Rules for Thought #23 – More precise movement?

[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.

Are there any changes you would recommend to the moving system?

If it could somehow be more precise that would be nice

Do other people think this is a problem?  I’m fine with the movement system as-is.  There are some times when things get difficult or annoying, but I think it works as well as it could.

I hate the limitation of a hex grid, not to mention how dumb it would look.

[Woelf]

“More precise” is really vague. Maybe they meant concise?

The current system provides far more precision than any grid/hex-based system could ever hope to do. There’s a lot of room for fudging when measuring out distances and angles, but within the handful of limitations on movement, you can put your ship pretty much anywhere and at any orientation you want. You can often park your ship in a precise location to hit a target without letting the target’s cannons hit back without moving first.
A specific tool for measuring (instead of card edges) or even movement templates similar to what you see in games like X-Wing would add accuracy to the game without doing much to limit the open nature of it, but with how the game already works, that’s just adding extra pieces for little gain.

A grid or hex system would make the game far simpler and more concise. Almost all of the debates about ranges and distances would go away entirely, because there’d never be any questions about how far things were apart, but the game would lose a lot of nuance. Maneuvering wouldn’t matter nearly as much. It wouldn’t necessarily be bad, and in some cases would be an improvement, but it would definitely change the overall feel of the game. (Indirectly, it would also limit the potential scope of the game because you’d be limited to the size of the sheet or board the grid was printed on. Playing across a huge table or even the floor would be difficult if not impossible without making your own custom grid.

[Ben]

Indirectly, it would also limit the potential scope of the game because you’d be limited to the size of the sheet or board the grid was printed on. Playing across a huge table or even the floor would be difficult if not impossible without making your own custom grid.

Yet another reason I could never support a hex system for Pirates!  😀

Thanks for the input.  It is already a very precise game, I think they just want less fudging of the precise measurements since it can be hard to move exact distances or measure accurately without going really slow.

[Ed]

I highly prefer speed to accuracy when it comes to measureing so much so that I usually cut my movement short just in case its too far because I measure so sloppily(I also usually measure my movements while my opponents take their turn even though its lets them see what im about to do)

[Fitzroy_McCandless]

I’ve always liked how simple yet versatile the movement system has been but I’ve almost played with a modified rule that sees a ship’s listed speed as its “top” speed. The people I have played with and I always saw it as something that you could choose to modify within your move action. If your move was S+S you can choose to move any where between that range as long as it does not exceed the maximum. The logic was that a ship can choose to change how open its sails are and thereby throttle its speed yet cannot exceed the fastest speed with all sails open.

 

We also toyed with the idea of incorporating a wind mechanic, something like roll a D8 or D4 and that is the direction of the wind for a turn or series of turns and it modifies the movement when traveling towards or against. It was a bit complicated so we never quite got it right but it was a fun idea.

[Ben]

I’ve always liked how simple yet versatile the movement system has been but I’ve almost played with a modified rule that sees a ship’s listed speed as its “top” speed. The people I have played with and I always saw it as something that you could choose to modify within your move action. If your move was S+S you can choose to move any where between that range as long as it does not exceed the maximum. The logic was that a ship can choose to change how open its sails are and thereby throttle its speed yet cannot exceed the fastest speed with all sails open.

Perhaps you already know this, but that’s completely legal anyway.  You can choose to move in partial move segments whenever you want.

We also toyed with the idea of incorporating a wind mechanic, something like roll a D8 or D4 and that is the direction of the wind for a turn or series of turns and it modifies the movement when traveling towards or against. It was a bit complicated so we never quite got it right but it was a fun idea.

The Files section at BoardGameGeek has a bunch of different wind rules, one of which is somewhat simple that I used and enjoyed in the Experimental cumulative game.  (a battle report I hope to restore in the next few months or sooner)

[Author]

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