Homebrew Shortening Tips

[Patrick]

I've noticed that, for a lot of people, the problem with the OotS game is the amount of time that needs to be invested into it, so I thought I'd start a thread for ideas on how other people have been shortening the experience, in ways that don't involve buying The Shortening Expansion (not that we won't buy it when it comes out, naturally).

One of the reasons it takes so long is that first couple of times you play, people are looking at the cards. They're laughing. They're having damn good time and they're slowing the whole DAMN THING DOWN - so, I cut all the pictures out of the cards and sharpied anything in the text that could be construed as "hilarious."

Another reason is the battles - they do get a tedious after a bit, and there are so many of them! They're really only there as a utility - an oppurtunity for opponents to screw with other players, by playing nasty monsters into play, or by the players triggering the battles to simply breeze through them just to gain more schticks/loot. There are a lot of other ways in which randomness seeps into the game, so I figured, why not the battles?
I came up with two ideas that help this. One, instead of automatically starting a battle every time you enter a new room, just flip a coin - that way, you only trigger a new battle half of the time that you enter an empty room.
The second idea is a "Get Out of a Battle Free" card. Each player gets one oppurtunity - just one, that can't be traded - to escape any non-PvP battle that they trigger. As games, even with these rules, can still feature dozens of battles, players have to think carefully on when to use them.

I've also been dabbling with altering the endgame - I mean, the combined "separate deck and encounters" for Xykon's lair, special rules for that floor, as well as the dungeon's collapse, take up a hell of a lot of space in the rule-book for something that only takes up the last ten percent of the game, maybe. I just wish that part could be simplified (which I hear is something that The Shortening has been doing, so that's cool)

Anyways, does anyone else have any such tips?

[MapleOwl18]

Hi, we played it and found the lowest 4 player level, took like 6 hours instead of the advertised 2-4. One of the ideas we had was simply cut out a level of the dungeon. Make it 2 levels instead of 3. Probably drop the required shticks amount, and loot entrance amount too. We'll try this out the next time we play.

[Inverse]

While demoing the game at a convention We ignored the PVP rules (no one picked so it was okay), Had monsters only appear in brand new rooms, and eliminated the loot (but not sthick) reqiurement to enter Xykon's lair. We managed to finish the game in about three hours, including teaching the rules.

[Kletian999]

I'll agree in my first game the loot restrictions slowed everyone down on the floor before Xykon's. Other things that might speed it up I've considered are increasing Shtick gain (1 shtick per 2 exp) and making new encounters in explored rooms optional.

Is their any timeline for this shortening expansion becoming available for purchase/download? I've looked all through google to no avail whereas Linear Guild is already scheduled for sometime this year.

[curtis]

- so, I cut all the pictures out of the cards and sharpied anything in the text that could be construed as "hilarious."

Honest question: ARE YOU INSANE!? The whole point of the game is to look and laugh at the cards!

I would cut out the loot amount needed, so people aren't so sparing getting shticks with it.

[Jazzpirate]

I'm planning to get this game someday, so what I'm curious about, is the problem just that the game takes to much time to finish or is it getting boring after a while? So are you trying to shorten the game out of a lack of time or because it's no fun after several hours of playing?

[curtis]

Lack of time.

[Kletian999]

Lack of time.

Yeah, the game rewards you collecting stuff and you don't run out of potential things to collect until someone kills Xyklon. In order to kill Xyklon you need to go onto his floor and fight monsters there until you find him. The Xyklon floor monsters will usually require you to burn loot for assistance and you often can't leave rooms occupied due Xyklon support mechanic with golbins and undead. Furthermore the first person on he floor can't even ask for assistance unless some of the characters are NPCs. Add all this up and there's a lot of motivation just to never go down to the last floor and rack up points until the time gets to the point where people have to leave.

The games still a lot of fun but the risk versus reward for being the "hero" is sckewed. Limiting enemy respawns or vastly increases Xyklon's point value can help in this.

[prj]

Furthermore the first person on he floor can't even ask for assistance unless some of the characters are NPCs.

The first person on the floor has to stop in the Safe Haven, since you can't explore more than one new room per turn. So usually it's the second person to go down who has the first battle, and the first one to go down is available for assistance. This is one more reason not to be the first one down, but once anyone goes down there, you definitely want to join them, so you have a chance at being the one to find Xykon, or at least reap the benefits of giving assistance.

Add all this up and there's a lot of motivation just to never go down to the last floor and rack up points until the time gets to the point where people have to leave.

If you're in the lead, but others are catching up to you, then you've got a reason to push for endgame. And once you go down to Xykon's lair, others will want to follow you, since the game will probably end soon, and that's where the big points are. Even if there are still more points you could collect before going down, that won't help if other people are racking up points faster. (For example, if you're Roy, and you've got all your shticks, but there's still a lot of unclaimed loot and Haley's cleaning up with Come To Me, My Pretties and Greed Is Good.)

[Kiero]

Some useful shortening things we've found:
-As long as you have less than six players, remove Belkar. All his stuff is geared around hassling the other players, which slows the game down. A more co-operative game is done and dusted much faster than an anatagonistic one.
-If you must have Belkar, change the boost on Twin Daggers of Doom to one that boosts Defense, rather than Wounds caused to players. Again because that gives Belkar's player the option of killing monsters.
-Start everyone with all four of their starting Schticks, plus two others, and six Loot. That avoids the early incompetence which can lead to some frustrating trips back to the entrance. Plus gets the Loot economy going much sooner.