Daniel Solis

Regime is one of those games that would really do best with a retail scale production. It needs too many cards to be a profitable POD product, but I didn't realize that when I first published it. It's still on DriveThruCards, and you can buy it right now, but it's pretty much at-cost. Since BGGcon, I've been taking the advice that I should work on more middleweight games with more components. Regime seems like the best fit for this new evolution. I've been working on updates to the components, which in turn led to some gameplay updates as well. None of these changes are final, they're just things I'm testing. 1. Faster Scoring So, our game design guild has a rule of thumb for game design we call Vicki's Law: A game shouldn't take longer to score than to play. That seemed to be Regime's main weakness. It doesn't break Vicki's Law, but it is most certainly a misdemeanor. At BGGcon, there was some talk of modifying the deck so so...

Just because I can't make it to Origins doesn't mean you can't get a great deal on my card games ! Until June 15, I've slashed prices on all my card games, up to 25% off ! If you've been holding out to pick up any of my games, now is the time! Come and get 'em!

REGIME 's fast development taught me something about playtesting in general. First off, if you have a bunch of playtesters offering a bunch of ideas, this is good! You have something your testers find worthy enough to grant their time and energy into helping create. But should you take all suggestions at face value? What if they're contradictory? Which do you listen to? Here was my three step process for dealing with this feedback paralysis. Step 1: Identify a problem before testing, but don't get married to it. Early on, I tested a simpler version of the game. Perhaps too simple, I feared. I wanted to run some playtests and see if players felt that the game didn't have enough meat to it. All the while knowing in the back of my head that what I believed to be a problem wasn't necessarily the actual problem. Step 2: Let playtesting reveal the real problem. In the early version of REGIME, players simply ousted one faction card at a time until one...

Attention, Citizens! REGIME is now available on DriveThruCards! I'm really happy with how these cards turned out. The color is bright, the details are sharp, oh, and the game itself is alright, too. :) Check out these product shots! You are the first diplomats allowed into the turbulent nation of REGIME. Your goal is to secure an alliance with the nation's leadership and win the support of the people. The problem is that revolutions are constantly deposing one faction and replacing it with another. Choose your allegiances wisely, avoid unrest, and win the power of the people! Get REGIME today!

Open graphic design question: What's a good replacement for the shapes on these cards that does not imply value or rank, that also fits well with the color icons and the letters? Some background: Each card represents someone in the turbulent nation of Regime. You're trying to build a cabinet that will gain the most popular support of the nation. Each card is a unique combination of three suits: Color, Shape, and Letter. There are six possible colors, six possible shapes, and six possible letters. The colors each have a unique icon to aid color-blind players, but also conveniently works as a thematic detail. Each color represents a political party in Regime. The letters are the initial of six different titles within those political parties: Crown, Archon, Voice, Exalt, Minister, and Sovereign. The only suit giving me trouble are the shapes. These used to be numbers, but numbers implied values when they're really just another suit. This confused new players...

I was fortunate this weekend to sneak in a quick playtest of some new rules I wanted to try out for Regime. As you might recall from last week's post , I worried Regime 's central mechanism didn't have enough granularity in scoring and it offered too many choices in early turns without much strategic direction. I still liked the idea of managing your assets being a separate action from managing the values of those assets. (Biblios does this splendidly, as does For Sale, which is also why I avoided auction mechanisms.) So here are the revised rules. The big change is that the order in which suit cards are eliminated now matters. These do not require any new cards, but it may help to keep some tokens around to represent Unrest , Calm , and Popularity . You can easily keep track of this with a score sheet though. Revised Theme You are trying to secure an alliance with the turbulent nation of Regime. The trouble is that their leadership is constantly being ousted and ...

I'm getting pretty close to a finished version of REGIME, and it's ready for open playtesting. Download the current REGIME prototype here . Rules are below. This game is designed for 2-5 players, but is best with 3. You are each diplomats sent to the isolated nation of REGIME. Your goal is to determine who is the true ruler of the country while also building a cabinet of advisers who are aligned with that ruler. Set Up Shuffle the 36 unbordered cards and deal them out evenly to each player's hand. (Discard any leftover cards.) Sort out the black bordered cards in three rows, one row with letters, one row with numbers, and one row with colors. Play The player who has most recently been to another country takes the first turn in the first round. There are two steps to a turn. First, choose a card from your hand to discard face-down into the discard pile. Then turn over one of the table cards face-down. You can turn over any card, unless it is the...

Let's take a look at this preview art for Regime , the card game that expands on Suspense 's deduction mechanics and takes them in a slightly different direction. You are diplomats sent to a mysterious nation that has just opened its borders after a long seclusion. Being experienced diplomats, you know the public faces are just puppets and the true power brokers are somewhere behind the scenes. You and the other players try to deduce who is the true power behind the throne. I'm carrying on the high-contrast, brushy look that I proposed in this earlier post. These are 36 different characters, each of whom might be the true power behind the throne. Their names are just for flavor, which is why they're so small. The important bits are their suit, their title, and their rank. Each round, the dealer knows the secret victory condition: The card with (highest, lowest, most, or fewest) (suit or title) (in play or in hand) is the true power behind the throne. Whoever...

After playing the new edition of COUP, I figured my own "futuristic intrigue and deduction" game should probably have a much more distinct aesthetic if it's going to stand out in the market. At first, I was going with a much more photorealistic look, but I do that a lot and it's hard to make my spotty collection of stock photos look consistent. Then I thought it would be interesting if these were more like graffiti stencils sprayed onto a wall. Perhaps double-exposed with a different section of the game's setting. This lets me use just about any stock photo since I would be greatly exaggerating the contrasts and stripping out all color anyway. So what do you think? Cool or hokey?

Since releasing Suspense: the Card Game , I've been considering a loosely expanded idea for another deduction game that works for more players and has more opportunities for interaction and catch-up. I was thinking about the current mini-trend of vaguely geo-political Hunger Games themed games like Resistance and Coup. So, this is Regime , in which you are trying to influence the secretive Leader, the true political power behind-the-scenes in a shadowy, unstable body politic. Lure constituents into your bloc so you're in the Leader's good graces by the end of the game. The Deck The deck is comprised of 30 cards, divided into five factions (suit). Within each faction, three are considered low-rank (no border around the suit), two are considered mid-rank (circle around the suit), and one is considered high-rank (circle and rays around the suit). Setup Deal 6 cards to each player. (5 cards if playing with six players.) The first player chooses one card from his hand...