Short one today because I’m at TotalCon. If you’re attending, find me and say hi.
A while back I wrote about play testers asking “what if you don’t?” That happened again today with a test of Plutocracy. Specifically they asked what if you don’t have costs for actions.
Out of the 5 actions, 2 already don’t have a cost. For 2 more the cost can be moved into the action itself, so they will remain the same mechanically. The only action that would change is moving. Moving would no longer cost 1 influence.
In the game paying one influence is a very small thing. It is unlikely to shift anyone’s score. Players start with 5 crystals that work as a wild influence for paying costs, and they earn more from exploring new planets. So it is very rare that a player would be unable to take a move action because they didn’t have the correct influence.
On top of this cost being essentially negligible, we also kept forgetting to pay it. So a rule that is easy to forget and has a minimal affect on the game. I can see the benefits of cutting it. Streamline the rules more. Free up space on the player board. And if moving doesn’t cost anything, it really removes the need for crystals at all. So dropping crystals saves on components and again simplifies the rules.
This seems like another step towards the game being the best it can be.