Designer Diary no. 1: Asymmetric organizations
And yes, it’s true. It does make sense to create an expansion for a successful game. But here’s something most people probably don’t know: when I started working on the expansion, despite not knowing whether SETI would be successful, I began designing the expansion even before the base game was released.
That might surprise a lot of people, but that’s how board game publishing really works. Just like a board game takes years to design before it reaches players, an expansion also has to be developed in advance. I still remember when I started sketching out the first content for the expansion. It was around August of the last year, about two months before the base game went on sale. It was right after SETI was sent to production. So in a way, I never really stopped working on SETI.
But enough about the background. Let’s finally talk about what’s actually in the expansion :)
Organizations and How They Work
While the expansion brings a lot of additional stuff to enhance the variability, the main focus is undoubtedly the new asymmetric organizations. The expansion comes with 11 such organizations.
At the start of the game, each player gets two and chooses one to play with. These organizations are quite self-explanatory. They give you different starting resources, different income, and most importantly, a unique special ability. These abilities can be passive effects or once-per-round activations. Most organizations actually have both.
When I started designing the organizations, it quickly became clear that they needed to have a real impact on the game. I didn’t want them to just tweak a number here or there. I wanted them to do something. That meant giving them stronger abilities. But stronger abilities usually bring more resources into the game, and more resources often mean a longer game.
So we made a big decision: we shortened the game by one round. That means the game now lasts only four rounds instead of five. But don’t worry. Thanks to the powerful organizations, you can often achieve even more than you did in the base game.
To help compensate for the missing round, players also receive three Quick Start cards during setup and choose two of them to gain bonuses from. These cards help you get up to speed quickly. They might let you mark signals in certain sectors, place orbiters on specific planets, mark certain traces, and so on. They increase variability, give you an early boost, and help skip that slower first round where players are just getting started.
n the end, it all adds up to a faster, more dynamic experience, one where players feel powerful and productive right from round one.
I can imagine that three main questions might come up about the new organizations, the shortened game length, and the quick start cards. So I will answer them here right away.
“So the game is shorter now?”
Yes, and no. You play only 4 rounds, but thanks to the extra resources and the organization’s abilities, you play about the same number of turns - you just skip the less interesting opening part and spend more time doing interesting stuff. Also bear in mind that while the organizations are pretty easy to grasp, you will often need to adjust your usual play style, so be prepared for some extra thinking time before you get used to them. So in the end, the game takes probably about the same time.
“Can we play 4 rounds without the organizations?”
It’s not as easy as it seems. The quick start cards don’t fully compensate for the missing round, so without the organizations, you would have fewer resources and would achieve less overall. Therefore it is not the best option for players who are less experienced with the game or who tend to struggle even in the normal game. It also impacts the way how the game is balanced. However, we are still considering this option and testing whether we might make it work.
“Can we play 5 rounds with the organizations?”
We don’t generally recommend that. Most players achieve even more with the organizations than in the base game, and so the extra round would leave you with little left to do. Considering that 4 rounds with organizations take about the same time as the base game, 5 rounds would make the game very long. And of course, the organizations are balanced with a certain number of rounds in mind, and so if you play one more round, it would make some organizations stronger than others.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the organizations and what they bring to the game.
Orbital Dynamic
This is a rather easy to grasp organization. It has a pretty balanced pool of starting resources and incomes. Just a note: When you are dealt the 2 organizations and 3 quick start cards to choose from, you also get 4 standard cards, which you keep, and which help you choose the organization and quick start bonuses. I am mentioning this because those 4 cards are extra to whatever you gain at the start of the game from the organizations.
But what makes Orbital Dynamics stand out, is the fact that it starts with 2 launched probes and its first ability permanently increases your limit of probes in space by one. That means that with the right technology, you can easily have up to 3 probes at once!
Once per round, you can gain a move with up to 2 of your probes. That means you need to make sure that you have two probes in space every round to use the full potential of the ability.
So while this organization will be a great pick for anyone who enjoys navigating probes through the solar system, it doesn’t push you all in since you can still use the moving ability only once per round. The ability rewards careful planning and using the Solar system rotations to your advantage. You can for example use one probe for landing and keep the other rotating with the solar system and waiting for its opportunity.
Xenolab
This is an example of an advanced organization. It is definitely more complex, but can be used to a great outcome when guided by a skilled player.
As you can see Xenolab allows you to tuck 3 cards for income at the start of the game, which gives you a higher level of control over your strategy.
But what’s more important, it comes with 3 special tiles, each one depicting one of the standard main actions, but with a lower cost. When you use a tile to perform a discounted action, you need to deplete it by flipping it face down. But don’t worry, you will have a chance to recharge it. Each tile has an alien trace of a certain color on its back, and when you mark such a trace, you also recharge that tile.
But here’s the catch - the trace color doesn’t correspond to the action found on the front. For example, to recharge the scan tile, you need to get a yellow trace. That means that this organization will work the best when you broaden your focus and strategically switch between different game aspects like launching probes, scanning and analyzing data.
If you’d like to see more updates about the upcoming expansion, you can subscribe to the game’s BGG page so you don’t miss anything. We’re really excited about what’s coming next and can’t wait to share more with you soon.
