One aspect I noticed in a game that I played today is that the final outcome very much leans on who can be the most efficient in their play. Another way to look at it is, who can execute their plan flawlessly.

I made a big mistake at the end of the game that might have cost me the win. It was a two-player game, and I chose Consume x2 and Produce as my two phases. This allowed me to gain considerably more VP’s than my opponent. My mistake was playing the Produce phase. Without the Produce, I would still have had 1 good to consume in the next round. My opponent would have had nothing, thanks to his Pilgrimage World which forces him to consume all his remaining goods.

Since I did play Produce, and because there were only 8 VP’s remaining in the VP pool, we were both obliged to play Consume x2. This time, since he played the x2 as well, my advantage was not as great. I should have considered which phase would have been the next most advantageous to myself because of how much Produce helped him.

The beautiful thing about Race for the Galaxy is that the games are quite fast (usually about 45 minutes, regardless of the number of players). While one mistake can hurt your whole game, it doesn’t hurt for very long. There’s always time for another game!

The primary complaint is that a coin toss determines who gets the ball first in a sudden death overtime. From what I’ve heard, no one is interested in prolonging the game by guaranteeing each team gets the ball once, or playing an entire quarter, etc. So I was trying to determine a better way to determine who gets the ball first.

My solution is that the team who scores last in regulation has to kickoff to the other team. This gives the team that is tying the game the opportunity to be in control of their own destiny. Do they go for the tie and go for the stop in overtime? Or do they try to score more than their opponent and end the game in regulation?

The only time this wouldn’t be an option is if the team is down by 8 and needs a touchdown and two-point conversion to tie. Other than that they have the option of going for a two-point instead of a one-point, or a touchdown over a field goal.

I think this would create more interesting decisions at the end of the game. It also takes the chance out of overtime — you know exactly who will get the ball if the game goes into overtime. In general, I believe this would improve the current overtime rules without changing them drastically.

Here I am again, starting a blog. But this time is different! This time, I have a purpose! I am starting this blog to record my never-ending, incoherent, and marginally useful thoughts on games and game design. In case it is not clear, this is almost entirely a selfish purpose, but I am making this blog public in the off chance that someone gleans some useful information from it.

Two years ago, “game and game design” would have been almost exclusively a discussion of video games.  As my priorities have changed, I find that board games fill up more of my leisure time. Additionally, board games take significantly less time and technical expertise to design and prototype. These are primarily the reasons why I have embraced the limitations of board games, making board games my new primary hobby.

This may be short-lived, but my passion for game design has not waned in 15 (or so) years. Even if I ever become bored with board games, I will probably not cease having the kind of thoughts that will be recorded here.

That is to say, I hope that this blog lasts longer than the last one.