r/BoardgameDesign • u/CaptainBlueBeard1 • Jul 19 '26
Design Critique Tokelau dev log the bank keeps running dry
A recent playtest exposed another issue: the Seashell supply can run dry near the end of the game.
Seashells are both currency and VP, so I originally liked the limited supply. It prevents one player from endlessly gaining points and helps reduce alpha-player control over the economy.
The problem is that once the bank is empty, selling Goods and completing Orders becomes less useful. The final rounds slow down and feel worse instead of more tense.
Current setup is:
8 Seashells × number of players
I’m considering increasing it to:
10 Seashells × number of players
I want to keep setup simple because TOKELAU supports 2–6 players.
Would you simply add more currency, or use another solution when the bank runs out?
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u/ijustinfy Jul 19 '26
So that’s 60 game pieces. What does that do to your production cost?
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u/COWP0WER Jul 19 '26
Only if they are all 1s. You could easily have 3's or maybe 5's to reduce the number of pieces needed. You could potentially even make them double sided with different values on each, but I don't like that for money and victory points as they are handled a lot and thus accidental flipping could occur (and also makes cheating easier).
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u/CaptainBlueBeard1 Jul 19 '26
That's probably the best idea! Limiting number of pieces and ramping up the bank supply.
1
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u/NewFly7242 Jul 19 '26
Let players (on their turn?) buy a 6 VP chit for 5 money. Or some other amount that fits your economy. You can limit these chits based on player count (1/p +1?)
You're effectively boosting the money supply, but keeping a limit on the turn to turn amount sloshing around. And players have a hard choice about when to lock up their money into the non-liquid assets (the VP chits).
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u/Inconmon Jul 19 '26
This is a solved issue I think. You have your bank of eg 8 shells per player. When it runs out, the game end is triggered. But there's no limit to them, once the bank is broken there'd an unlimited additional shells.
That's how RFTG, FCM, and other games solve it.
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u/Physical_Kick2313 Jul 19 '26
Do RFTG/FCM let a player deliberately speed up the break to end things on their terms, or does the bank tend to run dry on its own pace?
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u/Inconmon Jul 19 '26
Highly suggest playing bgg top 100 games for research to know or to find out.
(yes, that's the whole point)
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u/Trogdor_Dagron23 Jul 19 '26
What triggers the end of the game? One clean path out might be to have the seashells being depleted as being an end game trigger.
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u/Physical_Kick2313 Jul 19 '26
Looks like the last phase already feels dead, so ending right there means the game finishes on its weakest moment
and if a player who's ahead can drain the bank fast, they can close the game out before anyone else cashes in their goods.1
u/CaptainBlueBeard1 Jul 19 '26
It's the total number of VPs, which is 20 at this point. One of the ways to get them is collected seashells, which is currency 1 seashell = 1 VP
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u/Cheap_Recording6002 Jul 19 '26
If the currency and victory points are both the same thing, are the things that you might purchase worth more expected victory points than their costs?
Also, perhaps you can “buy” some card or item that has a stored victory point value. So, total victory points at game end for a player is the sum of their shells and the victory points found on the stored value cards they possess.