I agree to the terms for creating Spirit Island game elements set forth in the FAQ.

As a father anticipating his child being old enough to play games with my wife and I, I've thought a lot about what games to start them out with. There are plenty wonderful versions of games meant for young children, like My First Ticket to Ride, or Carcassonne Junior. But, I love Spirit Island, and want to be able to share it with my kids as soon as possible. The goal of this concept is to capture some of the magic and themes of Spirit Island, while cutting down on the fiddly-bits that will make a kid's eyes glaze over. Here is what I've come up with.

The Board:

A custom board with 14 lands. I had a 2 spirit board in mind. Three might work on it. The board is two lands from the thematic board combined and divided up. Bonus points if you can figure out which two lands and from which board!

Rather than having multiple terrain types scattered around, things are simplified by having 1 land type, and having lands populated based on being adjacent to the Wetlands, Mountain, Jungle, Sands, Ocean, or being a "Wilds" inland land.

Invaders:

Invaders are simplified to just being Towns and Explorers. The three phases and moving Invader terrain cards remain, but Explorers do no damage to the land, and Towns do 1 Damage. 1 Damage is all it takes to cause a blight! Normal blight cascading rules apply.

Invader cards are a bit different due to the lands changes. When the invader deck runs out, you shuffle in the Phase 2 Cards and go through the pile again. If it runs out again, shuffle in the Phase 3 Cards and do it one more time. The goal is that there is never a loss by running out the deck. That's not very fun. Cards are as follows:

Phase 1: Invaders explore all lands adjacent to a borderland type.

·      Sand Origin

·       Jungle Origin

·       Mountain Origin

·       Wetland Origin

·       Ocean Origin

Phase 2:

·       + Lowest-Numbered Land - when this card is drawn, draw another invader card and continue as normal. Now the new drawn card also performs its actions in the lowest-numbered land adjacent to a land matching the type (the parent can keep track of this).

·       + Highest-Numbered Land adj. to an explored land - Same as above, but for the highest-numbered land.

·       Inner Land Exploration Boom - 2 Explores in each "Wilds" land.

·       Terrain Corners - All lands that are next to 2 different borderlands types.

Phase 3: Just two cards that make you draw 2 invader cards at once.

·       x2 + Additional Card

Spirits:

Thematically, the 4 Spirits I've come up with are minor spirits who's reach is no farther than these two lands. They are not capable of the widespread destruction of the main-game spirits. Fortunately, they don't have to be. This looks like only having a minor deck, and in general spirits gain less energy and play less cards. For these spirits, playing a couple of minor powers takes their whole capacity. Spirits also don't interact with Sacred Sites, for simplicity.

Babbling Brook Speaks on the Wind

Branches Bend with Fruit

Playful Nature of the Jungle Beasts

Sleepless Soil Stirs with Life

Powers:

The major difference is that instead of defending an amount, Defend effects just defend from a number of invaders. Terrain-specific effects target lands next to certain borderlands. Sacred-Site powers instead can cost extra energy for extra effects.

Power Cards

Blight:

Blight works more or less as normal, however as the goal of the experience is to feel like you are making underdog comeback, moreso than to provide a maximally challenging experience, the Blight Cards are replaced by "Aid from a Major Spirit," where a Major Power is replicated on the board.

Look at them here:

Fear:

Fear needs to be adjusted. Probably something like 3 fear per spirit would make sense, but I haven't touched this aspect yet. Any ideas how to adjust fear to be a little more accessible?

Hope this peaks your interest, and I would be very interested in any feedback or further discussion we can have. Is anything unclear or remains clear only in my mind? Did I miss anything? Thanks for reading!

First of all i want to thank everyone for the feedback, most of all u/FESage who suggested a very interesting alteration of the loss condition. Previous versionwhich was overtuned and the main point of discussion in the previous post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/comments/1tikb77/the_kingdom_of_bohemia_custom_adversary/

The main point arising from the discussion was the very high difficulty of the adversary, which i've tried to curb.

