Do people think that this would be a good teaching variant for new players? (even if you only play the first 3 rounds of the game with open events until they get familiar with the event deck cards and mechanics)
Although the variant increases the amount of things that players need to pay attention to, it has the advantage that it reduces the unexpected and potentially damaging things which happen to them during their first game.
New players will not be very familiar with the Barbarian Spawn and Barbarian Attack mechanics initially (or the other things in the deck) and may not appreciate (or remember) the strategy of not taking advances which trigger events in the last action of a turn. [Although you may explain these things to new players usually they need to see for themselves.]
Otherwise, it seems like it could result in some new players coming away complaining that the game is too random if they happen to get walloped early on through poor timing of triggering events.
Does that seem as though it would helpful to new players?
[Nothing to do with teaching but in a regular game you could also play just the first 2 or 3 rounds with open events and then revert to closed events (as a variation on the variant).]
Although the variant increases the amount of things that players need to pay attention to, it has the advantage that it reduces the unexpected and potentially damaging things which happen to them during their first game.
New players will not be very familiar with the Barbarian Spawn and Barbarian Attack mechanics initially (or the other things in the deck) and may not appreciate (or remember) the strategy of not taking advances which trigger events in the last action of a turn. [Although you may explain these things to new players usually they need to see for themselves.]
Otherwise, it seems like it could result in some new players coming away complaining that the game is too random if they happen to get walloped early on through poor timing of triggering events.
Does that seem as though it would helpful to new players?
[Nothing to do with teaching but in a regular game you could also play just the first 2 or 3 rounds with open events and then revert to closed events (as a variation on the variant).]