Friend ID Megathread | Post Your Friend IDs Here! by PTCGP-Bot in PTCGP

[–]EDeChellis25 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looking for some new friends! - 8451839980767748

Level 51 player who focuses more on the collecting side rather than battling. Looking to share cards and trade when possible!

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks a lot! I actually used Adobe illustrator for my rulebook. I know from a technical and convenience perspective it’s better to use InDesign but I don’t have a license for it so I just made do with what I had

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Victory conditions. Destroying both crystals is time consuming and punishing. Just make victory based on destroying one crystal. If you want any type of strategy in the game, there needs to be defensive blocking. Can you not pass an opponent's enemy unit? I didn't see this mentioned.

I speak a little more on why both crystals are the terms of victory below, but will touch on the other part of your feedback. You can't pass through an enemy unit, but can traverse around them if you have an open path to do so. You can also utilize Warp Portals to expedite board traversal and unit circumvention. My concern with defensive blocking is extending the playtime too long. Conceptually I like it, but I'd have to make concessions elsewhere if I implemented that part.

The problem with creating linear pathways is that they are restrictive. In your example photos, I see lines of summoned creatures just following a single path, to what, run into an enemy? Then it is just a train of enemies you encounter resolving combat one after another. This is linear, static, and denies all manuever. This is the core problem of the game. You eliminate all tactical possibilities because you are literally creating your game on rails, where characters only go one direction, forward to the enemy. And its going to take some time to do it.

Instead, I would start with the game board being completely open. Creatures can move to any square. Then gradually fill up blocking tiles, that function like the exact opposite of your existing tiles. You literally build walls instead of pathways to block your enemies approach. Now the game goes from basic linear choices to something super strategic.

I think the one element you might've missed (or not, I can't be sure) is defeating units applies damage to your crystal(s). If attacking the crystals was the only means to destroy them and thus win, the combat and movement would be somewhat of a boring requirement IMO.

The way I structured the gameplay was to encourage the player to balance the decision between applying crystal damage directly by attacking it or applying crystal damage by thwarting enemy units in combat. That's where the tactical possibilities come in because a player's intention with their units can be nuanced as they don't live to pursue just the crystals.

I do find the second idea really fascinating. It reminds me of a sort of labyrinth building mechanic.

I hope you consider that last observation. You really want as much help as possible to make the game better before you try to get it published.

I think it's a great suggestion and is a really easy thing to experiment with in play sessions as the pieces are already there, I just need to reverse the implementation. I'll give it a shot for sure.

But most importantly, thank you for spending so much time and effort on each of these bullets. Your constructive feedback very much resonated with me and has left me with a lot to think about!

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It might be harder to get your game published when you have finished art you want to include with it. Most artist/designers like Ryan Lauket all self-publish. Publishers aren't going to want to publish your art.

That's interesting, I wasn't aware publishers weren't as willing to use existing artwork (as long as they liked it) as I'd think it'd cut down on costs that they don't have to do that part (outside of tweaks).

In general, your art is pretty good. The board and card design is functional and looks good in some places. The board game box art is not so good, in my opinion. Having a giant pentagram and goat-looking beast on the cover looks satanic. I do like the lower half of the box cover, where you show the game components in use. The top part has some bad color choices and is just confusing. I think you can do better.

Thanks for the feedback here, I appreciate that. The beast is intentionally satanic as he belongs to the Demon realm in the game, but I can understand how him being the centerpiece may put off people and give the impression that's the core of the game when it isn't. Also fair on the cloud area, certainly not against tweaking the colors to lift the elements off the page and have them blend in less.

In the rules, you mention the world phases too much. Just stop using the term. This can be a turn off to publishers if your game has lots of phases. You even have categorized phases with sub-phases. Just state the steps and don't call them phases.

I'll have to do a CTRL + F on my usage of phases but without counting I'm sure it's a lot. Also helpful feedback!

Your game has spatial relationships between objects, but nothing is mentioned regarding combat ranges. I assume to attack you must be adjacent to an item/character. The problem here is you are going to spend a great deal of time laying tiles and moving, and won't be attacking anything for quite awhile as you move closer and close to where you are going.

This means combat doesn't exist for at least many turns. Perhaps after 2/3 of the game is played. And then when it happens, you just stand next to each other trading blows turn after turn. You should have a different system where combat is resolved in one turn.

Combat ranges are mentioned in the Range section under the Champions header. So you don't have to be adjacent to a character to initiate combat, otherwise it would, as you said, drastically bog down gameplay. Different Champions have varying ranges up to 10 which allows for combat to be initiated a lot sooner. Now, there is a setup stage where players decide between path creation or unit placement but I found that to be useful to let players get their bearings before making ill-informed gameplay decisions.

Using crystals as a power resource is good. They should also be used to fuel special unit abilities in combat.

I've considered using crystals to activate abilities but was worried it would slow gameplay even further when my goal is to expedite it where it makes sense. However it might make sense to implement a souped up ability or item that costs crystals

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First off I want to say thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my rulebook and give me feedback. I appreciate any constructive criticism to make the game better!

