Fixing Rules: Ruddy Vikings

5/3/2016

Picture courtesy of Ruddy Vikings. I love the cartoonish artwork of this game.

I love this small box card game created by Rounded Squarish. It was successfully Kickstarted and I couldn't wait to play it! It looked like a light game that was easy to pick up. Enough so, I took it with me on my travels. Only there was a problem. The rules sucked.

THE GAME

Ruddy Vikings is a 2-4 (expandable to 8) game where each player controls a Viking clan, represented by your hand of cards. Viking cards attack other players, Buffers aid your Vikings past your opponents' Defences, Chance cards turn the tides of fortune to your favour and even the might of the Gods may be invoked to bolster your rampage. To win, you must be the last person with cards in your hand!

THE PROBLEMS

The biggest problem with the rules was that there was no printed rulebook included, just a set of tiny reminders scribbled along the sides of the inner box. There is a great looking rulebook online, but it should have been in the box. Here are some of the issues my friend and I saw after playing the game once.

The earlier a player has their turn, the more damage they are able to do to their opponents, as nobody has the chance to build any active defences before the first player's turn.
If you don't have any "Defence" cards in hand, then you can't build any active defences to protect yourself, leaving your band of Vikings open to attacks from all the other players.
A few of the cards are either too powerful ("Steal ALL Vikings from ALL players in a massive potato sack.") or too powerful and too situational ("Steal the 'Potato Sack' card when played against you. Now all Vikings come to you instead.").

So, in the way that game designers do (or game breakers in the case of my friend), we decided that we could come up with some better rules, to make the game fairer, a little bit more tactical and in the end, a lot more fun.

First game of Ruddy Vikings played while traveling, with the staff at Torii Kuguru Guesthouse, in Okayama. It was an interesting experience teaching the game using broken Japanese.

THE SOLUTIONS

Firstly, the two overpowered cards, mentioned above, were removed from the game. Then, the following rules were implemented. They are written in the order of a round of play.

SETUP

The "Turn" cards are separated from the rest of the deck.
If you are playing with 2-3 players, then the "Keep Your Enemies Close" card is removed from the deck of "Turn" cards. Similarly, once there are only 2-3 players remaining in the game, due to elimination, this card is removed from the game when it appears and a new "Turn" card drawn.
Each deck is then shuffled.
Each player starts with five cards dealt randomly from the main deck. There is no hand limit.

A game played with some friends that I made in Nara, one of whom I would meet again in Toronto.

ROUND 1

During the first round, no one may attack. Each player may pick up one card at the start of their turn, play any "Chance", "God" (such as "Fortify") or "Gift" cards (max of one each, except due to card effects) and build any active defences.
All cards, except "Vikings" (unless otherwise specified on the card), "Buffers" and "God" may be played facedown as an active defence card. Therefore, any active defence card in front of another player may actually a "Defence", "Chance" or "Gift" card. This way, players without "Defence" cards may bluff other players into thinking otherwise.
Any player may have a maximum of 5 active defences (facedown cards). Once a card is played facedown it cannot be returned to the player's hand. The card must be activated (flipped face up and effects resolved) before the slot becomes available again for another card.
The "Fortify" God card does not count as an active defence card and is played face up next to the active defences. When a "Defence" card is used, the "Fortify" card may be discarded in its place and the "Defence" card turned facedown once more. As it is not an active defence card, the "Fortify" card is not affected by the "Mighty Winds" or "Dragon" "Turn" cards.

ROUND 2 ONWARDS

At the start of each subsequent round, one of the "Turn" cards is flipped over and its effects resolved before the first player picks up a card. During their turn (and those of each subsequent player), they may build additional active defences, play "Chance", "God" and "Gift" cards (max one of each), from their hand or their active defences, and attack another player, in any order.

A game played at the hostel I was staying at in Niagara Falls with another traveler from Perth! You'll find Aussies everywhere you go.

ATTACKING

When a player attacks another player with a "Viking" card, any effects written on the "Viking" card need to be resolved, if applicable during combat.
If the effect allows the player to bypass (by "going over" or "smashing through") a defence, then the attacking player designates which of the opponent's active defences they are bypassing. That active defence card may not be used during this combat.
If the effect allows the player to attack when it's not their turn, they must wait until the player, who they are planning to attack, has drawn their card/s.
"Buffer" cards must be played with the "Viking" card/s when an attack is declared. Multiple "Buffer" cards may be played on the same "Viking", but each must have a different effect.
Only multiple "Leg of Meat" cards may be played on the same "Viking" (i.e. each additional "Leg of Meat" card allows the player to discard one additional card from their opponent's hand, if their attack is successful).
If the attack is successful, ALL buffer cards that were played with the successful "Viking" are discarded. If the attack was unsuccessful, then ALL buffers played with the unsuccessful "Viking" are returned to the attacking player's hand.

DEFENDING

The defending player may turn face up any facedown "Defence" cards to protect themselves against an attack. "Defence" cards in hand cannot be played to defend against an attack. They are considered inactive defence cards.
If the attacking player has a "Viking" card effect that bypasses any defence, then that card cannot be used to protect the defending player and remains facedown.
If the defending player is able to use a "Defence" card to protect themselves, then the attacking "Viking" card is either discarded ("Land" or "Air Defence") or added to the defending player's hand ("Magic Defence"). In either case, the "Defence" is also discarded.
The defending player may choose to use one of two "Chance" cards instead of an active defence to protect themselves. The "Fog of War" card will turn the attacking player's "Viking" against them, while the "OI!" card will cancel the attack altogether.
If the defending player is unable to protect themselves, then the attacking player may randomly discard one or more cards (depending on "Viking", "Buffer" and "Turn" card effects) from their opponent's hand.

The second-to-last game I played with the Editor, Director and Producer of LARPs, a webseries on Geek & Sundry, who I met on a train ride to Montreal.

MISCELLANEOUS

The "Fog of War" and "OI!" "Chance" cards are the only cards that may be played out of turn. All other "Chance" cards must be played by the player during their turn.
When the "Gift" card allowing a player to choose the next "Turn" card is played, that player may then look through the "Turn" card deck (not including the discards) and select a card of their choice. The remaining cards in the deck are shuffled and the select card placed on top.
The "WAR!!!" "Turn" card now allows all successful attacks to deal one additional damage (e.g. For a normal "Viking" with no damage "Buffer" cards, a successful attack will deal 2 damage).
(Optional, choose one): A player [MAY/MAY NOT] play the "Swap all cards in your hand for another player's hand" "Chance" card as the last card from their hand, automatically knocking the player they choose out of the game.

WINNING AND LOSING

If a player loses all of the cards in their hand, regardless of any active defences in front of them, they are eliminated from the game.
Once all but one player have no cards remaining in their hands, the game is over. The last player with cards in their hand is the winner.

Reflections

I have played with these rules multiple times, often with different groups of people and everyone has enjoyed the game with these changes. They achieve the goals I had of making the game a little bit more tactical, without adding too much strategy, quite a bit fairer to players who go later and a lot more fun.

Sadly, I don't know if you can purchase this game anymore, but if you already own it, then try playing it with these rules and tell me what you think! If enough people like it, then maybe they will make a second print run.

I enjoyed writing this and there are plenty of other games that would otherwise be really good, if only their rules were better. So, I may do some more of these posts in the future.