The Main Work - EPOS: The Development of the Scenarios

As it became apparent that the project's scope would be vast and the gaming experience should also be grand, almost epic, I chose EPOS as the working title in homage to great literary works. After all, the game was meant to tell a story or make it experienceable through the campaign.

 

I organized the experiences from the test games for the GENTES expansions and initially selected 8 that I wanted to optimize with the test groups. Some scenarios were to highlight various aspects of the base game (such as the game board, card play, and training) to different extents, while others were to integrate entirely new elements. In any case, players were to be forced to abandon their usual strategies from the base game and open up to new ways of playing.

As a kind of guideline, I aimed to incorporate two different aspects into each scenario so that it wouldn't just be a one-dimensional additional rule but a new gaming experience. I also didn't want to simply award extra victory (prestige) points for achieving one thing or another but rather offer players new options.

 

I sorted the scenarios by complexity and started with the simpler ones, partly to quickly achieve initial successes as a group. The main reason, however, was that changes and adjustments that might arise during the development of other scenarios and affect the base game would not have as significant an impact on the less complex "finished" scenarios.

We also agreed to test one scenario at a time until it was about 85-90% complete, then move on to the other scenarios, and finally, in a second round, perfect the first scenarios under the impression of the entire development experience.

 

Scenario 1: Kingdoms

There had been considerations during the GENTES development to reward majorities in the color-divided regions. However, since cities already yield significant gains and city-building should not have too much influence in the game, we did not integrate this into the final version of GENTES. The effort to change majorities through the very expensive city-building actions was too great, and in the GENTES rules, a majority established at the beginning often held throughout the game.

 

In EPOS, I now had the opportunity to tie the majority not to cities but to controlled territories, which can be achieved not only with cities. Even with little effort, an area can be controlled through pioneers. Additionally, the extra provinces provide more cities that can influence the majority.

 

As a reward for the majority in a region, thus making it the most significant kingdom in that place, players should receive not only extra prestige points but also improved actions in the next round. I created a tableau showing the majority (and second place) in a region. Markers were placed next to it, granting different advantages to the majority in a region in each game. Thus, the games always vary because, for instance, additional income from the tax collector might be offered in the blue region, while something else might be in the purple region.

 

Initially, I wanted to weaken the majority holder by requiring them to indicate their position with a pioneer removed from the board. Whoever had the majority or second place in a region had to take a pioneer off the board and place it on the tableau. This led to various problems, especially special rules when no corresponding pioneer was on the board because the majority was achieved with cities. It also caused frustration when a newly placed pioneer had to be removed because it had to be placed on the Kingdoms tableau.

 

Therefore, the pioneers for the tableau were later taken from one's own supply and, as an additional reward, placed on the game board in the next round.

 

As a second aspect, I rewarded players who spread out over the game board even if they did not achieve territory control. The earlier a player is in 6 areas with the same city symbol, the more points they receive. Players thus have to balance between distributing pioneers for this bonus or concentrating pioneers (and city-building) for the majority scoring.

The essential development work lay in balancing the bonuses for the majorities, particularly the gradation between first and second place.

 

Scenario 2: Tribute

Like "Kingdoms," this scenario also has roots in the GENTES expansions.

On one hand, each player receives their own task card (Legacy), requiring them to fulfill one of six tasks at the beginning of each round, such as paying coins, foregoing a profession, or taking an extra hourglass.

 

On the other hand, each player has their own set of 12 cards (Pact), identical to those of the other players. At the beginning of each round, players set their own goals by placing one of the 12 Pact cards in front of them and receiving a reward in the form of money or prestige points at the end of the same round. Simultaneously, a card must be placed in the box, making it unavailable for future use.

 

These two different directives force each player to adjust their strategy to maximize rewards.

With the kind permission of wonderful game designer Michael Rieneck, who uses a similar mechanism in "The Pillars of the Earth," I adapted the tasks from GENTES for EPOS.

 

Initially, the rather uniform requirements of the Pact cards were divided into the game's three epochs after the first test games. It is much more challenging to have a certain amount of money or trained professions in the first two rounds than at the end of the game.

 

With the Legacy cards, it quickly became clear that they demanded significant resources from players, which would be missed elsewhere. This is partially offset by the rewards from the Pact cards, which are distributed at the end of the round. For the start, I therefore incorporated an additional reward, which players could choose as "Favor of the Gods" or "Gift of the Gods" during the usual game preparation round. For example, giving up temple or oracle stones in a regular game is not possible before round 1, as such stones are only acquired during the game. A player with such a task on their Legacy card can obtain a suitable stone from the Favor of the Gods.

 

It also became apparent that the Legacy cards varied significantly in difficulty. Paying coins is much easier to manage than compensating for the loss of a trained population. Extensive Excel spreadsheets were needed to evaluate and balance the individual requirements. As a result, players now have a wide range of cards, where easily fulfilled requirements bring relatively few points, while significant challenges promise substantial point rewards.

 

To incentivize full completion, I distributed the points so that completing the first 1-2 tasks significantly reduce the initial negative point yield, tasks 3-4 bring only a little, and tasks 5-6 promise a substantial reward again. Those who ignore the tasks are particularly penalized, while those who manage everything until the end are highly rewarded.

