Rules for Thought #22 – Fog Bank house rules

[Ben]

Now that the Rules survey has some results (37 responses as of this post), I think it would be a good idea to discuss some various options in detail.

Feel free to list what house rules you have used in the past.

Fog Banks:

Ships lost in the same fog bank can fire on each other with successes on 6+. Pinned ships can shoot as normal, however, ramming cannot be done inside of the fog bank (so this rule only comes into affect if a fog bank rolls over the pinned ships using the prior “moving terrain pieces” house rule). Fog banks in contact with an island create a hazard for docking; 1 mast is lost on the roll of a 1-4. 5+ means no effect. Fog banks on other pieces of terrain have no effect.

We have also played games where explore actions could be used to find ships/derelicts in fog banks, but we haven’t tested that too much.

I like these fog house rules in general.  I’ve played a bunch of games with fog right up against an island, but I usually don’t apply damage – though it makes sense to do so.

Thoughts on this?

[Jack]

In general I would just like to see terrain get used more in the game. So I like the idea of searching for something hidden by the fog, like a UT or something. I generally don’t even use terrain honestly.

One alternate rule that I’ve used that slows the game down well and makes terrain in general more useful is that you only begin with home islands, and you can use a ship’s action for the turn to “discover” an island, by placing an island at least L-away from that ship, and 3-L away from any other island. Then the player to your left places a piece of terrain within S of the island, so typically between the ship and the island.

[Ed]

I like to put fog next to whirpools or reefs to make a dangerous area

[Ben]

One alternate rule that I’ve used that slows the game down well and makes terrain in general more useful is that you only begin with home islands, and you can use a ship’s action for the turn to “discover” an island, by placing an island at least L-away from that ship, and 3-L away from any other island. Then the player to your left places a piece of terrain within S of the island, so typically between the ship and the island.

I feel like that could get pretty gamey but I have wondered multiple times about how to make the game more realistic in terms of exploration.  I’m not sure how to best go about it though since it’s difficult to restrict sight and not see the entire setup.

[Ed]

Hmmm exploration rules would be nice but would defiantly take up more time, 1 way it could be done is you each agree on an amount of terrain and isles then you randomly flip and shuffle the cards put them in a bag(or any container that you can grab from but not look in) & play as normal but as a free action if your ship is 2L away from every isle you draw from the stack and place down what you get 1 L away from your ship(isles still cant be closer than 3L to any isle)

[Ben]

as a free action if your ship is 2L away from every isle

Interesting idea, but this seems very unlikely to happen in a game, especially when using the standard 3L distance.  (which I don’t recommend)

[Author]

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