Today I sat down after a ~2 week hiatus and “loaded a saved game” so to speak. I had (a) taken the photo shown just below (plus another of the map tiles I had placed, not shown), (b) kept all the cards in my Hero Tableau in one stack in the box, and (c) kept all the Quest/Threat cards in another stack in the box.[1] I was able to get things back in order quickly, and actually proceeded to finish the Tutorial Quest for the first time! I hadn’t realized I was just one fight away. I hope to proceed to a “real” quest soon!
As vaguely implied by the photo above and shown more explicitly in the photo below, I have begun to organize Items, Memories, Equipment, and Companions around my Hero card in a specific way during gameplay. (Note that this is not the same game-state as the one I “saved” above, this is later on):
I find that I prefer this, and I find myself wishing that all the “stat” information scattered around the Hero card were re-organized to support something like it. The current Hero card layout is built around elements of the game’s design that I think could be left behind-the scenes.
For example, I do not think a player ever needs to know that:
the # companions they can retain is dependent upon their Presence stat
the # of (revealed) Items they can retain is dependent upon Shadow stat
the # of (unrevealed) Equipment items they can retain is dependent upon their Muscle stat.
Players do need to know the # limits, and their thematic dependency on the stats is sensible enough, but their alleged mechanical dependency upon the stats is functionally irrelevant for gameplay, as best I can see. The player is never told how to calculate from any stat to any # limit, and as best I can tell the stat never changes. I would much rather see some more iconic representation of Vixen’s 4-Item limit along the left side of the Hero card edge than have to hunt for it under “Shadow.” Likewise for the others.
It would be ideal if all the stats critical to Combat were consolidated somewhere. This could be achieved by pulling the Hero’s attack-relevant Stat down to the bottom-left corner along with ARM and DEF. But here we must pause to discuss “ATK.”
I know we established back in the unboxing that at least one of the Hero/Accoutrement divider cards is obsolete, but I used them to help keep my stacks distinct, and appreciated having them; I don’t find myself wishing for fewer divider cards. ↩︎
I just glossed over your post, so I’m not going to comment on the details, but this caught my eye:
the # companions they can retain is dependent upon their Presence stat
the # of (revealed) Items they can retain is dependent upon Shadow stat
the # of (unrevealed) Equipment items they can retain is dependent upon their Muscle stat.
This is all news to me. And now I think I finally figured out why this game is so hard to learn.
It’s because there’s no character sheet.
Ziggurat is a role-playing game, like D&D. In some ways, simpler than D&D, but in many ways it isn’t. Every time I sit down to play the game, there’s always a bunch of rules that I need to remember. Every single action has a lot of steps, side rules, exceptions, and special cases.
D&D has this as well. The difference is that after you have assembled your character’s stats and equipment, that information is added to a full-page character sheet. But here’s the kicker – after filling in the stats, you calculate additional stats based on them, and write down those new numbers. This makes it much easier to remember all your options while playing.
I think Ziggurat needs a similar character sheet. I’m going to try working on one, but I have to admit I don’t have as much time these days for solo board gaming as I hoped.
First, just a bit of clarity around inventory limits.
From the hero tableau section of the rules:
Inventory Limits
During play there is no limit to the amount of inventory you can accumulate; including equipment, items, true-names and companions. However, at the conclusion of any Rest Action (Break Camp) you must discard inventory down to the limits defined by your hero stats. There is only so much you can carry and command.
The limits are shown below each stat on your hero, and described in the Rest Action.
From the hero actions section of the rules – the last phase of the REST ACTION:
4. BREAK CAMP: PARTY LIMITS
Discard Equipment, Items, Companions, and unbound True Names down to your inventory limits:
Companions: 2 + PRESENCE
Items: 2 + SHADOW
Equipment: 3 + MUSCLE
Unbound true-names: 1 + LORE
Reduce all companion HP to Max HP
Gain +1 grit for any equipment, item or true-name card you are forced to discard. A discarded companion and any attached location encounter persona will go directly to Memories.
So no limits to your inventory during play, but a requirement to downsize your inventory to reasonable limits at the end of the rest action.
Important to reiterate that there are no limits to inventory, except at the end of the rest action. The mechanical and thematic determination that differentiates the “break camp” limits between heroes does not need to be known to the player at all.
I think you’re right, stat block references to the “break camp” limits should be removed as they appear to be confusing and/or misleading. The hero card could possibly benefit from a direct statement summarising that hero’s “break camp” obligations.
For example, with Vixen:
Break Camp
At the end of the Rest action you must discard down to 4 Items, 4 Equipment, 2 Companions and 1 unbound true name.
