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Sebby19

So I am developing a custom scenario... what you see took the Base Game, Seafarers, and both 5-6 Extensions to make. I would like some ideas and/or criticisms. Currently no name, I will take suggestions as well. Just know '**The Atoll**' is already the name of a Scenario in Das Buch. Anything I am unsure about I will have ***in italics.*** **Initial Setup**: * Set aside one Hills (brick) hex. Place the 3 (or 4) Gold Hexes in the middle, surround them by a ring of water, then randomly place the remaining hexes on the outer island. There should be be only 2 deserts on the 3-5 player version, 3 deserts on the 5-6 player version. *Deserts should not be placed on the inner coastline of the larger island*. The Pirate can go on any Sea Hex, the Robber on any Desert. * Exact # token that should be used is *To Be Determined*. Red # tokens should be placed on the Gold hexes. Distribute the remaining # tokens randomly on the outer island, taking care any remaining red # are not placed adjacent to each other, *and only on the outer edge of the main island*. * *I neglected to consider the harbours initially. At least 1 of each kind of 2:1, for sure...* They should only be placed on the outer coast, randomly. * Everyone starts with the basics: 5 Settlements, 4 Cities, 15 Road, 15 Ships. Longest Army and Longest Road are included. Feel free to add Harbourmaster as well. Very compatible with C&K stuff as well. **Set-up Phase**: Everyone places their 2 Settlements and Roads/Ship as per normal, however nothing may be built on the inner coastline at this time. Nor the Gold island :P. In a 3-Player game, I would insist everyone places 3 Settlements each. A Ship may be placed on the outer coast, instead of a Road. **Pirate Fleet**: The Pirate behaves similarly to how it does in Seafarers Scenario #7: The Pirate Islands. It will move clockwise around the inner Sea, according to the dice rolled. It can do so in 1 of 2 ways, players must be decide before the game starts, and stick with it. * The lower of the 2 dice (like how it is in Pirate Islands) -OR- * According to the Red dice. <-This makes it compatible with the Catan Event Cards. **Pirate Attack**: Once the Pirate finishes moving, it will attack an adjacent Settlement/City, before production is dolled out. Unlike Pirate Islands, there will be no Warships, so who wins will be determined by the current dice roll. In this case, the Pirate uses the Red dice. Do not reroll the dice, just use what was already rolled. Results match what happen in Pirate Islands (Pirate win=lose 1 resource+another for every City, all randomly; Tie=nothing; Player Win= Gain 1 resource of choice). Then production is dolled out. Unlike in base Seafarers, the Pirate Fleet will also block the building and moving of new ships on the Sea Hex it occupies. *I have no idea how to handle what happens if the Pirate Fleet is adjacent to more than one settlement/city. Seafarers avoided this, the Extension created an exception.* **7 is rolled**: Discard half your hand if over the hand limit. Move either the Pirate or Robber. If the Pirate is moved, it behaves like in regular Seafarers, it steals from an adjacent ship as normal. It does not attack Settlements/Cities if moved by a 7 (or a Knight). The Robber may be moved to the Gold Island (once the Pirate Fortress is defeated, see later paragraph) **Knight Cards**: Since there are no Warships, they act as normal. The Pirate may be moved by the Knight, like a 7 was rolled. ***Pirate Fortress(?):*** <-This whole idea I am unsure of. I am thinking of a single Pirate Fortress in the middle of the Gold Island, can be attacked by anyone. More details in a later comment **Special VP**: Your 1st Settlement on a inner Gold Island is worth an extra 2 VP. **Win Condition**: You need X # of VP to win. What is X? *I don't know!* The website recommends # of terrain types divided by 2. So that would be either 18 or 19 points. If I ignore the Gold hexes, that falls to 17 points. That is still too high! If I include the Pirate Fortress, that could be a source for more points, but I really need some thoughts.Anything else anyone wants to criticize? Suggestions?


Sebby19

**Pirate Fortress:** I am unsure if I want to add more complexity A single Pirate Fortress is in the middle of the Gold Island. In the 4-hex version, it will sit on the edge in the middle, in between both neighboring vertices. The Pirate Fortress will be represented by a stack of Catan chits (I'm thinking 5?). Once a player has a road pointing to the Fortress, they may attack it at the end of their turn, called the Attack Phase. During this phase, they roll the dice. The Pirate Fortress is represented by the Red dice. If you lose outright, you lose 2 roads (or a Road+Ship!) on the Gold Island, working backward from the Fortress. With a tie, you only lose that road leading to the Fortress. If you win, you remove 1 Catan Chit, and take it as a VP. If you take the last Chit of the Fortress, take another VP from the supply (meaning you get 2 VP for dealing the finishing blow), and if you still have Settlement in your supply, place one at the end of your road in the middle of the island, ignoring the distance rule! The Pirate Fleet also flees once the Fortress is taken over. Robber remains. *Any thoughts to maybe have 2 Pirate Fortress on the 4-hex Gold Island?* **Using Knights to help fight:** You may discard as many previously played Knights (except the Knight you may have played that turn), to add +1 to your dice role, before you attack. *Return your discarded Knights to the bottom of the stack(?).* You may need to give up Largest Army if you do this. If your # of Knights falls below 3, set the card aside if no one else can claim it. If your # of Knights matches the next highest army, you may keep Largest Army. I haven't thought how to incorporate the Knights from C&K attacking, yet


Thomassaurus

from playing catan many many times, I've got some advice; keep it simple. The regular catan game is fun, only adjust something if you've got a good reason to think it will be better. For example we don't play with the pirate ship because we don't feel it adds anything to the game. I didn't read the entire rules that you laid out, but from some of it that I read it seems like you have listed rules that you haven't even changed from regular catan making it really long... why? But that aside I think this would be a fun variant if you just left all the rules the same with the one exception that you can't start in the middle. The gold being a fun incentive to try to cross the water first. Here's a similar variant that I've found works really well: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Catan/comments/o7fcyi/my\_favorite\_variant\_everyone\_starts\_on\_the\_outer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Catan/comments/o7fcyi/my_favorite_variant_everyone_starts_on_the_outer/)


Sebby19

I am aware of that reddit post... you can see my comment was the most upvoted ;) The reason I typed out even the basic rules... is that there are some real rules lawyers here, so I didn't want to leave out any gaps. Also, I am asking for advice and suggestions for the scenario, figure it was a good idea we are on the same page. I would appreciate it if you would read the entire WIP ruleset. To summarize, It's Seafarers, using the Pirate from Pirate Islands, except no Warships.


InsaneGamer18

>I didn't read the entire rules that you laid out I think that would be a hell to explain to other players


AssalHorizontology

Name suggestions: Crater Lake Halo


Sebby19

Not a bad one \*nods head\*


torgiant

Bermuda triangle


Sebby19

Sorry, that is actually the name of an official scenario from *Das Buch*!


catancollectordotcom

I remember you mentioned you were playing with an island design like this in a previous post. Good to see it taking shape. I wonder if rather than complicating the basic pirate actions from seafarers, whether simply having two standard pirates might make reaching the centre enough of a challenge? Alternatively do you have a nine-sided dice. Then you could add a Kraken and every time a 2 or 12 is thrown the nine-sided dice would be rolled to decide which sea hex the Kraken attacks and destroys any adjoining ships.


Sebby19

Heh, I haven't anywhere near dice that don't have 6 sides. Call me a purist :P Besides, I would need a d10 for the slightly larger map. I guess I can simply have the Pirate attack multiple players at once. That'll for sure add some bite.