Revising the Constants and Variables in Monsoon Market


Over the weekend, I revised my Unpub prototype of Monsoon Market the old-fashioned way, by hand. I cut, taped, glued, markered, and sleeved up this mess until it was a tight little package. What I realized from earlier tests is that I was testing too many variables at once.

  • Rarity: I had a weird multi-triangular distribution for resource cards, which pre-supposed rarity for certain resources. Four available at random in a starting market.
  • Demand: A randomized deck of Order cards which could be purchased with specific combinations of resources. Three of which are visible at any time.
  • Supply: Four random resource cards in each player's tableau at the start of the game.
I needed to streamline this a bit just so that the random shuffling and revealing of two separate decks provided the grease for the engine. That's a lesson from my recent play of Splendor, which was just nominated for an SdJ. Compounding that randomness with a weird distribution made things just a little too complicated without good justification for it. So here's the new setup.


Revised the Goods in Monsoon Market:
  • 4x1 of four main goods with 1s as hybrids
  • 3x2 of four main goods
  • 2x3 of four main goods
  • 1x4 of four main goods
  • 2x3 leather
  • 2x4 wood

Revised the Orders in Monsoon Market:
  • 4xA. Bulk: Permanent Good and 1 pt; Silver 2 pts; Gold 3 pts
  • 2xA/1xB. Bulk: Permanent Good; Silver: 1pt; Gold: 2 pts.
  • 2xA/2xB/1xC. Bulk: Permanent Good; Silver: 1pt; Gold: 2 pts.
  • Most give a permanent good at bulk rate, 1pt at silver, 2pt at gold.
In addition, you get 1 pt for each pair of matching rates in your orders. My first test, I'm going to see if an endgame/victory condition of 7 points is reasonable. Theoretically, you could get it in two turns if you managed to buy two gold-rate 4xA Orders in a row.

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