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GGFreak

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A member registered Jan 07, 2023

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Found this game thanks to 11Dragonkid, and didn't even realize I already owned it thanks to a bundle. Love the system so far, it looks very fast-paced and fun, though I have one minor worry. Given that you can swap weapons freely, any of the weapons with "Takes an action to reload/cooldown, but you may swap weapons to reset its need for reload/cooldown" in its text can effectively just, not have it, as any minmaxy players could just argue that swapping from one weapon and then back immediately. Personally I would homerule it as the player having to at least fire the swapped weapon first before the reset "happens". I guess I'm asking, is the hot-swapping of weapons like Jotunn or Goreshot meant to be mostly flavourful, or should there be some tiny cost to it, like having to at least use another weapon? In the grand scheme of things there's not much of a difference, as now the cost goes from "Spend an action to do nothing, or swap twice at no cost" to "Spend an action to do nothing, or spend an action to use another weapon", but the reloading/cooling down would still feel more impactful like that, I imagine.

Just read through the rules, and I noticed in the pre-made characters that multiples of them have a weapon called "K-12 sunder", classified as a pistol, but I can't see a weapon with that name listed anywhere. Checking through, I realize that K-12 sunder was probably an old name for the M-500 bulkshot, but it might be good to standardize that for clarity.

Fair enough, I was more focused on the Melee and shooting roll sections that defense is sandwiched between, which simply states "Success scores a hit" instead of "each success scores a hit". I assumed it was as you said, but my nitpicky nature is always looking for what could be misinterpreted, and I could see someone mistakenly thinking that no matter how many dice they rolled for a battle or fire roll, it's a collective Success/failure into a single hit, rather than each die having the potential for a hit. It's another case of needing to standardize text into something more similar to the defense section, in the format of "Each success [pos. Result], each failure [neg. Result]."

There seems to be a bit of inconsistency in terminology among what I've dubbed "Dice-granting" edges. Either they state that you gain +1d6 on that roll, such as Celerity or Retaliation, or they state you can roll 1 extra die, like bloody rage, or they state the model makes that roll with an additional 1d6, like in node guardian or node shot. I get the wider benefit all of these Edges bring (Giving you another die to roll so you have a greater chance of getting a success, possibly even two successes), but I fear the first terminology, gain +1d6 on [type] roll, will seem counterintuitive to players, as you want -N bonuses, not +N bonuses, and they may think they have to roll a die and then add its value to whatever else they rolled, making it look like (+1 to 6 to this roll), which is a massive downside in this game.

Tightening up the terminology can help immensely, and both "Roll 1 extra die in [type] rolls" and "Make [type] rolls with an additional d6" could work for that. I would also ask for clarification when, in the cases of Node guardian, retaliation, and bloody rage, you get to roll additional dice for battle rolls. Do these additional dice stack up potential hits, meaning if you rolled 2d6 for a battle roll, your opponent would have to roll two defense rolls, one against each of those hits, and suffer a wound for each failed defense? Or would the 2d6 battle roll with two successes just mean you got a singular hit, and the attacked model will only have to roll a single defense, only suffering a single wound if failed regardless of the two successes on the battle roll?

I ask all this because only with activation rolls have we previously had multiple dice to roll, with variance on successes and failures, while with any kind of "combat" roll, we've only had to roll one die, so it's not clear whether these additional dice lead to additional hits, or only granter a higher chance of dealing one hit.

Seems like great alterations, as I was admittedly keeping very close to the original versions. Making both a more active choice on the part of the player makes great sense, and utilizing the Activation stat for timing also works great as a self-balancing mechanic.

Well then, here they are!

Unliving: When this model goes out of action, roll a d6. If a 1 is rolled, place a Resurrection die in place of the model with the face matching the number of wounds the model had (6 if the Model had 7 or more wounds). At the end of each turn, you may pay any amount of karma to reduce a resurrection die by the same amount. When the resurrection die reaches zero, place the model it replaced back on the field. This Model cannot have Necromancy.

Necromancy: When an allied model with Unliving goes out of action within 12" of this model, they place a resurrection die on a 2 or less. At the end of each turn, you may reduce the number on a resurrection die within 12" of this model by 1. This model cannot have Unliving.

