Thanks, I’ll pass this on. (fyi the reason a sea space can’t be placed there is because it would create a region with two tokens of the same value)
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Tutorial worked well had the same issue of text cutting off on my iPhone when viewed in portrait.
Did I miss an explanation for the starting tiles? Are there positions random each game?
On the sea tile placement is it worth pointing out that tile placement anywhere on the board is legal unless the area is already mapped or will create a region with 2 or more of the same prediction, like in the following example…
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I had a go. There are text issues and the same cutting off on my (latest version) basic iPad.
This pic shows the cut off text.
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Unfortunately I really don’t understand this sentence - noting the paraphrasing by @GeeBizzle above, which makes some sense.
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This picture the first sentence is not a great sentence. It should read something like ‘Now we place one of our number tiles to estimate the final number of spaces this group of landscape tiles will be at the end of the game.’
I know it is much longer and itself could do with editing I am sure, but I think it clearly explains almost all the game.
In this image sentence one is not a sentence.
Overall I have a cognitive problem with the concept of the game. If I first place a tile predicting it will be a 2 tile area at the end of the game, why does it then make any sense, at least initially, to then place another prediction with a different marker on it? Especially one that can’t actually be achieved?
I guess I am missing something but it seems counterintuitive to me and puts me off.
Hope helpful! Take from that what you will.
And sorry Tekelili gods for the multiple edits. I can’t reply more than 3 posts in a row and so have had to wrangle multiple pictures into one. I did this without skill.
[Edit: Arrgghh wrong picture again]
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It’s a good point maybe explaining why you would place the value tiles would help. Also made me realise that I didn’t quite catch how scoring works. Is it the value of the token you place or 1 point per correct token. I.e. does the sea score 1 point or 2?
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Thank you! I think it’s an evergoing issue of trying to explain something from a stance of completely knowing it, to someone experiencing it for the first time. I’ll feedback that its apparent we need to explain the game slightly more before going to that step.
(The reason for placing tiles with values you know won’t score is to build up a region to a value you hope will score)
@GeeBizzle you score the value of the token, so a correct value 2 token scores 2 points, and starting tiles are placed by players for a different setup each game.
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Makes sense. Smartly incentivises riskier play and some antagonistic end of game play as the map gets crowded.
Spokes had a similar sense of escalation with latter laps being faster and a gleeful meanness in destroying the nice pathways for other racers.
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Maybe also pointing out that the number you place each time can be used to bluff, outthink and out manoeuvre your opponents over the course of the game? I get the feeling the number placement is where the strategy is, I get that might mean metas might develop in blocking and number placement, but I don’t think any of that is clear in the tutorial
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Thanks, that’s exactly what happens. Token management is a big part of it, and there are loads of different strategies which players come to. This will all be emphasised in the KS page, so you’ve also had the additional difficulty of lacking that context as well (but I’ll probably get it mentioned in there anyway).
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arkusgames/orbitstar-expedition-to-darwin-iv
Edit: Oh dear god, the campaign video is a complete run through of the rules which is an insane four minute barrage of information. That’s… not a good way to market a game??! That should have been in a longer and more sanely paced video further down the page. The top video would have been much better if it were an advertisement giving a feel for how it all fits together.
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Max Miller’s Tasting History: The Board Game …
I quite like his show, but will it work as a game? Kickstarter begins in a month or two.
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Blimey
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The guy doing the documentary (“Tex”) is amazing. His work with the “Tex Talks Battletech” is why I decided to start my own podcast series, in the hopes of capturing a fraction of the energy, humour, and insight that his series does.
He’s also pretty good in Actual Plays of video games… a lot of fun to listen to while he’s playing Harebrained Scheme’s Battletech or Menace… he recently did two hours of “Iron Nest” which was fascinating because he used to work in artillery (I think he was a machinist, but don’t quote me on that).
He’s also a legit beam of sunshine. All about doing charitable work and trying to make people happy. The Black Pants Legion has done some great work with the funds they’ve raised… cancer research is their big drive, but lots of other, more personal sorts of projects as well.
Sadly, I don’t really care about Traveller at all, but I might throw a few bucks at this just because Tex is great.
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And congrats on selling out Spokes!
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Purge the heretic!
(Mind you when I started roleplaying, UK in the early 1980s, it was “the space game that is actually in shops, and affordable”. Not really much choice unless you had a lot of spare money.)
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I am apathetic towards it out of ignorance, not out of any understanding of the setting or systems.
Traveller didn’t tie into anything I knew. I played Rifts and Robotech because I knew Palladium Games’ systems (from TMNT and After the Bomb), I played Fading Suns because a buddy wrote a supplement for them (the Decado Fiefs, I think? Probably spelled that wrong), I played Star Wars and Star Trek because obviously… Traveller didn’t have a “hook” for me, so I never picked it up. I think I actually have 1 Traveller book right now on my RPG shelf… lemme check… ah, I have the “Traveller Starter Set” which is a black box that I picked up from the game store I worked at when it sat on the shelves for years and nobody else picked it up. I don’t think I’ve even opened it.
Oh, and I played Paranoia because the sense of humour jived with me.
But yeah, Traveller I know nothing about. Not because it’s bad or anything, but I literally know nothing about it. Except that it has ships.
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Yeah, I think this is my point really, you had alternatives that appealed more. I might have felt the same way, but I didn’t. And now it’s this Thing with 50 years of lore like RuneQuest, and while I can say “actually it’s not too hard to get into” I have been playing on and off for most of those years.
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I feel that way about Battletech… I’ve been playing for so long, and reading and dreaming about the fiction for so long that the fact there are people alive who don’t know about all three "Operation Gotterdammerung"s baffles me.
I mean, not know which is your favourite, that I get. But, like, how can you not know about the Steiner participation in the Fourth Succession War, and the Military Games from the Second Succession War, AND the Media-Invented battle from the prelude to the Amaris Civil War that didn’t even happen! Like, surely…
(Insert XKCD comic about… birds, I think? No, rocks! It’s about geologists and assuming everyone knows at least about… feldspar, I think? You know the one, and if you don’t, yes you do, it’s in the comic… recursive references all the way down)
ANYway. Moral of the story is: I getcha. Traveller is A Thing, and it just happens to be A Thing I know nothing about. Maybe the movie will convince me to open the box set.
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What’s fascinating to me about Traveller is that I have literally never had anyone try to sell me on anything about Traveller other than the roll for your career character creation stuff. People are clearly enthusiastic for it but I never hear anyone talk about why.
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