(Ahem) Rulebook Update

[MongooseMatt]

It does look like we have completely missed the Talents with Activate....

Something of a worry that more than a few people missed that...

On the one hand, I thought I was being all subtle and sophisticated with those rules, effectively halving fire rates by forcing the Special action and adding a 'moment of concentration.'

The clumsy way of writing that would have been to say in the Talent that you only get to shoot once - but it may have been clearer...

 

[MongooseMatt]

Is there any chance of a summary chart of the of all the weapons, armour and equipment at the back to help with generating gangs etc?

Yes, but that will appear in Block War (combining the info in that as well), when we are a bit more comfortable with the rules in that book too.

 

[Da Boss]

Cool

p50 Should Rapid Shot be Rapid Fire?

When using an Activate (Action) can you use the second part to activate a talent - ie a sniper Aims (Special Action) and then uses Accurate as part of the Shoot action?

 

[Greg Smith]

They all look good changes. 50 creds for the Demo droid is fine - good even.

As for the Activate..., could the wording be changed to something like 'Special/Move' so it is obvious that it requires a pecial action to activate.

Zombie armour: do they actually get the option of standard issue Judge armour? But how that combines with the zombie armour/damage rules is not clear.

 

[Greg Smith]

Something else that occured to me: if you have a med judge as a mercenary, does he get to use his Medic talent after the battle, or does he just disappear immediately after the battle has finished?

 

[chaoschild]

On the subject of campaigns:

One rule that I'm considering for the campaign I'll be running soon is a change to the way credits are earned. Instead of both sides earning credits equal to 40% of the largest force, I was going to change it to 40% of the opposing force (not including any added mercenaries). My reasoning was:

1: If the bigger gang gets 40% of their own value each time without having to spend any of it on mercenaries then they're just going to get even bigger.
2: For the more criminally-minded gangs, the credits represent (to me at least) the cash they can extort from whatever resources they have available. They're going to be able to extort more if they've just done over a larger target.
3: Same for the Justice Department, they'll have more pull when it comes to budgeting if they're tackling larger threats.

I don't know what anyone else thinks of this, but I've run plenty of campaigns where the big gangs just get bigger and I'm anxious to prevent the same happening here.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Zombie armour: do they actually get the option of standard issue Judge armour? But how that combines with the zombie armour/damage rules is not clear.

No, they are just armoured or not - I figure even judge's armour is mostly rotted away!

 

[Greg Smith]

Zombie armour: do they actually get the option of standard issue Judge armour? But how that combines with the zombie armour/damage rules is not clear.

No, they are just armoured or not - I figure even judge's armour is mostly rotted away!

So what does the option of 'Standard Issue Armour +20 points' entail?

 

[chaoschild]

Zombie armour: do they actually get the option of standard issue Judge armour? But how that combines with the zombie armour/damage rules is not clear.

No, they are just armoured or not - I figure even judge's armour is mostly rotted away!

So what does the option of 'Standard Issue Armour +20 points' entail?

Well, standard issue armour comes with a respirator and there's nothing in the rules to indicate that zombies are immune to gas weapos.

 

[Greg Smith]

Well, standard issue armour comes with a respirator and there's nothing in the rules to indicate that zombies are immune to gas weapos.

I'm glad to know that Zombies have the sense to pull down their gas masks. :twisted:

In fact Zombies are particularly vulnerable to gas, since all gas weapons are Explosive and zombies are more vulnerable to explosives.

 

[chaoschild]

15. Made it clear that you only pay for a Mercenary if the Mercenary survives (should make them a bit more popular in weaker forces!).

What's the definition of "survives"? Does this mean the model is still on the table at the end of the game, or does it just mean "not dead"? If it's the latter, does this mean that mercenaries have to make injury rolls at the end of the game like regular heroes/minions?

While I'm thinking about this, named minions become heroes if they survive 5 games. Does "survive" mean the same in this context as it does for mercenaries?

 

[MongooseMatt]

So what does the option of 'Standard Issue Armour +20 points' entail?

You have an older version of the rules - download the current one, as this option was removed (you just pay for 'Armoured' now).

In fact Zombies are particularly vulnerable to gas, since all gas weapons are Explosive and zombies are more vulnerable to explosives.

Yeah, that was me trying to be clever - and it worked right up to the point where we added zombies!

Have added a line about this in the revised rulebook (coming to a download near you soon).

What's the definition of "survives"? Does this mean the model is still on the table at the end of the game, or does it just mean "not dead"? If it's the latter, does this mean that mercenaries have to make injury rolls at the end of the game like regular heroes/minions?

