Pregame card idea

[rplantau]

How about pregame cards that modify your deck stats?
Perhaps a card that causes you to lose 1 (or 2) in an egg stat of choice in order to raise another particular stat by 1...

You could have one card for each stat, and a limit of 1 (or even 1 of any type) in play as a pre-game.

This might just allow a few slightly different deck styles into play for some personas, give a bit more suprise and variety.

The idea is that the immortal has decided to focus intently on improving an aspect of their abilities, and of course this can't be without detriment to other aspects.

Just need some funky card names and pictures if the concept works...

The idea would be to have a small deviation from the immortal's normal attributes.

The more I think about it, the more I like the -2 to get +1.

[jamesmcmurray]

I posted a similar idea way back when, although it didn't have the drawback associated with it. The response was basically along the lines of "we don't plan to ever allow egg modifiers." For what it's worth, I definitely like the idea.

[rplantau]

I can understand their reluctance, as while egg modifiers would make play more interesting they could also make game balance harder...

I guess that's why I leaned for -2 in the end as -1/+1 probably makes it too much of a must-have card for some unbalanced personas.

I would like to see more pre-game cards tho, resulting in harder decisions about which ones to use for which decks.

[jamesmcmurray]

I still think it has the potential to be too good, although not as badly as my idea. For a lot of folks with, for example, 3, they may only need 1 for their Police. Or Slan for example with his 5 . Unless he gets a lot of cards in the future a 3 would be just fine. Duncan too, is unlikely to build a deck where he uses more than 9 of every single attribute.

[samorlando]

As was introduced in Weapons and Tactics, the Weapons of Choice added a nice combination of Pre-Game cards with a much larger variety of deck construction strategies.

Adding even a few pre-game cards and exponentially add to the combination of cards for deck construction.

An aspect that was only touched upon were items other than Weapons of Choice (i.e. Crystals). But there are many more trinkets and treasures the immortals cherrished and carried with them or had tucked away in vaults.

These could very well be represented by Pre-Game cards that add to the deck construction options for the player.

If you make them minor effects, you can make a greater assortment of Pre-Game relics without worrying too much about unbalancing the game. Make them all Restricted to 1 to prevent stacking.

Use such effects as:

Reduce the number of cards discarded during a Hard Exertion by one.

Increase the number of cards revealed during a Soft Exertion by one.

When Exhausting, you lose one less Ability.

For example:

Wedding Band
Pre-Game
"Memories of a loved one lost to time..."
During your May Do/Must Do phase, if there are no Allies under Wedding Band you may place an Ally in your Discard Pile under Wedding Band. If there is an Ally in play with the same name as the Ally under Wedding Band, then increase your Ability by one.

(Notice it would work whether you or your oponent had an ally with that name in play and the effect would only make an increase of one total, not for each matching Ally)

A lot of work for a minor effect, but combinations of them become useful to a good strategist.

[jamesmcmurray]

I like the idea but compared to free head shots, alertnesses, and quickenings I don't know how much time an item with a lot of setup for little effect would see in actual play.

[samorlando]

I'm assuming the restriction is still six Pre-Game cards.

Restrict the standard rule for 'trinkets' to two that do not count toward the total number of Pre-Game cards.

Like normal cards, you can make many of them generic; but then still have the option of making Immortal Specific trinkets.

It changes the number of Pre-game cards allowed to eight, but to the extent that two of them have to be trinkets which only have a minor effect. It also prevents current Pre-Game cards like Quickenings from overshadowing the trinkets for a Pre-Game slot.

Another option would be to make them Object cards that start in play (just add "You may begin the game with one # in play."). So during a game they can be gotten rid of (i.e. Misfortune), going to the discard pile and possibly being played again later.

Not to steal rplantau's threat, but these could be an avenue of modifying stats.

In future expansions I could very well see a lot more interactivity with the stats of each Immortals; such as Situations in play that can change the number of cards drawn/discarded in a Soft or Hard Exertion by a specific stat for one or more turns.

Add a trinket that adds 1 to an attribute and you begin to expand on specific strategies and effects like these.

[kaiser]

Hmm, I like the interactivity design, but am not a fan of something that changes attributes. I like the idea of limiting immortals, it gives them a little more character and makes strategizing interesting.

[tapeworm]

Also, you could make the trinkets common or uncommon, thus being more accessible to people. If I have these trinkets and no premiums, I would play them (providing they were useful for what I wanted to do).

[jamesmcmurray]

Ah, trinkets outside the normal 6 pregame limit would be cool, as long as they were minor and/or hard to set up (like the wedding ring example).

[prowler7]

samorlando said:

Add a trinket that adds 1 to an attribute and you begin to expand on specific strategies and effects like these.

That would be pretty cool, especially coupled with the gem migration. The biggest obstacle I see to really interesting deck construction is the restriction of the gems. Personally, I have always thought the normal rules for construction were plenty restrictive. If you dont go and do a fool thing like make a "Ritchie" or "Methos" style persona, then things remain pretty balanced.

[lang]

I think there is always room for Pre- Game cards , especially when Generic . Only problem with 2E in its early stages is very few cards to pool from but as sets become available decks, Pre Games and ideas in general will start to change the game a bit . I mean unless you have the Collector set it will be hard to fill 6 pre game slots (for now ) but as time goes by 6 pregames will be in every deck .
-Lang