We have just posted the official Judge Dredd FAQ and Errata on Planet Mongoose!
http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/?p=636
http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/?p=636
Official FAQ and Errata
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
I am actually incredibly dissapointed with this FAQ. The game has some really glaring balance issues that need to be fixed, and this FAQ made them worse.
In particular, Shroud of Death single-handedly breaks the game. Any psi user would be mad not to take it, and it is worth more than any armor in the game. Any faction that can get many psi users automatically wins against the rest. Sov Judges? Lone Vigilantes? Mutants? All you got to do is pay 25 pts, and you got what amounts to 10 times the survivability. All you need is Will+3, and a single Voice of Command unit... which is the first thing you'll do, because why not? Given what, say, a Holocaust Judge pays for +3 armor, this survivability is madness. At level 2, a psi judge can have +3 Will, Shroud of Death AND Luck of Grud. Doing the math here, that judge needs to roll 1s twice to die, AFTER saves and losing all his HP... that is madness! At level 4, he'd have to roll 1 four times! And he only had to dedicate 2-3 attribute points to will, and 4 talents that are usefull at all situations anyways! And I've not even considered possible redundancies with Die Harder.
So instead of actually rebalancing the ability to make it run out after the first time or to cost psi at ever ressurection, it now makes entire attacks roll only once for Shroud of Death, regardless of shooting die, making the ability even stronger? At this point, what do all the factions that have little to no psi support do to survive? In my campaign one player basically runs a single werewolf psi Lone Vigilante that runs around with 11+ armor(energy shield+psi powers!), a flying 20" charge range, 7+ agility and melee score, Dance of Death, AND gets to only die on 1s, which he gets to reroll due to Luck of Gruds. The single model proceeds to kill 2500+ pts of Judges... and that one is actually counter-able, if you are lucky enough to Mind War away his shroud of death... one could easily build an entire team of mutant psi werewolves instead, which would be even deadlier. Or an entire crew of armor 7 unkillable Sov psi Judges with carbines. What does a Robot player do to counter it, given they have no access to psi powers? Judges were already way too good, without giving them the ability to be functionally immortal, and that's coming from a Judge player.
I understand that Shroud of Death is the Zombie Master's way of staying alive, and they need it, but if so, perhaps you need to make the whole tree exclusive to them.... in fact, I would encourage this.
This also completely kills campaigns as well:
"When you fight in a campaign, you use every model at your disposal (it is a desperate battle, not a game to your guys!). You cannot just select part of your force!"
At this point, I have over 5000 worth of credits in my force... so does another person, that only has played a few games but was just really lucky with his rolls. Every game I play I earn atleast 500. There is no way I am able to continue playing if I have to play massive 20 model games every time, unless I consciously never buy anything ever again. And on the other hand, if you dont go to somewhat higher games, you never get to play with all the mercs etc. So what gives? This ruling is particularly weird, given that the rulebook states that the challenger sets the point level. It was bad enough that there are entire scenarios that are basically unplayable in the campaign (what point is there in a chase a model mission, where that model can teleport anywhere on the map on his guaranteed 1st Turn?). Now the campaign becomes unwieldy and unplayable a few games in. What's the point of the Blood in the Sand rules etc?
I would respectfully request these rulings to be reexamined. At this point it is really easy to break the balance of the game to the point where other players have no way to compete, with very little actual effort. In a campaign game, this is a real problem. Given how fun the game is otherwise, these issues are relatively easy to fix, and can make a huge difference. The game certainly needs a LOT of extra play testing and re balancing, and I am sure a lot of players would volunteer to test it for you.
In particular, Shroud of Death single-handedly breaks the game. Any psi user would be mad not to take it, and it is worth more than any armor in the game. Any faction that can get many psi users automatically wins against the rest. Sov Judges? Lone Vigilantes? Mutants? All you got to do is pay 25 pts, and you got what amounts to 10 times the survivability. All you need is Will+3, and a single Voice of Command unit... which is the first thing you'll do, because why not? Given what, say, a Holocaust Judge pays for +3 armor, this survivability is madness. At level 2, a psi judge can have +3 Will, Shroud of Death AND Luck of Grud. Doing the math here, that judge needs to roll 1s twice to die, AFTER saves and losing all his HP... that is madness! At level 4, he'd have to roll 1 four times! And he only had to dedicate 2-3 attribute points to will, and 4 talents that are usefull at all situations anyways! And I've not even considered possible redundancies with Die Harder.
