UPDATED!! Rats of Wistar | Rahdo's Final Thoughts 

that's very gracious of you! :)

i know the feeling all too well! :)

well having played it, i disagree. the mistake, i think, is to look at this as an adventure game with quests and such, but this is a euro game. the missions are simply ways to convert different combinations of resources into victory points. they could make more of them, but they'd be more of the same thing, only really providing variety in terms of art, but not actual gameplay. the ones that come with the game provide great replicability because they determine how the different resources are more or less valuable from one game to another. more of them really aren't needed imo :)

​@@rahdo I have a question about this. There are ten mission cards and ten rooms. So all mission cards are always in play? Am I misunderstanding something or what do you mean by it offering replayability from game to game?

there's only 8 spots for mission cards on the board, and some of them are only used at higher player counts. so in a 2p game, only 6 mission cards are used. there's 7 missions in a 3p, and 8 missions in a 4p game :) also, i should say there's nothing wrong with more mission cards if they did more down the road, but there are only so many ways you can convert one type of resource into another. each card has 3 sub missions on it, so there's really more variety than just 10 cards. plus, depending on where they are on the board can change the feel too (it's a lot of work to get to the missions deeper in the house, meaking theyre conversions that will tend to get done late in game, while the missions close to the door will get focused on early, and that can change the feel of the game quite a bit) :)

@@rahdo Thanks Rahdo. I greatly appreciate this detailed reply. Changed my mind single-handedly

Terraforming Mars is just elaborate ways to convert resources but the game sings thanks to its huge diversity and game to game ratio of difference. Getting those new cards at the start of each rounds feels like getting a hand of gifts. I think 10 missions card is a little low. "Oh theres that darn crow again up in the loft even though I am opening it in the living room this game". I think the missions cards offer a vibrant a design opportunity for diversity and a sense of adventure.

it's very rare that i indulge in them, almost never, for fear of unbalancing things. basically i'm hoping to hear one of the designer chime in on the viability of this the same way they did on the "remove the aggressive cards". fingers crossed! :)

​@@rahdoGot it, thanks.

well i guess that's the nature of exploration: you've got to be prepared so that whatever you find will be of some use. or alternately, you can not explore the risky parts and instead put your attentions elsewhere (like exploring the things that are guaranteed to work out on some level). or, explore early when there's less chance of getting something that doesn't work well for you.

i should add, those tiles also generally have some vp on them as well, so there's never something completely useless, and they're cheaper to get than new room tiles, which have fixed guaranteed vp :)

Cool, thanks for the additional info!

I was demoing Rats of Wistar at Spiel and I am not sure if I just misread the rules or someone who was explaining me the game changed the rule, but the way I taught it was that as soon as you enter the room you flip over the mice tiles. That way you can see which one you would like or if you don't like them, move on to the next room. Maybe this could be an easy house rule, which would eliminate this issue completely, without already revealing too much in the other rooms in advance.

well that would be a huge improvement, but that's not what's in the rules. so maybe the devs changed their minds and updated the game, or maybe the person teaching got it wrong? but yes, that's the sort of variant that i'm talking about that would improve the game dramatically!

ryan george is TIGHT!