This almost got 5 stars from me, love the concept! If the traps were more predictable instead of random, it would fix my issues with the game, and sell the concept of slyly tricking your foes.
gralamin
Recent community posts
I feel the big mistake with this game was making the decks the same. In a way it feels like you took two of the principle mechanics from Card games (Random draws and different decks), and removed both. This made the game into just a puzzle it feels like, as you now just have one big hand. The big thing that random draw does for card games is make the play experience feel different, and instead it feels like you leaned into making it feel very samey. As such, I feel you lost something.
There are some things that really limit the game here from a GM point of view, and you kinda noted in the GM notes - the design of the game for the NPCs pushes 'against' the correct way for the GM to 'win'. I think this game would be more solid by taking the GM out entirely, having a deck of opponents that spies can play against, and making another player choose the actions for the opponent often. The lack of a mechanic to share any information also limits the game. While it meets the criteria, I think a bit more look at the design makes it obvious this would be better as a board game concept, then as a tabletop RPG.
Some great ideas in this game! Early on I did become frustrated though - I think a reordering of puzzles and a bit more time bringing someone into the mechanics would help. For instance. as a programmer, I found it very unintuitive that while one action was happening (Jumping), I could do the else as well (walk)