Larry Buckel
United States
Whittier
California
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One thing I like about Stone Age is how you place workers and use dice to determine how much wood/stone you get for use in the game. I really don't like the theme of Stone Age however and prefer Pillars to it. Wouldn't it be cool to use this dice mechanic to collect resources in Pillars instead of using the resource cards? I'm just wondering how to tweak the number of dice and workers. Everyone could start out with 7 or so workers. How much would wood/stone cost? perhaps 2-4 pips per block. The rest of Pillars would remain the same.
Any comments/suggestions?
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Eric
United States
Bridgewater
Massachusetts
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Very interesting idea!
2 major things to consider:
-Stone Age takes place over many more rounds than Pillars, allowing the dice-rolling luck to somewhat even out. It also has tools to mitigate luck. In a game of using this variant, if you roll poorly in the first two rounds, you've just lost 1/3 of your resource capabilities for the entire game.
-Stone Age allows you to spend resources in uneven bursts (7 gold on a hut, buy 3 civ cards for 7 wood, etc), whereas Pillars really requires you to spend carefully and consistently from round to round. Going back to the previous example, rolling well in the last two rounds probably won't make up for rolling poorly in the first two rounds; you'll just end up with a bunch of resources you can't use.
That being said, I'm not here to beat down your idea, I'm just trying to articulate the differences I see between the games that might cause challenges. My thoughts on how to possibly make this work:
-When you choose a resource, you can decide to place the number of workers indicated on the card, plus or minus 2 or 4. You must always place a minimum of 1 worker.
-When collecting resources, roll the tax die once for each resource card you have.
--On a 3 or 4, collect the resources indicated on the card.
--On a 5, collect one extra resource.
--On a 2, collect one less resource.
--If you placed 2 extra workers, a 4 also yields an extra resource. Likewise, if you placed 2 less workers, a 3 also yields one less resource.
--If you placed 4 extra workers, a 2 has no negative impact (in addition to a 4 yielding one more). Likewise, if you placed 4 less workers, a 5 has no positive impact (in addition to a 3 yielding one less)
-If a craftsman is not used at all in a given round, put a marker on him. The next time he is used, remove the marker; you may use him an additional time that round (the marker is removed whether you make use of the extra capacity or not). If a worker already has a marker on him at the end of the round, do not put an additional marker on him.
-"Tools" can now be purchased at the marketplace. When in the marketplace, a player can either buy 1 tool for 1 gold, or 2 tools for 3 gold. When a tool is purchased, take a metal and place separate from your resource pile; tools do not count as resources, and cannot be sold. Tools can have one of two effects:
--Enhancing extra workers: If you placed at least one extra worker, you may place tools on that resource card. When determing the effects of the die roll, the number of extra workers you are considered to have placed is equal to (extra workers + tools). Example: 1 extra worker + 3 tools = 4 extra workers for purposes of the die roll.
--Mitigating reduction of workers: Likewise, you may use a tool in place of a worker for a resource card. Example: If 2 less workers + 2 tools = 0 more/less workers placed for purposes of the die roll.
--Tools go back to the general metal pile after they have been used.
--The toolmaker now makes one free tool per round, at the beginning of the round.
Anyway, this is a very rough sketch of what I think Stone Age-style die rolling might look like in Pillars of the Earth. I think that going for a straight "workers placed = dice rolled; pips/number = resources collected" system would really mess with some of the fundamental mechanisms of Pillars. But who knows, I could easily be wrong. I'm interested to hear how it all turns out.
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Hugh G. Rection
United States
La Mesa
California
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Miner Cotren wrote: -Stone Age takes place over many more rounds than Pillars, allowing the dice-rolling luck to somewhat even out. It also has tools to mitigate luck. In a game of using this variant, if you roll poorly in the first two rounds, you've just lost 1/3 of your resource capabilities for the entire game.
To kind of expand on this, Stone Age has a variable game length depending on when Huts or Cards run out. They won't run out if the resources to purchase them aren't acquired.
Pillars of the Earth has a fixed number of game turns and ends after the sixth turn, no matter what.
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Larry Buckel
United States
Whittier
California
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Great comments Eric! I like your idea of using the existing Tax dice in the game. Probably would take a redesign to add dice correctly but you gave us some things to think about. Thanks for posting.
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Posted Sun Sep 25, 2011 3:31 pm
