by NinjaTweak
Yes, I said overhaul. This is not about additions, deletions, or alterations to the rulebook - this is about throwing it out entirely and writing a new rulebook from scratch.Why?
Because the more I played this game the more I feel like it is an abomination to the premise that inspired it. Cutthroat competition, dominant strategies, "racing," etc. - these are just some of the flavors that do not at all belong in such a journey.
I believe that it is still possible to create a fun experience for players using all of the components that were provided. And I equally believe that it is possible to create a fun type of gameplay that is neither about competitive play or cooperative play, but instead introspective and social play.
This will be a long undertaking, one that may be easier with feedback from other gamers that have more experience than I. So I intend to share my thoughts throughout this development process, rather than starting with a finished proposal.
But every journey starts with a single step. Best I set out my initial concepts for changes before I get wrapped up in minutia.
1) Quantified scoring has got to, at the very least, go down a peg or two. I would consider removing it entirely, but it may still be useful if used differently.
Let's consider the theme of the game first: travel from one capital to another (spiritual to political, or vice-versa). For the most part, this slate is blank. No motive is mentioned, either in general, or specifically for each unique traveler. The back of the box encourages patience, and taking the time to appreciate your stops. Do we accomplish either of these when players are incentivized to maximize their points or block other players from doing the same? I think not.
There are several alternative solutions for providing players with an endgame objective besides scoring more than others.
1A) give travelers unique motivations for the journey (e.g. business, tourism, relocation, etc.) - these ideally come with their own unique goals, such as the merchant's business motive to acquire inventory to resell and/or spread the word about his business, whereas a messenger's business motive would be to find a specific person(s).
Again, I'll be revisiting the ideas for fine-tuning later, but for now I'm wondering what's best in principle, rather than how it is best implemented. Motivations can be very unique, as in I/we could try to develop unique goals for each traveler despite multiple travelers having the same motivation. This allows us to create different themes in different game sessions (i.e. one motivation per game) and adds potential replay value through a variety of motives or the combination of traveler+motive.
Conversely, we could make motives something more like the routes players attempt to complete in ticket to ride. Each player could have multiple motives, perhaps choosing how many to attempt, but with this approach the associated goal of each motive would be more generic, rather than unique to the traveler.
1B)Reinterpret the score. The question shouldn't be who scored most. If anything, the question should be who scored well. The floor and ceiling for score is different depending on the traveler. Grading a player's journey based on what level of their potential was reached could be effective (e.g. score in your top quartile to be deemed "enlightened" or "fulfilled," but score low and be deemed "hasty" or somesuch).
The same attitude can be implemented using other measures besides points. Take the base game: with 9 station categories to choose from, one factor for judging performance could be how much variety in which the player took part. Is a high score lacking variety a "successful journey?"
Seriously, take the score out of this game, play it, then at the end ask everyone to discuss who they think the winner should be, or at the very least to discuss how well they think they did. Is that not a conversation worth having? Are we doing what we set out to do?
1C) Celebrate achievements, and acknowledge more of them. Rare accomplishments are more meaningful than just one-upping someone, though. I'd much rather see the chatterbox go to the person who met everyone, and not just X number more than the next player, even if that means that chatterbox is not awarded in the majority of games. Let achievements be an event, and those journeys will live on as legends of their own.
More later. Tip of the iceberg, here.