I heard through the grapevine, aka, on a discord, that Lands of Galzyr is coming out with an expansion. Immediately my brain went into overdrive thinking of ideas as to how that could work. So I want to start coming up with what I’d do for expansions for games. It’s a fun exercise and while some games don’t need them, others definitely do to make the experience better.

I want to lay out what I see as the issue with the game. Or maybe what I want more of in a game, it’ll depend on the experience, and then how I’d fill that need. What I won’t be doing is saying “Game X is bad and it needs an expansion that overhauls everything.”. If it’s bad then it needs a new edition to fix th at, or maybe isn’t one I care about that much anyways. But let’s start with our first game.

Lands of Galzyr

The Issue

So what in Lands of Galzyr am I trying to fix for? What do I want more of in the game that it might be lacking or a strength that I want to double down on?

For me it revolves around an element of the game that I really like, but also an element of the game that is, well, lacking in direction. And that is the story in Lands of Galzyr. I like going around and doing quests. But you do that, and there is no target for it. You get good, light story, but it’s all very separate.

During my playthrough on Malts and Meeples that is what started to get me a bit tired of the game. Lands of Galzyr isn’t a game that, in my opinion works that well in a weekly format. It’s a once in a while game with friends who want a story game but not too much rules overhread.

The Expansion

So, how do I fix it? And it’s not really even a fix in this situation. Lands of Galzyr with it’s story model does something most other games don’t with heavy story. It gives you an engaging story experience in a one of sitting. That is different than most games.

But for how I play games, I want the option, anyways for some more cohesive story. That story, however, I want in a way that won’t become another long campaign game. So my idea is that of story modules. Somewhere between 12 and 24 of them. But branching narrative paths that you can follow, like the quests, but that tell a more specific and linked story. Basically a direction for the game from pick up quests and do quests.

Story Modules

How would this work? The game is already based around quests that are available on the board. What you would do is that you would populate some of the quests from specific areas. So when you set-up the game you might have three generic quests, good to do on the way to stuff. But you would also have specific quests. There’s flooding going on in an area causing people to get out, there is a bandit problem, the mole people from Riglar are invading, whatever, it might be.

Each of those are a module. And each of those gives you a specific direction to go in the game. And a specific story for that game. It might even give you more points that you are going for in the game. So in a competitive game or cooperative, the target score you are looking for is higher. But, then, at the end of the game, you remove the module leaving behind just a few quests that are more generic that reference the events from before based off of what you got done.

You drive back the mole people of Riglar, or help to do so, they aren’t an issue. But if you help them, now you gain certain quests in the pool that will have you dealing with unhappy nobles. More generic quests, but still referencing what you did before. Then you can play again and pick a new module.

Does This Fill The Desire in Lands of Galzyr?

I think that it would. The game each time you play now has more of a direction and story to it. And while you can just reset each time, as a living world it would be fun to play in.

Another big thing, though, that it wouldn’t do, is add much complexity to the game. You would have a bit more sorting to do at the end of each game, but not that much. It’d be easy for those cards to generally stay separate. But in terms of in game complexity it wouldn’t make it much harder to learn and play the game.

And for me, I really like connected story and direction. So maybe even put in a specific order to play events would work well. But that isn’t a need, that is something I just wouldn’t mind. So I can play a 24 game campaign, let’s say. But also, I can just pick a module and go with it. It might just be skip the first 5 quests if you aren’t playing the campaign or something like that.

My guess is the expansion is just going to be more story and quests. And I like that too. I saw a lot of quests when I played so more would be fun. But even more fun, for me, would be that story element in the game to give each play direction.

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