# Saving the world: Steampunk: Playtest
This is a playtests that introduces character with stats and encounter with stats and some consequences.

There is no conditions, there is no assets, contact, clues, or other powerups. Threaths are ignored for now. There is no demon.

There has already been a spawning simulation without player interaction before, but the rules changed using an omen pawn.

Using 2 characters, and 2 encounters of each type. Baiscally changes attributes rolled.

## LOG
* CHARACTER: Can I afford symmetry between supplies and aether (same value range). Can have better extremes, but want to keep on D6, so 1:6, 2:5, 3:4 would be possible values.
* ACTION DICES: Temporary actions: (some reassignment were made during the test) 
  - Ship: Move 1 space
  - Lens: collect clue, spawn clue??? 
  - Hand: Sin
  - Rest: 1 mind and 2 aether
  - city: 1 body and 2 suplies
  - Book: Reveal encounter,
* CLUES: Clues added for temporary support. Ruled at +1 temp to all roll.Like faith but for both dices. If clue use open dice, can be long, still, no collision with clues. Will flush like fate, after roll, to one of the die.
* ACTION DICES: Most action dices must be useful at game start (when fully healed), else need a way to discard dices to gain focus for encounter.
* IDEA: Expedition and temple, could be there as temporary action in area. Maybe there is a threat consequence to resolve now.
* Threath: Some more challenging threat could be active when passing through the area or even when hiding (no encounter).
* Default encounter: Maybe boost stat is an encounter, and not an action since it takes time. It could be a good default encounter at game start. Else provoking is not that interesting. Since no suspicious activities yet.
* MAP: 8 spaces: Makes it difficult to move around with only 3 dices. Idea: reduce to 5 spaces (hex pattern), would reduce nb of components indirectly. Need more density per space. Else return to 6 spaces (breaks 5/8 symmetry). Or roll 5 action dices to move around more easily(less sins). See how it plays for now. 6 spaces arround as an hex patern allows you to move almost everywhere in 1 move except one space. 8 spaces with an hex pattern also requires little moves, I think it's mostly 2 moves.
* ACTION IDEA: Character skill can substitute any die, can be used if no interesting action can be done. Allow using special ability more often since specialty.
* OMEN: Spawn, then move. Allow predicting the next place something will happen. More strategic. Problem, only half of the positions will be predicted since 2 are put into play each turn.
* BUG: End in an area with unexplored encounters. Solution: 
  - Provoke to make them appear, like the idea, but play on their turm, maybe do not chose encounter, could fail. Could be demon specific the outcome. Or could make encounter more challenging. Idea, do not chose encounter you get. Maybe local encounter or random deck encounter. Maybe characters are more skill at provoking different type of encounters.
  - Mystery are face up to apply rule in area.
* IDEA: Threat tests: Check if current Mind or body greater than current value. 
* OMEN PAWN: Jumping over encounters of the same type if no cultist present is a bit more complicated. It can create mistakes that changes the outcome if the change was forgotten or not. Even worst when if planning next moves.Maybe rerolling, or reassigning rolls when there is less spaces is not that bad. It should play faster too.
* SEALING: I had a situation where a rift just open at the same place after it has been closed. The original Eldritch express had seals that added another collision before the rift could appear. I wonder if the same thing should be done here. I guess it depends of the spawn rate, it was way bigger in exdritch express. Else using drawn tiles, to ensure uniqueness is another solution like in the old prototype. A set of 6-8 unique tokens. Put the location only on the non-surged side to hide the information from the stack. Maybe reshuffle when stack empty, or one 1 remaining.
* CARD SPAWNED: Besides conveniency, using a token stack instead of rolls makes it more predictable. Dawm, the problem is that I need twice more tokens to get some surge, unless the "dices" are actually separate cards. That could solve the issue. Like having 8 or 16 cards, either just numbers from 1-8, Or have the position of the clue and event on the same cards. Could have a sequence of numbers, take the first valid number Could have more info, like mythos cards in AH, and EH, the problem is that I don't want to have another deck of cards unless the demons behavior could be embedded on them using max 8-16 cards per demon. Could be more convenient than a reference sheet with tons of rules, worth exploring. 
* TODO: Test probabilities with modifiers, so far, relatively hard, and there is not even any rewards to risk for.
* ACTIONS: Hard to uncover encounters before ... encountering them. Maybe need more action dices, else provoking would be essential. Else, like original idea, it makes just more difficult to the first player attempting it. (He enters the encounter blindly). But there is still a way (minor bonus) to uncover them first. If provoking is random selection, pointless if only 1 encounter, unless can fail provoking. Maybe can get bonus if uncovered, or allow using focus dice if such thing exists ... you are more prepared to what`s to come.
* ACTIONS: When should actions be performed. Some actions seems logical to do after the encounter. Do I allow taking the encounter anytime during the turn. It could give more flexibility, but you be easier to forget if the encounter was made or not.
* Do I need double information: Card on the edge and encounter tokens on the board. I know suged are tracked this way, but they could only be a surge token on the card. You can mark who attempted which encounter by moving it on the token. Useful if collaboration is allowed (like in elder sign). Maybe it could make keeping track of threat check more complicated.
* Not sure at the start of the game, should resolve a doom event since the doom track does not progress. It could create confusion, maybe only put one of each encounter type.
* CLOCK: The acceleration and slowdown of the clock is convenient to make it work. You could forget how many times the clock progressed this turn. Unless you use 2 markers like in cribage.
* The trade 2+ wound for 1 condition might be difficult to apply since there are many sources of damage at different steps of the game. It could work only for threaths if the outcome is generic enough. Else could just ignore the rule, or make it a character special power.


