So, Like most posts I've seen about the game, the wide variety of players are finding that the game is wildly entertaining until you reach the end game victory point count up only to find that the game just ends abruptly and feels hollow.

My main gripe with the game similar to everyone else's, in that as the game goes on and you start to get interested in the quests and story-lines, you start to run the risk of the game just ending and leaving you with a bunch of un-answered questions as to how they end and where the story finds its closure.

To me, the rule that the factions move on the power track upon agenda deck depletion seems like it might be one of the main problems. One of the main attractions to bethesda games is that you can start the game and decide "**** it, I don't want to do any of the main quests yet, I want to check out all the other stuff." And once you get the urge to do the main story line, its always just sitting there waiting for you to go back to it, rather than moving at its own pace and eventually forcing you to miss out on it because the game ends on its own. So the game moving on its own if you don't move fast enough seems to be in direct conflict with the spirit of this game.

Anyway I'm sort of getting off topic. My idea was to throw the rule that says you need to move the power track forward on agenda depletion away, this way you only move the power track as main quests are completed and tell you to do so.

I figured, this way you can go ahead and do whatever you want as far as side quests are concerned and then come back to the main quest at your own pace or the pace that's dictated by the people you're playing with. but then I was reading a post that broke down the main quests in the Far Harbor quest line:

"Pushing Shields:
029 +1
032 +1
034 +1
035 +1
039 +2 (Shield wins)
042 +3 <- last quest

Pushing Stars
029 +1
033 +1
034 +1
036 +1
040 +2 (Star wins)
043 +3 <- LAST quest"

I didn't write those numbers down. I found them in a post on board game geek. If those numbers are correct, and you decide to just follow one side's quests, you complete the game before you even finish the main quest line.... am I the only person thinking to themselves "what the ****?"

Anyway I still think that moving the power track on agenda depletion ruins the flow of the game a bit and I think I'm going to implement that as one of my house rules.

TL:DR. I'm going to implement a rule for my games where the power track doesn't move on agenda deck depletion so that the players can dictate the speed of the game and the movement of the power track.

I was wondering if anyone has come up with some interesting house rules to make the game feel a bit better in the end game and what you think about my thoughts on the game.

How about making the Faction track two or three steps longer? That way You'd even HAVE to do the entire main quest line even if you'd wanna just do one side. to finish the game. Would also work towards not having to have multiple "Alliegance" Agenda Cards to win on points as the "power gap" possibility between the factions would be greater and the "Alliegance" ACs would thus be worth more points per piece making other ACs a more fun and varied option to run with.

I don't find the Faction Track power bump to be a significant factor. In a multi-player game, I've never gone through the Agenda deck more than twice. And in a Solo game, this only affects the faction that is behind so it's more of a victory point deduction than anything else.

One of the rules I was considering for a Solo game is that when the Agenda deck is finished, that you complete the quest objective on the current story quest card for whichever side is currently losing. This will have a similar effect in moving the faction token forward but will have the added benefit of changing the quest path to allow a wider variety of end game conditions and make it more likely that you'll have to finish the quest line to end the game.