Capture The Flag: Mission 1 - Hunting - Turn 25

[ChuckDaRighteous]

Feedback: My problem wasn't with the moving map. The problem was our objectives on a moving map were spread out and running away. This made it very frustrating. If the map was linear, such as "head down this cave" we wouldn't have issues with person A going this way and person B going that way and one of them having to change actions because you would only be moving the section in one way. (I've never seen any of us completely agree in forum games. We're always splitting up and doing our own thing.) Or alternatively you could have enemies who weren't so skittish so we wouldn't have to chase in separate directions. The only other option would be to allow players to split up but I don't think that fits the mechanics very well.

Another idea for a linear head this way would be a "catch the thief" type thing. Ex: Someone stole the map to your village from your war camp and you have to catch him before he gets away. But he has friends hiding to ambush you and slow you down, defeat or evade them and catch the thief. The map could then move, but we wouldn't be running off in all 4 directions.

Also I don't like the idea of animal players. The idea behind having players would be to have strategic minds trying to defeat you, which clashed with the animal perspective to me. You'd either be boxed in to the act a very specific way, or open to act not like an animal. If we were going against a couple of paladins it would make more sense to have strategic players controlling them.

[Knucklekraken]

More Yarzog.

[Wolfie]

Hey some of us animal players actually acted like animals!

[Bahamut]

Yeah, the original kits ran and hid. And did a better job of it than the second group I might add.

[Krulle]

Well, as long as we Goblins don't have the space to fan out and get around, nor being faster, we don't have a chance to hunt animals down...

[Bahamut]

You guys were faster than the kits. They could move 1.5 squares per town.

[SeeAMoose]

Well, as long as we Goblins don't have the space to fan out and get around, nor being faster, we don't have a chance to hunt animals down...

Yeah that is something I should have fixed in game. I do have the inklings of a plan to fix that in the next mission though. I'm thinking of using circles centered on each of the goblins showing roughly 3 squares in every direction. I can't do a blind spot unfortunately because I can't move individual parts of the selection independently, but it would allow goblins to move independently if they wanted to. The only thing I can't figure out is how to do the grid... should I center one on every goblin, do a square grid (no perspective)? Maybe I'll figure out something with inkscape that would let me create grid every round...
Let me know what you think.

[Krulle]

We need to keep it manageable for the GM, so it'll remain a lot int the GM's hands.
And every GM has different possibilities, so I can't say much about what you should do.

[WearsHats]

I don't have a strong opinion on animal players, but I feel, on balance, that we're better off without them. It's kind of a neat idea, but I don't feel it adds much to the game besides more work for the GM. And, as we've seen, it can create conflicts.

I'm not sure how to handle the moving map. Giving us each our own grid seems like it could get spread out and chaotic really quickly. But the constraint of having to stay with the group while we've got a large area to explore and objectives in different directions can get a little frustrating. I think putting us in a linear setting like a cave could be interesting, depending on the objective, but kind of defeats the purpose of a moving map. I think what would work best would be a free range map with more incentive to stick together and less reason to go running off in different directions.

There's also the problem of having to come up behind our prey if they're only going to run at the sight of us and they have the ability to go far off the map. Moving only two squares per turn, it can take a long time to set up a pincer.