EPOS: A Gentes Game - Designer Diary, part VI

30.07.2024

The Starting Signal for the Final Sprint

In March 2022, we met with the main test group, André and Robert, as well as publisher Uli Blennemann, in Wolfsburg for an intense testing weekend, during which we played almost all the scenarios.

As a result, we were collectively satisfied with the state of development, but there were still issues with the Progress scenario. The handling of progress cards, which worked very well online, proved to be very confusing at the table. The space required for the many cards (17 different ones in stacks of three) on the table, and the error-prone and space-consuming tiered stacking of progress cards in one's layout, made it necessary to choose a completely new approach.

In the further course of development, I consolidated the progress cards so that on large cards, the development from the first level of progress through the second to the third level could be seen at a glance, without the need to compare between one's layout and the open progress card display or a separate tech tree overview.

Another positive outcome of the workshop was the agreement on the basic structure of the campaign. More on that now...

The Cherry on Top: The Development of the Campaign and Solo Challenge

Even while we were individually testing the scenarios in the test groups, I developed the first ideas for the campaign.

A primary decision was to set a maximum number of games in a campaign. The progression should be linear, so there would be a foreseeable end from the start. I didn't want to offer a legacy game encompassing 12-15 games or more, to avoid deterring some players with its length and uncertain duration. After all, a single game of EPOS already takes about 2 hours when learning additional rules and playing a scenario for the first time.

Naturally, there should be an overall winner after multiple games, who wouldn't simply be the player with the highest total prestige points, and the games should be more than just a loose sequence of individual games. Therefore, a connection from the end of one game to the start of the next was necessary. Thematically, it made immediate sense that throughout history, a civilization would rise and fall, only to rebuild on the ruins of previous generations. Thus, it was not necessary to carry large quantities of cards, cities, etc., from one game to the next. I decided that each game could essentially start from scratch with the normal starting setups. However, the choice of starting hand cards and the starting construction site should be limited by what the player had achieved at the end of the last game.

It was important to me that players could not 100% predict the sequence in which the scenarios would be played. I wanted some variability in the sequences of individual campaign runs. On the other hand, I had to ensure that the gaming group would not play the same scenario twice. Therefore, I drew many different flowcharts and branches, which often became extremely complex and widely branched after the 4th or 5th game. This only resolved when I decided that after 4 games, a sort of interruption in the flowchart could occur, and the second half with the remaining 4 scenarios would again contain variability. I recognized the disadvantage that in this case, the scenario for the 1st game would also determine the scenario for the 5th game. To fix this, I mirrored the sequence of games 5-8 and swapped the 5th scenario with another in the mirrored branch of the flowchart.

A crucial aspect was how to decide the path on the flowchart. I soon discarded the initial idea of a central scoring sheet in the form of a chronicle to keep administrative effort minimal. Players should focus on their own scoring sheets. To solve this, I set tasks for the players in the scenario rules, such as "build as many cities as possible." In the final scoring, it would be checked how many cities all players had built together, and depending on whether a certain value was exceeded, one scenario would be played next; otherwise, another scenario. When we decided not to pack the scenario rules with the scenario components separately and only reveal them during the campaign, I discarded this approach and moved the tasks to separate cards. This way, players could always see the task, as the card could be placed next to the game board. It also allowed for different tasks for the same scenario depending on the campaign progression. Players could simply read on the back of the card to find out what happens next in the campaign.

As a core element of the campaign, I envisioned extreme situations on the game board, player boards, and other circumstances that rarely occur in "normal" games, so players would have to play specifically towards these goals. For example, players should be torn between following their usual paths to do well in the current game or reaching a special campaign goal lying outside their usual paths. In normal games, one rarely trains the same profession 6 times on the population board or accumulates 45 coins or 8 temple and oracle stones, instead preferring to use resources for profitable actions as soon as possible. Those who achieve these unusual goals should be rewarded with special points for the campaign scoring. Additionally, I wanted a thematic connection to the subsequent games, where accumulated wealth, for example, could provide extra starting coins.

The main challenge for balancing was the danger that early campaign advantages would help a player achieve further special goals in subsequent games, thereby gaining increasing advantages. Conversely, a player who initially fails to achieve their own special goals and has fewer starting resources would quickly fall behind.

