I think at this point, I’ve addressed (in some regard) the big feedback items from the playtest. There’s only one left that I think needs some attention:
Players end up with lots of ingredients that they can’t use. There are times where available ingredients just don’t match up with the ones needed for recipes, Player are then stuck with a bunch of dead cards in their hands.
I’ve had this same feeling in games like Ticket to Ride, I’ve got a million cards in my hand and no way to use them. It can be a frustrating feeling. I’ve added a four simple, always available actions, that players can take on their turns - one in particular to adress the overabundance of “useles” ingredients is the recycle bin.
The idea being that players can discard ingredients on their turn, earning +1 coin for each. Currently, I also have this costing a player’s action for the turn, so you wouldn’t be able to recycle a bunch of ingredients and then complete a recipe or go to market. However, players still can spend their coins freely on their turn whenever they see fit.
New Shipment will allow players to spend 3 coins on their turn to clear the market row. This addresses another small annoyance as sometimes the market row just doesn’t have the cards you want/need. I wanted this to be somewhat affordable so players don’t feel like they shouldn’t do it. I also made sure this didn’t cost an action so players could take a chance on clearing the market row before they used their go to market action to pick cards.
Tonight’s Special is a little bit different, but stems from the same frustration of a recipe row with poor selections. Players can spend 3 coins to remove 1 recipe from the recipe row. When replenishing, players place 3 coins on the new recipe as an added incentive for whomever completes that recipe. I didn’t want players to be able to wipe the entire recipe row - I think that feels too chaotic for players trying to plan a few recipes in advance. But, I still wanted this to feel like something that could tip the scales in your favor slightly. Maybe you happen to have the ingredients for the new recipe and score the +3 coins? If not, then this action creates a bit of a race to see who can finish the bonus recipe.
Secret Menu is the last of the new, always available actions. This one is designed to help players that end up feeling stuck on objectives. Players can spend 18 coins (and thier actiong for the turn) to draw 3 new objectives, and keep one - returning the others to the bottom of the deck. I made this one much more expensive than the others. I didn’t want players simply drawing new objective cards unitl they get one that wins them the game. Considering the added cost of using a player’s action for the turn, I’m hopeful that this will be something done rarely, and toward the end of a game.
Aaaaannnnd, I beleive those are all of the changes that I will make before the next playtest! I’m hopeful that this next one will run smoother - and maybe we’ll actually be able to finish!