Designer Diary 5: Epic Journey
Here at Unexpected Games, we try to design games that you can play with anyone. Our design philosophy is that if one player learns the rules, they should be able to easily teach it to their friends and family, even non-gamers!
For The Mandalorian™: Adventures, we wanted to make the game easy to learn without sacrificing deep strategy and crunchy tactics. We accomplished this by adding complexity slowly though the guide deck and secret envelopes.
The guide deck does a few things. First off, it walks you through your first few games. It recommends which mission to play, allowing you to slowly learn the main mechanics. Second, this deck adds new cards and rules at a fun and manageable rate. For your first eight games, you will always have something new to experience, whether it be new cards, missions, or more. On occasion, this deck instructs you to open a large envelope to unlock more substantial content.
Some might think that this is a “legacy game”. If you’re not familiar with that term, a legacy game is one in which you permanently destroy and alter components during your game (such as applying stickers to them). This is NOT a legacy game. You do not need to deface or destroy any components during the game, and you can easily reset it back to its original format.
So, what sort of surprises are in the guide deck and envelopes? I’m going to preserve some of the secrets, but if you want to learn about special missions and traitor mode, read on.
More Missions
One of the earliest and biggest additions to the game are mercenary missions. These mission sheets are placed over the left side of the map, completely replacing the objective, crisis, and special rules of the mission.
These missions are not directly re-enacting events from the show and can therefore be played on any map. They do not cover the map rules, which means that each mercenary mission plays differently depending upon which map you play it on.
Any character can be used in these missions, giving even more variety and replayability. Just choose your favorite character and go!
Some of these missions are fully cooperative (like the basic missions), while others use our optional traitor mode, known as hidden motives.
Hidden Motives
I love traitor games, and one of my most celebrated designs was a crunchy game of deception and backstabbing.
For The Mandalorian: Adventures, we wanted to make sure the hidden motives mode was thematically appropriate, engaging, and fun.
Like many other traitor games, each player receives a hidden motive at the start of the game that secretly tells them if they are loyal or a traitor. There are a few things that set this game apart from other traitor games:
The Mandalorian is always loyal. If you don’t like playing as a traitor, you can always choose this character.
Hidden motives can be used with as few as two players. I was skeptical about whether we could make a traitor game work with 2, but it is surprisingly engaging. You can play 2-player games in less than 30 minutes, which feels perfect. There isn’t always a traitor in 2 and 3-player games, which means paranoia and distrust are just additional obstacles for you to overcome.
Although the disloyal player can win by defeating other players, they always have an ulterior goal to accomplish. If they can win this way, it is a legendary victory, and they are recorded in the Hall of Infamy.
Speaking of defeating other players, it is possible to directly attack other players when using hidden motives. It is intentionally difficult though, because the game is more fun when you don’t know who to trust. It is usually better to play the subtle game and send enemies after suspicious players. But be careful; if you accidentally defeat a loyal player (while loyal yourself), you lose the game!
You unlock hidden motives very early in the guide deck, so if traitor games are your favorite genre, there is a lot to enjoy in here. Hidden motives are used in more than just mercenary missions, but I’m not going to spoil that here. Let’s just say that there are some unique twists that allow you to use hidden motives in a wide number of different ways.
What About The Child?
I can’t believe I’ve written 4 journals about The Mandalorian: Adventures and not mentioned everyone’s favorite green baby.
In the first mission, he is known only as The Asset and his story is untold. As the characters learn more, the Child becomes more involved in the story and you will likewise unlock new rules and mechanics to make sure he is more than just an afterthought. I will not spoil that here though.
I hope that you enjoyed my 5-part designer journal, and that it gives you a peak into how to play the game and my design philosophy when creating it.
I greatly look forward to this game releasing, so you can enjoy this adventure for yourself.
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