Welcome
back! Three thoughts for today: Valiant Dust cover, Civ 6, and Plan Number
B.
Valiant Dust Cover Reveal
Okay, so I
know I mentioned Valiant Dust just last week, but this is pretty cool: Tor
revealed the cover for my book today! I am super-happy with the artwork and the
snazzy cover design work (and Mike Stackpole’s generous testimonial is
double-super cool). Here’s a link if you’d like to go have a look for yourself.
Civilization VI
I’ve been a
big fan of the Civilization franchise for something like twenty years now. I
pretty much run out and buy each new edition as soon as I can find the right
moment to pick up a twenty-hour-a-week habit for a couple of months. So I’ve
been happily exploring Civilization VI for the last month or two (at
substantially less than twenty hours a week, since I am insanely busy these
days). I’m still forming my impressions of how the newest offering stands in
comparison to previous versions, but I generally like it so far. I like laying
out districts for my cities, I like the civics and government, I like the lower
number of units on the board, and I like the mix of strategic and luxury
resources. It’s a fresh new take on the series, which is probably good—it would
have been very hard to “out-Civ 5” the Civ 5 game.
One thing I
wish the diplomacy interface let you do: I wish there was more of a “same to
you!” function available. When a NPC leader Denounces me, I want a button right
there on that screen to Denounce the guy right back. And when a NPC leader asks
to build an embassy in my capital, I want an option that says, “Sure, if I can
build one in yours.” In the mid- to late game NPC leaders *never* let me build
embassies. It’s hard not to take that personally.
I’ll touch
on Civ VI a little more as I play through a couple more games, but so far I’ll
give it a thumbs-up.
Plan Number B
You Ultimate
Scheme fans out there will be happy to know that I’ve got a rough design
hammered out for Plan Number B, the expansion deck for Ultimate Scheme. We’re
lining up artist Claudio Pozas to do our card illustrations again, and we’re
playtesting right now. Plan Number B introduces 5 new factions, 3 new ultimate
schemes, and a couple of new X-factors. The biggest new elements of the
expansion are a brand-new scheme deck (Power schemes) and the introduction of
the Interpol Agent (that mysterious pawn from the original box), plus plenty of
Action cards to support the new stuff.
I generally
feel that game expansions ought to offer something besides just “more,” so you’ll
find that the Interpol Agent provides you with a new complication to scheme
around (and a new weapon to use against your rivals). The Power schemes are
built around a theme of controlling the Interpol Agent and accomplishing
special “mission” schemes that offer valuable new abilities as rewards. With a
little luck we’ll have Plan Number B finished up in about 4-6 weeks. We’ll
print and ship it very quickly after that, since we’ll be using a
print-on-demand vendor for this (it’s a pretty small print run).
That’s all
for now!
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