Going over the rules:
Our two different set of rules were based around strategic deliberation, or quick thinking and anticipating movements. We’ll dub both versions the longer and shorter versions for the sake of simplicity.
Playtesting the longer version:
* Ghosts deafen themselves. Hunters deliberate on positions.
* Hunters deafen themselves. Ghosts deliberate on positions.
* Both teams reveal positions, Hunters first, and then clashes are resolved accordingly.
* Ghosts can move anywhere on the map. Hunters can only move to a room adjacent to the one they are currently stood in. Both must move to another room on their next turn.
* In a stalemate (3 ghosts vs 3 hunters in the same room), Hunters win and the Ghosts are removed from the game.
Conclusions with this version!
* Boredom: The deafened team pretty much did nothing for quite a while, which led to loss of interest from that very team until it was there turn.
* Unseen advantages: The Ghosts could claim rooms immediately that Hunters cannot reach, which then forces Hunters to play with a smaller amount of rooms.
* Poor movement: The layout of the map inhibited the Hunter team from moving properly, adding another advantage to the Ghosts’ team.
* Too slow: it takes too long to deliberate, and lacks a quick resolution, sometimes making the game exceed the assignment’s time limit.
Playtesting the shorter version!
Trini came up with this one! Essentially the execution goes as fellows:
* Teams toss coin to determine who goes first, and move to their positions. They do so by typing their position in the chat at the same time as the rest of their team.
* Clashes are revealed on the end of the Hunter Team’s turn.
* Ghosts can move anywhere on the map. Hunters can only move to a room adjacent to the one they are currently stood in. Both must move to another room on their next turn.
* In a stalemate (3 ghosts vs 3 hunters in the same room), Hunters win and the Ghosts are removed from the game.
Conclusions with this version!
* Stalemates are still favorable to the Hunters, Ghosts may still claim 3 rooms before Hunters can do anything.
* Less strategic, more random and impromptu. This solves both the boredom and slowness of the previous game, by letting things become a bit more chaotic.
* Still the issue of movement for Hunters.
After playtesting with other members of the course, we decided that adding two additional rooms and a pathway to from the kitchen to the Game Room would grant Hunters sufficient an edge to go toe to toe with the other team. These are the proposed changes:
Final Thoughts on Session:
During playtesting, players expressed they prefered the shorter version as it gave more dynamics to the game, and I agree. It felt better are more reactive than the longer, more strategic version.
There was also talk of a way for Hunters to ‘unclaim’ rooms. These rooms had been claimed by Ghosts taking their turn to move towards it, so long as it wasn’t occupied by a Hunter. However we felt as if players didn’t understand that Hunters could enter already claimed rooms safely, rather than stay out of them. This could have prevented a number of Hunter losses during playtest so that’ll be improved later on.
Sadly, we couldn’t completely get rid of the Game Master, someone still needs to set up the board and note people’s placements down. The only way to properly get it replaced would be digitally.