Designer Diary: Free Radicals

Free Radicals was first conceived in early 2015. I love asymmetric games, and I was keen to explore new paths for asymmetry. I wanted to design a game that gave each player a different experience.

In my head I envisioned a board game that would allow players to play against each other using completely different skills. I wanted a game that would let one player have the experience of playing an action-point game, carefully identifying the best actions to take with their pool of action points, while another player playing a mancala puzzle would be trying to maneuver their board to maximize their limited actions and still another player had the pleasure of experiencing multi-use cards and the exquisite decisions inherent in that mechanism.

I started with five factions, categorized at the time by their unique mechanisms. First was the Merchants with a rondel system and the ability to trade with other factions. Second was the Adventurers, a faction that combined action-point allowance with an exploration theme. Third was the faction that became the Artisans, one that used multi-use cards. The fourth faction, which eventually became the Executives, used a mancala mechanism; and the fifth faction was called the Wizards and used a dice-placement mechanism.

I wanted to make sure there would be interaction in the game since something so asymmetric would naturally encourage players to focus on their own puzzle. The first thing I did was create location cards that players could build. Once a player built a location, any other player was free to visit that location, at which point both players got a benefit. This creates a nice tension because players sometimes really want to take the action offered at the location, but they must determine whether it is worth giving the player who controls the location a benefit. The final version of the game increases this tension by allowing a location to have two players controlling it or one player with two control tokens. The second way I added interaction is by having a track that would give players points at the end of the game for being the furthest along, but would also reward players for helping others make incremental progressions on the track.

Early Merchants player board prototype with the rondel

I began testing with my family, then with my local game group. The rules of the overall game pretty much stayed the same from the beginning. The two biggest issues that soon became apparent were balance and game length. I knew from the start that balancing would be the biggest hurdle for a design of this type. Asymmetric games are always a challenge to balance, and having five factions that are playing almost a completely different game just increased that challenge. With the core gameplay nailed down, I began to focus on balancing each of the factions.

The other issue that I needed to solve was the game length. For most of the first year of playtesting, the game went on too long, but whenever I would try to shorten it, the experience felt unsatisfying. The first solution was obvious, in retrospect, but it took me a while to hit upon it: I needed to move the decision-making points. Instead of players drawing cards, revealing tiles, rolling dice, etc. at the beginning of their turn, I moved those actions to the end of the turn. Now players can better plan their turn while waiting and turns go much faster. The other solution for speeding up the game was to carefully examine each faction and tighten the mechanisms. By eliminating edge cases, overly complex actions, and other experiences that inversely contribute to the length of the game without proportionately contributing to the enjoyment, I was able to get the duration to 15 minutes per player, which feels like the perfect time length.

The next major change was with the Merchant faction. The rondel mechanism wasn't allowing enough interesting decisions as a solo mechanism, so I pivoted to a more standard resource-conversion system. I also redesigned the trading aspect to avoid lengthy bartering sessions. The Adventurers went through some major changes as well to try to really streamline the exploration experience.

Early Adventurers player board prototype

Around 2017 I was at a convention called DaveCon in Lansing, Michigan, and some publishers testing the game gave me great feedback. They pointed out that the components for a few of the factions were quite expensive and wondered whether I should split the game into a base game (with factions using less expensive components) and expansion factions (using more expensive components). I immediately began brainstorming more factions.

By this time, I had been playing the game for almost two years, so I had a strong grasp on the infrastructure and balance. It took me about two months to design five more factions. I love polyominoes, so I knew immediately that I wanted one of the new factions to have those. I had just played some new games — Sapiens was one I remember — showing me how much fun the domino mechanism can be, so I added that. Other games provided the inspiration for the action programming of the Paladins, and the deck crafting of the Underground. The fifth new faction — the Entertainers — used a novel tactical idea that I had not seen previously.

Set-up for the Executives

After more months of playtesting, I now had a game ready to pitch to publishers. My plan was to pitch it with five base factions and an option to add five expansion factions as soon as possible. Through the help of Jonathan Gilmour and other members of the NW Ohio game design group, I was able to set up meetings with a few interested publishers. Over the next year or so, the game went through internal playtesting and examination by different publishers. Ultimately, in 2019, the game was signed by WizKids, and they made the decision to publish the game with all ten factions right out of the gate.

Soon after signing with WizKids, I met with their development team to brainstorm a unique setting for the game. We wanted something that would stand out and would tie up some lingering thematic connections, and eventually we settled on a bright cyberpunk setting. Free Radicals takes place in a futuristic society that has become technologically advanced due to the sudden appearance of alien objects in the skies all over the world. These objects, known as Free Radicals, contain a wealth of knowledge and technology.

Set-up for the Merchants

It was also at this time that we dropped the Wizard faction and its 18 custom dice. It did not make sense to significantly increase the cost of the game for just one faction. This faction was replaced by the Couriers, which utilize a pick-up-and-deliver mechanism and are one of the most complex of the factions, which allows players who want a heavier-weight experience to play with those that prefer a medium-weight experience. During this part of the process, we playtested the game almost every day and often twice a day. We needed to make sure that all ten factions would be as balanced as possible, especially after adding a new faction.

Everyone who worked on the game did an amazing job, and I love the art direction. The diverse representation depicted by each faction is great, and the graphic design serves to make learning the game a smooth process. I am excited to see my dream of an asymmetric experience game become reality.

Nathan Woll

Main game board