[jadziadax8]

I like the four starter decks that come in the Tribbles game, but they are not very balanced. I've been thinking for awhile that it would be fun to make a set of four starter-type decks that would work well together. What powers do you think would be good to build those around?

[Armus]

I kinda already did that for the Chair's Challenge.

Brianna played an expanded Poison Deck

Allen played a Battle-enhanced Discard Deck

And I played a challenge-themed Assimilate/Rescue Deck

Due to the lack of a 4th player we didn't modify the Go deck.

This was also a deckbuilding exercise for the kids. I had a few rules:

Start with a Decipher deck as is. No removing Decipher cards.

Max deck size is 45 cards

From there they added what they wanted.

Recycle and Safety are strong adds for all of those decks, and if I were going to properly expand Rescue I'd drop the Assimilates all together for more Rescues.

Big Clone, Toxin, Dabo, and Antidote/Tally are other good powers to augment the starters with.

So that was a lot of words to hopefully answer your question.

I agree that a balanced 4 player Tribbles Box Game is a good idea and I'm willing to work on developing one officially if I can be of assistance. Just let me know.

- Brian

[jadziadax8]

That sounds like a fun exercise with the kiddos! I'd be happy to brainstorm with you on this. I thought the following archetypes might be cool in a limited format.

Bonus
Swarm
Poison (other decks would have antidote)
Qa'Pla/Ante (other decks would have Tally)

I'm not sure about the Poison, because it's an easier point-scoring mechanism, but maybe that could be replaced by a Skip/Reverse/Dance deck. Other decks could have BaH!?

[jadziadax8]

I could also see putting in a Rescue deck, but it would have to leave out 100k so you can’t loop.

Maybe a Discard deck with Toxins thrown in to the other decks?



Sent through Subspace from the Starship Enterprise

[Armus]

That sounds like a fun exercise with the kiddos! I'd be happy to brainstorm with you on this. I thought the following archetypes might be cool in a limited format.

Bonus
Swarm
Poison (other decks would have antidote)
Qa'Pla/Ante (other decks would have Tally)

I'm not sure about the Poison, because it's an easier point-scoring mechanism, but maybe that could be replaced by a Skip/Reverse/Dance deck. Other decks could have BaH!?

Bonus is a good one.

Swarm seems too niche.

Poison is ok with Antidotes.

QaPla/Ante is ok with no Masaka (and NO Tally)

I'd suggest Clone/Advance "always have something to play" and Discard (with other decks having a Toxin or two, but not too much)

I'd also limit the number of Go Tribbles each deck has - another gripe I have about this game is one player doing 1 Go -> 10 Whatever or 10 Go -> 100 Whatever (or 1 Go -> 10 Go -> 100 Whatever) and constantly keeping other players off the low numbers. Then I'm sitting there with a fistful of 10s and 100s unable to play. Not good, especially in a basic starter / box game type scenario.

Nothing wrong with splashing the core power Tribbles, but they should be supplementing the theme, not being the theme.

[jadziadax8]

Swarm seems too niche.

I was trying to think of how to balance out the powers that score points during a round. Maybe I could make a Score deck instead.

Any thoughts from folks on making one deck a Skip/Reverse/Dance deck? Or is that too niche as well?

[Jono]

I would also throw in one Dabo into a few decks. Its a simple card and jumping to 100,000 can throw the number order around -- which is a good thing in a game of 4 or 6 players where sometimes you get stuck on 1 or 10.

Skip/Reverse/Dance is too niche.

Swarm is too hard to pull off, honestly.

I would instead suggest a Copy/Draw deck. That way a player can make use of an opponent's discards or poisons. Both copy and draw are simple powers to understand and with Draw at 1 and 100,000 and Copy at 10 and 100 - its easy to formulate a deck around them.

[Armus]

I would also throw in one Dabo into a few decks. Its a simple card and jumping to 100,000 can throw the number order around -- which is a good thing in a game of 4 or 6 players where sometimes you get stuck on 1 or 10.

100k Dabo is one of the bright spots from the later sets.

That wording though....

[jadziadax8]

I've been thinking a bit about this project a bit today. Right now I have six decks in mind. They will all be the same size. 45? 50? I haven't decided. I'm thinking of going with the following archetypes:

Poison
Discard
Bonus
Rescue
Copy/Score
Draw/Kill

All decks will also contain 100k Clone, Recycle and Dabo. Additionally all decks will pack Antidote and Toxin, except the Poison and Discard decks, respectively*. I'm also considering adding Freezes to all of them. I'll start posting stuff for feedback as I build them.







*Changed to make it riskier for the Copy player to copy Poison then use it on the Poison player.

[jadziadax8]

I started with a core set of cards, then monkeyed around with the powers until I got the following decks. All the decks have 49 cards, in the same denomination ratio, except for the Bonus deck because...reasons.

Poison
Discard
Bonus
Rescue
Copy/Score
Draw/Kill

LMK what you think. Are there too many different powers?
Too many cards? Not enough?
I only put Bonus in the Bonus deck. Should I add one of each Bonus card to all the other decks to give them a theoretical possibilty of pulling it off?

[Smiley]

Are they only supposed to be balanced or to be base, introductory decks? if the later one then there is too many powers. A new player can handle around 6 powers (an all decks being played or at least the ones sitting closest) before their eyes glaze over. Even a single card with a stand out power can be to much.

[jadziadax8]

Balanced, not introductory. My thought was to take the starter game and flesh it out and balance it out.

[Smiley]

But the starter game was introductory...

[jadziadax8]

But the starter game was introductory...

Right, and the powers in those decks are unbalanced, which is why at the very least this project needs Antidote, Toxin and Recycle. I’m ok cutting down some of powers. Thoughts on which ones can go?

[jadziadax8]

Is anyone willing to playtest these decks with me? I'd be happy to set up an online Tribbles tourney in the near future.