by lategame
Here is my set of minor variants to King of Tokyo and King of Tokyo: Power Up (variant 4). I’ve tested them and I like the alterations they make to the game play, but I can’t say that I am certain that they are totally and absolutely balanced and perfect. I also will give my reasoning at the end, behind each tweak so that you can determine if these are changes that you might want to try for yourself and if these are behaviors you have encountered within the group you play King of Tokyo with. All of these changes can be implemented individually or as a group.King of Tokyo Alternate Rules
1. Starting energy:
All players start with 2 energy.
2. Maximum Health:
2-4 players – 8 health. Players cannot heal above 8 health by default. Cards can raise the max health, but only to a maximum of 10 instead of 12.
5-6 players – 10 health.
3. Energy Set:
If a player rolls a set of 3 or more energy symbols on their turn they may choose to sweep the set of power cards available for purchase and place a new set of 3 power cards on the table. This must be done before they purchase any cards on their turn. (This replaces the normal energy sweep rule).
4. Heart Set:
If a player rolls a set of 3 healing symbols on their turn they draw 1 evolution card.
The player may choose not to use all of their hearts for healing (or they may not be able to use all of their hearts for healing), in which case they may draw 1 additional card from the evolution pile (regardless of the number of unused hearts).
At the end of their turn a player keeps or plays 1 of the evolutions drawn and the other card is placed under the pile of evolutions.
Reasoning
1. Starting Energy:
The cards are a fun element of the game. This change just allows people to buy their first card a little earlier. It gives players who are rolling for attacks and points the ability to buy at least 1 card during the game, and it allows people who are aiming to collect a lot of energy and buy a lot of cards the ability to start that process before another player runs away on points.
2. Maximum Health:
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this game is not ideally suited to low player counts. Specifically the issue that I’ve encountered is that at low player counts it can be hard to get anyone out of Tokyo. That’s because it takes a lot of individual player investment to attack a monster down to a low enough health that they start to feel vulnerable. In a 3 player game, if a person enters Tokyo they are all but guaranteed to get the 2 points for starting their next turn in Tokyo. Unless someone really commits to attacking the monster in Tokyo rather than scoring points, healing, or collecting energy, that monster will likely still have over half their health at the end of a round. Lowering the maximum health makes the decision to stay in Tokyo or leave more of a gamble.
Also in a game with 2-4 players you can always choose to leave Tokyo and be safe from normal attacks until the person who forced you out has their next turn. This gives you at least a turn with which to recover. In a 5 or 6 player game not only are their more players, there are more opportunities to be attacked (both the person in Tokyo and Tokyo Bay can attack the people outside, and if a player leaves Tokyo after being attacked they can still be attacked by the person in Tokyo Bay before their next turn). This makes the full amount of health much more necessary in a 5-6 player game.
3. Energy Set:
Nobody ever uses 2 energy to sweep the selection of cards, energy is sufficiently rare no one wants to waste it on a gamble. This replaces that rule in a way that rewards players who are deliberately pursuing an energy and power card based strategy. It gives a small incentive to roll for a high number of energy as an alternative to say rolling a set of 3s and 1 additional energy. It also allows players the ability to pick and choose their powers a bit to set up some combos rather than being forced to choose inferior cards if you happen to be rolling a lot of energy. Of course this is always a gamble because the player doesn’t know what will come up in a wipe, so choosing a decent card on the table may actually be a better option.
4. Heart Set:
For a player near death getting a set of 3 hearts can put them back in the game. They get to heal a bunch and they get a random evolution power from their deck. This variant maintains the “change of fortune” that this expansion brings to the table, while giving a different benefit to those players that have been more conservative with their hearts. It gives players who have close to full health or who are hanging out in Tokyo a reason to press their luck and pursue a heart set (rather than simply being happy when they luck into a heart set). It provides occasional scenarios where a player may want more than 3 hearts. It also gives an interesting choice to a player who has 4 health and rolls 3 hearts (do you use all the hearts heal up to 7 and get a random evolution power, or use 2 hearts heal up to 6 and get a choice of evolution powers). Finally it gives a little more opportunity to set up combos of powers rather than totally relying on luck of the draw.