Strontium Dog Thoughts

[swampedbybunnies]

I like the look of this; reading the rules though one thing grates.

Equipment cards are a big part of the game, and whether you are playing SD Agents, Renegades or Outlaws you use the same card selection. The problem is that in the comics it is the wackier gadgets that mostly give SD Agents their advantage - these toys are restricted cutting edge tech just not available to outlaws or the general public.

I'm thus thinking about some (as yet un playtested) changes. These require certain items to be designated as 'SD Weaponry' (ALL time/ dimensional weapons, beam polariser, electronux).

The changes are:

a) Designate your gang as either SD Agents, SD Renegades or Outlaws.

b) SD Agents use the standard Chicanery and Eqt cards as per the rules

c) Renegade SD Agents may only have one SD Weaponry Card (2 if they have the Well Equipped skill). However they may choose from 7 chicanery and 7 equipment cards instead of the normal 6

d) Outlaws may not use ANY SD Weaponry, but may keep one EXTRA chicanary card (4 instead of three).

This needs playtesting and balancing properly, so I'd be interested to hear any thoughts.

[olyreed]

I asked the question on the Facebook page about the cards that come in each box as they seem specific to that collection of models, I suggested that they should have those cards to start with but the rules are that they are put in with all the others and delt out,

[Longstreak66]

Haven't played yet, but I did notice that in the scenario book the opposing forces are assigned specific Armoury and Chicanery cards rather than being dealt them randomly (as per the main rulebook).

[Brandlin]

Not played the game, but from your description of it, it sounds like a classic game design 'mistake*' that tries to make all sides in the game 'balanced'.

I rarely find this satisfactory. In any kind of fight (other than a sport) you take every advantage you get, numbers, equipment, geography etc...

In games set around an existing story (in this case comics) they should evoke the feel of the stories - that often means lone or small numbers of 'heroes' pitted against overwhelming odds. Its one of the oldest narratives going! By leveling up the sides for anachronistic 'balance' reasons I think you lose that feel and in the worst cases you may as well be pushing buttons around the carpet rather than figures around a tabletop covered in evocative terrain.

I had a longer rant about this on another SD/Rogue trooper thread a few days ago.




* mistake may be the wrong word - 'feature' might be more appropriate but in my experience its often a negative.

[DegenerateElite]

The random distribution of the cards is generally for games of your gang vs another gang using the generation rules and campaign system.

All the plotted scenarios assign specific cards.  You could assume that anytime you use those agents you could just use those same sort of assignments or assign similar cards depending on the comic you are basing the game on.


Also remember, most of the bad guys we currently have are rogue S/D agents. 

The game isn't balanced around items anyways.  It's balanced around heroes with higher cool getting to do more actions.

[craigjwoodfield]

A couple of points:

The SD comics (especially for the first 10 years or so) focused almost entirely on Johnny Alpha, so the equipment cards in the game reflect a lot of his cool kit - time bombs, no. 4 cartridge and so on.

But the game has laready seen a couple of dozen named characters released, of which only 2 are Johnny and Wulf (and most of the rest are SD agents). So in terms of making it a broader game and not just Johnny and his mates vs everyone else, having a random equipment distribution system is completly logical. However, this isn't set in stone.

As has been noted, many of the scenarios have assigned cards, and there is absolutely no reason why you cannot assign specific cards to specific models anyway. It will not break the game, it is quite capable of handling this adjustment. And the more I think about it, there is suprising amount of chunky detail already in the rules  crying out for more scenarios and campaigns.

I love the SD universe, starting reading 2000AD in the late 70s and still have issues #1 to#520, in near mint condition in sealed bags 

In my view this is a very good game that does a great job of putting the SD universe on the tabletop. Sure it's not perfect and won't please everyone, but that beast does not exist. Try it before you complain, alter the bits you don't  like, if it still doesn't suit you fair enough.

[Vampifan]

Well said, sir!