As you can see from the picture here and over on the Ramesses game page, we have updated the game board for Ramesses: The Great Builder Pharaoh. We went with the modular design like we are now using in V.I.P.E.R. Ops. It allows a lot more flexibility on table space and will be easier to produce. The addition of graphics (albeit temporary versions borrowed from the internet) and color really enhance the experience, even though it is still just playtest and new graphics will have to be created for production.

We also made some changes to Ramesses intended to speed up the game. First, the starting assets of the players have been altered. You now get to start the game with: an architect, a mason, two workers, a four production farm, a residence, three plus gold (depending on your position in the play order), two pigments, and three stone. The mason is an upgrade from a third worker, and both the stone and pigments are additions. The addition of the residence is not brand new, but is still relatively new and now is required to support the addition of the mason. Also, we decided to have the base game be played to 15 favor points. The original game had a goal of 30 points and we have steadily decreased that number to shorten the game. The plan would be to document the base game as being played to 15 points, but allowing for longer games if the players choose to play to 20, 25 or 30 points. Some of the larger projects have been removed for the short games but will be added back in for the longer games.

We also decided to try a change for the event card deck that may speed up the game. We decided to make the game have multiple ages in regards to the events. The initial age will be the Age of Peace. This will last 7 turns. The second is the Age of War with the Nubians (9 turns), and the third is the Age of War with the Hyksos (the remainder of the game). These ages are managed by having a limited number of events in the event deck and then when they are exhausted, adding cards needed for the next age.

The other major change to the game was the change in the way the Architect worked. The architect had previously given the players a special ability on each station which the player had to decide best how to use since each player only gets one architect use per turn. But the architect effect was different for almost every station, making the player choose between apples and oranges in deciding how to use its power. The new idea makes the architect a little more uniform. Previously, the architect allowed the player to override the blockage of station usage on a few of the stations. Now, the architect has two functions on most stations. On most stations the architect can be used as an override, but he also has a second ability that can be used if he is not being used as an override. The result is that there are far more ways to use your architect, but he can still only be used once per turn. This change has worked extremely well in playtesting and has added much more interesting gameplay.

All of the above changes have worked very well and have been adopted for the base game. Two games have been played (with two players) and the game times were 1 hour and 58 minutes and then 1 hour and 50 minutes. These are both very acceptable times. We think these times will come down a little more if the players are not discussing the rules during gameplay (as we were).

On the last play we tried moving the Skilled Labor Market to the Resource phase and then having the Power cards that allow free training of a skilled worker to be used instead as an indication that a skilled worker was available for hire in the Skilled Labor Market. This was a great change for the game. To compensate for the shift of this station to the resource phase, we moved the Tool and Weapon maker to the Build Phase and renamed it Craftsmen’s Hall. We also made improvements to make the weapons more useful, since nobody was making them. They are now permanent once built (instead of one-time use) and can be used by non-warriors, but as one defense instead of two.

Several games back we noticed that the specialty buildings (e.g. Mason’s Guild) were not coming out early enough to make a difference and have been trying various things to address this problem. We also made them easier to build. The latest is that they are mixed in with the Farm/Quarry/Residence/ Barracks building population scheme and two of these buildings will be drawn every turn (for 2-3 players – more for 4-5 players). We will continue playtesting the two-player game until this is worked out and then try the four player game.

Just a note about Knight’s Journey – The Board Game. This is a fantasy adventure game I am working on that is based on the roleplaying game I designed and used extensively in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I see this as primarily a two-player but possibly three or four-player game.

We have developed and done initial testing on the combat system. The game is designed to give the players 16 skill sets they can develop. There are four weapon skillsets such as “Blades”, four magic skill sets such as “Elemental Magic”, four attribute skill sets such as “Strength”, and four miscellaneous skill sets such as “Pathfinding”. Many of these skill sets will have some aspect that can be used in combat. The skills will initially have ranks from 1-6 that the players can raise by gaining experience. Each of the skills, as well as items the players own such as spells, weapons, armor, and shields etc and also hired or conjured creatures will give the players combat cards they can use. For each combat, the player and the enemy they are facing will have to select which cards they will use. These cards will be distributed (mostly randomly, but sometimes deliberately) into rounds (usually 5 cards per round) and then combat will take place by the opponent’s playing cards against each other over the designated rounds. This system has been testing over a variety of situations in about ten combats and seems to work very well and is very fun.

We are in the process of creating enough skill, item, and enemy cards to allow a player to simulate a mini adventure so that we can test several more aspects including traveling, questing, visiting cities, and upgrading the hero. Stay tuned for further updates.

Updates to Ramesses plus a short intro to Knight's Journey the Board Game

V.I.P.E.R. Ops updates and the new game Dragonstorm

The Dark Side of Being a Game Designer

The Dark Side of Game Development

Harvey Cornell