Changes:

1. Loss condition: now it is not the entire focus of the adversary, but something you have to keep an eye out nonetheless. I do not know if Dire M. should be resolved every 2 Fear Cards (eases tension from the loss condition but pressures blight more intesely) or every 3 Fear Cards (more pressure on loss condition, less on blight)
2. Level 2 now pushes explorers to different lands, which helps prevent back-to-back Merriment triggers (Though not entirely, as Level 1 can bring 2 explorers back) and helps players controll better where Merriment happens.
3. Level 4 adds 2 explorers instead of 3
4. Changed fear cards to more focus on terror levels 1 and 2, as the adversary is heavily explorer focused. Tier 3 cards are kept very low to keep fear victory swift. This may need further tuning
5. numerous changes to wording and typoes

I again welcome any and all feedback! Do you like the Dire Metamorphosis change? I think it is card we don't get to see a lot in play and pairs very nicely with this adversary, while balancing its high difficulty. Or do you think that the inflicted blight is too much?

Right now, I think the text in the loss condition is too small for print :D

Dire Metamorphosis (Minor Power - Jagged Earth)

Cost: 1 | Elements: Moon, Air, Earth, Animal

1 Fear. 1 Damage. 1 Damage to Dahan. Add 1 Badlands, 1 Beasts, 1 Disease, 1 Strife, 1 Wilds, and 1 Blight.

I've finished up my Darkfire redo! This piece is exceptionally meaningful to me because: a) Shadow's is literally my favorite spirit to draw, and b) this was maybe the first time in my artistic career that I felt like I truly let down fans.

The whole process was enlightening, and I figured I'd share a little about it with y'all.

When I originally did Darkfire, it was rushed and didn't turn out great. So, I've been refining my concept and creating this new one, which should be coming in an update soon!

A Lesson in Prioritizing Craft

This was a tough battle for me. I used to be so fast and so reliable that my reputation ended up preceding me. So, when I realized I had missed a deadline, I flat-out panicked and produced crap instead of taking my lumps and pushing through to deliver the quality I knew I was capable of. The craft is so much more important. this was a lesson I have had to learn and re-learn so many times before it would finally stick. It's been tough because my career has gone through some serious ups and downs ever since 2017...

The Deep Water Games Years (2017–2023)

In 2017, I started Deep Water Games, originally to do art for my own games, like Ryan at Red Raven. But about a year into it, I had no time for art or game design because running a business is crazy hard. So I quit art for five years--well, I didn't quit. I sorta accepted quitting art, influenced by a business partner who would tell me, "Being an artist is worthless." (He didn't force me to do anything; I was just a vulnerable kid way over his head at the time.)

I had abandoned my passion for someone else's (Huge mistake--don't ever do this).

Return to Art (2024)

So, flash forward to 2023: I quit DWG and handed it all over to what is now Friendly Skeleton. I didn't make a single dime from it (In fact, I calculated all the money I made over six years, and it amounted to $11/hour, despite having a game at Target and multiple at BnN-- there was also massive fraud happening behind my back but I could write an entire book about that).

Regardless, I don't care about the money; I never got into games for the money--it's always been about following my passion, and that's exactly what I did. In 2024, I got back to work on art, trying to reclaim all those lost years. It's been a hell of a ride, and I'm still struggling to find my footing. The anxiety about my image led me down some dark paths for a while that I'm still recovering from.

As an artist, it's SO hard to see the forest through the trees-- you're always playing the long game, and there are no data points or KPIs to tell you exactly how you're doing like there are in business. Honestly, that's why I fell in love with business ops, because at least there was "brrr number go up."

Focusing on the Craft

So, I'm going to take some time off commercial art, social media, and everything to seriously focus on honing my craft.

Y'all have been so insanely encouraging I can't thank you enough.

If you want to help support this next chapter of my career I've got all my recent aspect art up for sale at n3-studios.com including a restock of the standard edition print of "oops all Spirits!"

I'll still be checking reddit occasionally so feel free to DM me anything!

Ahoj z Česka! Hi from Czechia!

My friend who introduced me to Spirit Island is celebrating his birthday this weekend, and I thought to give him a piece of custom content as a laminated side gift.

I brainstormed this Adversary in two hours and don't have the means (no physical game nor tabletop simulator) to playtest it.

The main focus is on explorers and removing tokens, inspired by Habsburg and Russian mechanics as Bohemia has ties to both powers.

