I’m still playtesting the five-turn version of OtND with three left turns and three right turns. The more I play it the more I like it. It’s hard, and games consistently come down to the wire. Making the game harder was part of the goal, and that goal is being achieved.

Using three turns is also working out better than four. It’s sufficient to make the game unpredictable without rendering planning impossible. Moreover, the challenge shifts over the course of the game; it starts out very difficult, and then the advantage shifts toward the players as turns come out of the deck. I haven’t forgotten the question of how to give a game the feeling of a three-act story.

So that’s the good news. The bad news is that the game still needs a lot of external playtesting. We’ll see how it holds up.