Asciibrain - Strategic Gameplay!

Sometimes it’s the small things that really stir things up. I decided to spend some time on making a static dungeon, and making it really fun. And the result was fantastic!

Step 1: Add a third character

Say hello to the Thief

Only two characters made the game hard. A turn would end too fast. So I quickly added the Thief. This new character has the following interesting characteristics:

1. Weak! Low on hp and don’t hit very hard
2. Has a much shorter walk range, BUT has 3 actions per turn (instead of 2) so the total movement is much greater
3. Has a new default ability Sneak that makes enemies ignore him (or her?) for one round
4. Also starts with the One more thing ability by default, which means she can make up to 4 potential actions!

Step 2: Players can act in any order

The Thief turned out fantastically, but turn order really limited everything. So I quickly re-wrote it to allow you to change to any player controlled character with actions left….

And wow! Now it’s a completly new game!

Where before it was just mindlessly “walk and attack”. Now you can start taking strategic decisions! A simple example:

1. One of your characters is in deep trouble, cut off and surrounded by enemies and low on health.
2. Switch to another character. Loot a nearby chest (chest will give every character a ability-card) and
3. …pray it contains something that will save the day. Maybe your character got a sneak? Change back and apply it to yourself. You’ve just delayed your imminent doom one turn…

Here’s a short video showing heroes and abilities playing together…

Step 3: Adjust health on doors

Another really small, but impactful change, was to lower the health of my doors to match the damage of a Fireball. Now, any door that gets collateral damage from a fireball will be removed and reveal the enemies behind it… now you need to be a bit more careful…

Step 4: Adjust health on chests too…

Even more critical! Chests also gets destroyed from Fireball damage! This might be even more critical!

How to handle it? Change to the Thief character, sneak in and grab the loot, get out of the way and have the Wizard fry the eneimes and the now empty chest…