The second round of playtesting went well.
A couple more issues came to light following the expansion of the board.
Imbalance in difficulty level:
The larger board made for a longer and more interesting game, however there was a major imbalance in difficulty the timelines containing Infinite Causality Loops and those simple containing Wormholes. I had initially though the addition of the Random Occurrence Cards would remedy this, however they proved ineffective as play testers rarely landed on them. This has been addressed in the redesign (see above), partially rearranging timelines and adding/relocating Random Occurrence Card locations.
Brutal Wormholes (1,3,6):
While the wormholes made for an interesting game mechanic during the opening phases and the main game phases, it became brutal once you reached the end. Both myself and one of my play testers landed on the final wormhole and rolled a 1 and a 6 respectively; setting us back to the beginning of the board.
The solution was to relocate the most brutal of the Wormholes (1,3,6). In the latest board design, all the Wormholes you can come through bring you to a point between 30 and 40 moves from the ended, allowing you to remain a viable part of the game should you land in one. This also prevents you from entering a Wormhole early on and being transported directly to the end of the board.
I will continue to playtest the current board design, however I will also now be moving into the story development side of the game.
K00253257 - College Blog 