#403340
So the question came up during a game of Trek last night, and got me thinking about all the ways people have created to allow more than one opponent to share in a game of STCCG. I thought I'd post one I've used most commonly here, and with a little help from the community here, we can hopefully catalogue some of the other ways we play with our home groups.
The Wagon Wheel
Each player seeds 6 missions. An additional mission that can be attempted by any crew is used as the "hub" of the wheel. There will be as many spokes as there are players. Each player seeds a mission adjacent to the hub, placing it roughly 60 degrees from the other players' missions. The locations of the spokes are now established. Further missions will be seeded along the spokes, with each player placing their next mission in the spoke to the left of their previous seeded mission. Once the spokes are 3 missions long, players begin seeding to complete the "wheel" part of the wagon wheel, again, rotating their placement. Assuming a / / game, the final layout might look like this:
Players then can seed their other cards normally under missions or at spaceline locations.
Cards which refer to "off one end of the spaceline" do nothing. Cards that refer to a "farthest location" or an "opposite end" simply refer to the mission with the greatest span from the current location (or the opposite side of the wheel ring, as convenient). Otherwise, navigation is along the spokes, outward from the hub, or along the wheel, counting span normally.
This works with 4 players as well, simply adding a spoke and spreading things out a little bit to accommodate the extra missions. 4-player setups end up taking a large space to play, but it works well, and provides some fun interactions and movement decision points. Arguably, games also bloat out in play time as more players join in, but at that point, many of the games have been more about the social time than competitive play, so the inclusive game setup serves its purpose just fine.
How else do people include more than one other player into their STCCG games? I've heard rumors of grid layouts and modified spacelines, and I want details!
The Wagon Wheel
Each player seeds 6 missions. An additional mission that can be attempted by any crew is used as the "hub" of the wheel. There will be as many spokes as there are players. Each player seeds a mission adjacent to the hub, placing it roughly 60 degrees from the other players' missions. The locations of the spokes are now established. Further missions will be seeded along the spokes, with each player placing their next mission in the spoke to the left of their previous seeded mission. Once the spokes are 3 missions long, players begin seeding to complete the "wheel" part of the wagon wheel, again, rotating their placement. Assuming a / / game, the final layout might look like this:
Players then can seed their other cards normally under missions or at spaceline locations.
Cards which refer to "off one end of the spaceline" do nothing. Cards that refer to a "farthest location" or an "opposite end" simply refer to the mission with the greatest span from the current location (or the opposite side of the wheel ring, as convenient). Otherwise, navigation is along the spokes, outward from the hub, or along the wheel, counting span normally.
This works with 4 players as well, simply adding a spoke and spreading things out a little bit to accommodate the extra missions. 4-player setups end up taking a large space to play, but it works well, and provides some fun interactions and movement decision points. Arguably, games also bloat out in play time as more players join in, but at that point, many of the games have been more about the social time than competitive play, so the inclusive game setup serves its purpose just fine.
How else do people include more than one other player into their STCCG games? I've heard rumors of grid layouts and modified spacelines, and I want details!