What to Do With a Problem Like Nok Nok?
Once we got the four main characters down pat, we wanted to branch out and at least include a fifth! We actually have plans for a bunch of player characters but we wanted to come out swinging with everyone’s favourite orc grandma, Nok Nok.
The one thing we really wanted from her was to have her base damage as 2. We loved the idea that she was a big brick shithouse wrapped in the body of an old orc. She had so much health, had a movement card that gave +1 damage for the rest of the round and the only downside was she was a bit cumbersome. Slow, couldn’t turn too well. Getting around the board was a bit hard but damn she was impeccable at bonking people on the head.
It needs to be stressed just how broken she was. We thought maybe the lack of turning was a bit annoying and not that fun, so we changed that to give her basic mobility. All that did was highlight just what a powerhouse she was. It was ridiculous. Games weren’t even close. Nok Nok lapped other players. She didn’t need to gear up. On day 1, without picking up a single item, she could theoretically deal 9 damage. Compare that with the 4 of everyone else. The movement cards we did make for her all involved moving and attacking which only lead to the absolute decimation of the board. She used to have an ability where she could pull an adjacent NPC into her location. It was bad. Nok Nok is why we had to implement that NPCs in the tavern aren’t worth points. Something we’ve since gone back on. Maybe that was a mistake. Ban Nok Non from the pub is what we’re hearing, too rowdy!
We tried reducing her ability to land an attack, which caused the opposite problem of having an incredible powerhouse that missed two thirds of the time. Maybe that balanced her but it wasn’t fun to play. There’s a reason why glass cannons are a staple in some games, the high output can be countered. We made an iron cannon.
We tried everything to nerf her except reducing her base damage. Even with reduced health that just ended up with her going all out and then spending the next day healing which wasn’t fun to play. After exhausting all the options we kept her health low and reluctantly changed her base damage to 1. She’s still a powerhouse, we gave her the ability to once a day deal 1 damage and instead of empowering her attack for the whole day, it’s just that one turn. Her theoretical damage output is now 6, which is still ahead of everyone else, but maybe, just maybe - it’s a little fairer for everyone else.