Don points out some serious kinks in combat in his letter below. In response, I am making the following changes, which I hope clarifies things: [I am changing...
Seth Jaffee is the veteran game designer for Tasty Minstrel Games. He sends me the letter below with his recommendations after the last playtest. I have...
I've been thinking about pad explosion events. I know some question of balance has already been raised, but I think there is another problem: it doesn't make...
Once a rocket's flying, it seems like it should move every turn. It is, at that point, completely disconnected from the Earth economy. Making both income and...
Hello again Don, Thank you for your input on pad explosions and debris! Pad explosions are proving unexpectedly difficult. Because I have editted out the...
I agree with Don about the movement. Each space on the map is an orbit, a solar (heliocentric) orbit if on a Hohmann, or a planetary orbit if on a orbital....
That all makes sense, particularly that launch failures have done way, way more harm than debris; I really just suggested the variant for fun, not for rulebook...
We had a worrisome martian snowball effect in the last game. One player got a buggy to Mars, prospected two sites, got a factory going that made "C" class...
Seems like the real problem is the Von Neumann machines' existence. If so you aren't the first - nanotechnology quickly falls off the edge of the SF...
Playtest Report ESA vs Shimizu, part 1: Two Small Steps My wife Kristina and I began a learning game of High Frontier, she as ESA and I as Shimizu. She opted...
Hi all, In the playtest I'm running, I decided not to use events or politics. I wanted to keep things predictable since we were learning. Certainly, the full...
That is one plucky woman you have got, Don. Going directly into the expanded game first time! Where on Earth (or beyond) did you find her? The sail and solar...
I like that option myself, Phil. That does let people sit and concentrate on gaining money/fuel, so my monster 13wt rocket can boost sooner, and fuel faster....
OK Henry, I have added this as an variant to page 10 of the rules. [Variant 8.7E, replacing the Conjunction Rules, which has been deleted]. I have uploaded...
I'll try "Take 2 WT" as an operation when we continue. Here is a simple suggestion for crew: "It is _felonious_ to voluntarily decommission Crew." This would...
You are right Neal, Von Neumann-style nanotech is bothersome when trying to stop a runaway victory effect in a game. I am switching the Von Neumann card from...
Alternative Space Achievements: Manned Exploration Milestones The problem: Space Medicine and Space Tourism seem to overlap thematically with simply taking WT...
Don recommends making it a crime to voluntarily decommission a crew. I like this, but I wanted to hear what others think. Up to now, the crew card has been...
Further, as I said I think the game might be better served if you could not re-use the cards you had gotten before - like if the card represented not the...
Yes, I think the real "problem" is that a factory that makes another factory (which currently is any C factory) allows you to short circuit the rocket building...
I apologize for my spotty posts which may have arrived out of order or not at all. I was having an issue with deliverability mostly because I was using my...
Why can you only have one rocket in operation at a time? If you make the "Mars Dash" and land a crew there why do you have to suspened all other rocket...
I think the reason Mars is so attractive in the early game is because there is no chance of failure when Prospecting. When I played, I was not thrilled with a...
I think the limiting factor for rockets is ground support: each player's engineers can only support one major mission at a time. The "out" for crew is to drop...
The most common end game condition is when one player reaches 3 factories. I am concerned this ends the game too abruptly. I am rearranging the rule book to...
I agree with Mr. Acker, the alternate "Space Ventures" paths to victory are not particularly inspiring, and not particularly thematic. And I like his...
Just to clarify my idea, the Space Memorial is _negative_ 2 VP; that is, every time you lose a crew, put a cube here, reducing your score. Hence, no perverse...
Hello Steve, The reason for only one rocket at a time is purely pragmatic: I tried multiple rockets, but it took way too many components, rules, and table...
Don, I misread your suggestion, sorry about that. I don't think I like the idea of further penalizing a player who loses a big mission through misadventure. ...
I kinda think it would be fair to say that the logistics of getting the actual people in the rocket back to Earth is outside the scope of the game. We already...