I first created an incentive to forgo earned bonuses by awarding special points for the campaign scoring, increasing the earlier one forgoes the bonus. However, this led to enormous administrative effort and lengthy considerations at the start of a game. It took excessively long for everyone to decide, as each player feared giving up a bonus they might urgently need in a later scenario. This approach had to be abandoned.

A simple solution to the "rich getting richer" problem was to limit the maximum number of bonuses each player could use per game to four. This way, the gap in game preparation could not widen too much, especially since it is relatively easy to achieve the first special goals and bonuses in the first game. Players can choose from the 20 goals the ones they can easily fulfill. Only as more goals are achieved do the really difficult ones remain, with the difficulty level depending on personal play style. For instance, a player who never uses a double hourglass might find the goal "no double hourglass in a game" easy, while players who prefer double hourglasses might feel very restricted. This made it extremely difficult to assign specific points to the special goals for campaign scoring, although it was clear that some goals had to be more valuable than others.

A breakthrough occurred when I moved away from continually reducing the starting resources assigned to each player and instead relying on the bonuses from their special goals. Previously, the starting resources had to be noted relative to the previous game (e.g., +1 hourglass or -5 coins). Ultimately, I no longer specified the starting resources in the final scoring of a game as relative values for the next game but printed the actual starting resources on the task card for the next scenario. This way, everyone could immediately read from the card and then take their earned bonuses from their completed special goals to supplement the starting resources. Naturally, the starting resources provided in the campaign are less than those given in a standalone game of the scenario to avoid creating an imbalance with the additional bonuses.

Testing a campaign involves a huge time commitment, as multiple individual games must be played. I was very grateful for the patience and dedication of my online and offline testers. I was a guest in Kassel and Hagen to play an entire campaign over intensive weekends. We benefited from a short campaign designed for 4 games, so even with the "only" 4 games, a strong campaign feel emerged, forcing players to deviate from the single-scenario play style to achieve special goals.

As a result, there are 3 types of campaigns: the "large" campaign covering all 8 scenarios, the "small" campaign with 4 games, where only certain scenarios are played depending on the progression but not predetermined which ones, and finally a "small" campaign of 4 scenarios known to the players from the start.

As it became increasingly impossible to play all scenarios in solo mode without investing significant effort in developing one or more scenario-specific “bot players”, I had to abandon the idea of designing the campaign uniformly for 1-4 players. It was simply not feasible to simulate the interaction of road construction or the competition for majorities with one or two virtual opponents.

However, I was determined to offer the large solo-player community more than just the challenge of beating their own high score. On BGG, there was a monthly GENTES solo challenge for a while. I joined the discussion and suggested trying a different task each month. For example, build all cities in the first 4 rounds or own a certain amount of coins at any point. This was well received, and I developed a solo challenge making it similarly difficult for solo players to balance goals in the current game with achieving special goals, as in multiplayer campaigns. A total of 10 games with staggered tasks are necessary to complete a challenge – plenty of material to explore!

The Finale: Graphics, Material, and Rulebooks

In September 2023, I met with Uli Blennemann as the publisher, Harald Lieske as the graphic designer, and Henning Kröpcke as the editor. We spent an entire day discussing the details of individual illustrations, component qualities, and the construction of the rulebooks.

Fortunately, we had already received many suggestions from the tests, such as the "+1" reminder on the back of the population indicators when a civilization card includes a virtual profession. This helps counter the common phenomenon of overlooking the virtual profession on the card because players are too focused on their population board.

It became clear that we would need separate rulebooks for the individual scenarios. The box would have to be large to accommodate the amount of components, keeping up with the standard set by other games like Weimar or GENTES Deluxe when aiming for a premium setup.

The initially planned bilingual version had to be abandoned because the number of rule booklets would have simply exceeded the box's capacity.

We have played the game a lot – yet we still want to play it more.

EPOS: A Gentes Game - Designer Diary, part V

28.07.2024

Scenario 7: Plagues and Disasters

I was intrigued by developing a scenario fundamentally different from the others, focusing not on additional rewards but rather on repeatedly taking away resources and options from players. As a special element, I wanted to include a cooperative component where players could collectively overcome these disadvantages – but only together, so no player could succeed alone.

I initially set the number of negative events (plagues, disasters) to 6, with one plague entering the game each round. I quickly changed this to have 2 plagues at the start, with 2 more added at the beginning of each epoch. This way, the last plague would enter the game well before the end, remaining active for at least two rounds.

