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Re: [piecepack] Taxicab session report with humble suggestions

imfurry wrote:


I recently played Mark Biggar's Taxicab with some friends at Drexoll
Games in Vancouver. We found it an enjoyable, light game. The part I
liked the best was driving my little cab around town making beep-beep
and vroom-vroom noises.
Thank you for playing and commenting on my game. Would you mind my attaching your session report to the games wiki page? 


The rules are easy to understand, although one of the players
couldn't keep the driving and turning rules straight. We put it down
to his lack of a driver's licence. We were also playing without a
play mat to show the movement spaces, so perhaps that made it more
difficult. We found that the tiles can get knocked about, so I
recommend using a tablecloth to reduce slippage.


Yeah, even I prefer playing with the mat.  I'll mention the tile sliding
problem the next time I update the ruleset.  Thanks.


I have two minor complaints: the fiddle factor, and player
interaction. I'll start with the fiddle factor. We had some trouble
remembering to draw a new passenger when we picked one up, but I'm
sure that would get better with practice. The most fiddly rule was
for deciding what addrests a passenger is at in a city block. You roll
two dice and consult a table for one of eight spaces around the
block. My humble suggestion is the following rule, which we switched
to halfway through the game.

To choose an address: Draw a coin from the bag and place it on the
tile with the matching suit and value. Then place it on one of the
eight spaces around the edge of that tile. Now roll a die and move
the coin that number of spaces clockwise around the edge of the tile.
If you roll an ace, move the coin one space. If you roll a null,
leave it where it is. The coin could end up on any one of the eight
spaces except the two spaces counter-clockwise from its starting
space.
I tried something similar during game development and discovered that it gives too much control to the placing player, in that he can easily 
cause the placewment of the new passenger on the other side of a block
from an approaching player's taxi.


My other complaint regards player interaction. I think the game could
use more. There is some, and in the final round of our game I was
blocked from making my last drop off. Unfortunately the movement
rules are quite strict, and the interaction is more random than
strategic. My humble suggestion in this case is to allow players to
break the law. (Only in the game, of course.) Perhaps a risk vs. gain
mechanism like the one in Racepack would help. A player could exceed
the speed limit by moving more than eight spaces and then roll a die
to see if he gets caught. Subtract nine from the distance moved, and
if the die roll is higher than that, he gets away with it. If not,
pay a fine of the die roll times the excess movement. You could also
allow other moving violations like driving on the wrong side of the
road and making a U-turn in the middle of the block. Each would be
worth so many points, and the die roll needs to be less than the
total of all your moving violations and excess movement in the turn.
I haven't had a chance to try this idea yet, so use it at your own
risk.
This is a common problem with pick-up-and-delivery games. Those are some interesting ideas. I've also thought about allowing player's to 
pay money to move the traffic jam (if your playing with that variant).


Even with these minor complaints, it was still an enjoyable game. I
plan to try it again.


Thanks again.

--
mark@...
mark.a.biggar@...