Some folks have expressed a desire for Dominant Species to play a bit shorter. Others for it to be less 'swingy' by way of the card effects. This variant addresses both. It encompasses four minor changes to the base rules. Here's how it works.
1) When setting up the game, steps G and H [page 4] are modified as follows:
"Remove the Ice Age card from the deck of Dominance cards and place it face up next to the board. Put the remaining Dominance cards face down atop it. Draw the top five cards of this draw pile and place them face down in the Available Dominance Cards section of the game board."
2) The first bullet of the Reseed step during the Reset Phase [page 20] is modified as follows:
"Draw enough new Domination cards off the top of the draw pile to fill each empty space of the Available Dominance Cards section of the board. If a card comes off the the draw pile face down, place it on the board face down; if it came off the draw pile face up (only the Ice Age card), place it on the board face up. If there are not enough cards remaining in the draw pile to fill up every card slot, fill up as many as you can; the rest will remain vacant."
3) Step 5 of the Domination action [page 16] is modified as follows:
"If there is a dominant animal on the tile being scored, that player must select one Dominance card (if one is available). If the chosen card is face down, the player simply puts it on the table in front of himself. If the chosen card is the face up Ice Age card, perform its text effects as per the rules as written, then the player puts that card in front of himself, face down. (Players collect cards in this manner throughout the game, to be scored at the end of the game.)"
4) Finally, add a sentence to the end of the first paragraph in the Endgame section of the rules [page 20] as follows:
"After scoring all tiles, each player earns bonus VPs (see page 3) based on the number of face down Dominance cards in their possession."
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This variant will thus have no card effects -- instead, a chosen Dominance card will simply add to that player's final score.
Having no card effects means that players don't need to evaluate the cards from turn to turn, instead concentrating solely on strategic and tactical board considerations. Players need not feel they are "being screwed" or "picked on" by detrimental card effects. Further, without Action Pawns being added to the game via Intelligence, Parasitism and Omnivore, the game will be foreshortened. Indeed, players can remove any number of (non-Ice Age) cards from the deck during set up -- each multiple of 5 cards kept in the box will shave about a turn off the total game length.
Enjoy! And let us know what you think.
Kilde:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/722588/ ... ss-variant