I got inspired by the rules of the hunter edge, Smoke grenade, and how you can use dice to indicate a more persistent effect. That, plus the new way Karma works, Led me to this idea where instead of possibly giving you back a model immediately with wounds, you instead get an uninjured model, if you succeed the roll and have the karma to "pay off" the wounds. Necromancy also has more interaction with this new "resurrection" dice, now not only improving the chances of Unliving working, but also effectively giving you 1 free karma each turn, but only for ticking down a single Resurrection die.

I also included the exclusivity clause on both of them because this way, people won't feel pressured into picking both for every model in their outfit or otherwise try to loop Unliving Necromancers, instead giving them the potential to go in different directions with this synergy. Do you wanna make your boss and underboss unliving while your minions have necromancy, potentially representing an eldritch cult worshipping and bringing back truly monstrous beasts? Or do you put Necromancy onto a single model while the rest have unliving, making it more of a shambling zombie army with a lich at the helm? Given the whole "pay karma to get your models back", combined with the new 5 turn limit, perhaps the roll on Unliving's out of action success chance should change, something like 2 or less base, 3 or less with the Necromancy buff, but that would require playtesting that I definitely haven't done yet.

Fun fact, I may or may not have been feverishly working on my own version of a revised Necromancy and Unliving, and if you'd like to see them, I'd be happy to share them.

Ah, all good, I was merely confused by the change, but I've extracted the files now and are reading through things. Mildly saddened by the loss of Unliving and Necromancy as I had made an Outcast outfit specifically designed around those two edges, though I fully understand why they were dropped, given that a 5 turn limited game would make those edges way too powerful, plus the simple chance element of the models never disappearing could be frustrating for the opponent. So long to my mechanized Lich and scrapyard zombies.

I was wondering if the new update being a Rar file is meant to happen? I can just download winZip or something similar, but this threw me for a slight loop when the previous version was a PDF

(3 edits)

Hello there, I've got a couple of questions, and some minor concerns. First, the questions;

In the very rare corner case that I have a unit with Regenerate and 1 wound, what happens if I roll failing doubles? Does the healing from Regenerate happen first, leaving the unit merely unruly, or does the unruly go first, causing the unit to get knocked out? In my mind I've already ruled it as the former since it makes Regenerate feel more viable in my mind, but it's good to know what you think/intend.

Edges with (X) don't seem to have an explanation to them, though I've mostly managed to infer that it means you can buy the edge multiple times, without adding to the number of edges your unit has, upping the X in the ability each time. I was wondering if that's the case?

Could one unit conceal another unit? As I've read it, only terrain can conceal units, which is probably for the best, but I had the random idea to make a minion with big, and then a boss with Shadowy, using the minion as a meatshield. In the case that units can conceal other units, is it possible to "shoot through" friendly units, effectively ignoring them as terrain?

EDIT: Apologies about all the edits, keep seeing small typos and the like, and now I've got this whole extra question. If I put Zealot on my boss, as they also have leader, will Zealot then always be active for them, as they are in their own line of sight at 0 inches? If zealot is not allowed to be put on a unit with starting Leader edge, what happens if my boss is out of action and Leader goes to my underboss who had Zealot?

And now for the concerns; While I love the system for unit creation and its various potentials, I've already been cooking up an Outcast faction, I've noticed that a stat upgrade and an edge costs the same, doubly so with Outcasts. Any edge that just brings a -1 to a certain roll unconditionally, like brute, just becomes a more flavourful stat upgrade as the odds remain the same, and any edge that brings -1 to rolls conditionally, from Sniper to mighty to bloody rage to any of the Node edges for fae, seem like a straight downgrade to me. I may be wrong on the math of course and there is a difference between having -1 to a roll and having a bigger success threshold, but I don't see it.

I want to add here that I do adore this game, it's got a fun, engaging theme, I've already spent hours just pouring over it and thinking of potential faction builds. As someone who's always wanted to get into Skirmish games and wargames, but haven't had the brainpower to comprehend the complex rules of something like warhammer nor the wallet to sustain such an expensive hobby, this game has been immensely easy to understand completely, and the sheer amount of customization is a joy. You've made a great game already, and I'm truly excited for expansions and updates.