Another good playtest of Nemos Island

At Sunday’s Central Ohio Game Designer’s (COGD) meetup, we had 8 designers attend. By mutual agreement, we split into 2 groups of 4, and I got Escape from Nemo’s Island to the table.

The players were: myself (playing the Thief), Kyle (playing the Mariner), Greg (playing the Porter), and Smitty (playing the Scout). The Trap Clock was started at 1.

Problem 1: we called the game when it became obvious that we could not escape. After the volcano erupted, there were too many locations that were covered in lava, and the players did not have enough actionable clues to find the rest of the supplies.

Change for next time: I need to adjust the number of clues that point to Fuel, since the players need twice as much fuel as water or food. Alternately, it was suggested that treasure clues be changes to indicate either treasure or a supply.

Problem 2: pistols are too powerful. Adding more was a mistake. Greg was able to use the pistol to steal Kyle’s only treasure card, which created an 8pt swing in victory points.

Change for next time: I’m going to remove pistols completely. It’s been a bit wonky to steal treasure or clues or equipment, and I think the game will work ok without them.

Problem 3: it’s too easy to see which player is winning. Even though the treasure cards are hidden, victory point tokens are visible, so it’s pretty easy to see who is in the lead. Players then can troll the game, believing they can’t win.

Change for next time: replace the victory point tokens with a deck of 10 cards. 4 of the cards are 3vp, and the rest are 2vp. You draw a card when you deliver the supplies to the Nautilus. Players can still see that you have cards, but not what the values are. I don’t think this is going to solve the issue, but it may help.

Problem 4: the players struggled to get enough clues. Nemo’s Library was not discovered until late in the game, and by that point, too much of the island had been covered by lava.

Change for next time: players can spend 2AP at the Nautilus to draw a clue card. That way, if players have nothing else to do, they can get more clues. There still is a hand limit of 6, but I think this will help. Players can still spend 2AP at the Library to draw 2 clue cards, so it’s still worthwhile to locate the Library.

Design change: The Row clue cards need to be redone. It was suggested to move the location name to the top of the card, so that the cards can be held in the player’s hand easier. Also, the Row cards don’t say they are supposed to be discarded after use.

Overall, it was a good playtest. I got some good, actionable, feedback, and my next iteration of the game will be better (I hope).