The number 6 seemed to become a magical number: 6 plagues in 6 rounds and 6 different professions on the population board. It fit well that each profession could be assigned to a plague to serve as the basis for combating it.

I developed 6 negative impacts on different aspects of the game, trying to link them thematically to the professions:

· Nobles help against internal unrest, blocking card functions like the Shipyard or the Scriptorium.

· Soldiers fend off barbarians who take pioneers hostage.

· Merchants hire mercenaries to repel pirates that affect city functions etc.

The test games' requirements were to adjust the values needed to definitively defeat a plague and determine the individual rewards for players.

Since the plagues are dealt with before the rounds, players are unprepared in the first rounds. To counter this, players also receive the "Favor of the Gods" (see Scenario 2: Tribute) and start with additional prestige points – after all, players may lose points due to the plagues. Initially, there were different rules for the "Favor of the Gods" compared to Scenario 2, but I soon adjusted them for consistency, making the rules easier to follow.

Scenario 8: New Era

This scenario required the longest development time due to its concept of providing different abilities for players. This is the most complex scenario with asymmetric starting conditions. Additionally, players should not only collect prestige points traditionally but also cultural points. Each player represents a civilization with its own cards and cultural point requirements. Cultural points limit the prestige points at the game's end, making it a challenge to balance two different types of points.

I first divided the 54 civilization cards into 9 groups of 6 cards each, defining 9 civilizations with a set of 6 cards each. I then assigned cities to these civilizations, trying to adhere to historical contexts. For instance, the Egyptians would obviously have the pyramids and the Sphinx, along with Memphis and Naucratis, while the Phoenicians would have Carthage, and the Greeks would have Athens etc.

I then drew from historical characteristics of each civilization to develop their in-game advantages. Historically, the Egyptians were primarily located in Egypt and did not spread across the Mediterranean, unlike the Phoenicians or Greeks. For these and many other aspects, I created unique options and rules, such as additional master trainer actions, more pioneers, or a restriction that the Egyptians could only build adjacent to their existing cities, naturally preventing them from building cities in Gaul or Iberia. The Egyptians should excel early on, having already flourished before other civilizations rose. Conversely, the Romans appeared later on the world stage and should therefore have a delayed start. The Greeks, with their philosophers, should be strong in education, while the Phoenicians excel in commerce and trade post distribution.

Trade posts? As an additional layer of complexity, I introduced game pieces placed on blockade markers during preparation, requiring not just the removal of the markers but also the placement of new game pieces on the board. Two pioneers are needed for this. It was important to me to reflect the character of the civilizations. Generally, there is a general who can control a city, a trader who can move across the board, and several trading posts providing access to local resources (like other figures and cities and pioneers that control the area). The Egyptians received no ocean-going ship, and the Carthaginians got an additional trading post.

It's time to discuss access to resources and cultural points. The scenario includes a new type of card called "Panem et Circenses." These cards depict 4 requirements, 3 goods, and 1 specific type of city. Goods are available in the provinces and can be purchased there if you have "access," such as a trading post.

How these cards should be acquired and fulfilled was the subject of long discussions in the test groups and many trials. The same applies to the various advantages and abilities of the civilizations. Balancing asymmetric conditions is always challenging. It repeatedly became evident that the ability of civilization X was too strong or weak compared to the ability of civilization Y.

During the tests, I decided that the well-optimized 6 civilizations with starting cities in the inner part of the game board would be included in the final game, while the 3 civilizations in the outer provinces, not fully developed and tested, would be left out. Thus, the Gauls, Numidians, and Assyrians/Sumerians did not make it into the final game.

EPOS: A Gentes Game - GenCon & Designer Diary, part IV

26.07.2024

If you are interested in a live teach of EPOS by me and playing the game at GenCon, you may do so on Thursday, Friday & Saturday.

I´d love to meet you near booth #130 (Ravensburger) at 3 pm. We´ll move over to Open Gaming in the Lucas Oil Stadium.

Thank you!

Design Diary, part IV

Scenario 5: Trade

Securing regular income is crucial to any strategy in GENTES and EPOS (base game).

This, along with enthusiasm for interesting market mechanisms in games, led me to eliminate all sources of money in one scenario and introduce goods as currency. Cities provide goods as returns, and civilization cards with monetary income are replaced by those that provide goods.

