Belle of the Ball - Power Icon Rough Drafts

 
In Belle of the Ball, guests have special powers that are triggered as soon as they create a group of friends, join a group of friends, or have a new guest join their group of friends. That's a tough set of conditions to state succinctly. (See my previous posts on over-coding and under-coding in card game design.)

For now, it's worded as "When this guest is friended," which is awkward and very distinctly modern. Ideally, I could just consolidate that whole line into a simple symbol, so I can refer players back to the rulebook where I have more room to state things in more detail. (It also makes the game easier to translate for foreign markets.)

Oh hey! I already have that symbol on the cards. It's the little icon of two stacked cards that appears with the Friend Bonus.

That'll work. There is also some space on the lower left corner where I could insert an icon or some other bit of information. This would be great in play because you can stack and overlap your guest cards without having to lift up any of them to read rules text.

The special powers are a little complex to explain visually, especially in a small space. Here's the full list of powers with a quick first attempt at expressing them visually.

       
When this guest is friended, choose a player. Steal 1 random card from their hand. Another version of this power allows you to steal 2 cards. Does the 2-card version look like you only get to keep one of the two?
 
When this guest is friended, you may invite 1 more guest from Lordhurtz county. There are also versions of this power for the other counties. The front of the card shows an enlarged county symbol. Is it clear that this is guest card is being pulled from a hand of cards? A normal hand of cards has five cards, I should probably include those. Also, should I include a thumb in the icon to really drive home the "hand" idea?

When this guest is friended, you may draw the top card from the discard deck. The icon shows a stack of face-up cards with one card pulled away from it. Does this icon need a pinching hand, like the stealing icon?

When this guest is friended, draw 2 extra cards from the Guest deck when you Refresh. The icon shows a stack of face-down cards, with two cards pulled away from it. Does this icon need a pinching hand, too?

Lots to think about in the coming weeks. I look forward to testing these at small sizes and in actual play.

Comments

  1. Ezra BradfordMay 1, 2012 at 1:17 AM

    Does it work any better to say "when this guest makes a friend"? Or would that imply that it triggers two times when joining a group that already has two?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dave BestMay 1, 2012 at 7:30 AM

    Personally, I'd remove the pinching hand from all of them. I think the symbols are strong enough without it. Plus, it makes it more difficult to see the quantity of cards you are stealing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DanielSolisMay 1, 2012 at 9:06 AM

    That ambiguity is why I'm looking for an iconic solution. I can use the icon on cards and leave the actual wording to the rulebook where I have more room to elaborate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DanielSolisMay 1, 2012 at 9:07 AM

    That ambiguity is why I'm looking for an iconic solution. I can use the icon on cards and leave the actual wording to the rulebook where I have more room to elaborate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dave BestMay 1, 2012 at 9:41 AM

    Much better; that should be easier to count the number of cards at a glance.

    ReplyDelete

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