The Status Board Issue

[murilowirtti]

So... Im pasting the E-mail I sended to Arcane Wounders so you guys could Answer my questions too i see if is a Bad/Good Ideia

"Hi
I would like to say that Im really impressed by the contact that you keep with players, like taking suggestions and new ideas for cards and even the name-a-dragon-contest, back when i was a kid we dont have that (this), so... based on that i decided to write about this one litle thing that keeps to intrigue me on this amazing game that you guys created:

The status board.

I know that after all this years of development thats probably the best and most cheaper way to keep track of life/damage/channel/mana to put on a base set, but how about new products.

For instance, I thought about the two D10 dices for each track on the Board but would be a little expansive especially here in my country but the ideia is to make mage wars theme dice just for that.

The other ideia came with the LOTR LCG threat counter, it would be a lot of wheels but with a good artwork that could be awesome and could fit somewhere between the spellbook or even atach to it

A third ideia is a app just for the status board, almost everybody has a smartphone nowadays.

The last thoght is somithing like the acrilic grid someone made for the board to the cubes dont move, is the same problem with Eclipse game and that grid idea was pretty good.

Well that's it, hope Im not wasting your time and would like to know the reason and the advantages of the status board.
Plus, I really like how this game is evolving and I hope that happen some event here in Brasil

Thanks a  lot for your time"

[Moonglow]

The dice idea seems fiddlier than the boards. I've seen some demo models on BGG of the wheels, I wouldn't think that they are as easily visible to the other players as the current boards.  Someone is making the plastic overlays on BGG. 

My preference is for magnetic counters.  I like the look and format for the current board.  We don't actually knock our tokens much, although I've caught my sleeve on them a few times, so mostly its a bit of a deluxe thing.  I've got some small cube magnets to insert into the cubes, with a small disk magnet that sits under the board.  Works perfect.  When I get around to it I'll track down some thin sheet metal to laminate under a scaned copy of the board, then the magnetic counters can stick directly.
 

[Stormmaster]

The big problem is the life part.  Frequently my total life is higher than the amount available on the board.  For MTG they have round slider type things to keep track of life totals, as the value goes up or down you simply twist the life counter to reveal the correct number.  I love the board itself and it works pretty well for the other stuff (although I have gone over the max mana on the board periodically also), but not as much as the max life.

For our status boards we have magnetized them and attached to small magnetic white boards.  The status markers are color coded magnets, so no worries about bumping the board and things moving, you can even hold the status board upside down or sideways and the markers for channeling, mana, life stay put.  So since it is on a white board we just write down what our total life is, when it is greater than the amount the status board allows.  It works but would still love a slide wheel.  Although now that I think about it I suppose I could just stick the MTG slide wheel on top of the life part of the status board.  The slider is pretty small/compact.

[jacksmack]

My biggest problem with the status boards is this:

Channeling is:
5-6-7-8
9-10-11-12
13-14-15-16
17-18-19-20
No logic at all. start on 5 and do 4 numbers per row?

Mana Supply:
0-1-2-3-4
5-6-7-8-9
10-11-12-13-14
15-16-17-18-19
20-21-22-23-24
25-26-27-28-29
30-31-32-33-34
It horrible to end with 4's or 9's in each row.
If the 0 had been a big fat long field on top of the rows it could have been 1-5,  6-10,  11-15,  16-20 etc.
And of course going 1-10,  11-20,  21-30 what have been much better.
Everyone i have introduced MW to has had trouble doing fast mana calculations because of the structure of the board.

Life/ Damage.
0-1-2-3-4-5
6-7-8-9-10-11
12-13-14-15-16-17
etc
Now we roll 6 numbers per row to make it even more confusion for fast calculations.

I would have prefered something like:

--------------------------------------------------------
|              |                                                     |
|  Chan-   |        Mana                                    |
|  neling   |                                                     |
|               |                                                    |
----------------------------------------------------------
| Round   |                                                    |
| Sum-     |    Life / damage                          |
|  mary    |                                                    |
---------------------------------------------------------

and then run 10 or 15 numbers per row in mana starting with 1 and then a solo field for 0 in order to keep the rows logical.


When i start playing more live games i will have to fix this somehow - currently its too annoying.

[Moonglow]

The shift in value for a line between life and mana is a bit of a trap for begining players and I would agree that some consistency there would have been nice.

The channelling bar hasn't ever bothered us too much, how often do you change more than 1-2 in a turn? Even then its 1 an action, not really hard maths.

I'm the total opposite for the mana count, I think its done quite cleverly, a line is 5... drop or increase a line for 5, 2 for 10.. I mean that seems like really intuitive.

I do agree on the life count.  I'm pretty sure for my first couple of games we probably even treated the line as 5! :/

My biggest problem with the status boards is this:

Channeling is:
5-6-7-8
9-10-11-12
13-14-15-16
17-18-19-20
No logic at all. start on 5 and do 4 numbers per row?

Mana Supply:
0-1-2-3-4
5-6-7-8-9
10-11-12-13-14
15-16-17-18-19
20-21-22-23-24
25-26-27-28-29
30-31-32-33-34
It horrible to end with 4's or 9's in each row.
If the 0 had been a big fat long field on top of the rows it could have been 1-5,  6-10,  11-15,  16-20 etc.
And of course going 1-10,  11-20,  21-30 what have been much better.
Everyone i have introduced MW to has had trouble doing fast mana calculations because of the structure of the board.

Life/ Damage.
0-1-2-3-4-5
6-7-8-9-10-11
12-13-14-15-16-17
etc
Now we roll 6 numbers per row to make it even more confusion for fast calculations.

[jacksmack]

Mana bar is intuitive running 0-4 and 5-9.

Its not intuitive at all... and its not intuitive when the bar to the left of it runs 4 numbers per line, and the bar to the right runs 6.

I agree that the mana bar is the 1 causing the least problems - but because its accessed the most often then its still the most annoying because it runs 0-4 , 5-9,  etc... If only it was 1-5 , 6-10 then it would be fine.

[Moonglow]

I was talking about the mana count (seems this is going to get confusing) versus the channeling count.

I think dropping a line = 5 works - doing that ends on a 9.. why care? ending on 10 doesnt work - your count starts on one and has no 0.  I'm always on 0 mana!

Mana bar is intuitive running 0-4 and 5-9.

Its not intuitive at all... and its not intuitive when the bar to the left of it runs 4 numbers per line, and the bar to the right runs 6.

I agree that the mana bar is the 1 causing the least problems - but because its accessed the most often then its still the most annoying because it runs 0-4 , 5-9,  etc... If only it was 1-5 , 6-10 then it would be fine.

[aquestrion]

I scanned an image of the status board and with a little crude windows paint editing i added a few extra row to the mana supply and the life total. Then i printed it out on glossy photo paper and double sided tapped it to a magnetic white board and added magnets. This solved all the above mention problems at once. No moving status cubes, no left over stats...., and its made of high gloss paper so it wear down fast or tear.

[Moonglow]

Magnetic white boards are just painted steel aren't they?  I'm thinking thin steel (perhaps even a hammered out steel can) laminated between a couple of sheets of thin card, or even paper, makes a pretty nice looking custom status board.

[aquestrion]

I didnt even think about laminating the paper i just used glossy photo paper that would last forever1!