Twilight Imperium Homebrew Thread

[Jonniosaurus 0]

Hey guys, firstly new Forum member (long-running FFG fanboy) hello!

 

I know that Talisman has a fairly dedicated site for all things homebrew in the form of http://www.talismanisland.com/?page_id=4888, but i've yet to find the same anywhere for TI.  I figured it might be nice to post all our homebrew modpacks in one succinct thread.  what do you guys think?

 

for my part, this is my humble offering:

 

I've focused on removing much of the luck-based aspects from the game (I tend to favour skill over luck in games these days) and I've added my own homebrew secret objectives with new graphics (all my own, all free, no licensing issues on that front) which make the game shorter.  We finished a 5 player game in 8 hours with this:

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/118329/twilight-imperium-veiled-incursions-modpack

 

here's a teaser if you don't have a bgg account!   Thoughts and feedback welcome!

[Steve-O 473]

There used to be such a haven for homebrew content.  It was called ti3wiki.org, and truly, it was glorious.

Then it went down for some reason (I forget why, maybe they were hacked or something?)  Anyway, the site never really recovered and has since evaporated into the ether.

 

I think most of the really good stuff has made its way to BGG though.

 

BTW: How many additional VP do I gain for having Mecatol Rex in the chain? 1? (I assume, since more would be crazy.)

If you need to make room on the card you can remove the word "friendly."  If you control a system, it is friendly by definition.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Steve-O

[Jonniosaurus 0]

BTW: How many additional VP do I gain for having Mecatol Rex in the chain? 1? (I assume, since more would be crazy.)

If you need to make room on the card you can remove the word "friendly."  If you control a system, it is friendly by definition.

 

yes, 1   Perhaps that ought to be "gain an additional VP"!  Thanks for the feedback, I have an idea for another modpack I might release sometime soon; if I find the time I'll make a correction to that card!

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

It's not much of a tweak, but the people I typically play with have found the political aspect of the game lacking. What we usually do is have 5 political cards face up during play. When the political strategy action is taken the player gets to pick one of the 5 for the council (and representatives) to vote on. Makes being the one who actually takes the political strategy card a bit more relevant and allows the players to potentially anticipate and prepare for potential agendas.

[Ironglaive 8]

It's not much of a tweak, but the people I typically play with have found the political aspect of the game lacking. What we usually do is have 5 political cards face up during play. When the political strategy action is taken the player gets to pick one of the 5 for the council (and representatives) to vote on. Makes being the one who actually takes the political strategy card a bit more relevant and allows the players to potentially anticipate and prepare for potential agendas.

 

That's a pretty strong house rule.  Do you do that with just the political card or do you use Assembly that way too?

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

Assembly has you drawing a hand of political cards, doesn't it? So this wouldn't really work with that. In fact, it's basically like everyone has the same hand of 5 cards.

[Ironglaive 8]

Assembly does have a hand, but since you can use political cards as trade goods, nobody ever has any.  Anybody tried house ruling that out of the game?

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

but since you can use political cards as trade goods, nobody ever has any.

Exactly. That was the part about assembly that I really didn't like. On paper it looks like it will give you more control over your political action, but in practice it was as random as the political card.

[Jonniosaurus 0]

Assembly does have a hand, but since you can use political cards as trade goods, nobody ever has any.  Anybody tried house ruling that out of the game?

 

I believe that option is only available with "Simulated Early Turns". I wouldn't necessarily recommend that option because - like you say - it emasculates later political actions. I certainly wouldn't use it with my Modpack.

[Wick 1]

We initially thought that you could not select the same strategy card as the previous game round.  When I discovered this error we fixed the rule. Now my group has asked to house rule that back. I am not sure that I care for it but it does prevent players from hording control of certain strategy cards and forces players to choose other cards. By the way we play 3 players games so get 2 strategy cards each. And we are now using the shattered empires strategy cards but had not initially.

 

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

 but it does prevent players from hording control of certain strategy cards

 

I've never found that to be a problem. There is so much that you WANT to do each round, trying to monopolize a single strategy card just isn't practical. (Except Imperial, if the other players will let you, of course). Yeah, some of the higher numbered ones are going to be good to take turn after turn, but when you take them your probably not going to have the opportunity to take them more that 2 turns in a row because other players will want them too.

[Wick 1]

It maybe an artifact of my playing group. The Tech II card and assembly card are prime targets for the other two players as well as trade.  I usually get SC's based upon my strategy. I rarely grab diplomacy II or Assembly (unless I need to get speaker to choose SC's first on the next game round). Like I mentioned the other two players like the rule. The only good that I see from the rule is that it forces players to use SCs that they may not ordinary choose, so it can be good for learning purposes. Get them to try to adapt . In the case of my fellow players I doubt they will adapt very quickly. I have won 100% of the games so far. They are getting a bit better but still have much to learn.

[jgbaxter 0]

Ah the good ol' days.

 

FFG changed the forums too many times and forced new accounts and deleted old content.

 

Stupidest thing I've seen in a long time.

 

Try here; https://boardgamegeek.com/forum/632/twilight-imperium-third-edition/variants

 

 

There you will find most everything you could want, 100's of systems I've created, doubled the distant suns, 26 races, 12 objectives of each type, and more, and hey, that's just me. Many others have done wonderful work over the years.  Most of the wiki graphics are there as well, or can be found by asking.

 

 

n.b. I haven't been here in years, and likely won't be for years again.  (reply's will be unseen by me)

Edited January 15, 2016 by jgbaxter