A Thunder of Dragons – The First Game

The first game of A Thunder of Dragons is designed as a tutorial. Drawing inspiration from so many legacy games, you get to play with the basic mechanics, before more complexity is added. Below is how game 1 unfolds. I’ll include relevant comments about the evolution of the game as we go.

The Components

The game comes with a rule book. Actually the whole game is a rule book, because it’s a MaYP game, and the player supplies everything else. The rules cover a few pages, and the campaign/hidden information read more

A Thunder of Dragons – Index Page

This is an easy way of accessing all the posts regarding the design and development of A Thunder of Dragons. This is another Make as You Play game, like my still unnamed Shipwrecked game.

Star Charter – Games 9 to 18

A continuation of my Star Charter campaign; Game 1, Games 2 to 4 & Games 5 to 8. This post will not show every game, but is more of a highlights reel.

The RWinder has released V1.0 of Star Charter so you can now play for yourself. If you are new to Make as You Play, this game would be a great introduction.

Game 10

Star Charter - Game 10 Map

My first outer ring world. It costs 18 to travel from the middle ring to the outer ring. But because I created the hub world of Beaulise in Sector 41., and I could create a space lane from 43. to 41., it only cost me 9.

Game 13

Star Charter - Game 13 Map
Star Charter - Game 13 Cards

Lots of travel around the middle ring in this game, with no hub worlds. That’s 3 hops that cost me 12 fuel each, and then 9 fuel to make the 3rd and final jump to an outer sector, creating a hub world and space lane. You can also see how the cards in the travel line are starting to have a decent amount of fuel on them, to help make the outer worlds more accessible.

Game 16

Star Charter - Game 16 Map
Star Charter - Game 16 Cards 1
Star Charter - Game 16 Cards 2

My longest journey so far. Even though it was mostly around the inner sectors, I still ended up with a world with 8 fuel.

Game 17

Star Charter - Game 17 Map
Star Charter - Game 17 Cards

This was a short game, but the final jump illustrates something interesting. I finished on a new outer sector, but I jumped from a middle sector that already had 3 space lanes. So even though I created the new hub world of Murpokku, I did not get a discount to travel, and it cost me 18 Fuel.

Game 18

Star Charter - Game 18 Map
Star Charter - Game 18 Cards 1 Star Charter - Game 18 Cards 2

New record journey. I actually ran out of cubes, because I only carry 8 of each type with me. And again I finished on an outer hub world with no space lane, so I didn’t get the fuel discount. But my deck now has a world card with 11 fuel.

This is a post (tangentially) about the design and development of a currently unnamed Shipwreck Game. You can see the other Blog posts at the Index for the Game.

Star Charter – Games 5 to 8

A continuation of my Star Charter campaign; Game 1 & Games 2 to 4.

Game 5

Star Charter - Game 5 Map
Star Charter - Game 5 Cards

The early deck, containing 2 worlds in each sector, aids in stringing together a longer journey. The ability to discard any extra 0 cost worlds allows you to draw more cards, and I created my first 6 fuel card at the end of this game. (43. Hydarnes is also an Urbanised Mafia planet with Cruel Ships, which is quite evocative.) My exploration of the middle ring means I am creating a lot of hub worlds, and making space lanes, which halves my fuel cost. 3 fuel (instead of 6) to go from Medama to Álvaro, and 6 fuel (instead of 12) to from Álvaro to Hydarnes.

I also used up the last 2 blanks in the deck, which also helped with drawing more cards to my hand after a turn. I will no longer get this benefit, because I have a 21 card deck, with 21 worlds. From this point on, I will grab a new blank card from outside the game with each new world I create. And my deck will be continuously increasing in size.

Game 6

Star Charter - Game 6 Map
Star Charter - Game 6 Cards

Game 6 is my first recorded fail as I only created 2 new worlds this game. Looking at it now; my last turn created a new hub world, and I could create a new space lane, I would only need 6 fuel to travel to 43. or 42. to create a new world there. It’s certainly possible I had that fuel, but might have passed because I didn’t have 12 fuel in hand, which is the normal fuel cost. What ever the case, I didn’t make a third world, and my deck has 23 cards in it.

I’ll also mention here that each of these games takes 15 minutes to play. It’s super quick to explore the galaxy, find and create a world, so a mistake here could have been because I was rushing a bit, and had no problems resetting to start a new game.

Game 7

Star Charter - Game 7 Map
Star Charter - Game 7 Cards

This is a quick game, showing how a bad decision can make you end things quickly. I go from 22. to 11. and then decide to double back on myself in the middle ring. I have now locked myself into creating 3 new worlds, because there are no previous worlds I can travel to from those sectors. If I had gone into 65. and continued anti-clockwise, I might have drawn worlds in sectors that I could have traveled, lengthening my journey, and generating more fuel. You live and you learn.

Game 8

Star Charter - Game 8 Map
Star Charter - Game 8 Cards 1
Star Charter - Game 8 Cards 2

Game 8 was a good one. I drew lots of good cards, and got a run up to 3 new worlds with lots of fuel, include our new high mark of 7. I now have a deck of 29 cards.

Going forward, I won’t log every play (I currently have 33 in this first campaign), but just those that illustrate something new about the game play. I think the basics have very much been explained through 8 games.

This is a post (tangentially) about the design and development of a currently unnamed Shipwreck Game. You can see the other Blog posts at the Index for the Game.