(arc) Resource piles

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snowdrop
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(arc) Resource piles

Post by snowdrop » Sun Nov 06, 2016 20:55

I know me and ng spoke about it in some convo somewhere, but I can't find it: What is the reason for keeping the resource cards around, on table (in piles or otherwise), once they have been spent to generate a resource token of a specified colour? What function does it fill?

Wouldn't it be best to just remove them from game altogether, to clear up space? (If you for example have 3 colored deck you suddenly have 3 less stacks, every time you play that deck, on a table. Now imagine the other players have 2 or 3 colors in his/her deck, that gives a total of 5-6 stacks less on the table)

Edit: I see http://wtactics.org/wiki/images/thumb/0 ... Layout.png explains it somewhat. It's clearest that way I guess, even though just having two mixed piles with all colours in it on left/right side of any divider or the table would suffice in most cases.
Clemens
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Re: (arc) Resource piles

Post by Clemens » Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:17

I can't really speak for ngeominne, but what I would expect is that it could be handled just the way the players agree on it. You are right, that removing them would save space, and maybe that could be suggested, if space is an issue. But if you keep them on the table in separate piles, you could always count them again, to identify mistakes. Or if someone doesn't want to manage individual gems, they could just mark the piles with one gem each to know the color and then simply mark the resource cards themselves (meaning you would only have to bring five gems maximum).
So I think it should really be up to the players. Maybe there could be an "official" way, with some suggested alternatives.
ngoeminne
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Re: (arc) Resource piles

Post by ngoeminne » Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:33

Hi Snowdrop, Clemens,

I kind of follow Clemens reasoning here. Players will do whatever they want with it. Furthermore, it is just a visual way of presenting what is available and what is used. One thing I wouldn't suggest is removing them from the game. As other interaction might occur in future card text. (return to hand, return to deck, to graveyard), The 'removed' from game state is semantically.

All what functionally is needed by the arc is division by kind, and used vs available.
We also physically play tested it, and visually two/three resource piles make sense.
Available/unavailable movement is quick (sliding the counters is way faster then rotating cards).

All in I'm quite fond of it. Of course a single pile could still work as well.
In any case, it is more compact then MTG's approach.

Feel free to try out whatever you system you like, I'll stick to the grouped by kind for now.

Kind regards,
Nico
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snowdrop
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Re: (arc) Resource piles

Post by snowdrop » Mon Nov 07, 2016 19:45

Available/unavailable movement is quick (sliding the counters is way faster then rotating cards).
I agree it's faster (but not noticeably or to an extent where that matters psychologicaly even in the long run (but I am interested in measuring it by watching a couple of MtG games actually, would be fun to know and compare.. =) )

I think my main argument for token vs rotation is that rotation feels very much fiddlier and harder to come to terms with in the first place. I remember when I was a new MtG player, and I hated it for several years and thought rotation sucked. My main reason for it was that my first CCG was DoomTrooper, Mutant Chronicles, where resources where coins/pennies, like 50 - 150 of them, so I was super used to counters and enjoyed it a lot.
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