by Rasdel
The "UNNECESARY LONG" IntroSo... I love the simplicity of KoT. It's a great game and it shows in how anyone can enjoy it's straight forward yet engaging mechanics. When I learned of KoNY I thought it was gonna improve on the formula, and even though it did in a way, it also changed it. It's still a "King of..." game, but it's different enough that it feels a different game at times, not meaning to say that's a bad thing, just not what i was expecting.
Personally even though I like the new mechanics, KoNY takes out what I think makes KoT great. The main aspect of KoT I liked is the cards. I know KoNY has cards but it has SO many other things I've seen the cards take a step backwards over the rest of the stuff in KoNY. In the base game, long time ago before we ever heard the words "Evolution" the cards where a way to evolve your monster. When I hear people complaining about that every monster feels the same I think I never thought about that, since I found fun how I could build/customize a diferent monster each game by buying cards(yeap I'm all 'bout the Energy XD).
PowerUp Expansion it's cool but I still didn't like the mechanic. I mean, true it gives the hearts you roll a meaning in Tokyo but the hearts ain't something I think needed work in KoT, they are as straight forward and usefull as the claws and energy... the numbers on the other hand I think needed a little help.
After all if you get a Claw you HIT 1... a HEART you HEAL 1... a Energy you ENERGIZE 1... a 1, 2 or 3 you do nothing.
Why would I go for 1, 2 or 3 when I can either HEAL, HIT or ENERGIZE?
With PowerUp Expansion every time you roll 3 HEARTS you get to evolve, and thats great but HEARTS are already good enough... they keep you alive, and now they also evolve you... numbers are even less important now.
At the same time, the PowerUp Expansion makes the game even MORE luck base. You might get a very big/permament powerup or just a simple/temporary one... and that can make you lose the match (I can't stress enough I still like it though).
Once 2nd Edition was announce I thought everything was going to be iron out. And I realize that not only it's the same game, not taking into consideration what they learned from KoNY or the PowerUp Expansions but they also switch CyberBunny for CyerKitty and took the Kraken out!*(RANT BELOW)
Appart from that, 2nd Edition brought nothing new to the table... I get that it was mainly because of the app... but still... I admit most of the cards text was GREATLY improved but the art is hit and miss... the original wasn't bad... and the new one... most of it is good but the new "WINGS", "STRETCHY" and "PLOT TWIST" (see RANT BELOW regarding Bunny) are WAY better in the original.
Anyway... So here's the variant...
*ANGRY RANT IN 3...2...1... CyberBunny and CyberKitty are not that different, but the brilliance behind CyberBunny was that bunnies are not naturally evil so having a Bunny in a Cybersuit was and excelent idea... if you gotta switch it I would have gone with something like a Hamster in a huge CyberBall/Wheel or something like that XD... if it has to be a cat, make it like Mr Tinkles from "Cats & Dogs" movie and the Kraken... a Cthulu based monster that fits perfectly with the theme change for something that looks like a Darkwing Duck Villain... I'm so disapointed... but know you can get it if you buy it separetdly. Why not doing that with the Space Penguin, keeping the 2nd edition closer to the original. Anyway... Sorry, RANT's OVER... let's move on.
The Variant
First of all, if you read the intro... thank you for your time, maybe now you know a little bit where I come from, and why I thought of this variant XD...
The main difference in KoT and KoNY is their resources. The game changed 3 of the six faces of the dice. And I think the idea is great, after all going for numbers is not that great. In fact you need 3 numbers to get something usefull while just 1 Claw, 1 Heart or 1 Energy provides usefull stuff to you. Granted once you get 3 numbers of a kind they get you the resource that wins you the game, but is it really worth it?
But what if those numbers actually let you get more powerfull stuff... what if those numbers could really mess up with your opponents? That... that would change everything.
For this variant each player would need 2 decks of evolutions. The Temporary deck and the Permanent deck.
What if everytime you rolled a:
1+1+1 you get 1 STAR but also the chance to get a TEMPORARY EVOLUTON
2+2+2 you get 2 STARs but also the chance to get either a TEMPORARY EVOLUTION or a PERMANENT ONE (you pick either deck)
3+3+3 you get 3 STARs but also the chance you destroy an opponent's EVOLUTION CARD (this could be extended to any permament card but might be too powerfull XD)
This mechanic gives each number a reason of being not only STARS and since you get to evolve while rolling them you become stronger too and can mess with oponents. More interaction between monsters is created while rolling numbers and at the same time, rolling 3's could help with the chaotic aspect of people buying too many cards.
Let me know what you think...
And keep playing games!
Cheers