Howdy! First, a question: has anyone ever played this game in real life? I tried to get a copy but it seems to not be available in the United States. I wonder if it's more fun to play IRL?
While I generally enjoy the game, I've come to believe that success depends primarily on which cards you're lucky enough to draw at various points in the game. Early on, the cards that provide an extra card, permanent moon token, blue die, extra roll or red die seem most important. Later on, cards that give five points and/or "?" cards seem especially necessary. Cards that require many moons to validate seem to just waste space, until maybe late in the game when one has enough moon cards and tokens to validate them. If you draw mostly the later cards too early and the earlier cards too late, there doesn't seem to be much chance of winning.
It seems to me that the combination of randomness from the dice and randomness from the draw is just too much randomness.
One reason I would like the hardcopy is to test an idea I have for alternate rules that might replace much of this randomness with actual strategy. Specifically, I'd like to try replacing the blind draw with a market. Perhaps this would include about 10 face up cards, and if too many of one card show up, they can be wiped and replaced. Or, perhaps all cards could be divided into matching face up stacks, and when a player selects a card, they can choose from all available types based on personal strategy, free from randomness.
Any thoughts? Can anyone give one of these options a try IRL and let me know if it improves the game?
Thanks in advance!
Andrew
While I generally enjoy the game, I've come to believe that success depends primarily on which cards you're lucky enough to draw at various points in the game. Early on, the cards that provide an extra card, permanent moon token, blue die, extra roll or red die seem most important. Later on, cards that give five points and/or "?" cards seem especially necessary. Cards that require many moons to validate seem to just waste space, until maybe late in the game when one has enough moon cards and tokens to validate them. If you draw mostly the later cards too early and the earlier cards too late, there doesn't seem to be much chance of winning.
It seems to me that the combination of randomness from the dice and randomness from the draw is just too much randomness.
One reason I would like the hardcopy is to test an idea I have for alternate rules that might replace much of this randomness with actual strategy. Specifically, I'd like to try replacing the blind draw with a market. Perhaps this would include about 10 face up cards, and if too many of one card show up, they can be wiped and replaced. Or, perhaps all cards could be divided into matching face up stacks, and when a player selects a card, they can choose from all available types based on personal strategy, free from randomness.
Any thoughts? Can anyone give one of these options a try IRL and let me know if it improves the game?
Thanks in advance!
Andrew