The goods should have varying values and fluctuate during the game. As a rule of thumb, I set a goods marker to equal 2 coins. Since cities usually yield 5 coins and provinces 2, I distributed single goods to provinces as income and 2 goods of the same type to cities in the inner circle. The 18 cities in the inner circle couldn’t cover 4 cities of each good type, leaving 2 cities with "regular" income in the form of temple and oracle stones. Prestige points and coins were excluded.

To emphasize the focus on goods, they should also be used directly for some actions. The master trainer was best suited for this because the initial idea was to introduce 4 goods, to be combined in 6 different pairs, each pair corresponding to a profession.

Several minor adjustments to card functions, such as "+1" training, tax collector, and training costs in coins, were necessary but manageable.

The core element became the market board, showing how many goods of a type are needed to exchange for money or temple and oracle stones. Initially, all goods had to be equally valued, requiring 2 goods each. This matched the city's yield in the inner circle, where 2 goods equaled a "normal" yield (5 coins, temple, or oracle stone).

Initially, it was possible to trade for the ultimately missing yield of "normal" cities, i.e., 2 prestige points. However, this proved too powerful as each city could potentially yield 2 prestige points, or even more if the goods exchange rate showed a 1:1 trade. One or two test games with extreme strategies clearly demonstrated this. Therefore, the prestige point option in trading was soon eliminated.

The tests aimed to explore the market mechanism in detail. The range of possible goods values was established early on, ranging from 1 to 5, with extreme values being minimized to a single field on the goods price indicator.

More complex was determining the price adjustments. It was clear that prices should not change constantly but only occasionally. A realistic market mechanism, in my view, is based on rare goods becoming more valuable and commonly available goods decreasing in value. Balancing between constant price changes and permanently fixed prices, I decided on a price adjustment when 12 goods (or more) had been spent. These would be collected on the market board. With 4 types of goods and 12 markers to evaluate, each good would appear 3 times if evenly distributed. Therefore, price markers should not move if exactly 3 goods of a type are present. With more goods in the pool, the price drops by corresponding steps; with fewer goods, it rises. To avoid every marker movement changing the price, each price level had 2 spaces, with the "normal" price level "2" having an extra space on the price display.

However, we found in tests that exceeding 12 goods frequently occurred because the price adjustment was done at the end of the player turn. For example, with a pool of 11 goods from the last turn and a training action for 8 goods, a price adjustment with 19 goods would suddenly be necessary.

To address this, I introduced a reduction to a number close to 12 before the actual evaluation of the pool. Now, markers are removed evenly from the pool until fewer than 16 markers remain. Still, there tend to be more markers than fewer, so prices generally become less favorable throughout the game if there is an even chance for price increases and decreases. To balance this, I limited the downward movement per evaluation to 2 steps, while improvement could be up to 3 steps.

Since we played many games online, it was no problem to reload the city's yields and cards in the Vassal module. Tabletop games showed some handling issues, with cover tiles over the cities on the general game board.

Scenario 6: Progress

I had the idea that every civilization-building game should have a "tech tree," a series of interconnected technological achievements and abilities. In EPOS, I wanted to link this to the aspects of buying and playing cards and connect it with the existing abilities in the game.

Given the three epochs in the base game, it seemed natural to use a three-tiered tech tree and tie the first level to the base game card abilities as prerequisites. I linked the effects of the new progress cards with the effects of the base cards to enhance them. For example, if you have an Altar and can use it to buy cards, the new progress card "Druids" allows you to take an additional card from the display. I also added unique effects not found in any other scenario, such as a personal builder action.

The progress cards of the first level were prerequisites for the second level progress cards, and these for the third level cards. The levels were tied to the epochs of the regular civilization cards and could only be acquired in the respective epoch. Which progress card unlocked further cards in the next level was indicated by letters on the cards and shown on a separate overview sheet displaying the entire tech tree.

In the first games, we selected the progress cards from a large display of all available cards and bought them with the usual architect action. Then, they had to be played using an architect or builder action and slid under the card that served as a prerequisite for the progress card. The progress card of the next level was then slid under the previous level's progress card, creating a visual development line.

However, acquiring and playing the cards as separate actions made game play for progress cards cumbersome and delayed the benefits of the new cards.

With the many unique abilities of the progress cards, this scenario posed the greatest challenges to the test groups. We set it aside for a while and turned to the other two remaining scenarios in spring 2022.

