To truly immerse players in the Aethermon experience it was essential that players had a tangible sense of their Aethermon’s growth over a playthrough.
Representing this growth however created a conundrum – the most overt ostentatious displays of character development included the most overhead. A growing pile of poker chips to represent as many stats as possible was very satisfying; however using physical chips to track every possible stat became a laborious endeavour.
Ultimately we’ve struck a compromise, increased offensive capabilities are not tracked with poker chips or stats, but instead each combat maneuver is tracked with a single easy to follow card. A few key stats are still tracked with chips (HP, XG, VP). While fairly static stats (such as level) are tracked with a single slider.
This has been easy for players to manage in playtests. However for players who have desired an even more streamlined experience we’ve created an android app which tracks these stats for players.
We are still debating how much more development we plan on committing to this app. There is a magic that happens when players come together around a tabletop – we don’t want to lose this by fostering a situation where players spend the game looking at their screens. Nevertheless, the app’s feedback from playtesters has been positive.
Stay Streamlined AetherRen.