Hello everyone!
Now we are ready to present the new Dystopolis game rules and new game components. You can find the revised rules here. The list of changes are long, but here’s a quick overview of the major changes:
1. Players bid for each year’s turn order
Each year starts with a concealed bidding where the starting player and turn order is decided. It is usually most beneficial to be first, but there are also some positive aspects of being last. This is a feature that many players asked for during Gothcon 2012.
2. Removed the concealed biddings for shared ownership in companies
No more tedious concealed biddings to determine which player a company’s vote belongs to. Sometimes the bidding were intense and exciting, but unfortunately many times it took too long time and reduced the speed of the game. With the revised rules the votes in companies with shared ownership is decided depending on turn order.
3. Easier to calculate revenue from companies
Connections does not directly affect revenue. All sums of money in the game is reduced by 50%. Smaller numbers makes it easier to calculate, while the game balance is the same. Ten million diripes now earns 1 VP when the game ends. We have also removed the negative revenue, which makes it even easier during revenue quarter. Instead a company sector can crash and does not give any revenue at all during that year.
4. Removed game component: Special Event card
The Special Event cards had some interesting aspects. However, the effects were quite random and some players felt that the benefits were distributed in a random and unjust way. The best aspects of the Special Event cards have been adapted by the new Intrigue cards and the new Rewards (see below).
5. New game component: Intrigue cards
For experienced players we have implemented Intrigue cards which add extra action to the game. The cards are distributed at the beginning of the game. Each player get three cards and choose one of them. There are a total of 16 Intrigue cards, each one with a unique effect.
6. New game component: Rewards
Two kind of rewards, for Largest network and for Founding sector. They are distributed to eligible players at the end of each year. Each reward have two different levels, and each card earn the player 4 VP at the end of the game.
7. New design Event cards
Not really a change of rules, but we believe the new design makes it easier to understand what is thematic text and what is important for the actual gameplay.
We believe these rule changes have resulted in a quicker, more intense and even more enjoyable Dystopolis. We would like to thank everyone who provided us with valuable comments at GothCon 2012. Many of your ideas have found the way into the game, in some way or another.