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

EPOS: A Gentes Game: Designer Diary by Stefan Risthaus, parts II & III

25.07.2024

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.

Berlin Brettspiel Con 2024

Demo with pre-production copy

Live bei Gamefound! EPOS: A Gentes Game

https://gamefound.com/de/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game?ref=search

Als "Add On" könnt ihr übrigens die 2.Auflage (deutschsprachig) von Weimar bekommen.

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You may receive the 2nd edition (English language) of Weimar as an "add on".

EPOS: A Gentes Game: Designer Diary by Stefan Risthaus, part I

23.07.2024

The Beginning: GENTES Expansions

During the development of GENTES, there were several ideas for rule variants and additional components that I did not pursue or removed to keep the game focused and as smooth as possible. When the game was released by Spielworxx in 2017 and the first edition sold out quite quickly, the interest in expansions seemed apparent. Apart from the expansion "New Cities" published in the advent calendar, nothing more happened initially.

Nevertheless, I continued working on some variants because the core mechanism of GENTES serves as an excellent starting point for variants and new ideas. The mechanism, which involves taking an action marker and performing the associated action, is intuitive, and the limited number of different actions makes it easy to learn: buy cards with buildings, play them if you can meet the requirements for further cards, or train professions and build cities to meet the prerequisites.

With the variants and expansions, I focused on individual aspects of the game, such as the training of specific population groups, special functions of the cities on the map, and new supplementary elements that should open up new ways to earn victory points. My notes eventually included more than a dozen modules or scenarios.

While testing various variants, it quickly became apparent that the original components developed for GENTES imposed tight limits, as they were not created with considerations for new rules and variants outside the game.

A concrete example is the rule variant "Road Construction," where we introduced roads between the cities on the map as a new element. The roads should always connect two cities specifically. However, the game board of GENTES contains only individual cities without any geometric or regular arrangement. Therefore, it was practically impossible to determine which cities are adjacent to each other or to which neighboring city a road lying more or less lost in the sea should lead without changing the board.

Additionally, I aimed to integrate the home cities from GENTES, located at the edge of the game board, into game play and thus assign the respective home city to a region.

Another trigger for a fundamental revision of the base game was the high cost of city building. Many players found it frustrating when they wanted to play a civilization card that required a city, but the construction of this city consumed many spaces on the time track, and the city became more or less uninteresting after playing the card.

Against this backdrop, I had many discussions with the publishing partners of GENTES. When it became clear that the release of expansions, etc., would not happen, or at least not in the near future, I decided to fundamentally revise GENTES and immediately consider the options for variants and expansions.

The Misstep: Legacy Campaign as a Starting Point

This was around 2018 or 2019, and everyone around me was caught up in the "Legacy fever," whether due to Pandemic, Risk, or Charterstone. Since I had several different approaches for scenarios, I decided to follow the trend and connect these into a campaign.

Like the major trendsetters, I envisioned a large-scale Legacy campaign spanning at least 12 games, with new rules being added continuously and materials being discarded, supplemented, and replaced. Ideally, I wanted to include a large number of different branches in the campaign, where not all scenarios and materials would be discovered, maintaining the allure of replaying the campaign.

However, I soon realized that playtesting unfinished scenarios within a Legacy framework was not practical. The preparation for test games and the thoughts of the testers were spread across too many different aspects, preventing clear insights from being gained from the sessions.

The enormous effort required to repeatedly change and sort out materials, or to re-sort them for the next game, exceeded the time resources I could dedicate to game development.

Moreover, at that time, it was challenging to assemble stable test groups that could meet for multiple games with the same participants.

The Solution: Campaign, but not Legacy Game; First the Scenarios

Simultaneously, I came to the conclusion that a Legacy game was not the right concept for my project.

The disadvantages of a Legacy concept became increasingly clear through my own experiences. In our gaming groups, we had several sessions within a Legacy campaign that we really enjoyed but couldn't replay. Additional rules and covered materials in subsequent games made it impossible to replay our favorite variant. The large number of new and increasingly complex rules dampened the enjoyment towards the end of a Legacy campaign. Often, the last games were played just "to finish it." The group had little interest in even more new rules. The thirst for discovery of new challenges in terms of additional game options was sated.

From this, I concluded that for the new project, the individual scenarios should be playable independently, and the number of games in a campaign should not be so high that players lose the genuine desire to discover the next scenario.

