So one of the changes we have discussed is adding in special pieces that are placed at the beginning of the game. When a player plays a piece onto that space, the piece is flipped over, revealing the effect.
->at the beginning of each game, each player draws and places a special piece on the board. Piece is placed face down on the board until someone goes to fill the space in with a standard tile. Tiles can be placed in any space except those immediately next to the starting spot; the tiles immediately N,NE,E,SE,S,SW,W,NW. At that point, the effect of that piece will come into play.
Effects like:
1)all players draw new hands
2)The player placing a tile on this space must draw a new hand
3)players swap hands counterclockwise, clockwise or across (decided at beginning by drawing direction on tile)
4)take another turn
5)cause rush-hour, player cannot play a tile this turn
6)ORV changes the tiles immediately to the NESW to 'X' tiles
7)player placing a tile on this space can hold one additional card in their hand for the remainder of the game
8)player placing a tile on this space can hold one less card for the remainder of the game
9)all players may now play two tiles, but only if they are a pair
10)all tiles in the row and column of this piece are removed. This does not remove these special tiles
11)player may only place a tile of the type specific at the beginning of the game. If the player does not have the required piece, they may not play this turn
12)Every piece on the board is rotated 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise, decided at the beginning of the game
At the beginning of each game, each player gets a blank tile that they write the number of the desired effect, and possible a direction. They then place the piece whereever they want (aside from the illegal moves described above).
Updaaaaate:
After considering last week's playtest and commentary, we decided to focus on making our game less random, and more strategy based. To do so, we switched from a dice-based movement system to a card pool based system. Now, the player has to play two cards from their hand of eight cards; one a cardinal direction to move in, and the other a method of movement(airplane, boat, car or train). The final distance moved will be based on the method of movement and the player's current position. Now instead of trying to reach a board edge, the player has a destination city and a starting city.
Gameplay considerations:
As stated, we felt that a switch to a card based movement model would inject strategy into the gameplay that random dice rolls did not.
We decided to limit (initially, anyway) the player's hand to 8 cards and force them to draw four from the direction pile, and four from the transport pile. This will provide them with a solid foundation to start the game. But because they might need a specific direction or movement type, we allow the player to decide how to split their draws each turn; they can choose two transport cards, two direction cards, or one of each.
But because we liked the combative elements of the game, and felt that it was necessary to be able to change the game radically, we decided to keep the idea of special cards. Some functions like swapping hands or changing destinations can quickly change a player's whole strategy, while others like allowing a player to look at another's hand can help to prepare blocking strategies. The change of hand size card is also intended to further the pvp aspects of the game, and give one player an edge or a disadvantage.
Furthermore, we switched from a blank checkerboard system to a map-based system, mainly so that we can integrate the movement modifiers based on the costs associated with that location.