What are the systems to this enigma of a game? Fortunately for us, Ben has the rules front and center for one glorious shot. Unfortunately, they are not good. I mean, the rules aren’t going to be good no matter what. The problem is that they directly contradict the episode itself. So let’s go through the rules and figure out what to keep and what to throw into The Hinterlands.

If it’s hard for you to read, don’t worry, it was for me too. I’ll walk through each section, transcribing them here for us to mock.

Object:

To acquire cones via trade, purchase, advancement, and scavenging. First player with four cones wins.

I’m actually a big fan of how the numbers turn out for the game. Only needing four cones to win is so much better then “most meaningless victory points after ten rounds”. It helps players remember that it’s all about the cones. On the other hand, there are a lot of ways to gain cones. Yikes.

Players:

2 Wizards, 1 Maverick, 1 Arbiter, 1 Ledgerman, 0-1 Corporal, 1-2 Warriors

Our first problem arises here. The game is for 8 to 12 players, but here’s a maximum of 8? With a minimum of 6? However, this is also a problem with the script, Ben only mentions these 8 characters in his opening spiel, despite saying directly before that it went up to 12. I’m unsure of what to do with this at the moment. I would love to make this game to its fullest potential, but I don’t have 8, let alone 12 people who will play this with me. We’ll put this problem on the back-burner.

Gameplay with two Warriors is highly recommended for optimal conditions. Play as the Maverick should be reserved for more experienced players. The Ledgerman must wear his hat at all times; negligence or refusal to do so is punishable by loss of turn.

How do two Warriors make for optimal conditions? What makes the Maverick harder? If the Ledgerman just keeps score, how can their turn be lost? Perhaps the Ledgerman’s turn is the scoring turn. And perhaps the Ledgerman’s hat can be removed from the Ledgerman’s head through mechanics in the game, preventing scoring.

Game Components:

– 34 terrain hexes

– 21 Cones of Dunshire

– 15 Sub-cones (Cones of Brennmar)

– 40 Spirit Cards (20 Positive, 10 Negative, 10 Chaotic)

– 60 Agriculture Cards (15 Harvest, 20 Irrigation, 5 Famine)

– 100 Armies divided as such among the players

Wizards 50

Maverick 25

Arbiter 25

Corporal 100

Warriors 25

– 30 dice (12 small dice, 12 large dice, 12 special dice)

– 1 dragon

– 20 soldiers of fortune*

– 35 Nautical Vessels (20 Schooners, 15 Submarines)

– 12 Clerical Cards*

– 12 Climate Cards*

– 40 Expansion Hexes*



*EXPANSION PACK ONLY

Ay, there’s the rub! This component list is absolutely bonkers, so much contradicting what we see in the episode. Some of it is useful, we now have better names for many of the objects in the game: tiles becomes terrain hexes, minis become either Armies or Soldiers of fortune. The idea of an expansion pack is also useful, as it lets us bridge the gap between the prototype and published versions of the game. We can just say the things in the final version with no analog to the prototype are part of the expansion pack. Don’t worry, we’re going to make them, just in the style of the prototype.

Some of it is annoying. There are a ton of components that just don’t show up at all. The dragon is included, but not the snake or castle or pyramid. Armies aren’t in the prototype, and neither are Agriculture or Spirit cards. Perhaps we can graft that name onto one of the unnamed decks.

Some of it is downright strange. Let’s look back at this image for a moment. If we assume each color has the same amount of cones (which isn’t the case, as one of the small blue cones should be green) then we have 7 x 4 cones, for a total of 28. That doesn’t match the 21 Cones of Dunshire or the 15 “Sub-cones”. That’s a total of 36 Cones. In the prototype here, adding in the 4 small black cones and the Cone of Decision, makes a total of 33. Perhaps there are more small black cones in the published version, simply not on the board at this phase. Either way, this list is bad and it should feel bad.

TURN OVERVIEW

Each turn is comprised of seven components

Oh boy. Hey, now I can say Twilight Imperium prepared me for something.

1. Roll

Each roll begins with a pre-roll to determine how many dice are used for each roll. Select 3 small dice and 1 large di for pre-roll; roll these 4 dice on the game board. The Pre-Roll Sum (“P-RS”) of the pips represents the number of dice to be used for the Player’s Roll. Player then chooses P-RS number of dice for his roll, with no more then ten (10) small dice and no more then six (six) special dice to be used at any time. The Roll Sum (“RS”) of pips represents the player’s currency moving forward for current turn.

