It’s been busy, but I’ve been able to play a few games of Over the Next Dune with a five-turn limit. The results have been mixed. On the plus side, the game is definitely more difficult. Players have to move quickly and take risks. On the minus side, the game might not be reasonably winnable. Having only five turns makes the game very difficult, moreso than I expected.

To dial the challenge back a bit I’m considering reducing the number of turns in the searcher movement deck. Maintaining the ratio of turns to straights from the 10-turn 60-card deck in the five-turn 30-card deck produces 3.5 of each turn. So far I’ve been rounding that up to four, on the the theory that previous attempts to make a “hard mode” had been inadequate and so this time I should do everything possible to increase the difficulty. Since the 30-card five-turn deck has turned out to be a very hard mode I’m going to give a deck with three of each turn a try. I’ll update you on how that goes next week.