Turning the Knobs

You can re-skin the base game all you want! But, you might want to make some adjustments, or even introduce your own mechanics! I hope you do. Obviously you can change all you want – I'm not the boss of you, and that's okay. But in this section, I've included some easy guiderails for you.

Some Helpful Numbers

If you're going to tweak the numbers, then you might find the following statistics helpful. Remember, though, that any outcome is possible, even if the possibility is remote, so try not to make a game that can't be won.

• The odds of getting a card in a particular suit is ¼ or 25%. On a 24-card board, there will, on average, be 6 cards of any given suit.
• The odds of getting a card of a particular color is ½ or 50%. On a 24-card board, there will, on average, be 12 cards of either color.
• The odds of getting a card with a particular value is 1/13 or 7.6%. On a 24-card board there will, on average, be one or two cards of any given value.
• A 24-card board is a little under half the deck. A particular card has a 43% chance of being on the board if only one card is added deliberately in setup. The more cards are picked out and added, the lower this chance becomes.
• The odds of the player finding the Goal Card on any given move start at 1/23 in the base game.

Tweaking Setup

Any card that is mandatory for play should be picked out in this step to make sure it ends up in the game. If you choose to have multiple Goal Cards, or multiple fixed cards on the board, be sure to let the player know during setup.

• If you want a card to be visible from the start of the game, shuffle it in face-up.
• If you want a card to be hidden at the start of the game, shuffle it in face-down.
• If you want a card to have a fixed position, like the starting point, do not shuffle it in. Set it aside and use it to complete the grid once the other cards are set up.

Adding more cards deliberately stabilizes the game, making sure the player has a chance to encounter certain key events. After the player has picked out all the mandatory cards, be sure to let them know how many to draw so the total is enough for your board.

• Making the board larger (say, 5x6) increases all the averages above. It makes the game take longer, as the player's odds of finding the Goal Card are decreased.
• Making the board smaller (say, 4x4, or even a line of 12) decreases all the averages above. It makes the game shorter.

Tweaking Survival Mode

There are three things you may want to change about Survival Mode. You might want to change the resource's starting value, the manner in which it goes down, and what happens when it hits 0.

The key to tweaking Survival Mode is the question, “How often do I want 0 to happen?”

As a rule, the lower the starting value of your resource, the more likely it is that it will hit 0 during play.

In the base game, the resource goes down every time you move to a new card. You might choose to only have it go down with certain card prompts. For example, if it goes down when the player moves to a red card, then that will mean it only goes down ½ the time.

You might choose to add a dice mechanic here, too. Maybe it only goes down if the player rolls a certain value. The odds are going to depend on which dice and value you use.

What happens when the player hits 0 is entirely up to you. In the base game, I suggested that the player either return to the start or lose entirely. But you could have a powerful monster show up that introduces a combat mechanic to the game, or you could change the game to Collect Mode. What you decide to do when the player hits 0 is going to help you answer the question of how often you want it to happen.

Tweaking Collect Mode

When changing Collect Mode, you might want to change how often players gain their resource. The default version of this mode increases it roughly ¼ of the time. You might choose to add die rolls here.

You might also want to change how many are required, or how they interact with the Goal Card.

Remember that there's no guarantee there will be enough of the right cards on the board unless you have the player fish them out and add them deliberately! In order to make sure your game is still winnable, remember to add something like the “or every card on the board” clause in the base game.

Tweaking the Goal Card

The Goal Card can just be a card that ends the game when the player finds it. In the basic Collect Mode game, the Goal Card is only the end of the game if the resource is 4 or the entire board has been explored.

You might want the Goal Card to have a die roll on it, maybe one based on the other resources or prompts you've discovered.

You might also want a final challenge that takes one last piece of your Survival Mode resource, like a six-sided die roll that subtracts that many points.

The most important thing is that your final prompt meets two criteria:

• It lets the player know what, if anything, to do next.
• It always, no matter what cards have come up on the board, creates a winnable game.

If you're playing a grim or intense game, it can be fun to make a game that is very difficult to win, but make sure that however unlikely or difficult it is, it is always possible.

Tweaking the Card Prompts

The ratios suggested in the base game are just suggestions – numbers that have worked well for me in the past. If you want the resources to change more often, you can simply add more card prompts that change them. If you want them to go down faster than they recover, you can add more that reduce them.

You might also like to add die rolls to the prompts. Instead of a prompt saying something like “Gain 2 Warmth” or “Lose 1 Blood”, you might like to try “Roll a die and gain that much Warmth” or “Roll a die. If the result is 4 or less, lose 1 Blood.”

Subtle tweaks here add up to bigger changes in how the game feels. I like to use six-sided dice because they're easy to find, but you can use any dice you like. You could even use a whole set if you want!