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Longtime lurker, frequent game night host, first time contributor.
7 Wonders is very popular among my game group, to the point where things get awkward if exactly 8 people are left. With the leaders expansion, though, there's 8 boards and more than enough leaders to go around. The only limiting factor is that there aren't enough cards in each age to make it work. So, I've been thinking of play-testing an 8 player variant. Essentially, in each age, somebody starts with no cards. This player is determined with an auction mechanic, described in more detail below. There are three major changes:
-- "Distant trading" becomes possible. You may buy from people two spots clockwise or counterclockwise from you for three coins. If you have a card or wonder that would entitle you to buy it from your immediate neighbor for one coin, you only pay 2 to buy it from your distant neighbor. This is because there will be fewer resource cards to go around and we need to make up for it somehow.
-- Everybody starts with 9 coins instead of 6. This is to facilitate distant trading.
-- By necessity, one player will start the age with no cards (because there's only 7 hands of 7 to go around). This player is determined by an "auction" mechanic.
Basically, at the start of each age, prior to the leader recruitment phase, there's an auction phase. "Bidding" starts at, say, six coins. Somebody can volunteer to be the player who starts with no cards in exchange for those six coins.
IF THERE IS NO VOLUNTEER:
The bidding is upped to seven coins, eight coins, etc. until there is.
IF THERE IS A VOLUNTEER:
Another player can then "outbid" him and offer to be that player for five coins. Another player (including the original bidder) can then offer to be that player for four coins, etc. This proceeds until a number is settled on.
In the event that multiple players settle on a single pricepoint (either as a result of the initial bid increasing or decreasing), the winner is determined by die roll or other agreed-upon randomization mechanism (not included with the game, obviously, but surely we all have dice). The coins are received prior to leader recruitment, so this can be used as a way to allow you to pay for a leader.
I think this would work, because the winning bidder will, assuming competent play on the part of other players, receive on average worse cards than everybody else. Similarly, different opinions and strategies could come to different conclusions how much of a disadvantage it is to be the first person who doesn't have cards. For instance, somebody who plans on doing lots of trading might be willing to accept a lower price point than somebody who is going science.
I haven't playtested this yet, but it seems like it would work. I'm interested in your thoughts.
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Matt Downey
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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You could just wait for 7 Wonders: Cities to come out in April/May. It supports 8.
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downeymb wrote:
I *could*, but I'll probably host a dozen game nights between now and then. This is an issue almost every week. Seriously, 7 Wonders has taken over my game night.
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Matt Downey
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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It is an intersting idea. I think I might almost prefer giving each player 6 cards instead of 7 in their hand. That way everyone plays, and you still get your 6 cards. There would be one extra card, which could be used for the Hanging Gardens. Though they might get an advantage, if the one card left out is a good one.
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V L
United States
Virginia
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downfall wrote: downeymb wrote: I *could*, but I'll probably host a dozen game nights between now and then. This is an issue almost every week. Seriously, 7 Wonders has taken over my game night.
Go ahead and try it. Sounds reasonable with the leaders expansion included. Otherwise the coins wouldn't really help all that much.
I know what you mean. It's deeper than most games that support 7 people and very fun.
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downeymb wrote: It is an intersting idea. I think I might almost prefer giving each player 6 cards instead of 7 in their hand. That way everyone plays, and you still get your 6 cards. There would be one extra card, which could be used for the Hanging Gardens. Though they might get an advantage, if the one card left out is a good one.
That's an interesting way to do it too, although I think you'd have to retain some form of a distant trading mechanic. Otherwise, there just won't be enough resources to go around.
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Neo42 wrote: downfall wrote: downeymb wrote: I *could*, but I'll probably host a dozen game nights between now and then. This is an issue almost every week. Seriously, 7 Wonders has taken over my game night. Go ahead and try it. Sounds reasonable with the leaders expansion included. Otherwise the coins wouldn't really help all that much. I know what you mean. It's deeper than most games that support 7 people and very fun.
Thanks. And it has to be done with the leader expansion, or else there's no board (Rome) for the 8th player.
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George
United States
Pennsylvania
You can take my game… when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the board!
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downfall wrote: downeymb wrote: It is an intersting idea. I think I might almost prefer giving each player 6 cards instead of 7 in their hand. That way everyone plays, and you still get your 6 cards. There would be one extra card, which could be used for the Hanging Gardens. Though they might get an advantage, if the one card left out is a good one. That's an interesting way to do it too, although I think you'd have to retain some form of a distant trading mechanic. Otherwise, there just won't be enough resources to go around.
We played the 6 card method with a printout of the Catan board for the 8th player. Fewer resources might have indeed been an issue, but it was hard for us to tell because we are all fairly new to the game. Deep trading sounds like a good solution to that though.
More info here:
Re: 8 players?
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Skylar
United States
Tempe
Arizona
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My concern is that the auction effects much more than the initial person who starts without a hand. Each age has 6 rounds, yet there are now 8 players, meaning 2 players will get to play cards during ALL rounds in that age, while the others do not. Sure the auction might make up for that with the auction winner, but this still puts those 2 players at a significant advantage over the other 5 players who neither won the auction nor happened to be sitting on the good side of the auction winner for that age. It seems like that would create an awful meta-game during the auction that would ruin the spirit of 7 Wonders.
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Skylar
United States
Tempe
Arizona
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That being said, I do like the ideas of distant trading and starting with 9 coins to facilitate it. Combine that with the earlier suggestion of starting with 6 cards, and I think you've got a viable 8 player variant. Plus, cutting 3 rounds of play will make games go faster, and make when to build your wonder board or turn in cards for coins into much more strategic choices.
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Matt Downey
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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With only 6 cards the idea.was that you would still have six rounds, just no choice of cards on the last round. Though that might hinder the Mausoleum.
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ackmondual
United States
Virginia
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downfall wrote: Neo42 wrote: downfall wrote: downeymb wrote: I *could*, but I'll probably host a dozen game nights between now and then. This is an issue almost every week. Seriously, 7 Wonders has taken over my game night. Go ahead and try it. Sounds reasonable with the leaders expansion included. Otherwise the coins wouldn't really help all that much. I know what you mean. It's deeper than most games that support 7 people and very fun. Thanks. And it has to be done with the leader expansion, or else there's no board (Rome) for the 8th player.
Another thing I must ask is you're not concerned that your 8p 7W works out fine, but then one day a 9th player shows up?  
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Scot Eaton
United States
Minnesota
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I am intrigued by your "distant trading" rule, but I don't think that one player not having cards works. I'd be interested to see you repost the Distant Trading rule as its own Variant.
You should also check out the Trading Post that Gus and Shima made at this web page: http://gusandco.net/2012/02/05/calamites-fortune-extension-p... It's in French, but Google Translate makes short work of that. 
Finally, I created some 8-player rules of my own, which I think are much more workable. I give credit to you though, since you started me thinking about it. The rules are here: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/793191/rules-for-8-player-ga...
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Posted Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:46 pm