Independent scenarios offer many advantages. During development, the scenarios can be tested simultaneously, as there is no need to consider the results of the previous scenario's tests. Changes in the first scenarios do not affect the later ones.

For the players, independent scenarios mean no "overkill" of rules, but only the additional rules for the base game needed for the current scenario. This allows players to engage with the newly discovered rule set without being burdened by the rules of the previous scenario. From my perspective, one of the most important advantages is that individual scenarios that the group enjoys can be replayed repeatedly.

Thus, the decision on the next steps was made: I would take a step back, exit the Legacy or campaign development initially, and focus on developing the individual scenarios.

From these considerations, it became clear to me that a fixed set of approximately 8 to 10 scenarios should be created, which can be connected through a meta-level as a campaign but must also be playable individually as a complete experience.

The Restart: Base Game EPOS and GENTES Online

To integrate the home cities more into game play and optimally utilize the game board for various scenarios, I began a revision of the GENTES board. I retained the general structure of the cities but arranged them slightly differently, creating a more or less symmetrical hexagonal grid. In GENTES, the home cities have different functions as they do not provide income in the form of tokens or money but instead offer actions or modifications of actions. To maintain this special status, I could not simply place the home cities among the other cities but instead positioned them in a ring around the "normal" cities, associating them with the neighboring cities of a colored region. Thus, the home cities, now called provinces, can also be activated when another city in the region is built, which was not possible in GENTES due to the lack of region-specific assignment for the home cities.

To facilitate meeting card requirements and bring more activity to the game board overall, I split the city-building action into smaller steps. Instead of one large, complex action to immediately build an entire city, players can now place pioneers in the form of round discs on the game board with "minor" actions, move them around, and thus take control of city-building spaces through majorities. When six pioneers are together, they found a city, which can be used as in GENTES. Without a city, the pioneers can also use the benefits of the city-building space, though at the cost of one pioneer being removed from the board.

Ideas involving military elements, such as eliminating foreign pioneers or destroying cities, were out of the question for me, as this would go against the game's nature. GENTES is a game about building and racing for the best positions and opportunities, not a conflict game.

During this redesign phase, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, unexpectedly ending all playtesting sessions at the game table.

However, there was a lovingly implemented online version of GENTES by Jason Dinger on the Vassal platform. During the pandemic, I also experimented a bit with other platforms. The great advantage of Vassal is that it is easy for non-experts to incorporate graphics for cards, game boards, and tokens, and the game moves can be recorded so that sessions can be replayed and analyzed.

Since the Vassal modules are also publicly accessible, I was able to create my own module based on the GENTES module – of course, in consultation with Jason (thanks again at this point!) – in which I incorporated the revised game board.

As more and more players overcame their reluctance to online sessions during the pandemic and became familiar with the online platforms available, we were soon able to start playtesting sessions over Vassal.

In the run-up to the online SPIEL 2020 fair, I came into contact with André, who also did "booth duty" at our online OSTIA booth, so we chatted and discussed a lot. We started a regular online testing group with Robert, who lives nearby, meeting every Sunday evening, which became the core of all development work. The valuable and often brutally honest feedback from test rounds is extraordinarily valuable for the development of a game. Coupled with extreme enthusiasm to play a game over and over again to make the best of it, the contribution of testers cannot be overestimated. Later, other test groups joined with Carsten, Helge, Martin, Anna, and Jörg, who met on other weekdays and sometimes used Tabletopia.

Thus, partly "thanks" to the pandemic, a testing team was built across half of Europe, from Oslo to Wolfsburg, Hagen to Liechtenstein.

The online tools have the advantage that small changes to cards, etc., can be quickly implemented and tested, as you do not have to print and craft every time you change something in the file. This allowed us to quickly test several adjustments to card costs and effects necessitated by the new city-building and pioneer placement actions.

Apart from the action markers for the Navigator action, I only changed the starting player action marker and the price track for the card display. Whoever takes the starting player action marker, after it has been ignored for some time, receives a higher bonus – indicated on the back. The card purchase with high values was made more attractive by adjusting the price tiers and virtually integrating the cards from the discard pile into the display.

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game?ref=search

EPOS: A Gentes Game bei Gamefound

23/07/24

17.07.2024

EN text below

Am Dienstag ist es soweit – EPOS: A Gentes Game von Stefan Risthaus wird bei Gamefound, etwas später auch in der Spieleschmiede, erscheinen!

