The Hair of the Dog print-and-play just received a major rules update. We reworked the pet conditions mechanic to be simpler and encourage more player communication. If you haven’t tried Hair of the Dog yet, go do it! Tell us what you think and we’ll donate funds to the Humane Society. If you want to read about the design changes, then continue reading. Don’t let us stop you.
A core part of Hair of the Dog is meeting certain conditions before petting a dog. This represents the dog’s social willingness and peculiar personality. Previously, we had these conditions on the dogs from the moment they enter the pub. We found that a single condition was too often attainable by chance and that two conditions take a lot of work to learn and meet. This new version splits the difference.
Now, every dog enters the pub with no conditions. When a player pets a dog, they take a pet card and place a condition on the pet card they took. This condition must be met by subsequent players from here on out. If another player tries to pet the dog, the player with the condition says whether they succeed, but not what the condition is. If successful, the second player to pet a dog takes the next pet card and puts a different type of condition on it. This means the third pet must meet two conditions known by different people.
Players can learn what is takes to pet a dog by sharing with another player. They can share information, toys, treats, or promises for future help. If the trade is agreed upon, it’s a free action. Otherwise, any player can see the information they need or take the toy they want by spending sips from their drinks (previously only used to get extra actions and avoid shame). In playtesting, this creates a much more communicative environment. Players have been eager to share dog secrets and work out all sorts of pacts to try and come out above the comPETition.
We want a round of Hair of the Dog not to exceed an hour. This change appears to have cut playtime in half. It may have been the tweak needed to solidify the design and get us on track to Kickstart. We’ll talk about our launch criteria in a future blog, but we’re closing in on the goal. Keep sending your feedback and help make Hair of the Dog live up to the promise of the premise.