DGE is now available online

Play for free in your browser - https://screentop.gg/@DrMindermast/DGE

Get it on Tabletop Simulator - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2875684618

DGE prototype and first playtests

I've never built a physical prototype before, but I spent most of Friday evening printing and cutting out cards, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome:

 

Yesterday and this afternoon I tested it out with two different groups - 3 players the first time, 4 players the second time (with a fifth joining in mid-game).  More fun the second time around, probably because of the larger group and definitely because that group got more into the improv/roleplaying aspect of the game (i.e. spinning wild b.s. explanations for why alcoholic armor will make you a better fighter, or a thundering accordion will help you win the gods' favor).

What I've learned so far is that the core of the game is easy to pick up and works as intended, but the scoring is too fiddly in a way that doesn't match the tone of the game.  Mentally juggling "preferred material" and "malfunction material" was more work than I expected.  I'm not 100% sure yet what I'm going to do about this, but right now I'm thinking maybe to drop "preferred" and just have the random "malfunction" penalty.  If I go more extreme, which is a possibility, I might get rid of scoring altogether, just have players hold onto the cards they won like in similar games, and give materials a different effect like maybe drawing different numbers of cards for the next round (whether you keep them all or choose one and return the rest is still up in the air).  Current rule is that you only have 3 Base and 3 Mods, which is definitely constraining when you're trying to figure out how to make that fit a specific request that probably has nothing to do with your items, but that's also where the bs-ing comes in.  And that's clearly the strong point of the game.  Time for more pondering, and hopefully a better iteration by the time I finish making virtual copies.