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

Es ist Spielworxx´ umfangreichstes und ambitioniertestes Projekt bisher.

Stefan und das Team haben großartige Leistung erbracht und ein ganz tolles Spiel (und Spielerlebnis) erschaffen!

Ihr könnt EPOS übrigens am Wochenende beim Berlin Brettspiel Con spielen, am Samstag und Sonntag ab 13 Uhr auch mit dem Autor!

Wir freuen uns am Kleinstand E-14 auf euren Besuch!

EN

On Tuesday, the time has come – EPOS: A Gentes Game by Stefan Risthaus will be released on Gamefound!

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

It is Spielworxx' most extensive and ambitious project to date.

Stefan and the team have done an excellent job and created a wonderful game (and gaming experience)!

By the way, you can play EPOS this weekend at Berlin Brettspiel Con, on Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm, also with the author!

We look forward to your visit at our booth E-14!

Erscheinungstermine

09.07.2024

Die Root-Produkte sind für den Oktober/November vorgesehen; ebenso die neue Auflage von Pax Pamir DE.

Das Sorgenkind bleibt Ahoy - delays, more delays, weitere Verzögerungen. Sobald ich einen Termin habe, melde ich mich. Nervend.

Die Crowdfunding-Kampagnen von EPOS: A Gentes Game bei Gamefound und der Spieleschmiede starten am 23.07.

Raising Chicago wird ab dem 20.08. vorzubestellen sein.

EPOS - A Gentes Game: More Photos

Basisspiel, 4 Personen, Aufbau

Base Game, 4 players, set up

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

EPOS - A Gentes Game: Some Photos

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

Root DE und Pax Pamir DE

02.06.2024

Gute Neuigkeiten: Wir haben die Druckzusage des Lizenzgebers, Leder Games, für einige Root-Produkte erhalten. Diese sind nun vorbestellbar und sollten uns im Herbst erreichen.

Ebenso wird es eine limitierte Neuauflage von Pax Pamir DE geben - auch hier ist der Erscheinungstermin "Herbst". Wir konnten ein Kontingent Metallmünzen sichern.

https://www.spielworxx.de/shop/

Weimar & EPOS

07.05.2024 EN text below

Zu Weimar gibt es, sowohl in deutscher als auch in englischer Sprache, nun Vassal-Module: Weimar: The Fight For Democracy

Was sind die wichtigsten Unterschiede zwischen EPOS und Gentes?

EPOS bietet ein fesselndes Basisspiel-Erlebnis, das weitere Spielmechanismen hinzufügt und es so von Gentes abhebt.

* Erkundet 8 einzigartige Szenarien, die jeweils sogfältig mit zusätzlichen Komponenten, Regeln und unerwarteten Wendungen gestaltet sind.

* Begebt euch auf epische Abenteuer mit 2 Kampagnenoptionen: eine Reise, die alle 8 Szenarien für ein immersives Erlebnis verknüpft, oder eine kürzere Kampagne mit 4 zufällig gewählten Szenarien für eine sehr spannende Herausforderung. Erschließt euch eine Welt voller strategischer Tiefe und unendlicher Möglichkeiten.

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EN

There are Vassal modules, both English and German, available for Weimar:

Weimar: The Fight For Democracy

What are the key differences between EPOS and Gentes?

EPOS offers a captivating base game experience, enriched with additional game mechanics that set it apart from Gentes.

* Explore 8 unique scenarios, each meticulously crafted with additional components, rules, and unexpected twists.

* Embark on epic adventures with 2 campaign options: A journey that intertwines all 8 scenarios for an immersive experience, or a shorther campaign featuring 4 randomly selected scenarios for a thrilling challenge. Unlock a world of strategic depth and endless possibilities.

Visit Epos Gentes Presale

Epos: A Gentes Game on Gamefound

Presale Seite

Gamefound

El Burro: A La Granja Game - some photos

03.05.2024

Unten findet ihr einige Fotos vom gestrigen Abend: El Burro, deutsche Ausgabe, aufgebaut für 3 Personen.

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Below are some photos from yesterday evening - El Burro, German edition, set up for a 3-player game.

El Burro: A La Granja Game

02.05.2024

Eine Restmenge von El Burro: A La Granja ist nun im Shop verfügbar.

