Western Shores Revision X — Some Cheap PR Pun

Greetings, fellow sentient beings!

Our Western Shores board game project about Vikings exploring the unknown goes on.

Last time I talked about The previous stage which I called Revision IX Here. More than three years ago that was.

Today, I want to share some new info

about the new changes made in the almost unexpected Revision X which began as soon as Revision IX was out of the keyboard.

Things were considered all along the way, though, and I just had to put them into bytes as soon as I had the opportunity.

So, last time I reduced the in-game resources from 5 to 2 (plus conditions to be specified for each card to be played). It's really all in the post linked above. This time, I returned to a game design with more resources, 4 out of the original 5. Three of them more common and one of them kind of special. Sailing. Aye, the Logistics required to brave the oceanic world of myth and reality. Mostly based on the number of ships and harbors that a player has.

I am fully aware the new costs and production capabilities of the new versions of the cards have to be balanced out in time. That will come with play testing. Before that, I needed a full set of cards again.

The Changes as a list:

The Food and Sailing resources are back in the mix;
The Homestead card is back in;
Costs and yields have been changed accordingly;
The draft continues one more round — up from 10 to 11 rounds out of an unchanged total of 12;
Two new cards were designed.

Yup, two new cards were designed.

I am kind of excited about them. They should be fun or interesting at least.

Revision X New Cards.jpg

Yggdrasil's Exodus

is a unique card that can end the game earlier or...even add a round to the game if timed accordingly.

Considerations: It should not be an easy one to play since it changes the game in a way that was chosen by one player only. The one who played it. Still, it should be a viable alternative. In order to play it, one has to be able to provide 9 Sailing which is the most rare of resources. Still, with enough Longships (let's say 5 or 6 out of all the 12 in the game) plus some more harbors (each player starts with one in their deck but they could add a few more during the game) or other unique cards...it can be done. The question is...will the player who wants to play Yggdrasil's Exodus be the one able to provide so much sailing at the right moment...

Also it requires you to be able to ascend two characters at the same time. They might not be available late in the game when some of those cards are already out of your deck.

The Cheap PR card:

Now, P and R are the initials I currently use to mark the Population and Resolve resources in my designer's notes. They shall not appear in the final version of any card so the joke will be lost. What can I do but mention it here, at the very least ;)

I say cheap because it is actually the cheapest, in terms of total resources in its cost, card in the current card list.

The Runestone Library.

And it's funny that it actually does serve some PR function after all. Reminding others of what the person inscribing the runes wanted others to know. Imagine a field of such monoliths...a "library" of fiction.

You shall see. I wonder how Hive account@silver.art will react when she learns what new weird illustrations I want to commission to her.