1817NA/WO are variants of 1817, one of my favorite 18xx games. I’ll explain some of the design choices of NA/WO.

The geographic size scaling, bridging across water, and silly city names were intentional. 18xx can be dry. Having a few harmless laughs when introducing these games can be a great icebreaker! The names and geography have zero impact on gameplay.

One of the most misunderstood features is the embedded emulation of players.

1817NA does this by having one predictable invisible active player ’embedded’ into the game, done by proportionately reducing things that this invisible player would consume in an average session. For the purpose of this discussion, since the ‘invisible embedded’ player is a fill, lets call him Phil!

In 1817NA this includes, but is not limited to:

• Starting cash is one player less than in 1817, since invisible Phil needs his share.
• Less privates, Phil is always right and buys the unavailable privates.
• Less loans available, Phil is that guy that always loves to take one loan per level.
• Less usable hexes and revenue centers in total, simulating Phil using up those that no-one else can access.
• Less trains, again simulating Phil buying up trains at a predictable rate.

3p therefore simulates roughly a 4p 1817, and so on. 1817WO does all of the above to a higher degree, and simulates approximately 2 additional players. I believe this confuses even the most experienced players, as they might assume the game should play similar at the same player count.

Does this mean trains are ‘worse’ overall, or shorts are better than 17? Possibly, but you need to gauge that based on the total number of players in the game including simulated players. Phil isn’t shorting anyone and you aren’t shorting Phil. If anything there should be less shorting, but it depends on what the non-Phils are doing.

What is the alternative to having an ‘invisible embedded player’? Randomizing this type of players actions as game progresses? Obviously that wouldn’t fly with 18xx. I could of made the games play similar at the same player count, but that’s not what I wanted to do. 18xx games don’t get played at higher player counts as often, so this was one way to have some fun with it.

Is it perfect? Of course not. I scaled everything down as best I could. Trying to keep the essence of 17 while putting it on a smaller map, with shorter playtime, is no easy task! I appreciate anyone trying to design/develop smaller games while keeping depth to them.

1817NA/WO are available by AAG in the wave 5 kickstarter.