A Shaft of Light in the Darkness of the Mountain
about 4 years ago
– Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 08:15:48 AM
Hello, Dwarves of Montaña del perpetuo trabajo comunal. It’s been a little over a month since I last sent you an update. In that one, we announced that shipping was underway and we asked you to let us know if you hadn’t received your copy by 14th March. Two weeks have passed since that date and we’ve only heard from two of you, with both cases now being resolved, so it looks like shipping’s complete. In the normal way of things, that would be the last you’d hear from us - the project’s successfully accomplished. Things aren’t normal, however, so I’ve been thinking about some other things I can do for you.
Reviews
Before we get to those things, I want to thank those of you who are Rahdo Patreons and who voted for him to record a runthrough of Dwarf. The video is, I think, currently available exclusively for his Patreons and will be released on his YouTube channel soon. In written form, meanwhile, JW has posted his initial thoughts after a few solo plays of Dwarf, over on Solitaire Times. If you have a favourite boardgame reviewer or YouTuber who you’d like to see cover Dwarf then please let us know and we’ll get in touch with them.
Errata and Q’s
One other piece of housekeeping to cover is the errors people have spotted and queries they’ve raised since the game first shipped. As far as errors - somebody spotted that they only have 32 grey cubes when the rulebook says there should be 36. Every copy of Dwarf has 32 grey cubes, so put this down to a rulebook error. As far as queries go, some people have asked some rules questions in the game’s forum on BoardGameGeek. If you’ve answered any of those queries then thank you very much, I really appreciate it. For the most part I’ve answered the questions myself but it’s great when someone else jumps in before me with the right answer. We’re going to write an FAQ for the game on the company website and this will be based on the questions asked there so please do use the forums.
Andvéttr’s Glory
Talking of BoardGameGeek, it’s been great to see people posting their plays of the game there. I was also really impressed by the insert that gandalforf created for the game. As far as those posted plays go, many of them have been solo and I’ve seen a lot of people - just like JW mentioned in his write-up - struggle to win against Andvéttr. The most common reason for this is the way that he can win by accumulating 12 glory. I’ll always encourage people to play games the way that they want to play them - having fun is the most important thing - and if this means ignoring a rule like this then you should feel free to do so. I’ll sound a note of caution, though - that rule is there for a reason.
Fairly early on in playtesting the solo game, it became apparent that you’ll always win if you have infinite time - after all, you have some control over Andvéttr. Even if he surprises you once a round, eventually you’ll back him into the corner you want and finish the game at a time where you’ll win. For me, that just isn’t fun. So the game needs a timer - something to take away the infinite time. Obviously there’s one in the game anyway (the Mountain being fully explored) but the glory acts as an additional timer in the solo game - and it’s dynamic. If you need more time, try to do some of the defending yourself, instead of making Andvéttr do it.
If you’re struggling, I’d suggest increasing the length of the timer rather than removing it all together (I have a nasty habit of making my solo games too tough, probably because I get too familiar with them during design and development). Perhaps 15 and 18 glory may be appropriate levels of difficulty to switch to but feel free to come up with your own number - this is a difficulty level that’s scalable in a very easy and obvious way. If you do choose a difficulty other than the default 12 (including the 15 and 18 that I just suggested) then it’d be great if you could post your feelings over on the Dwarf BoardGameGeek forums. Perhaps over time a consensus will emerge.
What I can do for you now
Anyway. At the beginning of this update, I mentioned that things aren’t normal in the world right now. Covid-19 is causing a great deal of stress and upset for people the world over and none of us know what the world’s going to look like when it’s over - or when that will be. Board games should provide some relief from this - taking your mind away from immediate problems into a series of interactive puzzles, either solo or with your family. Not everything is bad news though and there are a lot of ordinary people doing extraordinary things right now - whether that’s doctors and nurses risking their own health (and that of their families), the person that goes out to pick up groceries for their housebound neighbours or the person that makes an extra phone call to friends and family to check that they’re OK. All of these things, however small, are important and should be applauded. Here in the UK, we did that quite literally the other night but I’ve been even more impressed by the more than 750,000 people who have volunteered to help the NHS at this time. Now more than ever, it’s important that we think of others and that we work together.
So, what are those extra things that I’ve been thinking I can do for you? Inspired by that army of volunteers, I’ve been working on co-op rules for the game. All the way back in update #4 I wrote that:
“Doing something for one another is what being a dwarf in Zanziar is all about. You may already be familiar with the world of Zanziar from Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift - or from Zanziaritself. Perhaps you’ve even read the Zanziar world book? If you have, you’ll know that dwarfs live in an egalitarian society - a political system they call ‘collaborate states’. Individual wealth is banned and roles are chosen for young dwarfs when they come of age. You might think of it, essentially, as a Stalinist society.
“Dwarf is a competitive game, though, right? Right. The ’collaborate states’ exist at the time of the events in Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift; Dwarf takes place around 500 years before then, when the states are just forming. This is why defending the mines earns you glory - medals of honour - but it’s still possible to acquire personal wealth. Of course, those others who are doing their bit for society might not think too highly of you but, well, what do you care? You probably don’t think too highly of the idea of the ‘collaborate states’, do you?”
So maybe these rules should have been there from the beginning! Essentially, the co-op rules consist of an additional special action card that changes the victory condition of the game. It must be achieved by all players together (including the AI player, if you’re playing solo) to win, otherwise all players lose. This card represents a crisis. Moves towards ‘collaborate states’ existed among the dwarves of Zanziar when Dwarf takes place but the ideas weren’t universally popular (that’s why you can still win through personal wealth). The crisis provides the catalyst for full cooperation and a change in the political system. Players can choose to shuffle the card into the special action cards (replacing one of the others) and know that the conditions of the game may change midway. Alternatively, they can choose to start with it in play, or not play with it at all. I’m still finalising the victory conditions for this so, if you’d like to help me playtest it, then please let me know at [email protected]. Once finished, I’ll post the card here, on the Dragon Dawn Productions website and on BGG as a Print and Play file.
It’s a wonder I didn’t think of this sooner. Not only does it fit perfectly, thematically, but I’m a big fan of cooperative games. So, that’s the second thing I thought maybe I could do to help relieve your boredom - create a list of my Top Ten Cooperative Games. If you’d like to see this then let me know in the comments below.
Lee and the DDP Team
