After the great feedback we received in the legacy game contest we started thinking about how to make some improvements that would streamline gameplay.

One of the main issues was the amount of dice rolling that occurred. The complication dice started out as a single die with several icons, but during testing it quickly became apparent that having multiple dice would speed up gameplay. The cost of custom dice was quite prohibitive, so we split the complication dice up into one civilian die and six regular six-sided dice.

Even with this change all our players were not in love with the amount of dice rolling still. We didn’t have any brilliant ideas to replace it, so it stayed. In hindsight, I think that the complication dice was one of my darlings and I didnt even consider removing dice from the game … until now.

I was hit with inspiration, along with soap and water, which is often the case when I ponder game design in the shower. What if we take all of the actions/complication results and put them in a deck of cards? Each card would contain several pieces of information to help you determine what happens during your turn.

And just like that the SITREP deck was born.

SITREP, or Situation Report, is military slang and is

a form of status reporting that provides decision-makers and readers a quick understanding of the current situation. It provides a clear, concise understanding of the situation.

The Persimmon Group

That’s exactly what we needed. Playtesting is ongoing and we are excited!