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.

Star Charter – Games 2, 3 & 4

Game 2

Game 2 of Star Charter played very similar to Game 1 (but I traveled clockwise). At the end things looked like this.

Star Charter - Game 2 Map
Star Charter - Game 2 Cards

Now, I almost certainly had 3 fuel by the last hand which could have got me out to the middle ring. But I missed the rule about half price fuel when traveling from, or to, a hub world, along a space lane. Or maybe I thought it didn’t count when you first traveled to the hub world. Either way, I played like this, and had an 18 card deck with 12 worlds; 2 in each of the inner sectors.

Game 3

Game 3 I also start from 33. Stepanov. I create a third world in both 44. and 55. before revisiting the hub world in 66. I have the fuel to get to the middle ring on my last turn of the game (or maybe I finally understand the rules correctly) and I can go to 65., 61. or 54. I settle on creating a new Hub world, 61. Garde, and a space lane connecting that world to 66. Carax.

Star Charter - Game 3 Map
Star Charter - Game 3 Cards

Game 4

I have created 3 new worlds in each of my first 3 games, to add to the 6 prologue worlds. So at the start of game 4, the deck has 15 cards with worlds on them, and only 3 blanks remain. Hands of cards have changed from being mostly blanks with the occasional world, to all worlds, with the occasional blank.

My journey starts at 11. Parajong & I play 22. Tranmere from hand on my first turn. It takes some thinking about, because it’s worth 5 fuel if I keep it in my hand. But extending the journey, and making better fuel cards, is worth more in the long run. But that’s the only useful card I have, and my replacement cards don’t help. So I create 33. G’mina with the last blank card in my hand. But I have drawn a heap of fuel, so I can safely head to the middle ring to chart the next 2 new worlds.

Adding Cards to the Deck

Star Charter - Game 4 Turn 3 Map
Star Charter - Game 4 Turn 3 Cards

From 33. I can travel to 21., 34. or 32. It’s a coin toss really, but I choose to create the hub world 34. Zhetikara. Mostly because it’s directly opposite 61. which I created last game. Because I have no blank cards in hand, I draw a blank one from my stack of empties, and place it to the right of the travel line. As well as the usual steps in creating a world, I also have to assign it a number. I do this by discarding a card from the deck, and adding 1 to the revealed number (unless I discard a 6, in which case I make it a 1). In this way, the numbers in the deck should even out over the long term, but could get distorted in the short term, affecting the draws of the tables. I discard a 5, so 34. Zhetikara becomes a 6 card.

I’m traveling to a hub world, so I create a space lane between 33. and 34. and it only costs me 3 fuel. Because I created the new world with a new card, and not one from my hand, I have only used 1 card this turn (for the fuel), and so for the first time I just draw 1 from the deck. This lessens the chance of me drawing useful cards, but it also gives me more control of knowing what cards I will have in future turns. This alters the game play a little.

I do not draw a blank card, so I need to use another new one to create 32. Al-Fateh. Again, I discard a 5 from the deck when numbering this card, so another 6 is added to my deck. This is my first time in this sector, so another space lane is created between these 2 new hub worlds, and my fuel cost is again halved. It generally costs 12 to move around the middle ring, but these first visits will only cost me 6.

After Game 4

Star Charter - Game 4 Map
Star Charter - Game 4 Cards

At the end of game 4, the map is starting to get a bit more character, and I have a deck with 20 cards, 2 blanks, and 5 sixes, compared to only having 3 of the other numbers. I also have 34 total fuel in the deck, split over 12 cards, so more traveling to, and around, the middle ring is definitely in the future.

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.