Robert Seater
United States
Ashland
Massachusetts
Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory
Feed me...games...
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Jeremiah & I have been working on a variant for ZIMP to "help" groups who cooperate too much and thus find the game too easy. The variant makes the game a bit harder, by preventing players from abusing certain loopholes in the game. However, mostly it makes cooperation between players harder, thus stirring up more trouble.
We'll probably release this as an official variant in the upcoming Black Box edition Some of these rules may be put into the main rules, and the rest will be included as an official variant.
There is time for suggestions & revisions if you have them!
A. Totem Rules
(1) The Totem cannot be exchanged between players, even if they agree to do so.
(2) The player carrying the Totem does not benefit from Blessing events.
(3) Whenever a Blessing occurs, the Totem player may choose any number of other players, and also block them from getting the Blessing effect. whenever a Curse occurs, the Totem player may choose any number of other players to also be affected by the Curse effect.
These rules make the Totem player more resentful and more able to act on those feelings.
B. Map Rules
(1) If the group is standing in the Temple or the Graveyard when the leader chooses to cower, then discard two events (for no effect) rather than just one.
(2) If the group is standing in a room with an Evil Etching when the entire group chooses to flee, then the group does not leave the room.
(3) If there are no openings available, then the leader gains the ability to create a new opening in any wall by inflicting 2 wounds on one player. This ability is only available if there are not doors free.
(4) When the leader sends someone through the window, that player takes 2 wounds (not 1).
These rules prevent certain non-thematic strategies. E.g. cowering just before trying to find/bury the totem to ensure success, and fleeing out of dead-ends in order to save time. They also make players who break through wall/windows more resentful of the leader.
C. Scoring (only rule #2 is new)
(1) If the team wins, the scoring is the same as before.
alive with most health (or tied) = 4 points
alive but not most health = 3 points
dead = 0 points
(2) If the team loses, the scoring changes.
was alive on the last turn of the game = 0 points (brains eaten)
died earlier = 1 point (joined the zombies)
(3) As before, anyone who is alive is considered to have won, but players with the most health have won 'more'. If you track records, play in a tournament, or play several games in sequence, highest score wins at the end of the set of games.
It has been (correctly) observed that there is a dominant strategy of always fleeing. With it, you will win the game with the most health or everyone will lose the game (and you will be one of the last players alive). You will never lose an edge. The revised scoring prevents that. It also gives players who lose more emotional investment in rooting for the zombies, since they stand to actually gain (rather than lose less).
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Robert Seater
United States
Ashland
Massachusetts
Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory
Feed me...games...
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Some people have also suggested stacking the tile decks a bit. I don't like the extra setup this entails, but it does make the game more consistent in length:
During setup:
- shuffle the temple into the bottom 3 indoor tiles
- shuffle the graveyard into the bottom 3 outdoor tiles
I also think that, with cooperation made harder (with the above rules), then even a short game can be hard due to backstabbing. But I'm not sure.
Thoughts?
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Mick Sullivan
United States
Franklin
Massachusetts
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What about something like this:
If the players win, the survivors are rewarded
Each player scores 1 victory point for every remaining point of health he has (possibly zero).
If the players lose, the survivors are punished
Each dead (zombified) player scores 1 victory point for each player who died later in the game than they did, and 1 point for each player still alive at the end of the game. This is easy to track during game play with your health die. For example: the first person to die in a 5-player game gets 4 points, the second gets 3 points, etc. Ties are possible if multiple players died on the same turn.
It would seem to be a good compromise. It mostly rewards players who fight, and punishes those who flee all the time. In addition, the first player to be killed all of a sudden has a rooting interest in the game -- he may win!
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Robert Seater
United States
Ashland
Massachusetts
Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory
Feed me...games...
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SupaGerm wrote:
What about something like this:
If the players win, the survivors are rewarded
Each player scores 1 victory point for every remaining point of health he has (possibly zero).
If the players lose, the survivors are punished
Each dead (zombified) player scores 1 victory point for each player who died later in the game than they did, and 1 point for each player still alive at the end of the game. This is easy to track during game play with your health die. For example: the first person to die in a 5-player game gets 4 points, the second gets 3 points, etc. Ties are possible if multiple players died on the same turn.
It would seem to be a good compromise. It mostly rewards players who fight, and punishes those who flee all the time. In addition, the first player to be killed all of a sudden has a rooting interest in the game -- he may win!
Very elegant. I like it!
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Director of Game Development at Cambridge Games Factory
