Crazy, friendly tourney idea - feedback wanted

[DBC]

April 30. marks my 1 year anniversary with Heroscape. Since I can't simply ignore such an occasion, I have decided to host a little party, for the people I have been playing with this last year.
I'm hoping to be able to get six players together.
One idea I have been toying with is to divide us into two teams and play 1 vs. 1 battles. All players are playing on identical maps simultaneously. The team that wins the most battles is declared the winner.

Now to spice things up a little, I have come up with a crazy idea:
There will be Glyphs scattered across the maps. But when a player lands on a Glyph, he will not get any benefit from it. Instead he is allowed to give the ability to one of his teammates, for as long as he holds the Glyph.

This should add some interesting dynamics to the game, I think.
But there are some timing issues I'm worried about:
- Should players take turns or rounds simultaneously?
- When will the effect of a Glyph take place?

If we take turns simultaneously, we risk having a lot of downtime as the game progresses. On the other hand, effects from Glyphs can take place almost immediately.

If we take rounds simultaneously, the game should flow fairly smooth. But the effects of Glyphs will have to be applied at the beginning of a round. This means a player will be able to use the effect for all 3 activations that round. Is that too much?

A third option would be to place a time limit on each activation, and simply let the games each run at their own pace. Glyph powers affecting another player, the moment they are aquired. This would however result in some rounds/turns being a bit stressful, and I want to have a nice evening with my friends, just laughing, drinking and chilling out. So I'm counting that option out, for the moment.

What do you people think is the best solution?
Has this way of playing been done before, or is there anything I should consider doing differently?

[Nooblar]

Sounds like a fun idea! I'm not sure how the different glyph application methods would affect balance, so I'll just bump this up so a more savvy 'Scaper can answer that.

[rdhight]

I suggest not synchronizing the rounds and then using this rule:

"When you turn an order marker, check to see what glyphs your teammates are holding. Apply the effects of those glyphs until the next time you turn a marker."

[chispito]

Originally Posted by rdhight

I suggest not synchronizing the rounds and then using this rule:

"When you turn an order marker, check to see what glyphs your teammates are holding. Apply the effects of those glyphs until the next time you turn a marker."

This sounds very reasonable. Although, it would make sense to immediately confer a defensive bonus, especially if the recipient is being attacked.

Good idea overall, though if I were you I would try to implement some sort of visual aid that shows who is receiving what bonus. A small whiteboard, or extra glyphs that you place in front of the affected teammate, perhaps.

[rdhight]

Originally Posted by chispito

This sounds very reasonable. Although, it would make sense to immediately confer a defensive bonus, especially if the recipient is being attacked.

Good idea overall, though if I were you I would try to implement some sort of visual aid that shows who is receiving what bonus. A small whiteboard, or extra glyphs that you place in front of the affected teammate, perhaps.

Suckrep sent.

[Junge Roman]

I really like the basic idea. Making Heroscape a team game really adds another element of fun. This could get fairly complicated pretty fast, though.

Let me ask this: will you be playing or only hosting?

If you're hosting, the sky is the limit in terms of how you want to track glyphs and confer bonuses. You can run around and be judge on that. If you're playing, real time bonuses for the other teams are going to be out of the question. I can just see one player stalling, waiting for a crucial moment to pass in the next match over before he lets you take your turn and seize the glyph. It's impractical.

I'd suggest this:
1. Use glyphs like normal for the 1st match, but keep a tally of each turn that a player occupies a glyph.
2. In the second set of matches, confer the bonus (to all teammates) for the entire match to whichever team occupied the glyphs the longest.
3. Continue tallying occupation, and adjust the bonuses again for the next match.

It will be a powerful bonus, so make sure you choose your glyphs wisely. Disclaimer: I have never done this, but it makes sense to me in theory.

[DBC]

Originally Posted by rdhight

Suckrep sent.

You gave me a slightly different idea:
"When you turn an order marker, check to see what glyphs your teammates are holding. Apply the effects of those glyphs if you are in the same round and not behind in turns, for the rest of the turn".

This should leave very little room for turteling, I think.
It would also create a natural break as you move between rounds, giving players the time to check up on the situation on the other boards.

Originally Posted by Junge Roman

I really like the basic idea. Making Heroscape a team game really adds another element of fun. This could get fairly complicated pretty fast, though.

Let me ask this: will you be playing or only hosting?

If you're hosting, the sky is the limit in terms of how you want to track glyphs and confer bonuses. You can run around and be judge on that. If you're playing, real time bonuses for the other teams are going to be out of the question. I can just see one player stalling, waiting for a crucial moment to pass in the next match over before he lets you take your turn and seize the glyph. It's impractical.

I'd suggest this:
1. Use glyphs like normal for the 1st match, but keep a tally of each turn that a player occupies a glyph.
2. In the second set of matches, confer the bonus (to all teammates) for the entire match to whichever team occupied the glyphs the longest.
3. Continue tallying occupation, and adjust the bonuses again for the next match.

It will be a powerful bonus, so make sure you choose your glyphs wisely. Disclaimer: I have never done this, but it makes sense to me in theory.

While this idea might work, it also changes the dynamics of the game. It becomes less important whether you grab the Glyph in turn 1 or turn 3, as long as you just hold on to it.
I'm looking for something that changes game-play during the match, not between matches.

But maybe this could be a variant for 2-player games?
- You play several games. With Glyph Powers taking effect in the next game only.
I'll think about that...