Party Building for the Lazy GM

One of the issues in party-based games like Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun or Traveller is making the PCs a party, not a group of strangers that have no reason to work together. I’m also a lazy DM who likes getting story ideas from my players, but not every game provides player-authoured story hooks the way The Shadow of Yesterday or Burning Wheel do.

Here is an easy trick that I think should solve both of these problems. It’s unplaytested, but it is based on various story gaming techniques, notably the character creation in Don’t Rest Your Head, Spirit of the Century and Mouse Guard. I’m not starting a new campaign in an appropriate game any time soon, but wanted to jot it down while it occurred to me. If you try it out, please let me know how it goes.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Power Consume Strategies

Originally, my plan was to write a single longish article with a few pointers each for specific types of Consume strategy. As these things are wont to do however, it grew. Before long, I realized it would be better to do a separate, easily digestible article for each type of Consume strategy. I’m starting this series-within-a-series here with power Consume strategies.

Note that I am not writing with Rebel vs. Imperium in mind yet. I am rapidly racking up experience, but I’m not ready to write with any authority about it yet.

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Key cards: Tourist World, Alien Toy Shop, Galactic Trendsetters, commodity worlds

A power Consume strategy tries to outpace other players by playing efficient Consume powers that score more than one VP per good. The point is to save tempi, building a powerful Consume engine more quickly than normal. When it works right, you finish the game by exhausting the VP pool before your opponents can hit their stride.

Thoughts on What Makes a Good RPG Setting

One of the many topics that gamers find to divide themselves over is RPG settings. Not only are the settings themselves the topic of “love it”-”hate it” holy wars, but how settings should be presented and makes up a “complete” setting sourcebook also cause divisions. My own opinions on these subjects have changed several times over the years, aligning with almost every major fashion as it came along.

A few days ago, I made an offhand comment on Twitter about how exposure to Forge-influenced RPGs and theory prompted the most recent change in my views. This led Seth Ben Ezra to ask me how they did so, and this post is my response. Hopefully, it’s of some broader interest.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy — Consume Strategies

Consume strategies are a tough nut for new Race for the Galaxy players to crack. They require a lot of moving parts – a handful of production worlds and the right mix of Consume powers to make them score efficiently. It’s easier to see how plans like throwing down a big military and then settling your brains out or leveraging discounts work, even if they are not always as efficient. Tom Lehmann has even said in public forums that he designed the Race for the Galaxy base set with a significant bias toward Consume strategies in order to nudge new players toward playing them effectively.

In this article, I want to present some general advice on how to get the most from Consume strategies. I will follow up in my next article with an overview of the major varieties of Consume strategy, with specific tips for playing each variety well. Finally, in a third article, I will present a few tips for fighting against Consume strategies.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – the Second Tier

Having taken a look at cards that change the game when they are played, I want to turn my attention now to cards that are undeniably powerful, but lack the extra oomph characteristic of a game changer. Their appearance may mark a transition between phases of the game, but only when it is the capstone of a power combination, or the last piece of a strategic puzzle. Often they cause little change in the tempo of the game when they are played. They save a player a tempo or three over the course of a game, but they do not drive you to the end of the game the same way Tourist World and Improved Logistics do.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Game Changers

Race for the Galaxy cards are not created equal. Some are workmanlike cards that form the heart and soul of the game, but do not garner great accolades. Some only fill niches that are necessary to tie some strategies together, but are often of little use. A couple are actually rather terrible, looking to sucker players into wasting valuable tableau space on them.

Game changers are the cards that announce that a player is ready to get down to business. When they are played in the first half of the game, the pace of the game picks up. Maneuvering for a card here and a build there stops, and the real business of winning the game begins. They mark a player’s intended strategy because they allow a player to pursue that strategy with a real saving of tempo, often by drawing cards while pursuing their main strategy, but it can take other forms as well. Players typically make the transition from the opening to buildup or from buildup to drive by playing a game changer.

A New Piece of Race for the Galaxy Terminology

Just a heads up that, going forward, I’ll be using a bit of Race for the Galaxy jargon that I’ve invented for the sake of brevity.

In my strategy articles, I’ll be using “commodity worlds” to refer to worlds that let you draw a card when you produce a good on them. This includes bot production and windfall worlds. It’s not perfect, thematically, but it’ll do.

So

• Comet Zone
• Galactic Studios
• Gem World
• Lost Species Ark World
• Mining World

are production commodity worlds and

• Replicant Runaway Robots
• Rebel Sympathizers
  

are commodty windfall worlds (or windfall commodity worlds).

Expect the first post discussing Game Changers tomorrow or Monday.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Stages of a Game

There is a natural arc to a game of Race for the Galaxy that can be broken down into stages of the game. This article gives an overview of the different stages of a game, what you should be aiming to do during each stage, and how to recognize the transition from one stage to the next. Understanding what you need to focus on in each phase of the game, and knowing when that has changed, will help you to make more efficient plays than your opponents, and help you sift through the array of options that you always have available throughout the game.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Card Flow and Discounts

Cards in hand are the lifeblood of any RftG strategy. They serve not only as the developments and worlds that you put into play, they also serve as the primary currency of the game. Typically, the more cards you draw during a game, the better, and failing to establish a steady flow of cards to your hand throughout the game will force a long, uphill battle on you. Of course you can also attack the problem from the other end by reducing how many cards you need in order to pay for your worlds and developments. Price discounts and military strength will not free you from the need to draw new cards, but they will decrease it.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Phase Selection

The act of phase selection (or role selection, a legacy from its Puerto Rico heritage) lies at the heart of Race for the Galaxy, so it should surprise no one that improving your play in this aspect of the game is an important part of winning. Unfortunately, genuine mastery is not possible: there is a healthy dose of art amidst the science. Nevertheless, there are several rules of thumb that can help you find your way.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – Some Fundamentals, Part 1

Just to get everyone (including me) warmed up, I’m starting off with a few fundamental points. These are concepts that can help you refine your play in most stages of the game, across all strategies, but do not amount to a strategy, or even a direction of play, by themselves.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy – A Couple Prefatory Notes

Just a couple of bits of  info about how I’m approaching this series.

Race for the Galaxy Strategy Update – the Current Shape of My Head

Click on the picture to see my current mind map full size.

The current shape of my brain concerning RftG strategy

A Question for my Readers

Almost every day, a couple people end up reading one of my earlier posts about Race for the Galaxy because they searched for some variation of “Race for the Galaxy strategy”

Since I’ve now played over 300 games of it, I think I could give their topic of choice a decent go, but first I thought I’d poll regular readers to see how much interest there is among you for such a creature.

I would probably do it in bite-sized pieces, possibly single strategic idea, or, at most, a simple strategic theme, in each post, so trying to be exhaustive might take a while, but I’m more likely to get it finished, or at least to get something useful out.

So

Are you interested in these potential articles?

What level of discussion are you looking for if you are interested? Fundamentals? Advanced topics? Coverage of different major strategies? Every possible bit of knowledge I can squeeze out of my brain?

If you aren’t interested, how much would it annoy if if I tackled this topic? Would it bother you less if I mixed in posts on other subjects?

Any other comments or ideas you have related to this are also welcome.

Chromatic Dragons

I finished reading Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons (you can read my full review over at my new reviewing gig, Game Cryer), and it reminded me of something that’s niggled at the back of my brain about D&D dragons from day 1.