Explore

Before 2/9, exploring was free. But that caused the deck to run out very quickly, so we introduced an Explore cost of 1.

While I was tempted by the overly complicated “explore cost is equal to the number of cards in your hand”, I decided to test the simpler “always costs 1” version instead. It worked. However, with four players, we were out of cards by round 3 (of 5).

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Explore cost

I did get to play this with 3 new players, and they picked up the rules of the game quickly. However, they didn’t feel like 8 rounds was long enough. I think this is because of the Explore cost (2). I’m pleased to see that I predicted (to some extent) this reaction on 1/25, and offered two alternative options to explore. However, I’m reluctant to simply add turns to the game, so I could: Also, if one of these options works for 3 players (8 rounds), will it also work for 4 players (5 rounds)?
 * 1) Change the explore cost to 1. “Simple”. But, would it lead to experienced players hoarding cards the first few rounds?
 * 2) Change the explore cost to (# of cards in your hand). If you don’t have any cards, you can explore for free (+follow cost if it’s not your turn). This is more complicated, but scales nicely and dissuades hoarding.

1/22 - increased cost of exploring to 2 credits.

1/14 - For the first time ever, we ran out of cards. It didn’t ruin the gameplay or anything, we simply didn’t explore.

10/11 	Based on the sneak attack victory in the previous game, everyone decided that cards are really the most valuable resource in the game (they are). So, the first six actions were all Explore, with people following if they could. This was a bit repetitive, but I think it might be a case of group-think. Once everyone reached the hand limit, they had to do something else.