In the previous development diary, I talked a bit about how my desire for system expressiveness led me astray during the game’s design and development. Figuring this out took months of work. As I mentioned in that piece, I spent a lot of time reading playtest reports, teaching the game, and trying to figure out why on earth the many little systems that seemed so robust and interactive in isolation were proving to be less than the sum of their parts.

I think part of my trouble is that I didn’t really have the vocabulary I needed to describe the problem. If you think “expressivity” is an excellent design goal, then it’s hard to make the argument to cut it. That’s really the core of what made the first month or so of cuts so vexing. I was cutting out stuff I liked without any deeper understanding of where those cuts might get me in the end.

Here is the first part of two-part development diary that is long overdue. Be warned, I’m going to really get into the weeds of New Foundation’s development and try to describe what we’ve been tangling with. This post is going to get pretty detailed and most of it is going to be about a system I ended throwing away. So, be warned: a darling is going to be killed at the end of this book.

For all of the new features that we are building into New Foundations, the expansion boils down to a pretty simple realignment of the game. Previously, most players would direct their entire attention towards winning. Each game culminates with a gigantic scrum, or, what folks sometimes call a “crab bucket.” I have no idea if this term is used affectionately, but I’ve often liked the image. Certainly the end of a game of Oath can feel like you are trapped with a bucket of pointy little creatures trying climb over each other in a mad scramble to get to the top.