by tranenturm
If your like me, I get so engrossed in thinking about strategy and talking diplomacy that remembering little things like advancing the round marker can be missed causing longer games. One way that I already proposed to keep track in the base game is using tech by placing one for each turn on the round number. Well, the expansion comes with 10 rare techs, each unique and each doesn't count towards the number of tech drawn for the turn.So the variant is: before players choose their seat place 1 rare tech on each round number. When the that round comes, the rare tech becomes available (and normal tech draws happen normally).
That's it! What it does is help direct players attention to particular rounds as they want to know what will be coming up. It also removes the mystery of when rare tech comes available. This will be good or bad depending upon player preference. But for the ultra competitive it gives everyone the ability to know when to pass early for the one and only chance at a particular tech.
The other effect is that at lower player counts rare tech under normal rules will be rarer than games with 6 players on average. This variant guarantees all but one rare tech to come up.