Asymmetric Update

I've updated the print and play for Bread.  The core of the game is relatively the same, but I'll run through the changes here:

Aesthetic Changes

The icons are largely the same, but I've decided to assign an action word to each card.  I think this is largely an aesthetic change that gives a little more flavor to what the cards are enabling, and are mostly relevant for the unrest 🔥 cards. Because you see, they uniquely have a dual purpose.

Displace Action

In lieu of the emergency action cards, I'm introducing a situational Displace action that is keyed on how much 🔥 is in your tableau. What it does is that it removes all the non-🔥 cards from your tableau, then lets you steal a card from a tableau and directly place it in your own tableau. This action is intended to be a situational desperation move to serve two purposes.  The primary one is psychological, to suggest to players that you shouldn't completely strip a player of all their infrastructure, or else you put them in a position where they have nothing to lose via displacing. The secondary one is also psychological, to give players the illusion of still having a foot in the game even when getting overly sabotaged. I mean this does technically mean they can always win as long as there's enough built 🍞 in tableaus, but once players are stealing from each other it's usually already a doomed effort.  But the psychology is important.

Setup Assistance

So setup has always been rather involved in this game, and to help make that process smoother I've given the chunks of cards unique backs so it's easier to collect the cards and set them up for next time.  This has the added side effect of introducing a way to telegraph has close the end of the game is.  I've also introduced something to help with your starting up that also adds a bit of spice.

Asymmetric Bases

I like the hands being random, but there are so many starting hands that can wreck the play experience.  Starting with 🍞 can make the game trivial, starting with no 🚚 can be frustrating in a first play experience, etc. I decided to have asymmetric base cards that would dicate your starting hand, so I could put some guard rails on that, and it had the side effect of enabling some freedom to do some silier things.  Now there can be bases that start with certain cards in your tableau, or even extra or no cards in your tableau.  I'm still fiddling with some of the balance of some of these cards, but I've gated them into larger player counts to allow more player balancing for them.  Use them at lower player counts at your own risk.

Removing 🔥 Unrest

One last change is that victory requires you to remove all your 🔥 instead of just having 1 bread.  This makes some things a bit clearer to explain, but also creates some fun situations now that you need to remove your base 🔥 that provides a 🚚 and 🏭. You sort of reduce your agency to get into a winning position, but you're also no longer forced to consume the deck. This actually provides a way to stall out the game, so I technically had to add a new victory condition, even though I've yet to see it happen.

Final Thoughts

I'm quite happy with the direction this is going, although I am a bit concerned about the Displace action.  It has some potential to disrupt some strategies I had hoped the 🧱️ walls would address.  But the more I think about it, the more those seem like strange high-level antagonistic strategies.  I say strange, because even though it would be advanced play, it would be sub-optimal in terms of seeking victory.  It would only be advanced if you only saw victory as being the sole victor of the game.  Which... is a thing.  Regardless, chances are good I'll be working on an updated sizzle video for the game.  Hope y'all enjoy!