So instead of actually rebalancing the ability to make it run out after the first time or to cost psi at ever ressurection, it now makes entire attacks roll only once for Shroud of Death, regardless of shooting die, making the ability even stronger? At this point, what do all the factions that have little to no psi support do to survive? In my campaign one player basically runs a single werewolf psi Lone Vigilante that runs around with 11+ armor(energy shield+psi powers!), a flying 20" charge range, 7+ agility and melee score, Dance of Death, AND gets to only die on 1s, which he gets to reroll due to Luck of Gruds. The single model proceeds to kill 2500+ pts of Judges... and that one is actually counter-able, if you are lucky enough to Mind War away his shroud of death... one could easily build an entire team of mutant psi werewolves instead, which would be even deadlier. Or an entire crew of armor 7 unkillable Sov psi Judges with carbines. What does a Robot player do to counter it, given they have no access to psi powers? Judges were already way too good, without giving them the ability to be functionally immortal, and that's coming from a Judge player.
I understand that Shroud of Death is the Zombie Master's way of staying alive, and they need it, but if so, perhaps you need to make the whole tree exclusive to them.... in fact, I would encourage this.
This also completely kills campaigns as well:
"When you fight in a campaign, you use every model at your disposal (it is a desperate battle, not a game to your guys!). You cannot just select part of your force!"
At this point, I have over 5000 worth of credits in my force... so does another person, that only has played a few games but was just really lucky with his rolls. Every game I play I earn atleast 500. There is no way I am able to continue playing if I have to play massive 20 model games every time, unless I consciously never buy anything ever again. And on the other hand, if you dont go to somewhat higher games, you never get to play with all the mercs etc. So what gives? This ruling is particularly weird, given that the rulebook states that the challenger sets the point level. It was bad enough that there are entire scenarios that are basically unplayable in the campaign (what point is there in a chase a model mission, where that model can teleport anywhere on the map on his guaranteed 1st Turn?). Now the campaign becomes unwieldy and unplayable a few games in. What's the point of the Blood in the Sand rules etc?
I would respectfully request these rulings to be reexamined. At this point it is really easy to break the balance of the game to the point where other players have no way to compete, with very little actual effort. In a campaign game, this is a real problem. Given how fun the game is otherwise, these issues are relatively easy to fix, and can make a huge difference. The game certainly needs a LOT of extra play testing and re balancing, and I am sure a lot of players would volunteer to test it for you.
Hi there,
Many thanks for the analysis, we are indeed looking into it!
Many thanks for the analysis, we are indeed looking into it!
So, I've been thinking about both of these problems (and they ARE problems. Great game, but daaamn...) and, while I won't claim to be an expert, I'd say they're both pretty good fixes?
Shroud of Death - Make it expire on use, or at LEAST cost one Psi every time it saves the Necromancer. If you're going to keep it at one roll per Action that kills you rather than per attack die, I'd say make it drop after the roll is made. This means it's still powerful - getting a good number of shots on a psyker can be pretty hard, especially if they're in cover with a high Agility, and it'll cost an action to throw it back up for the next turn.
Force size - I guess I can't complain too much, seeing as it was my absurd example that you quoted in the question
Still, I WOULD say that using your whole force in games with 5000 Credits worth of guys suuucks (and I went for fairly uniformly advanced Citi-Def! A Cursed Earth Desperado with thirty different mutants to keep track of would be a nightmare!). I'd suggest allowing the higher value gang to set a value as per the book, only with a limit of between the other gang's value and their maximum, after Fixer etc. This means the games will always be a MINIMUM of the lowest value gang, while also meaning that Fixer doesn't suddenly become useless (if you always have to take your full gang, can only take mercs if you have a lower credit value than your opponent and the maximum points limit you can set is the value of your gang...)