While I'm thinking about this, named minions become heroes if they survive 5 games. Does "survive" mean the same in this context as it does for mercenaries?

For Mercs, this means 'hasn't been removed from the table as a casualty (have made this clear in the next revision).

For Minions, it is much easier, as they just get a straight dice roll if removed. If you succeed, he survived, if you don't, it doesn't matter anyway

 

[Greg Smith]

So what does the option of 'Standard Issue Armour +20 points' entail?

You have an older version of the rules - download the current one, as this option was removed (you just pay for 'Armoured' now).

It's in the current one. Or at least the one dated 16th October on the website.

 

[chaoschild]

So what does the option of 'Standard Issue Armour +20 points' entail?

You have an older version of the rules - download the current one, as this option was removed (you just pay for 'Armoured' now).

Actually, the current download still has the option for "standard issue armour". If this is being removed then does that mean that the zombie judge no longer has anything to differentiate it from the other zombies?

What's the definition of "survives"? Does this mean the model is still on the table at the end of the game, or does it just mean "not dead"? If it's the latter, does this mean that mercenaries have to make injury rolls at the end of the game like regular heroes/minions?

While I'm thinking about this, named minions become heroes if they survive 5 games. Does "survive" mean the same in this context as it does for mercenaries?

For Mercs, this means 'hasn't been removed from the table as a casualty (have made this clear in the next revision).

For Minions, it is much easier, as they just get a straight dice roll if removed. If you succeed, he survived, if you don't, it doesn't matter anyway

OK, that works. Thanks.

 

[Greg Smith]

If this is being removed then does that mean that the zombie judge no longer has anything to differentiate it from the other zombies?

Or the Zombie Judge could be considered armoured.

 

[andrewgpaul]

Apologies if this has already been corrected, but:

Page 35: "If you select the Angel Gang, you do not get 350 Credits to buy models and equipment ..."; I take it that should be "500 Credits"?

 

[chaoschild]

If this is being removed then does that mean that the zombie judge no longer has anything to differentiate it from the other zombies?

Or the Zombie Judge could be considered armoured.

Ok, let me rephrase that. Is there anything to distinguish the zombie judge from other armoured zombies?

 

[WereRogue]

One last thing to consider - the Campaign Rules.

I don't want to make any fundamental changes here (like adding turf/territory - that is something better served in a supplement/expansion), but I do want to know if anything needs 'tweaking.'

At the moment, both sides get 40% of the Credit value of the largest force. However, concerns have been raised is that this does not stop smaller forces getting wiped out. My thinking is that there are the following counterbalances to this;

1. If you only pay for surviving mercs, chances are few will need paying at the end of a battle...
2. You get 'dead' Minions back 70% of the time. 90% of the time if they fail a WtF check.
3. You can now voluntarily fail WtF checks.
4. If you get hammered by a force much larger than yourself, you may well end up with more credits than you started...

The whole 'point' of the campaign is to concentrate on your Heroes, building them up, earning XP, gaining Talents and 'reparing' them if they get hurt. You should not be giving a stuff about your Minions or Mercenaries, as they are easily replaced, and very cheaply at that. They are both mechanisms by which you keep your Heroes alive.

Now, given that, should rewards for campaign play be changed?

1 clarification question, first. When starting a campaign force, do left over credits from Gang Creation carry over into the gang's available credits? The biggest example of that would be the Lone Vigilante gang, who can only ever spend 395 total credits.

Now, as far as balancing the campaign rewards, I think Chaoschild has a good idea where you get 40% of your opponents gang rating. That helps the smaller gangs get a little bigger faster, while preventing the larger gangs from just getting on an unstoppable credit roll.

We've been introduced, now, to some new "Specialty" Judges (Excorcist, Aerial, etc.) is there any chance of introducing options to allow Heroes in our gangs access (through equipment purchases) to some of the other loadouts available to Judges? It would be nice, for example, to field a Med Judge or a Tech Judge as part of my gang, or to have my gang equipped with Jet Packs.

Finally, back to the Lone Vigilante: given the "goals" listed above including "repairing" your heroes when they get hurt, can the Lone Vigilante still buy replacement cyberware (I'm excluding the Advanced replacements, of course) even though they're not in his initial build out?

-Ken

 

[Da Boss]

I do like the 40% of the opponent idea - seems a very good idea.

 

[JiveProfessor]

I also like the idea of 40% of your opponent's total.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, and maybe Mr. Sprange has already cleared it up in a revision, but in my version of the core rulebook the Electra Zap Gun lists its damage as 1 on page 18. Though the description clarifies that it does no damage and instead stuns, I think to bring it in line with the Electro-Prod and so on it should probably have its damage changed to Special.