In a few recent TMG games I've worked on (Harvest, Pioneer Days, and Old West Empresario) I thought a lot about how to do player powers in the game.
In Harvest, the "standard" side of each player board (recommended for first time players) is Wil Plantsomdil, who starts with a basic spread of resources, and gets a big VP bonus at game end. The intent was to allow a new player to play in a game with experienced players, not have to wrestle with a player power while also learning the game, and still get a competitive score. In that game, I wouldn't blame "experienced games" for skipping Wil Plantsomdil and going straight for the "real" player powers. However, I thought we could do better...
In Pioneer Days and Old West Empresario, the Standard Pioneer / Standard Empresario abilities are not just a dumbed down power meant for newbie players. Rather we took one of the more well-rounded or straightforward of the powers we were developing, one which we thought would make for a good first experience, and made that the "standard" power.
The rules for both of those games say to deal 2 characters to each player and let them choose between one unique ability, the other, or the standard ability on the back side. While we recommend that first time players choose the standard ability, we worked hard to balance them all so that the standard power is on par with the unique ones, giving each player 3 solid options.
I fear that players will assume that "standard" implies "boring," automatically skip the "standard" ability as if it didn't exist, and therefore miss out on one of the fun player powers.
Hopefully we can break them of this habit. I played a game of Old West Empresario the other day and intentionally chose the Standard Empresario ability, and I did better than I've done in a long time!
TL;DR: In Pioneer Days, Old West Empresario, and any future TMG title I work on, don't look at the standard player power as "lesser" -- it's designed to be on par with the rest of the player powers!
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