I have no idea if it is balanced and I'm mostly posting this here to gather opinions and adjust difficulty.

Thank you for any and all feedback!

Link to image in the Bohemian Flag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bohemia#/media/File:Banner_of_the_Bohemian_Coat_of_Arms.svg

EDIT: Level 3 mentions "Revelelry lands", when it should mention "Merriment lands" I made a last minute change to their name and forgot to change the text

EDIT 2: Level 6 New Deck Order Should be 11-3-1-2222-333, forgot to put Stage 1 card after stage 3

Edit 3: escalation should say ''on each board''

Edit 4: I believe the loss condition is a bit overtuned. While it fits well with the theme, all games would simply revolve around there being enough tokens on the board to prevent loss. Changing the loss condition will probably be the first thing i do after i clear out the text mistakes :D

I am relatively new and started to play vs the adversaries. Playing this solo game with Lightning vs Brandenburg-Prussia lvl 2, I think I am more or less in control so far (used to reclaim loop strategy from Kalen Noreth yt). Which card should I choose for this turn?

The reason I ask is that I am a bit more defensive minded - in this case, I am drawn towards Nature's Resilience to defend the coastal Jungle, destroy a town with Dahan counter and avoid a blight (+Shattered Homesteads & Entrancing Apparitions to solve the middle mountain) & Harbingers for a fear. Nature's Resilience will also be handy when Wetlands come up in the Invader's deck. But Nature's Resilience is off element, I won't threshold the innate.

The other option is Rouse the Trees and Stones to destroy a town and push the explorer off the jungle, but the city stands and I'll take a blight (the Dahan can be saved with Harbingers of LIghtning). It has a fire element which would be helpful (and trigger innate in this turn) and it is offensive which goes with Lightning's strat (and can be paired with Raging Storm to take out a city when opportunity comes).

Elemental Boon might be helpful later, but I let the jungle be and take the blight. I am not too interested in Devouring Ants which seems situational and is off element.

Many say taking blights isn't an issue, but I tend to try and avoid reaching the blighted island phase. What should be the thinking process here? Is taking the blight for Rouse the better long term strategy?

TIA

https://preview.redd.it/2-player-board-configuration-v0-9l3obmoxfifa1.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=a10a1220fc4448ef3d0e7c21b79658d4cbbf112c
I just "stole" this setup pic from another reddit post about SI because it's easier to visualize. Assume I'm playing as the Finder.

1. I have a presence on both B5 and C3, can I weave B5 and C3 together?

I assume the answer is yes because it seems there's no particular thing preventing this from happening. Then in this case:

2. About this B5-C3 land, is it coastal?

3. If somebody uses Void on this B5-C3 land, that means Void will gather invaders from B1, B4, B6, B7, C2 & C4, optionally plus one more land using Finder's special rules?

4. Somehow I lost my presences on B5-C3 and when Weave wears off, can I still freely distribute people between B5 and C3 despite them not being connected anymore?

5. If I'm playing against HLS 1+, then what's the gathering town order for this B5-C3 land? Let's say the Build card is (1) "Mountain", or (2) "Mountain / Jungle".

It's a bit not expected that querki FAQ doesn't have things about this particular interaction, or I may have missed this. I think FAQ does explain Q6 below but I still want to ask to make sure I understand it correctly:

6. When I'm playing against HLS 4+, let's say there's a 2 damage taken town on a non blighted land, and I use Weave to make that land and a blighted land together, which will kill the town due to HLS 4 rule. I need to lose a presence and 1 energy due to my action killing the town?

This is a spirit I've been working on for a little bit now, and I'm wondering what you all think! It's intended to be a spirit built around the careful use of gems it creates on the island, balancing the need to meet thresholds on innate powers and major powers with the use of the right innate to deal damage.

Edit: I caught a mistake, in the parentheses for the explanation of Uncover (any), it's referred to as unearthing, this was an early name for the mechanic, that was changed due to unearthing earth (the element) felt like a weird thing to say.

After the suggestions of yesterday, I've made a bunch of changes and have done some preliminary playtests, and it seems far more balanced now. I'm posting the update mostly for the people that said they'd like to try the spirit out, so here is the updated, more balanced version.