Still waiting on some of the people who downloaded the game to get a shot at running it, just thought I would toss out some of my own notes so far:
-Firstly: the print-to-play test zip I uploaded *is* slightly tweaked from the deck I started with to reflect a few things I observed at first, mainly the Harpies being a game breaker and monsters overall having too much defense and too many HP (though my initial runs gave *everyone and everything* 5 HP while I got a feel for how easy dealing out damage would be.
-Monsters are intended to be more of an inconvenience than super lethal, something that you would do well not to let linger but you can still move on to other rooms if you’re willing to risk running into more encounters. I’ve described them before as essentially ‘status effects’ you can cure by beating on them. I’m still not totally sure what the best way to handle multiple encounters at once would be. ‘Stacking’ monsters seems like a lacking solution and just making multiple actions per opponent could bog things down.
-I’d dare say the game’s solo play mode is working smoother than the PVP, or maybe I just confuse myself too easily hopping from side to side of the table.
-The primary/support stats aren’t so confusing after a while, I just kind of worry about tossing too many numbers around. Having a flat Support stat may pump up leader stats a little too much since it meant attack AND defense go up at least 1 point per living party member rather than support characters providing a specific stat boost.
-One thing that stood out to me in my longest run was that if you open up the Healing Spring in solo play, there’s really nothing keeping a player from just going back and healing to full after each fight. Maybe a turn limit is in order, or some kind of cap on spring use.
-The skill system is also feeling a little bit flat. Part of it is probably only having like 1 to 3 of each equipment type in the test deck, but I’m considering flipping the way the cards work so that the Character Card will have all the character’s special attacks and you’ll need to ‘spend’ a corresponding item type to activate a special skill. (e.g.; giving the fighter card the description for Cleave, and having the player use a sword card to activate it.) I guess it comes down to whether it’s better to have a fairly basic character with access to a wide number of skills, or a more distinct but limited character.
-Next round I may give a more advanced wounding system a try as well- the current rule is that you receive 1 wound period per failed combat round.
Right now I’m trying to whip myself into doing more character art for the initial set, but I’d like to compile a revised edition next week if some of these changes test well. Otherwise, I may just add some more cards, period so some of the more ‘exotic’ classes can be tossed into the fray for testing. In particular, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Alchemist class will work out, a largely support focused character who can Transmute items and gear.