This is insane. Unfortunately, we do need to implement it in some way shape or form, as Ben talks about this, and we see him pre-roll in “Moving Up”. I’m not too hung up on the game being good, but I would like it to work, and somehow we’re going to have to finagle this roll system to be more fair. Perhaps the Challenge Play (“It’s basically the game, in reverse”) refers to the opposite of this system, a rolling system that works and isn’t arbitrary. Well, we can wish.

2. Buy

Player now has RS currency with which to purchase resources. Mavericks and Corporals may choose to play Resource Doublers at this time, in which case they begin with RSx2. (Resource Doubling is not permitted at any point in Challenge Mode OR after Wizard induces Cathartic Freeze.) Player must announce his intention to buy before each turn begins. All purchasing must be made in exchange with the Ledgerman. Any remaining resources after purchase may be either (a) left unused by player or (b) transferred to Arbiter at a rate of three (3) resources to exchange for one (1) Agriculture Card (excluding Famine Cards).

I’m getting strong Dune vibes here. The Ledgerman controls the shop, the Arbiter controls the Agriculture Cards. These “Resources” are nowhere on the Components list, yet they appear in the published version as “Resource Gems”.

A player may ONLY purchase a cone if his armies are advanced beyond the Front of Tragarum. The only exception is, of course, the Maverick,

Of course.

who may purchase cones regardless of position of armies IF AND ONLY IF he has induced Paramilitary Disruption.

I must say, I’m loving all the fantasy names. Cathartic Freeze, Front of Tagarum, Paramilitary Disruption, these all HAVE to go into the game.

3. Action

Player may now choose to play any Action Cards (Agriculture or Spirit). If Wizard currently possesses power of sorcery, he may deny player from playing any action cards ONLY IF all players have acquired their third sub-cone (i.e., all players have completed First Stage of Civilization)

Ah, now we know what the Action Card Ben plays is. An Agriculture or Spirit Card. These sub-cones have been getting me thinking. Perhaps they are not physical cones, but something on a player sheet, akin to XP. However, there are only supposed to be 15 in the whole game? And each player needs three in a minimum 8 player game? Impossible! Perhaps then the Sub-cones can be shared, each player needing to earn them by completing some sort of challenge. Achievements, in a way.

4. Option to Scavenge

All players – excluding Second Warrior – may choose to scavenge on any turn, regardless of the number of cones or sub-cones they currently have. See chart on p.6 for Expected Rules of Casualty for each possible scavenge combination.

The Second Warrior doesn’t deserve love. Yet it’s the class recommended for new players? Hmm… The chart should be fun to make. I wonder what information it would need. The player’s sub-cone count and the tile they are in? That would give a reason for there to be different names on same colored tiles. We’ll consider it.

5. Build

Players who wish to build may do so only after those who have been scavenged have replaced replaced or retreated their armies. If player has denied option to scavenge, only the Corporal may retreat armies. Player shall roll P-RS number of dice to determine his Building Multiplier. Player must build in the following order:

– Barracks

– Houses

– Forts and/or Bunkers

– Industrial Corridor

– Commercial Corridor

– Transportation Nodes

Unsurprisingly, the Bell Tower nor Citadel show up in this build list. The Bell Tower was build with the use of an Action Card, so that’s not too surprising. I like the note that this phase only begins after the previous phase, like we thought it would start at another point. It could imply that these phases don’t end after every player has done it once, but after an unfixed amount of time (such as when each player decides to not scavenge anymore)

6. Second Buy

Players choosing to buy a second round of resources can only use (a) unused currency from first buy or (b) any currency denoted or traded by Arbiter in exchange for Spirit or Agriculture Cards.

Another buy, with some delicious edge cases. This is what is going to make this process fun for me, all the little rules that don’t make much sense and in most games would be hated. This truly will be The Room of board games.

7. Advance

Player advances his Main Avatar by RS/2 (Roll Sum divided by two, rounded down) hexes, and may choose to advance armies by RS/4 hexes (rounded up). Player concludes his turn by passing dice to the player seated to his left.

This is far too much movement for a game with only 34 hexes. This might need to be changed, or removed altogether. I do love how the Main avatar’s roll is rounded down, but the armies are rounded up.

That concludes the rules we can see in the game. Overall, my thoughts are mixed. I understand the parody going on, but I don’t appreciate the lack of internal consistency. Because these rules can only be seen in a few frames of the episode, we’re going to call them the lowest priority, and anything contradicted by the images and audio will be removed. That said, there are some things I quite like, such as the Sub-cones and Scavenging.

We’ve reached the point where we have all the canon information on Cones of Dunshire. Our next step would be to compile a list of what needs to be made and design game systems for those items, but there are more Dunshire creations to explore. Reddit pointed out many of them to me, in a post I made there. Next time, we see what they are (and maybe steal a few ideas).