Im aware that Im talking as regular player of Vanilla KOT whos just trying this expansion for the first time, but I have to say I dont like the costumes so far. Of course is great to have the expansion added and being available here (thx again Thoun), but it wouldn't be my choice for a game
1- The costumes are more powerful/cheaper than regular cards. One costume(vampire?) is literally a better and cheaper version of Armor Plating. I get it that this makes sense for 2 reasons, one ingame and one external: Costumes can be stolen/bought so they are not permanent and the publisher wants to sell the expansion.
2- Regular cards get less play precisely because the costumes are so good. What's better? Buying a normal card or buying a better/cheaper card while taking it from another player? During my games this week the vast majority of sales are steals of costumes back and forth which makes complete sense, but makes the game boring. No one has the time to dabble with standard cards anymore
3- Princess. In the end, I would be able to get used to points 1&2, but costumes also introduced the most OP card in the game. Lets compare Princess with another card that gives you same effect (+1 xp per round): Energy Hoarder. EH requires 3 energy and then 6 energy to hoard. Thats 9 energy vs Princess' 5, thats insane. Alpha Monster has the same price but requires you at least to roll a paw, Princess just hands it over for free. For the argument that costumes make the game more aggressive, Princess allows a player the easiest gameplan: turtle the entire game and you will win. Perhaps the only drawback would be, that in game with experienced players, everyone would gang on the Princess player like people do on a player who's about to win on XP.
However, thats not the main issue. To add insult to injury, Princess, as a costume, its being offered as a starting card with no cost. In mid-game, I can see every player trying to steal Princess right away, but, as a starting card, how many rounds would it take for other other players to get the 5 energy+3 paws round to steal Princess?? In reality this means about 5-7 rounds which gives the Princess player an unsurmountable XP advantage. I would like to see the winning percentage of players who got Princess as initial costume. Again, the only solution I see is for all players getting together and targeting the Princess player from round 1, which makes the game not that enjoyable at all.
The only way to balance the expansion would be to make Princess a regular card with a 6 cost.
Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk
1- The costumes are more powerful/cheaper than regular cards. One costume(vampire?) is literally a better and cheaper version of Armor Plating. I get it that this makes sense for 2 reasons, one ingame and one external: Costumes can be stolen/bought so they are not permanent and the publisher wants to sell the expansion.
2- Regular cards get less play precisely because the costumes are so good. What's better? Buying a normal card or buying a better/cheaper card while taking it from another player? During my games this week the vast majority of sales are steals of costumes back and forth which makes complete sense, but makes the game boring. No one has the time to dabble with standard cards anymore
3- Princess. In the end, I would be able to get used to points 1&2, but costumes also introduced the most OP card in the game. Lets compare Princess with another card that gives you same effect (+1 xp per round): Energy Hoarder. EH requires 3 energy and then 6 energy to hoard. Thats 9 energy vs Princess' 5, thats insane. Alpha Monster has the same price but requires you at least to roll a paw, Princess just hands it over for free. For the argument that costumes make the game more aggressive, Princess allows a player the easiest gameplan: turtle the entire game and you will win. Perhaps the only drawback would be, that in game with experienced players, everyone would gang on the Princess player like people do on a player who's about to win on XP.
However, thats not the main issue. To add insult to injury, Princess, as a costume, its being offered as a starting card with no cost. In mid-game, I can see every player trying to steal Princess right away, but, as a starting card, how many rounds would it take for other other players to get the 5 energy+3 paws round to steal Princess?? In reality this means about 5-7 rounds which gives the Princess player an unsurmountable XP advantage. I would like to see the winning percentage of players who got Princess as initial costume. Again, the only solution I see is for all players getting together and targeting the Princess player from round 1, which makes the game not that enjoyable at all.
The only way to balance the expansion would be to make Princess a regular card with a 6 cost.
Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk
