Ashes: Multiplayer and Drafting
Open up the possibilities
Welcome to Ashes: Jessa Week at PlaidHatGames.com! Last week was Jessa Week, preceded by Noah Week, Saria Week, Coal Week and Maeoni Week!
This article is part of our general overview of Ashes mechanics. Don't miss our dice power article, our placement overview, attacking/defending overview, our phases of play overview, or our card type overview.
Ashes is available for pre-order at the PlaidHatGames.com store. Pre-order today from our site and get $15 off the retail price! Order from PlaidHatGames.com and get a free Dimona Odinstar promo Phoenixborn, along with her exclusive Rayward Knight ally!
Hello Everyone.
“Texas, Texas, TEXAS!!!!!!”
You may be wondering, "Hey Isaac, why is this article a day late?" Hopefully the previous outburst will make that clear for you--*cough*--Texas--*cough*.
Today is our last day in our Ohio office. Tomorrow we're off to Origins and then off to Texas. I am super excited about this move and hope that it means bigger and better thing for Plaid Hat.
So without further ado, today’s little write up is about multiplayer and drafting. Ashes offers a few different ways to play so that it can be enjoyed by different kinds of gaming groups. When I had originally designed the game I only expected it to be for two players, but when we played our first multiplayer game my eyes where opened to more possibilities.
Multiplayer doesn’t have any additional rules; you play the game with the same set-up and just add additional players. However, the dynamic of the game does change quite a bit.
Everyone has the same goal, to be the last one standing. Each turn you will need to determine who your biggest threat is and target them in order to stay ahead. Part of the fun of multiplayer is convincing other players that your assessment is correct while covertly building up your advantage.
Multiplayer still has room to grow. We provided one format, but there is no reason players can’t play in teams against each other, play a format where they only target one opponent to their left or right, or team up against 1 super player. As the game continues to grow, multiplayer will be something that I turn my development efforts and hope that the community also embraces and creates new ways to enjoy multiplayer Ashes.
Speaking of different ways to play, drafting before a multiplayer game is one of my favorite ways to play the game. Drafting in Ashes is super simple. The rulebook does a good job of explaining this variant, which you can check out below.
(click the image to see the page full-size)
Drafting is something that I cannot wait to play in local game stores and with more expansions. More options will just make this variant more and more fun and allow for really fun deck builds. I highly suggest drafting to anyone that is interested in getting into deck building; it is a great way to do it quickly and gets your brain burning with interesting combinations you may not have thought of before.
Well, that’s all for today folks. This is Aradel’s week so have fun getting to know her. She is the last Phoenixborn in the Rise of the Phoenixborn Master Set, but don’t worry; we still have more to talk about for the next few weeks to come.
Make sure to vote for Dimona’s suggested deck build!
Cheers!
Isaac
…Sorry about the lack of images in today’s article. Dave is currently packed away in a moving truck.
Game Overview Previews: Phases of Play, Attacking/Defending, Placement, Card Types, Dice Powers, Multiplayer and Drafting
Maeoni Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Coal Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Saria Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Noah Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Jessa Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Aradel Previews: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Click here to pre-order Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn and get a $15 pre-order discount as well as the Dimona Odinstar Promo Pack.
Written by Isaac Vega, designer of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn and other Plaid Hat Games (Dead of Winter, BioShock, City of Remnants, and Video Game High School.
