Creator Response Length Of Game?
- Thread starter MooSpyker
- Start date
ConraDargo
Tiller
Yes, ofc you can! It's your game and you can do whatever you want with it - house rules are a big part of any board game and widely used by board gamers :D
How well it balances out is for you to discover! ^^
How well it balances out is for you to discover! ^^
Valimure
Tiller
You could definitely do a two year game, just know that the one year already takes somewhere around 2-3 hours depending on the number of players. Unless your goal is just making the game way easier, I'd say to add in the other 4 grandpa goal cards so that you need to complete all 8, and then either double each bundle's required resources or add an extra bundle per room.
Technically yes, you could add more cards to the season deck to make the game easier. I'd only add one per season though. Like I said before, adding all the season cards is going to extend your game time to ridiculous proportions when you really don't need that many turns to win!
Technically yes, you could add more cards to the season deck to make the game easier. I'd only add one per season though. Like I said before, adding all the season cards is going to extend your game time to ridiculous proportions when you really don't need that many turns to win!
LRangerR
Local Legend
This pretty much. House-ruling is a long and fun tradition for many board gamers. While some enjoy playing by-the-book, some enjoy tweaking the game to fit their own needs and personal enjoyment. I guess it's kinda like modding, but without the need for any scripting, lol.
LRangerR
Local Legend
*gasp!*
When house rules become game rules!
MooSpyker
Cowpoke
Thanks for all the replies. Main reason I asked is I plan to play solo for a while (not many people around to play with) and I have not played much yet but from what I've seen it seemed hard to play the normal game with 1 player considering I only get 2 actions per card. Seems hard to manage to do so many things. Is there some other variant for solo players? I only seen a brief mention about solo players in the rulebook. Should I be playing the easy mode rules in a solo game?
You certainly can, note that in single player when the seasons end you can draw three profession cards from any of the profession decks and pick one to keep- that lets you have a bit more variation in what perks you can have.
ConraDargo
Tiller
One thing that I've changed when playing solo is that even during seasonal events I still do a full turn with my character! Cuz it only seems logical and natural that I'm still able to e.g. water my crops or go fishing :) Especially since only very small parts of the valley would be closed off in the "real" game when there's a festival or whatnot going on.
This is the intended rule for festivals. Players still take turns as normal when a festival appears, just like any other season card, but they just don't get the benefit of symbols triggered from the normal season cards. They only experience the beneficial effect of the festival as written on the card.
linkmastr001
Tiller
Now you have me wondering what a cross between a "short" game and a "2 year" game would be like.
For example, each season is 2 cards, but after winter ends, you reset to spring (with 2 new cards for each season). Would likely be easier then a normal game, but could be something different!
MooSpyker
Cowpoke
That would be cool, and give you a chance to try again at some missed bundle cards, instead of replacing impossible ones.
ConraDargo
Tiller
OH! Well then! Glad thing it's normal mode XD
Rahuruk
Greenhorn
I'm actually designing a 2 year version of the game myself. I might be done with the first draft some time this week but then it'll have to go through playtesting.
Not actually sure how long it could take as I generally am all over the place with ideas on mechanic changes or brand new additions.
Not actually sure how long it could take as I generally am all over the place with ideas on mechanic changes or brand new additions.
Rahuruk
Greenhorn
Alright I've done some playtesting and I gotta hand it to Cole. The more games I've played the more it seems completely unnecessary to add house rules to this game to ease up the difficulty, it really shows that he playtested the hell out of this game before releasing it.
The only areas that actually seem to need minor tweaks in my experience are bug meat acquisition, animals, and game length.
For animals I was thinking that having two professions that focus on crops (watering can/hoe) is kinda overkill, and there's possibly room for either replacing the hoe or just directly adding a 5th profession focused on animal husbandry.
Also speaking of game length, I have playtest the two year campaign.
The main changes to the 2 year campaign were:
Year 1: 4 goals as normal + 6 bundles
Year 2: 4 year 1 goals turned back faceup to be completed again in addition to the 4 unused goals, for 8 total goals + 6 new bundles.
Also several goals in year 2 are increased in difficulty.
All Joja tiles must be gone by the end of year 2.
As well as several other changes that I'm not going to go into full detail on in this post, you can find the full campaign files here. (note: I wrote it for 3-4 player games only)
The intention was that year one would play as normal but with the epic items gained in year one and other things like marriage being used to their fullest to beat the extra hard 2nd year.
