SURPRISE! SU&SD has teamed up with a couple of our favourite game designers and artists to make a free print-and-play/play-by-zoom game that we’re hoping to publish right before Christmas. What that means is we have a short window to get some playtesting done and make some last minute adjustments! Would you be willing to play a couple games and let us know what you think? Please keep it CONFIDENTIAL for now, as we want it to be a total surprise when we launch it.
Rules: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O7StXEzIwv68eOM27JfS5YeedC7NBDsF/view?usp=sharing
Player sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JZtcGSOiLvMBtShcs2kq7rlEw2l0eLYd/view?usp=sharing
Feedback form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefJ7X3GbimRCzfU0yLfKa6NrXVQ8jPKkrAMH2AtWW0pZVqsw/viewform
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Welcome to the site, Shut Up & Sit Down!
Thanks for the wonderful invitation!
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Welcome, @ReferencePear, and thanks!
And… 
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I’m all read up. Looks like an excuse to get the fam on Zoom!
[EDIT] Took advantage of some lamination services around the corner.
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I have read over the rules, but the last several weeks I have been forced to work late; so I have not had a chance to give it a proper run through. It looks to be rather promising.
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Oooh
Exciting. The work printer is going to be busy!
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Updates:
Lastest Rules and Sheet, feedback form is still the same. After another round of testing, below is the new build of the game with the following main changes:
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Only First and Second Place. While a 3rd place award gets more points to more players, it adds a lot of extra time and calculation. So we have streamlined the endgame so that only the first and second place get Awards points.
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No Tally Sheet. We are taking out the tally sheet that we were trying from the last version. Keeping things simple.
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Banquet Goal Order. Two of the tricker Banquet Goals (matching and sequential Dishes & Decorations) were made more rare by shifting where they appear in the die roll numbers.
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Drafting Vocations. We have modified the vocation selection process so that players select them one by one - and importantly, no two players can have the same vocation. There were too many situations where having a double of a vocation didn’t work.
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New Vocation. For balance reasons, we are swapping out the Magician power with a new one. We’re calling it Pickpocket, but if the Magician illustration is already complete, it can work with a Magician theme too.
After a few more playtests, here’s the latest version of the rules. So far all of the points above seem to be holding. Pickpocket has definitely gotten the least playtesting of the vocations, so please try it out.The only substantial changes in this version are:
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You get Awards for nothing. Players can get an Award even if they have nothing for that category. For example, if nobody has any matches, then everyone ties for first place for the matching award. Although this is arguably less intuitive, it helps make sure more people get awards, it tightens up scoring, and it makes the rules more streamlined (it eliminates some tricky exceptions).
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A new FAQ page. After getting very similar questions from most of our new players, it seems like a good idea to add a FAQ page - take a look at the rules PDF. Right now it is at the end. I think the last few pages (the credits/statement/thanks page, the FAQ, and the vocations/2-player rules/inventory tips page could potentially be reshuffled and combined.
As always, comments or thoughts on any of the above are welcome! Please don’t hesitate to share feedback on the form, it all helps!
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Help us pick a name! http://etc.ch/HcgH
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Sadly, my little family gathering has blown up into a full extended family Christmas fiasco, so I won’t be testing as soon as I’d hoped.
(This sounds horribly negative, obviously I’m happy to do a big group reunion, but I was quite looking forward to a little QT with my folks many thousands of kilometers away.)
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Dec 9th Rules and Sheet Update!
If you’ve tried out the game, please do share any feedback you have (note: anonymous unless you decide to share your name for credit in the rules) and help us name the game in the naming poll below (anonymous and requires no signup)!
Dec 9 Rules Update: https://bit.ly/129rules
Dec 9 Sheet Update: https://bit.ly/129sheet
Feedback Form: https://bit.ly/feedbackrats
Game Naming Poll: https://bit.ly/namevoting-poll
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The designers are still looking for some playtesters, if anyone would like to join them for a game, it would be a big help!
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