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jackOK, I've playtested this a few times and I'm liking how it works so far, although I think it needs some rules updates of some form.
The current version: there is a deck of 15 unique assassin cards. Each player starts with 15 influence tokens. Over the course of the game the cards are dealt out into a long banquet/meeting table formation (i.e. one face up card is the head of the table, at the far end from the remaining deck, and two parallel rows of assassin cards stretch between them).
Players represent guildmasters emeritus, or other powerful people with an interest in the election of the next guildmaster. At the end of the game, if you have influence counters on an assassin higher on the table than anyone else does, you win. If two assassins are at the same height on opposite sides of the table, the one with the highest influence+prestige wins.
A sample card is "Revolutionary Ruth. Prestige +1. Ability cost 3: Kill any one assassin in top three" (i.e. the one at the head of the table, or next to the head of the table).
The specifics. Turn structure. First you turn up a card. If it's the first turn, it goes at the head of the table. Else, it goes on the shorter row, if there is one, else your choice of either side of the table.
Then you may place any number of influence counters on any one card (empty, or controlled by you, not controlled by opponent). Placing on the one or two cards closest to the deck is free, the next position costs an additional one influence to place (e.g. to place two counters on the assassin second-to-bottom, you'd place two counters on her, and discard one back into the bag), and one more for each higher position.
Then you may either promote any one assassin you control (if their printed prestige plus the number of influence counters on them is greater than the prestige+influence of the next higher card on the same side). Or, you may use an ability of one assassin you control, by removing the number of counters specified in the cost from it and replacing them in the bag, and doing whatever the effect says (usually killing an assassin in a particular position, opposite, next higher, anywhere not adjacent, etc.).
When the deck is empty, players can continue to take turns, but if they're ahead they can skip their turn and call a vote, and assuming they control an assassin higher than any other player, they win.
How does it play? I aimed for something a bit like loveletter, with lots of calculated risks, but also quite ruthless swings. And it turned out about like that. There's a reasonable amount of cat-and-mouse, putting enough influence on an assassin to be useful, but not so much that you're left behind if it's killed. I'm still trying to tune the cards, right now each game feels fairly game-like, but I want to make sure it doesn't descend into "always choose one of these three most powerful cards" or "first player always wins" or something else degenerate.
Tweaks I'm considering are ones that make it so you can't just turn up a new assassin, place counters on her, and use the ability immediately, because that's quite swingy. And to try to adjust the costs so costs other than 2 and 3 are usable.
The current version: there is a deck of 15 unique assassin cards. Each player starts with 15 influence tokens. Over the course of the game the cards are dealt out into a long banquet/meeting table formation (i.e. one face up card is the head of the table, at the far end from the remaining deck, and two parallel rows of assassin cards stretch between them).
Players represent guildmasters emeritus, or other powerful people with an interest in the election of the next guildmaster. At the end of the game, if you have influence counters on an assassin higher on the table than anyone else does, you win. If two assassins are at the same height on opposite sides of the table, the one with the highest influence+prestige wins.
A sample card is "Revolutionary Ruth. Prestige +1. Ability cost 3: Kill any one assassin in top three" (i.e. the one at the head of the table, or next to the head of the table).
The specifics. Turn structure. First you turn up a card. If it's the first turn, it goes at the head of the table. Else, it goes on the shorter row, if there is one, else your choice of either side of the table.
Then you may place any number of influence counters on any one card (empty, or controlled by you, not controlled by opponent). Placing on the one or two cards closest to the deck is free, the next position costs an additional one influence to place (e.g. to place two counters on the assassin second-to-bottom, you'd place two counters on her, and discard one back into the bag), and one more for each higher position.
Then you may either promote any one assassin you control (if their printed prestige plus the number of influence counters on them is greater than the prestige+influence of the next higher card on the same side). Or, you may use an ability of one assassin you control, by removing the number of counters specified in the cost from it and replacing them in the bag, and doing whatever the effect says (usually killing an assassin in a particular position, opposite, next higher, anywhere not adjacent, etc.).
When the deck is empty, players can continue to take turns, but if they're ahead they can skip their turn and call a vote, and assuming they control an assassin higher than any other player, they win.
How does it play? I aimed for something a bit like loveletter, with lots of calculated risks, but also quite ruthless swings. And it turned out about like that. There's a reasonable amount of cat-and-mouse, putting enough influence on an assassin to be useful, but not so much that you're left behind if it's killed. I'm still trying to tune the cards, right now each game feels fairly game-like, but I want to make sure it doesn't descend into "always choose one of these three most powerful cards" or "first player always wins" or something else degenerate.
Tweaks I'm considering are ones that make it so you can't just turn up a new assassin, place counters on her, and use the ability immediately, because that's quite swingy. And to try to adjust the costs so costs other than 2 and 3 are usable.