It played perfectly actually, if not a bit too easy (completely won by the last day of fall, and had so much surplus gold that Joja tiles would be immediately removed if they showed up winter)
It was brutally long as well, too long. So much that I am abandoning the idea of a 2 year game. I only work on what is fun for me and to me 2 years is too damn long.
I am now going to focus on coming up with a way to balance adding more season cards and a 5th grandpa goal to the standard 1 year game.
1 year is too short but 2 is too long, I will try and find an in-between that feels good.
I would also like to report that the Wizard Tower idea worked out incredibly well. Felt fantastic to use and didn't feel like it screwed up any of the difficulty at all.
The only areas that actually seem to need minor tweaks in my experience are bug meat acquisition, animals, and game length.
For animals I was thinking that having two professions that focus on crops (watering can/hoe) is kinda overkill, and there's possibly room for either replacing the hoe or just directly adding a 5th profession focused on animal husbandry.
Also speaking of game length, I have playtest the two year campaign.
The main changes to the 2 year campaign were:
Year 1: 4 goals as normal + 6 bundles
Year 2: 4 year 1 goals turned back faceup to be completed again in addition to the 4 unused goals, for 8 total goals + 6 new bundles.
Also several goals in year 2 are increased in difficulty.
All Joja tiles must be gone by the end of year 2.
As well as several other changes that I'm not going to go into full detail on in this post, you can find the full campaign files here. (note: I wrote it for 3-4 player games only)
The intention was that year one would play as normal but with the epic items gained in year one and other things like marriage being used to their fullest to beat the extra hard 2nd year.
It played perfectly actually, if not a bit too easy (completely won by the last day of fall, and had so much surplus gold that Joja tiles would be immediately removed if they showed up winter)
It was brutally long as well, too long. So much that I am abandoning the idea of a 2 year game. I only work on what is fun for me and to me 2 years is too damn long.
I am now going to focus on coming up with a way to balance adding more season cards and a 5th grandpa goal to the standard 1 year game.
1 year is too short but 2 is too long, I will try and find an in-between that feels good.
I would also like to report that the Wizard Tower idea worked out incredibly well. Felt fantastic to use and didn't feel like it screwed up any of the difficulty at all.
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kailomonkey
Sodbuster
I've only played one game already but I like the possibility of adding an extra season card to each season perhaps. With only one player each season was just so short it did not feel like I could use it. I really just want to try and win with the base rules though so I will probably play again by the base rules.
kailomonkey
Sodbuster
Reporting in that I resolved the issue of the seasons feeling short by making a playlist on youtube to change background music while playing for each season! Also I once chose to play on into year 2 simply because I had several goals left and the buildings available meant I had plenty else to try and achieve (I could get married and get a horse which I hadn't managed in year 1).
I built the year 2 deck out of unused season cards and added a new facedown bundle every season end to further stretch the goals, starting from that first winter end. That can only amount to 4 extra goals and felt very relaxed in year 2 so if you wanted to play a second year and keep up the challenge level, I'd perhaps add more than this especially as you will have access to better items and tools from the start of the year, could call it 2 bundles per season end for example! Joja could also be a goal to clear, as noted in extended rules, although I think once you've achieved the community centre once, Joja should be stopped from adding tiles by the game's logic of defeating Joja, but would likely be less fun. I'd also suggest considering adding at least one more building to the available pool per year. I also put the discarded fish bag tiles back into the bag except legendary ones.
I built the year 2 deck out of unused season cards and added a new facedown bundle every season end to further stretch the goals, starting from that first winter end. That can only amount to 4 extra goals and felt very relaxed in year 2 so if you wanted to play a second year and keep up the challenge level, I'd perhaps add more than this especially as you will have access to better items and tools from the start of the year, could call it 2 bundles per season end for example! Joja could also be a goal to clear, as noted in extended rules, although I think once you've achieved the community centre once, Joja should be stopped from adding tiles by the game's logic of defeating Joja, but would likely be less fun. I'd also suggest considering adding at least one more building to the available pool per year. I also put the discarded fish bag tiles back into the bag except legendary ones.
Natethedrake
Greenhorn
The first time I played, I didnt read that I was supposed to only use 16 season cards.
I knew I messed up when I was done with grandpa's goals before the end of spring. After a couple of plays I have opted for 20 or 24 season cards so I can more easily finish community bundles. One time I did play with the full deck, intentionally that time, to get that laid back/take my time feel that stardew valley has. Nice morning with a pot of coffee and my cat.