Bitte denkt daran, die korrekte Ausgabe (DE oder EN zu bestellen). Vielen Dank!

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The remaining copies of El Burro: A La Granja are now available in the shop.

Please remember to order the correct edition (EN or DE). Thank you!

El Burro and EPOS

30.04.2024 EN text below

El Burro und Sparta sind inzwischen verschickt worden.

Weitere Exemplare des großartigen El Burro werden wir Donnerstag im Webshop einstellen.

https://www.spielworxx.de/shop/

Zum fantastischen EPOS: A Gentes Game gibt es inzwischen eine „presale page“ und eine „campaign preview page“:

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

Beachtet die Golden Geeks:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3288794/18th-annual-golden-geek-awards-nominees-announced

Oranienburger Kanal ist als bestes 2-Personenspiel nominiert, Weimar als bestes Wargame!

Unsere Webseite hier wird gerade step by step etwas aufgehübscht...

Schließlich haben Ben und ich haben eine neue Spielworxx Bulletin-Podcast-Folge aufgezeichnet - schaut unter "Podcasts".

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EN

El Burro and Sparta have been shipped.

Additional copies of the wonderful El Burro will appear in our webstore on Thursday.

https://www.spielworxx.de/shop/

The fantastic EPOS: A Gentes Game has a “presale page“ and a “campaign preview page“ in the meantime:

https://presale.epos-gentes.com/

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/spielworxx/epos-a-gentes-game

Please take a look at the Golden Geeks:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3288794/18th-annual-golden-geek-awards-nominees-announced

Oranienburger Kanal has been nominated as best 2-player-game, Weimar as best wargame!

Right now, our website here is revised step by step...

Finally, Ben and I have done another episode of the Spielworxx Bulletin:, please take a look under "podcast".

Capstone Games und Spielworxx werden Partner!

05.04.2024 EN text below

Capstone Games und Spielworxx werden Partner! Schaut dazu bitte unten.

El Burro und Sparta werden Montag oder Dienstag im Lager eintreffen. Bitte gebt uns einige Zeit zum „Sortieren“; dann wird (endlich) ausgeliefert.

In Kürze wird die EPOS: A Gentes Game „presale page“ online gehen. Ich bin vom Spiel mehr als angefixt!

Root: Es findet sich eine neue Version des Gesetz´ von Root hier (bitte scrollen):

Downloads

Neben kleineren Querverweiskorrekturen sind nun im pdf Lesezeichen enthalten und die Querverweise verlinkt, so dass man durch einen Klick an die entsprechende Stelle im Dokument springt.

Wenn ihr Podcasts mögt, werft bitte einen Blick auf das Spielworxx Bulletin:

https://www.spielworxx.de/podcast/

Last, but not least, befindet sich das sehr interessante Spiel Friedrich Ebert – Der Weg zur Demokratie von OSTIA z.Zt. in der Spieleschmiede:

https://www.spiele-offensive.de/Spieleschmiede/Friedrich-Ebert/

Unterstützt dieses Projekt bitte!

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EN

Capstone Games and Spielworxx are partnering! Take a look below.

The "presale page" for EPOS: A Gentes Game will be online in short time. I´m so excited for this game!

If you like podcasts, please check out the Spielworxx Bulletin:

https://www.spielworxx.de/podcast/

John Company 2: Metallmünzen / Metal Coins

05.03.2024 (edited 08.03.)

Wir haben einen Restbestand an Metallmünzen für John Company 2 - bitte nutzt bei Interesse den Link unten.

We´re having a few sets of metal coins for John Company 2 - if interested, please use the link below.

https://www.spielworxx.de/produkte-shop/

Vergriffen/sold out

Yunnan

03.03.2024

Auf den Seiten 14-16 der Spielerei Nr.142 wird Aaron Haags Yunnan sehr positiv rezensiert.

Der Rezensent kommt zum Schluss: "Ein herrlicher Teetrank für Taktiker und Strategen, die aber auch etwas austeilen und einstecken...können müssen, ohne es persönlich zu nehmen."

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German Spielerei magazine #142 (pages 14-16) reviews Aaron Haag´s Yunnan very positively.

The reviewer concludes: "A splendid tea drink for tacticians and strategists who must also be able to dish out and take a bit of heat... without taking it personally."

https://www.spielworxx.de/produkte-shop/