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Clarification of spreading plants

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Clarification of spreading plants Empty Clarification of spreading plants

Post  donkirkby Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:25 pm

I'm looking for a rule clarification. What does it mean that a pollinator must be present for some plants to spread? A pollinator anywhere on the table allows this plant to spread? A pollinator adjacent to any of this plant's cards (face up or face down) allows it to spread?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to trying out the game this weekend.

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Post  davehwng Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:30 pm

We're going for the "must be adjacent" rule (face up or face down). The mechanics of spreading (and whether it's fun or makes things more confusing) has been previously discussed. Not quite settle, so if you do have a go, do let us know if the idea kind of sucks, or if it seems to work pretty well. cheers, Dave

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Post  Tangram Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:18 am

Home Playtest Team Tangram has been trying to figure this one out too.

We have encountered the Seven-spot ladybird ( http://phylogame.org/?s=ladybird )and are unsure of how to play it as a pollinator.

If it is adjacent to a plant does it cause the plant to spread in a particular direction, or does it now mean the plant can spread in a direction of the choice of the plant owning player.

If a pollinator is place between 2 plants, does it imply that all plants adjacent to a pollinator can spread regardless of which player owns the plant?

Alternately could it be stacked on a plant so that the plant can spread in subsequent turns and it makes it very clear that only that plant can spread from that pollinator.

Separate to those questions above, spreading is an interseting mechanic that we haven't used much yet, but it does seem to imply an immediate problem that if you have 2 spreaders near each other, and you have overturned cards, how do you separate one spreading species from the other?

I know it has been suggested that you could use counters, but you then need a number of different sets of counters to identify each spreading species.

The idea of selecting a matching same card from the discard pile doesn't work as often the playdeck is full of unique cards.

I like the idea of the spreader but it doesn't seem to scale well.

As alternative idea - remove the notion of spreading and allow thing like the ladybird to stack as a pollinator and behave similarly to parasitic but it would instead be e.g. symbiote. This would enable that particular position to function as both the photosynthetic species (bottom card) that is defining the terrain and clime, and either bottom or top card able to fulfill the requirements for foodchain.

Cheers,
-T.

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Post  davehwng Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:25 am

Let's keep this discussion going. The spreading mechanic has been an on again, off again point of debate for a while now. Maybe it is best to remove it and use the last suggestion (place pollinator over card?).

Anyway, what do others think?

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Post  Desprez Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:22 pm

I was under the impression that in order to utilize a spreader you had to have multiple copies of the same species in your deck, and then get some of them into the discard pile.

I'm a little confused why you turn the card upside down AND put tokens on it though. Turning it upside down seems to imply that spreading a spreader gives your opponent points, but then you use a token to designate it as no points? Why not just play it normal and use the token to mean no points?

It makes me wonder if the no points aspect is even necessary though. I mean, they aren't worth much, and the player still has to use an action to spread, and they will be limited by how many of that species are in the deck.

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Post  donkirkby Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:27 pm

I interpret the rules to mean that the upside down cards can be any cards from the discard pile (they don't have to be the same type of card as the spreading species), you play them face down (not facing your opponent), and the only reason to play the cards is to show that the spreading species has spread into that space.

I don't know if spreading is a worthwhile ability, but it might be simpler to just use tokens and not play any upside down cards. A token would represent an identical card in the neighbouring space. If you have four types of tokens, then you should be able to distinguish the different spreading species even when they spread next to each other. Occasionally, you might have to replace the tokens on a species with a different type of token.

Just for reference, here are the current rules for species with the spread ability:

SPREAD (similar to the MOVE keyword, in that it allows organisms such as plants to move. The principle differences are that (1) often this ability requires something additional (like the presence of a POLLINATOR or a WIND Event card), and (2) instead of moving the species, you can retrieve cards from the discard pile and placed them adjacent to the original SPECIES card. Note that space must be available for the spreading to occur, and that these cards are played upside down (i.e. not worth any points). However, these upside down cards can substitute as the original card in terms of representing TERRAIN, CLIMATE, and DIET/FOODCHAIN values for ecosystem building. As well, in the event of losing your original SPECIES card (due to an EVENT for example), you may interchange the original with one of the connected upside down cards to ensure you still receive points.

Depending on how many spreading species you play, it might be a good idea to place tokens on these upside down cards. This helps keep track of what the originator species was (Note that seeds make good tokens)!


Last edited by donkirkby on Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:28 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Add link to rules)

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