Shroud of Death - Make it expire on use, or at LEAST cost one Psi every time it saves the Necromancer. If you're going to keep it at one roll per Action that kills you rather than per attack die, I'd say make it drop after the roll is made. This means it's still powerful - getting a good number of shots on a psyker can be pretty hard, especially if they're in cover with a high Agility, and it'll cost an action to throw it back up for the next turn.
Force size - I guess I can't complain too much, seeing as it was my absurd example that you quoted in the question
Still, I WOULD say that using your whole force in games with 5000 Credits worth of guys suuucks (and I went for fairly uniformly advanced Citi-Def! A Cursed Earth Desperado with thirty different mutants to keep track of would be a nightmare!). I'd suggest allowing the higher value gang to set a value as per the book, only with a limit of between the other gang's value and their maximum, after Fixer etc. This means the games will always be a MINIMUM of the lowest value gang, while also meaning that Fixer doesn't suddenly become useless (if you always have to take your full gang, can only take mercs if you have a lower credit value than your opponent and the maximum points limit you can set is the value of your gang...)That didn't really address my confusion about the Explosive weapon trait... I'm probably reading an out-of-date rules version but my version says you aim at a point, not at a model. If there is no cover between the impact point and the models inside the Explosive area, do they get cover? Or is this a moot point as you have to aim at a model now and all the models get the same cover as the original target (presumably)?msprange said:
Also, my rules version says Gas weapons cause Armour to be treated as 0. Does it mean that unless you are immune to gas and hit by a Gas weapon
(1) you automatically lose a Hit (as you can't roll 11+ on a D10) OR
(2) you avoid being damaged on a natural 10 OR
(3) you are supposed to make a regular check instead of an armour roll, so you avoid a hit on 6+/D10 (since it's a check with no modifiers) OR
(4) what?
Greg Smith
Mongoose
tnjrp said:
They get whatever cover is between them and the shooter.
I was sure there was a rule for that, but I can't see it.
Yes, this.
Don't let a Judge catch your Demonic Cabal in the midst of a summoning because one gas shot will wipe out most of your gang....
Heroes leading mobs require a bit more clarification, particularly for Zombie users. Does a hero leading a mob have to have the same equipment. A hero also has to take the same actions as the mob, so a Zombie Master or Mistress can't shoot or use psychic powers if they can indeed lead a mob.
twrchtrwyth
Mongoose
What did you come up with?msprange said:
Zond said:
The Hero does not have to have the same equipment, but does have to follow the same action. However, just as the Hero could shoot with a different weapon to the mob, it can follow a different type of Special action (for example).
In the example above, the mob could take a Shoot action, allowing the Zombie Mistress to shoot her weapon. The zombies in the mob, however, do not have guns and so could obviously not shoot (they will just be milling around mindlessly while their Mistress blazes away!).
It is obviously important to match the right Hero with the right mob.
Zond said:
Satellats are, in every way, considered equipment, and so will follow the same rules the Hero is currently following (and yes, they could give the Hero's position away!).
As for the Texas City Judge, but letter of the rules no. However, it seems a very Texan thing to do, so I think I would allow it.
twrchtrwyth said:
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner.
As far as campaigns are concerned, I would be tempted to say that, at the kind of levels you are talking about, someone has already won and perhaps you should be looking at starting afresh. However, gamers always like to push the limits on larger forces and armies so, in your case, I would suggest lifting the ruling you cite. It is not there for reasons of balance, more as a suggestion of game limits.
However, it is your campaign, and you should do what works out best for yourself and your opponents!
On Shroud of Death;
Yeah, this one needs changing, but we do not want to nerf it completely. We have been playing with the amount of Damage a weapon causes being applied as a negative modifier to the Shroud's roll, and this seems to be working out well. The Shroud still provides a decent amount of protection against the likes of Handguns, but once the missiles and lasers start appearing, the psychic should take care when stepping out into the open!
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