Post by Whiterook on Nov 14, 2024 14:15:38 GMT -5
As mentioned in the Bite the Bullet Variant thread, a very cool game alteration idea transpired at the Compass Games Expo this past week, while playing a lot of “Bite the Bullet - You are a Legend” scenarios with my great gaming buddy, Tim Barnes. In the picture below, you can see Character Sheets, of the playing pieces you as the player control… one sheet for the lawmen and the other for the outlaws.
In the game, you alternate from numbered character 1 through 8; in these sheets, #1 is Lawman Fred, #2 is Outlaw Ron, then #3 Lawman Alex, and so on. My gaming partner and I were discussing how playing in this manner, we were always looking who was coming up next in that 8-character mix that hadn’t activated yet, and also in plotting further ahead to what the order would be in the next round… this was greatly influencing our decisions and was becoming almost chess like, where were were plotting several moves ahead for our strategy. It does work well, but we started wondering, what if we randomized things with a blind draw??? Tim went to a local CVS by the Expo hotel venue and bought a deck of poker cards, and I took out the Ace through 8 cards, and we made a crude draw deck.
OMG… what a difference in gameplay!!! In this way, we never knew which character was going to act next, and it made for extremely exciting action! This isn’t a replacement for the game, but rather an alternate method of character selection that can be used to make the game more unpredictable. Of all the scenarios we played, we used this blind draw on over half of the scenarios played and I have to say, I like it better, as did Tim.
Now home, I’m going to make a deck of cards for all the characters, with custom artwork, instead of using poker cards. We discussed adding Jokers as wild cards… maybe for a bonus play for any chosen character on your side, or similar; maybe unloads an advantage; maybe have surprise advantage cards. This also presents an opportunity for characters played with miniatures, and artwork of their specific looks. Just for personal use, of course, but a fun new project to work on over the coming months!
In the game, you alternate from numbered character 1 through 8; in these sheets, #1 is Lawman Fred, #2 is Outlaw Ron, then #3 Lawman Alex, and so on. My gaming partner and I were discussing how playing in this manner, we were always looking who was coming up next in that 8-character mix that hadn’t activated yet, and also in plotting further ahead to what the order would be in the next round… this was greatly influencing our decisions and was becoming almost chess like, where were were plotting several moves ahead for our strategy. It does work well, but we started wondering, what if we randomized things with a blind draw??? Tim went to a local CVS by the Expo hotel venue and bought a deck of poker cards, and I took out the Ace through 8 cards, and we made a crude draw deck.
OMG… what a difference in gameplay!!! In this way, we never knew which character was going to act next, and it made for extremely exciting action! This isn’t a replacement for the game, but rather an alternate method of character selection that can be used to make the game more unpredictable. Of all the scenarios we played, we used this blind draw on over half of the scenarios played and I have to say, I like it better, as did Tim.
Now home, I’m going to make a deck of cards for all the characters, with custom artwork, instead of using poker cards. We discussed adding Jokers as wild cards… maybe for a bonus play for any chosen character on your side, or similar; maybe unloads an advantage; maybe have surprise advantage cards. This also presents an opportunity for characters played with miniatures, and artwork of their specific looks. Just for personal use, of course, but a fun new project to work on over the coming months!