## Conclusions
* Sure, it does not feel like an investigation game, it's more like a game where you move around to put out fires. Still, creating a real investigation game might not have been my original goal. There is a possibility to do it using trail of cards like in Arkham Noir. I am not sure I want to go this way.
* IDEA: Still, I like the idea of investigation trail cards in hands which are secret to other players unless playing solo. It prevent quarterbacking. Trails could still be open and shared by all players like contacts due to communication. Maybe should be able to build a web of events like in Sherlock Holmes movie and other investigation movies. So clues/events/discoveries would remain on the board as a kind of puzzle to solve. At the end, you solve a demon plot progressing towards victory. There would be no more astral seal progress. It's more like the 4 mysteries in Eldritch horror. Still, the more stuff is revealed on the board, the easier resolution is possible unless those clues are discarded.
* Some mechanics works well and are relatively fast to resolve. Like encounters, just roll 2 dices and you are done. That is nice. Sure addiotional stuff will be encountered like threath wichi will add to resolution time.
* There might be too many encounter types. Not sure if streamlining everything as a single deck like Elder Sign could actually help. I guess, the different type have common behavior and ensure a certain balance to avoid bad draws.
* Right now, there is no interest to target Mysteries and Protections since they do not make the astral seal progress.

## Exploration
* The game feels pretty abstract, you run around the map extinguishing fires. Even if I could try a Toy Play tests, the system seems more important than the theme. 
* If I was in a real life situation investigator, I would do research or stuff found during encounters, investigate certain events, try to connect the dots together. Make some experimentations like creating machines, setting up traps. Getting better equipped to avoid every trouble possible. MOst of this is missing from the system.
* Maybe encounter cards goes in hand, they could be tiny investigation steps to follow trails toward a goal. It would make the game feel more solitaire, so the multiplayer experience could be screwed up.
* Double encounter cards could be again a solution. A simplified encounters on the left, only the challenge with simple consequence. On the right, there is the reward and or clues, or trail that can be followed from now on.
* Can use the idea from Arkham Noir where certain cards to be played requires an icon to be in play, or in the possession of the character. It allows making trails of investigation.
* Look again at eldritch horror mystery mechanism, where you need to accomplish 3 of them by putting clues on the card to complete it. This is how you win the game, instead of progressing on a track. Maybe you need to find the right set of clues on the world and put them on the objective to progress. Maybe a system like that could reinforce the theme, but it will be less obvious who is in the lead.
* Look at Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R for some twist on the eldritch horror system.
* I think making the game more detailed to increase the proximity to reality, would increase the number of required components which goes against the 4S objective of this game: Simple, small, short, social.
* Another idea is to create an 100% solitaire game where you follow a single investigator. That could make the theme much more deep. Lot of inspiration could be taken from Arkham Noir, but I don't want an abstract game either.
* Maybe it does not worth restraining the actions the player can do. I know that idea of opportinity is interesting, but maybe just doing any 3 action of the player's choice is enough. Opportunities will be for contacts and other features of the board.