 

The idea was that at the beginning of each round, a player should complete exactly one task from the Legacy card – or fail to do so. As a fallback if the appropriate resource is unavailable at the beginning of a round, I offered the option to fulfill a task later by adding extra hourglasses to the time track, thus keeping the possibility open to complete the Legacy.

 

Although rarely used, it provides a good feeling to have the option until the end, rather than realizing in round 2 that you lack the necessary resource and cannot make up for the missed opportunity for the rest of the game.

 

Here, too, the main challenge was balancing the specific values and rewards for the tasks. Only in the second round of testing did we re-tier the prestige points and money rewards for the Pact cards.

 

Scenario 3: Infrastructure

As mentioned, the scenario for road construction (and equivalent shipping connections) had already been tested with the GENTES game board, though with moderate success.

 

The new EPOS game board offered many more possibilities, as roads could be placed on clearly defined borders between the individual areas.

 

The central element of this scenario was that roads should not only provide benefits for the builder but also trigger interactions with the cities. Roads, as arteries of trade, supply cities and bring them to flourish. Cities cut off from trade routes lose their significance. Both the road network owner and the city owners benefit from functioning trade networks.

Based on these considerations, cities should only yield returns if sufficiently supplied by roads. As the game progresses, this becomes increasingly difficult. In the first epoch, one road suffices; in the second, two roads are needed for a city; in the third, three. The interaction follows from the fact that the roads can belong to any players; thus, one does not need to surround their city with their own roads.

 

Conversely, the owner of a road network receives advantages if the network connects multiple city-building spaces with the same symbol (trade, oracle, temple). These spaces can be empty or controlled by another player.

 

Since additional oracle and temple cubes are brought into play through the trade routes, they can also be used to upgrade the new road construction action. Additionally, the road construction action needed to be more grounded as the game progresses to ensure catch-up opportunities and city supply in the third epoch.

 

Fundamentally, parallel building on a connection was not allowed to keep the game board clear. As this proved very restrictive in a 4-player game, I allowed the construction of 2 roads per player in a parallel manner.

 

The road rewards are divided into two aspects. On one hand, there are additional income in money and tokens for connecting corresponding cities in the inner area. On the other hand, there are bonus prestige points for connecting the three farthest apart provinces, requiring players to decide which bonuses to pursue since the number of available roads is insufficient to achieve everything.

 

Players receive the respective bonus less frequently for late-reaching bonus spaces on the road tableau. As a small compensation, I later provided additional prestige points for reaching the 4th and 6th bonus spaces, which increase the later they are reached.

 

Scenario 4: Expeditions

In this scenario, the focus is on the population and the training action. One aspect includes bonuses for having a minimum number of professions, while another introduces new figures that can be paid for with population and enable interactions with the cards and cities of other players.

 

To achieve thematic integration, I wanted to link training bonuses to actions and assigned each profession to one of the usual actions:

·         Noble = Builder action (playing cards), as nobles historically oversaw constructions.

·         Soldier = Starting player action (Principal), as the bodyguard protects the principal.

·         Priest = Architect (buying cards), as priests were consulted during the planning and preparation of construction projects using methods like bird flights or other oracles.

·         Craftsman = Navigation (placing pioneers), as craft skills are needed for establishing settlements and cities afar (including shipbuilding).

·         Merchant = Tax collector action (taking money), as economic strength increases tax revenues.

·         Scholar = Master trainer action (training new population), which is self-explanatory.

 

With 2 population trainings, there is a small bonus, and with 3 trainings, a larger bonus when performing the assigned action.

 

The values had to be balanced through many test games because the actions are chosen with varying frequency. Less frequently chosen actions should have stronger bonuses, while commonly chosen actions should offer smaller bonuses each time. Therefore, 3 scholars are rewarded with a temple stone for master trainer actions, while the builder action only offers the option to buy a temple or oracle stone for 2 coins.

 

The principal action is rarely performed and can only be used by one player per round. Therefore, I decided to plan a guaranteed bonus at the end of the round for having 2 or 3 soldiers, which increases if the player took the principal action marker that round.

 

The other bonuses should have a thematic connection to the action. For example, scholars provide an additional temple stone with the master trainer action, while 3 craftsmen allow an extra pioneer to be placed.

 

To increase interaction, the initial games featured a unique marker for each profession for the player who was the first to train a profession group 4 times. However, the fun didn't increase proportionally to the handling effort.

 

The new figures' functions are often perceived as significantly more exciting. They should have an immediate effect on the population board, so I placed them on the population display fields. During game preparation, the legate blocks a space in the row between the noble and craftsman, the trader (ship) a space between the soldier and merchant, and finally the high priest (or astronomer, symbolized by a column) a field between the priest and scholar. These fields cannot be used until the figures are brought into play. This costs a turn in the form of an hourglass and a population from the corresponding row. A noble or a craftsman is placed as a legate with other players to copy card functions there, a soldier or merchant is given up to use the functions of foreign cities as a trader (or figuratively as a pirate if it’s a soldier). The “column” secures an action even if the action marker is already taken.

 

The idea is that players must weaken their people at any time by giving up the population and gaining advantages for the rest of the game.

 

To prevent the advantages from becoming too strong, the figures should return after use and be redeployed through another action in the form of an hourglass. However, this proved too powerful if done multiple times per round. Hence, I introduced a new personal action marker that each player receives and can use once per round to redeploy the figures.

The main task of the test games was balancing the bonuses.