when dealt.
As for additional house rules, I am partial to just playing the game RAW since my FtF playgroup enjoys a healthy splash of house rules all the time.
My only question is how will we receive each updated vassal game file?
Hey AZ. K_kid checking in. Thanks for the spot much appreciated. The race draft seems cool, I think I’ll use it in my ftf today. Monkeyed around with VASSAL a bit yesterday might take me a bit to work out the details, I’ll spend some time on it this weekend.
As for galaxy creation I am easy with whatever happens, I just like there to be good reason for expansion.
I like the draft idea for races, so you’ll get 2 at random to pick from. You reply with which you will keep and which you will discard. Once everyone has replied I’ll shuffle and send your 3rd option.
Only one house rule up for vote:
I assume you unlock the objectives in the same way they would be flipped. If you have the Bureaucracy card, instead of drawing the top two you would pick which of the next two in line become unlocked?
RAW artifacts or place all 8? If it’s 8 I’ll have each of you place one and I’ll roll a die with some way I think up to determine where the last two go.
I vote RAW for beauro. Having all POs revealed at the beginning takes alot of the value out of picking the beauro card IMO.
I vote RAW for artifacts.
Edit: Also, with Promissary notes in, that shortens the number of game turns anyway, so (IMO) the AOE/Artifact type of game accelerators do not have the same value.
One more thing - the other game (Zero-2) has an MIA player. He’s got a little more time to show up, but there may be an empty seat. PM me if you are interested in being in that game as well.
I don’t think of Age of Empire as a way to shorten the game; I think of it as a way to eliminate randomness from the game. I’m all about that. But I will refrain on voting on that house rule, since I suggested it.
I vote that we have all 8 Artifact tokens on the board, for much the same reason that I suggested the other house rule: Knowing that all 4 Artifacts are definitely out there eliminates some randomness.
I vote for RAW Bureaucracy. I like the mystery of what will be revealed and how you have to adapt to it.
I also vote for all 8 artifact tokens(or at least all 4 artifacts and as many blanks as we can legally place).
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