7TV Pulp Rules Question: Unholy Cardinal

[nandrin]

Hi folks,

recently we had a situation which was unclear to solve within the rules. The Unholy Cardinal used his "Veil of Darkness" on the enemy star, preventing him to activate next turn. Then a cliffhanger card came up saying all stars and co- stars must activate and use their star quality.
Which effect do you think goes first? In the spirit of the game, I see Cliffhanger cards as orders from the director of the film, thus superseeding ALL other effects players might wish to play.  But my opponent thought otherwise....

Speaking of the Cardinal: I think 7TV Pulp is very well balanced, but the Cardinal is the single most powerful character in the game. Veil of Darkness is great, but his Special Effects are even better:
Psychic grants him a 15 attack for just 1 plot point, which is far better as for example Military Training. In defense, he is very hard to wound because he can simply make one or more of the opponents dice a 1 after throwing the dice, which is certainly better than buying more defence dice.
Shifting Presence is very useful for repositioning, and Cultish Charisma is basically worth 1 more Rating for your cast. Fanatical Congregation is useful as well.  This set of Effects makes him better than most stars.

Nandrin

[uti long smile]

Hi folks,

recently we had a situation which was unclear to solve within the rules. The Unholy Cardinal used his "Veil of Darkness" on the enemy star, preventing him to activate next turn. Then a cliffhanger card came up saying all stars and co- stars must activate and use their star quality.
Which effect do you think goes first? In the spirit of the game, I see Cliffhanger cards as orders from the director of the film, thus superseeding ALL other effects players might wish to play.  But my opponent thought otherwise....

Speaking of the Cardinal: I think 7TV Pulp is very well balanced, but the Cardinal is the single most powerful character in the game. Veil of Darkness is great, but his Special Effects are even better:
Psychic grants him a 15 attack for just 1 plot point, which is far better as for example Military Training. In defense, he is very hard to wound because he can simply make one or more of the opponents dice a 1 after throwing the dice, which is certainly better than buying more defence dice.
Shifting Presence is very useful for repositioning, and Cultish Charisma is basically worth 1 more Rating for your cast. Fanatical Congregation is useful as well.  This set of Effects makes him better than most stars.

Nandrin

Hiya! Glad you are enjoying 7TV: Pulp!

You are correct Cliffhanger cards trump everything else.

You are also correct that the Unholy Cardinal is a bit handy! We have had a bit of feedback on Veil of Darkness and in hindsight it is over-powered, so we will be revising this. A physical card will be in the upcoming Menagerie of Terror deck, but I will post a PDF/JPEG of the revised cards nearer to release.

[nandrin]

Hi,
thanks for the quick answer! I am glad to see I am not the only one feeling the cardinal is quite mighty!

To be honest, I can live with Veil of Darkness as it is, but I find Psychic even better because this makes him a powerful attacker and very hard to hit. I would restrict Psychic to once per turn. Seeing both effects on one card should make  the Cardinal more expensive.

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

You are correct Cliffhanger cards trump everything else.

Hi Karl,
could you please clarify how the "stereotyped" cliffhanger card works with Stars and Co-stars that are captured or inside vehicles and thus are not allowed to be activated or can't be allocated plot-points?
Also, the card says "ALL Stars and Co-stars" does this litteraly mean models from both casts or just the ones from the active cast.

If cliffhanger cards trump everything else this raises some questions, for example it would allow models to be moved into or through impassable terrain. I'd rather assume the cliffhanger cards to work within the regular rules, it makes things easier.

I think it's fine that villainous co-stars are pretty tough, this fits the genre and is usually the case in the movies/stories. It's the heroic stars that have to dispose of the villainous co-stars so they need to be a challenge. "Veil of darkness" is to useful though.

As we're here, with "military training" you can spend 2 plotpoints and get +1dice and +1 bonus? Or can you only get dice OR bonus for spending plot-points?

The game is great (it's actually totally awesome) and the rules are clearly written but sometimes it's interessting to see how other people handle specific things.