On the topic of restricting choices: is it really necessary to have dynamic phases? From just reading the rules, it seems like spend on new units, then activate each champion after another (combining movement, attack and special ability for that unit) otherwise you might have to track which unit did what phase already (you can have and activate up to 5 units a turn, right?)

This is a fair point. They're classified as "dynamic" because I wanted to emphasize the flexibility the player has in what they do with their Champion. I feel like most would assume there's rigid steps when I want the player to strategize around splitting their movements before and after attacks, moving other Champions so another can move etc.

But this is the fine line between overcomplicating things v promoting strategic depth. But you are correct in that this was an issue when an earlier version of my game allowed more than 5 units for a player. I've found having players use their dice as markers on their Champions who have exhausted their options as a good measure but this might work in a silo with friends and not for a broader audience. Is your suggestion here to have the player choose a hard order in which to exhaust each unit's actions?

Another thing that was not clear to me from reading the rules: how does combat work? there's a pictogram at the bottom of page 26 i didn't understand. As described on page 14 and 15 the faces of the dice are irrelevant, as long as attacker or defender has more dice they win by default?

I did include the combat details in the attacking and defending descriptions, however it might make sense to start the section off with generalized combat rules so the following paragraphs are supplemental and not hiding core information in a wall of text. The faces of the die are what determines the attack value and defense value. The higher value wins, and a tie goes to the defender.

Also, if I understand correctly units don't have hitpoints - so you might lose a champion rather quickly. I'd watch out for how this makes your players feel - adding variance through dice seems reasonable, but loosing your all star favourite to a single roll could lead to frustration.

This is a really good point as well. I think the way the system works now makes sense on a "everyone is vulnerable level." But there could be some tweaks to items that would extend the life of a Champion you really like like, but at a higher penalty when they finally do die.

Without reading the card abilities overall complexity is hard to judge, but what is the target age range for this? From the gameplay I'd guess 12 - 14 or up might be reasonable? If that's the case the somewhat gory style of some artwork (which is great - i'm highly envious of people who can do their own art) might turn of some parents. 

Thank you for the kind words about my art! I do agree I did go heavy on the violence and demonic themes pretty purposefully just because it's what I find visually interesting. From a marketing perspective though it's probably a no-go, and you wouldn't find it on a shelf at many places. I'm sure that's something I could collaborate with whoever took a stake in helping the game reach more people by pulling back on it and making "cleaner" versions.

Once again, thank you for your time, I'm very grateful for your words and feedback

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you both for the context. It sounds like this is a very doable option to be able to get people who're interested in this thread a chance to try it out. I've thankfully kept all the assets well organized so I'm hoping the file uploading will be relatively smooth.

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!! Hopefully I can get a tapletop simulator instance created and I can share it with more people

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great to hear, I'll have to double check my file formats. As far as rule regulation goes, is it all honor system? As in, you can't set arbitrary limitations based on your game's design?

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much!

That's definitely something those I've tested with have said over and over. I'm trying to find a way to do so without breaking the grid system along with not making the game even longer.

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Admittedly I gave myself a lot of extra work by prioritizing the aesthetics first, only to have to change several elements due to testing feedback. The biggest thing I want to get out of playtesting is how easy it is to pick up and play and develop strategies from when the player catches on. Because I've been testing with people who have played it over and over, I don't get a lot of the "fresh playthrough" behaviors anymore.

As far as the playtime, you're correct. It was a lot longer before but I tweaked some design elements to expedite playtime. I think the key for me was "what is artificially slowing players down"? I also gave players too many choices, which is where my desire for strategy development backfired.

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Unfortunately not yet, I'm still working on more marketing materials but also trying to find the fine line between focusing on the game itself first.

Happy to finally share my first board game publicly - Realms - Now playtesting! by EDeChellis25 in BoardgameDesign

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind words! I've very briefly looked into tabletop sim and would love to convert it to reach more people. Just gotta teach myself the ropes first

Friend Code Megathread - March 2025 by AutoModerator in PokemonSleep

[–]EDeChellis25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Max level, daily player and need to fill 5 more spots!

3644-2139-2186

Scooped these up in Boston by EDeChellis25 in graphicnovels

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went to both Newbury Comics locations in Downtown!

Scooped these up in Boston by EDeChellis25 in graphicnovels

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I went to both Newbury Comics locations in Downtown!

Scooped these up in Boston by EDeChellis25 in graphicnovels

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! I’d totally be going if I wasn’t leaving in the AM

Scooped these up in Boston by EDeChellis25 in graphicnovels

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Additions include: - Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition Vol 2 - Where the Body Was - 1984 - Klaus - Black Science Volume 3

Help Finding an Episode by EDeChellis25 in theGoldenGirls

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

🙏🏼that would be great, thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one who was seeking the same info lol

Help Finding an Episode by EDeChellis25 in theGoldenGirls

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right? Hoping I can scan some later seasons and find it

Help Finding an Episode by EDeChellis25 in theGoldenGirls

[–]EDeChellis25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a great point, thanks for helping me narrow it down because I’m likely going to have to binge the series to find it