Fury of Dracula Variants

I played a game of the original edition last night, and had a great time. However, it set me wondering about creating some sort of variant to combine the best of the old and the new.

For those wondering why I don't just go for the new edition, the answer is threefold. Firstly, I find it needlessly convoluted compared with the old edition which is quite easy to learn and play. Second I find the idea that Dracula can't double back on himself without a special card (and can only do so once every six turns) so silly that I can't take the game seriously. Third I think the third goes too far in giving hunters clues to find Dracula - there surely must be a better balance of searching and chasing that that.

The first idea is very simple. The game is certainly more tense when the hunters have some idea of where Dracula actually is. So why not add a second "local rumours" marker to follow the first about? I can't see that destroying the balance, especially if the hunters don't know whether they've stumbled on the first or second marker (which makes sense thematically).

The second is to add some sort of day/night track to the old edition. The roll-off for day and night was always the biggest thing that bothered me about the game - I've had a couple of games end quickly and in a very disappointing manner because Dracula got caught in the day, lost initiative and got staked. A track would certainly make the game more strategic. However, a definite day/night split would mean less tension in the game and is likely to result in balance issues. So my idea was to have a track which simply changed the probability of the roll. So it'd move from and even split for night/day to night on 1-4/day 5-6 then back to 1-3/4-6 then 1-2/4-6 and so on. It might also work if it pushed to 1-5/6 in both directions as well, although that might be tinkering too much. This approach also seems thematic to me, since chasing across Europe takes a long time, and the changing probabilities would reflect the changing seasons.

The third is to stop Dracula insta-death. This is another simple change. If the count gets staked, instead of dying he takes 12 damage, enough to reduce him to Blood Death whatever state he is in, and escapes combat. Dracula can then attempt to flee and limit them to a minor victory while the hunters desperately pursue him, making for a more dramatic endgame.

The fourth is to add some VP based victory conditions so that the game could, if needed, end on a timer. The timer would be the day/night track of course although you could also play a timed game for something like a club night. Dracula gets VP for vampires on the track and for killing hunters. Hunters get VP for killing vampires and wounding the count. The game plays for the agreed turn/hour count and if neither side has reached a victory condition from the original rules, count up the VP instead. This is the least necessary of the changes required, but it would seriously discourage boring play from Dracula.

Thoughts? Offers for playtesting?

MattDP wrote:

The second is to add some sort of day/night track to the old edition. The roll-off for day and night was always the biggest thing that bothered me about the game - I've had a couple of games end quickly and in a very disappointing manner because Dracula got caught in the day, lost initiative and got staked. A track would certainly make the game more strategic.

That was the exact thing I said when I played the FFG edition, and the one thing by itself I thought that would improve the original. Have been trying to photocopy a guys track from his set since then but always get side-tracked, but since I have hardly anyone to play it against anyway it hasn't been a big loss.
And better cards/chits (that you can see/recognise easier) would go down well.

All good ideas Matt, but it sounds like you may just as well by the FFG version and throw away the cardtrack ;-p