Re: Black Pawn Trucking playtest/review

["Benedict" <boycat_oh@...>]

Hi, Massimo

Thanks also to you for playing and reviewing my game!

I answered some of your questions in my response to Ron's 
questions.


> >  By the way, what do you do when there
> >    are <3 (or <4, depending on the correct rule) goods on the 
map, but
> >    the cup is empty?
> 
> Nothing, you continue playing until delivery of all coins.

Correct interpretation, Massimo. I *think* there is a bit in the 
rules that states this.


> > 4. I think the instructions for placing and moving the pawns 
on the
> >    money track should be more explicit.  For example, it is not
> >    initially clear why there are two money tracks, and why you
> >    shouldn't place both pawns on the same one. (The 
instructions say
> >    to place one on 0 and one on 10.  The bottom track has 
both.)
> 
> I found this a bit fiddly beacuse I was constantly fluctuating over
> and below 10 dollars, so I had always to move both pawns, 
and I never
> reached 20 dollars.

Unfortunately the track is a bit fiddly. You could use real money to 
replace the track (or use paper and pencil), but this was the 
easiest way for me to make the game require nothing extra other 
than the printed play mat

> A couple of new questions
> 
> 1) When you deliver a raw good, the rules say to flip the coin 
and place
> it on the destination tile. But then you have to load every coin 
present
> on the tile where you stand, so what's the point of placing it on 
the tile?
> I just flipped the coin leaving it on the truck (or did I miss 
something?).

That is fine, I thikn it is left over from an earlier version where the 
player had the option of not loading all of the coins, but was fined 
(this was too harsh when I playtested it).

> 
> 2) When you deliver a raw good and flip the coin, and the coin 
value is the
> same as the tile where you stand, you can't immediately deliver 
the finished
> product, can you? I played that you always need to move the 
coin to a
> different tile in order to deliver. Is this right?

Correct, it must be moved away from the tile. You could, however, 
move away from the tile then deliver it back to that tile on another 
turn.

> Finally, my total score was -38 (12 dollars left, and 5 loans to 
pay),
> and the game seems to me a bit too difficult. I can't see how 
you could
> finish with a positive score. But I can't really judge after only 
one play.
> 
> A nice game, I will try it again soon.

I usually manage to get a low positive score (<10), especially 
when starting with no loans and $10 in cash. However, I can see 
that certain tile/goods computations could result in much lower 
scores. One trick is to try and make as few trips on the ferries as 
possible, althought some layouts make this difficult. It is a tough 
game, but my intention was to have a game with a tight 
economy. You only really lose if you have to take out more than 
10 loans. In all other cases I try to maximize my score.

Phillip