When ships are lost, they go to the Praw. All references to "Warp" in power descriptions should be read as "Praw" except Warpish, who counts the ships in both the Warp and the Praw.This delays getting ships back into the game (making them a much more valuable resource), but the potential delay is not necessarily as long as it is when using the normal Praw rules (see The Warp for more Warp variants).
From the Praw, ships must first move to the Warp before returning to colonies. Ships never move from the Warp to the Praw; i.e., there is no "flushing" effect.
At the beginning of your encounters, you may either move a ship from the Warp to a colony (or the gate), or move a ship from the Praw to the Warp.
When a Mobius Tubes is played, all the ships in the Warp return to colonies and all the ships in the Praw go to the Warp. Warp Break works the same way except only one color of ships is affected.
Showing posts with label The Warp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Warp. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Inverted Praw
A nice alternative to the Praw (or the kinder, gentler version) from Patrick Riley:
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Power Selection Variants
A fun and easy twist on the game is to change up how you select the aliens for the game. The normal method is to deal out two and pick the one you like more. But there's plenty of other interesting methods for selecting your power. An idea called "Bid Drafting" was recently proposed and discussed on BoardGameGeek, which I recently tried out. It was a fun way to start the game and actually reminded me a little of Spice Harvest for Dune.
Some of the others I have enjoyed over the years include:
BOGGLE: This is a fun variation (especially in a set with over a lot of powers). Each player writes down the names of 5 powers that they would like to have, along with 5 powers that they don't want anyone to have. Read off the list. Any powers that are on more than one list are eliminated, and the powers that you wanted that are not on another list are yours. Each player may therefore have anywhere from 1 to 5 powers (If all of your choices are eliminated, you may pick one power at random). This allows for some creative thinking and allows powers that are otherwise fairly weak to be used to their utmost advantage.
DRAW STRAWS: Draw a number of powers equal to the number of players. Randomly choose a player to pick first. That player then takes all the powers and picks one for himself. He passes the powers to the next player clockwise, who repeats the process. The last player will get the least desired power. Then draw another set of powers and give them to the last player. He picks in the same manner as first player did, then passes counter clockwise. Powers should remain hidden until everyone has chosen both sets. This can be used for deciding between two powers, but more often it's used for double-power games.
PICK AND PASS: Each player draws three powers at random. One power they choose for themselves, the second one is thrown away, and the last one is passed to the player on their right. You may not look at the passed power until you have chosen your powers to pick and pass, etc. You must play the power passed to you.
TIDY BOWL: Deal 5 powers to each player. Put two powers "in" and the rest "out". All the "in" powers are shuffled together and dealt randomly.
More selection methods can be found on The Warp.
Some of the others I have enjoyed over the years include:
BOGGLE: This is a fun variation (especially in a set with over a lot of powers). Each player writes down the names of 5 powers that they would like to have, along with 5 powers that they don't want anyone to have. Read off the list. Any powers that are on more than one list are eliminated, and the powers that you wanted that are not on another list are yours. Each player may therefore have anywhere from 1 to 5 powers (If all of your choices are eliminated, you may pick one power at random). This allows for some creative thinking and allows powers that are otherwise fairly weak to be used to their utmost advantage.
DRAW STRAWS: Draw a number of powers equal to the number of players. Randomly choose a player to pick first. That player then takes all the powers and picks one for himself. He passes the powers to the next player clockwise, who repeats the process. The last player will get the least desired power. Then draw another set of powers and give them to the last player. He picks in the same manner as first player did, then passes counter clockwise. Powers should remain hidden until everyone has chosen both sets. This can be used for deciding between two powers, but more often it's used for double-power games.
PICK AND PASS: Each player draws three powers at random. One power they choose for themselves, the second one is thrown away, and the last one is passed to the player on their right. You may not look at the passed power until you have chosen your powers to pick and pass, etc. You must play the power passed to you.
TIDY BOWL: Deal 5 powers to each player. Put two powers "in" and the rest "out". All the "in" powers are shuffled together and dealt randomly.
More selection methods can be found on The Warp.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Picking up the mantle
While Blogmic Encounter is undergoing a life assessment, I will attempt to pick up some of the slack here at Cosmic Warp. I'm also open to broadening the edit staff by seeking folks interested in contributing content to this blog.
I can't promise there will be as much added Dune flavor, though I am willing to include exciting columns on other games and events.
Forgive the pedestrian look of the site as of this writing... I will attempt a style upgrade in the near future.
I'd like to start things off by asking what feature people are most interested in next on The Warp. We're now well over 1600 entries for alien powers. I know there are some features I have been wanting to add, but I figure it's best to see what is most requested. If you've used The Amazing Power Thingy, what feature would you like to be able to exploit that has thus far been unavailable?
I can't promise there will be as much added Dune flavor, though I am willing to include exciting columns on other games and events.
Forgive the pedestrian look of the site as of this writing... I will attempt a style upgrade in the near future.
I'd like to start things off by asking what feature people are most interested in next on The Warp. We're now well over 1600 entries for alien powers. I know there are some features I have been wanting to add, but I figure it's best to see what is most requested. If you've used The Amazing Power Thingy, what feature would you like to be able to exploit that has thus far been unavailable?
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