As we all know by know that there are a few characters which are much better than others. The random character variant gives a nice break from the usual first player, second player selections but has its own issue in that it can give a good character to one and a very bad to another.
I keep trying to think of ways to improve this...
An issue lots of games have is first player advantage.
Glow basically gives player one a double advantage with first pick of character and then first pick of companion. This allows them to have the best synergy companion for all eight rounds. The game tries to compensate for this by giving a few reroll tokens but this is a drop in the ocean
Taking a three player game was an example
If we add some arbitrary numbers to each pick and presume that for each round:
- the first pick gets the best choice of cards so picks have a value of 3, 2, 1
- the overall pick value is N times the value with N being the number of rounds it can be used in
We then get a grid like:
Round 1 | pick 1 = 24 (3*8) | pick 2 = 16 (2*8) | pick 3 = 8
Round 2 | 21 | 14 | 7
Round 3 | 18 | 12 | 6
...
If you add up the value for each player you get:
P1 = 75
P2 = 75
P3 = 66
As you can already see, player three is at a disadvantage (but gets two reroll tokens
This however isn't the full story. Based on choice of character there is likely a multiplier to apply based on their strength. Again we can presume, first pick gets the best choice and this decreases based on order
P1 | 75 * 1 = 75
P2 | 75 * 0.9 = 68
P3 | 66 * 0.8 = 53
This seems like a reasonable representation in my experience. There is much more going on so it's not this black and white before anyone streets saying this, but as a relative example it gives the idea I think
What I would therefore, suggest either as a variant (if approved by the publisher), or as a suggestion for any future editions would be:
Reverse character pick
- player 1 goes first in round one but characters are picked in reverse order
Reroll tokens given at the start are either
- halved | 0 in a two player game | 1 for player 3 in a three player game
Or
- reversed also | P1 gets the tokens
This then means that the player with likely the best character doesn't get the best companion pick straight away to reduce this advantage.
Based on the numeric example above you then get
P1 | 75 * 0.8 = 60
P2 | 75 * 0.9 = 68
P3 | 66 * 1 = 66
This appears much closer but proof would be in trying this.
This could be done unofficially if players agreed characters and picked accordingly with current restrictions to try this
Thoughts?
I keep trying to think of ways to improve this...
An issue lots of games have is first player advantage.
Glow basically gives player one a double advantage with first pick of character and then first pick of companion. This allows them to have the best synergy companion for all eight rounds. The game tries to compensate for this by giving a few reroll tokens but this is a drop in the ocean
Taking a three player game was an example
If we add some arbitrary numbers to each pick and presume that for each round:
- the first pick gets the best choice of cards so picks have a value of 3, 2, 1
- the overall pick value is N times the value with N being the number of rounds it can be used in
We then get a grid like:
Round 1 | pick 1 = 24 (3*8) | pick 2 = 16 (2*8) | pick 3 = 8
Round 2 | 21 | 14 | 7
Round 3 | 18 | 12 | 6
...
If you add up the value for each player you get:
P1 = 75
P2 = 75
P3 = 66
As you can already see, player three is at a disadvantage (but gets two reroll tokens
This however isn't the full story. Based on choice of character there is likely a multiplier to apply based on their strength. Again we can presume, first pick gets the best choice and this decreases based on order
P1 | 75 * 1 = 75
P2 | 75 * 0.9 = 68
P3 | 66 * 0.8 = 53
This seems like a reasonable representation in my experience. There is much more going on so it's not this black and white before anyone streets saying this, but as a relative example it gives the idea I think
What I would therefore, suggest either as a variant (if approved by the publisher), or as a suggestion for any future editions would be:
Reverse character pick
- player 1 goes first in round one but characters are picked in reverse order
Reroll tokens given at the start are either
- halved | 0 in a two player game | 1 for player 3 in a three player game
Or
- reversed also | P1 gets the tokens
This then means that the player with likely the best character doesn't get the best companion pick straight away to reduce this advantage.
Based on the numeric example above you then get
P1 | 75 * 0.8 = 60
P2 | 75 * 0.9 = 68
P3 | 66 * 1 = 66
This appears much closer but proof would be in trying this.
This could be done unofficially if players agreed characters and picked accordingly with current restrictions to try this
Thoughts?