by Ludus Rex
My friends and I love this game. We play it constantly. It's got theme like a boss, the right amount of strategy and luck, variance out the wazoo, and is a general bag of win on more levels than I can count.My only beef, is player elimination. I thought that every game enthusiast has recognized, since Monopoly, that this was a bad idea? This is especially true when you stop to consider how poor the two player version of this game is.
Imagine you're playing with 3 players and one player is quickly and unexpectedly knocked out by a freak roll of 5/6 claws (has happened to us). Now your perfectly fine 3 player game has become a terrible 2 player game, and all 3 of you are unhappy about it.
This happened to us, we were confused because the game was otherwise so enjoyable.
The counter-argument (which is both fair and valid) is that the game is short enough for player elimination not to matter much. While reducing the impact of player elimination is appreciated, I still greatly prefer a game where we all get to see it through to the end.
You've probably figured out where this is going, so I humbly submit our minor house rule modifications for your geek-sideration:
1)A monster who is KOed (reaches 0 health) immediately loses 5VP and is removed from Tokyo, if he/she was in Tokyo (attacker moves to capture Tokyo as normal)
2)A KOed monster skips his/her next turn entirely
3)The KOed monster is revived with full health and all power cards intact, none the worse for wear (except the 5VP), on his/her next active turn after their skipped turn.
4)Monsters who are KOed are immune to additional damage/effects until revived at the start of their next active turn (after the skipped turn)
Thematically, this just means that a KOed monster is not destroyed but temporarily toppled and seeing stars. It changes the strategy of the game a bit, and allows much more time for accumulating "Keep" cards which is the part of the game my group most enjoys.
You have probably guessed that implementing any system that can remove VPs from the scorecards is likely to prolong the game, and you're absolutely right. Our average games range between 25 and 55 minutes now. We've had as long as 1hr 20, though it should be noted that it's normally closer to 45.
So if you're up for a slightly longer game, where nobody gets knocked out and you get to build power cards for a more diverse experience (the combinations get fun), I highly recommend this variant.
We have found it to be a great improvement, on an already remarkable game. Hope you enjoy.