Board Game Arena

While the VIP Variant increases the difficulty, some experienced players have indicated that it may not be challenging enough! What do you think of the below "unofficial" variants involving VIPs? What ideas do you have?

Number: The standard variant uses 4/5/6/7 VIPs based on player count. This works out to ~10% of all passengers being a VIP and ~10% of player-rounds span a new VIP. For example, increasing the number of VIPs to 7/10/13/13 would roughly double both measures of impact (~19% of passengers would be VIPs, and ~%20 of player-rounds would span a new VIP).

Timing: We could have VIPs randomly assigned to a specific round, instead of letting players choose when to accept/decline. The upcoming VIP could be announced in advance, or it could be a complete surprise.

Conditions: We could invent new complications which add to or replace the originals. Brainstorming some ideas here:

• ATL loyalist/frequent-flyer: Only travels on planes in a specific alliance (ATL in this case)
• Climate scientist: Must fly through a storm
• Deadhead crew: Pays $0 fare but never accrues anger
• Discount ticket: Pays a reduced fare (such as 50%, rounded down)
• Late connection: Lose 1 speed when boarding
• Mystery shopper: Destination remains secret until boarding (anger accrues as normal)
• Round-trip ticket: Upon delivery, immediately rejoins the line for a return trip. Pays $0 for the first flight and pays 2x fare upon delivery to the point of origin.

I like all of these ideas, as well as the extra cities options. Just adds to the challenge and replayability for experienced players. Can't wait to try them.

Good ideas. I think you should allow players to accept as many vip as they want from the start. Even when winning “easy” it still requires moves until the final turn. Some of these vip can prove to be very difficult like the alliance and storm vips. Sometimes in games early rounds are wasted so not wasting moves early could help.

Considering you aren’t going to subtract elo you could add these options w/o play testing and just add a warning.

Connector flights and a vip that gets angry each turn (so must be delivered in 3 turns after they are made available) are some extra ideas.

Timed maintenance phase

I like these ideas, would be excited to try them.

Other ideas could be a vip requiring a layover in some airport, a frequent flyer who appears in each phase with the same conditions, or an ultimate vip that must be delivered or it singularly counts as multiple complaints

After playing a fair share of 2p w jfk and sea I would say at most from my small sample size that about 40% are winnable. But I like the challenge and think it should remain. One thing that can be done to increase the odds of winning is eliminating the storm icon. The purpose of it is to create an obstacle but playing 2p on a 5p map is enough of an obstacle already. If the storm lands on a crucial route it is basically game over. Another thing that could be done is to add a variant to which there is just one shared purse. This is similar to a variant that exist in the physical copy except you don't have to be in the same location to hand off money. There were some games that I had to spend money every rd on temp upgrades because of the size of the map and could never save money. You may have games where your starting destinations are cross country forcing you to pass them to your partner leaving you broke until it is too late.

Love the shared purse idea! I struggled with the money handoff variant from the physical game because it seemed quite complicated and clunky to implement (how/where would I display each person's individual cash), but this achieves basically the same thing without any of the fussiness.

quietmint wrote: ↑10 September 2023, 14:02 Love the shared purse idea! I struggled with the money handoff variant from the physical game because it seemed quite complicated and clunky to implement (how/where would I display each person's individual cash), but this achieves basically the same thing without any of the fussiness.

At one point there was a continuous clock implemented on the screen. Would it be possible to add this back as an option for time trials?

Some very nice ideas here

quietmint wrote: ↑03 September 2023, 20:49 [*] Deadhead crew: Pays $0 fare but never accrues anger

Why would anyone accept this passenger? I'd suggest that players will loose the game if this passenger hasn't reached their destination at the end of the game.

cigma wrote: ↑08 November 2023, 09:35 Some very nice ideas here

quietmint wrote: ↑03 September 2023, 20:49 [*] Deadhead crew: Pays $0 fare but never accrues anger

Why would anyone accept this passenger? I'd suggest that players will loose the game if this passenger hasn't reached their destination at the end of the game.

I always try to deliver them but I see your point. For every two undelivered passengers you receive one complaint so there is some incentive.

I would like VIP of BGA to be related somehow to real VIP of BGA, to someone who has bought premium for example. Right now its not related, I cannot find anything that connects.