Dying to change

[gorillacrab]

As Mr. Peabody has noted, we have been battling furiously the past 2 weeks, challenging each other and the rules.
On that note, here's a comment/suggestion on the Threshold's ability to alter his roster and field an interesting and competitive squad.
The rules state you can revamp your roster once you "lose a model to a Major injury" although later in the same section (pg 57) it specifically states a model must die before any alterations can be made to the team.
This level of restriction can be a bit confining - especially to experimenting newbies, who have little opportunity to tweak their team between games unless you are lucky enough to roll an 11-15 on the Major Injury Table, to have a model actually die.
I'd introduce a House Rule allowing Thresholders to boot any 1 player with a Major Injury after a game. This is desirable since Lurker commanders can make any changes they see fit, and can develop squads to decimate standing teams of Thresholders.
Example: In our games, the Lurkers use multiple models with the Command skill, allowing 5-6 models to be activated each turn. Facing this, you discover it's almost essential to have an Agent with Lieutenant skill, but it's hard to get one.
Perhaps I'm too early in the process, but right now it appears it would be nice to make is somewhat easier for Thresholders to tweak part of their squad.
Thoughts?

[LidlessEye]

There's only one way to put a crippled agent out to pasture: an ill-advised heroic charge at an unbeatable foe!

Like the back of the book says:  "Kid, the only way anyone ever retires from this place is feet first." 

[fairoaks024]

it's your game, so long as you and your gaming opponent agree, try it out and see how it works,

although personally i'm with Lidless from a background point of view,
once you become a threshold agent you only have 2 options, improve or die.

regards

jim

[Lupus]

I was wondering about making them Possible Lurkers as they had been farmed out for newer meat..

After seeing such horrors and being given a desk job you might crave the limelight again and not like you don't have the resources to ahnd to help you

[ZenWired]

Thoughts?

Not a bad idea - it makes sense to me that a team would make whatever changes it could to improve its efficiency. (Although one could just as sensibly argue that finding worthwhile agents to combat the Powers of Darkness is not an easy task, thus the difficulty to changing a team's roster.)

Have you checked out the house rules I posted last week? Some of them were adopted by our group to ease this restrictive nature of roster changes by giving Threshold players other options. (Specifically, new ways to earn Build Points that can be used for limited post-game re-quips.) The rules can be found on my blog here:

A Hard Won Thing 

[jnr]

Its not easy making a Threshold group up when you first get into the game until you have fully read the rule book and played a game or two, then thing you have read start to fall into there place, if I was showing some one how to play the game I would advice them to put a civilian  in the threshold group when starting.
Not getting a new agent till one die is restrictive, but then that’s what the civilian’s are for, cannon fodder, when a civilian is removed due to a major injury roll 1D6  1 to3 they dead 4 to 6 they make a full recovery (P 19) then you keeping in the spirit of the game.
If you remove a  agent due to having a major injury other then dead, then what’s the point of having the injury table, the injury table is part of the character building of a threshold group, the reward for winning a scenario is new skills and such for losing  it’s the injury table, you cant have one with out the other..

[Argonor]

I'm for the rule as is. Don't change a succesful (surviving) team. And you can't kick members because they've glimpsed the truth behind the veil.

[ZenWired]

If you remove a  agent due to having a major injury other then dead, then what’s the point of having the injury table, the injury table is part of the character building of a threshold group, the reward for winning a scenario is new skills and such for losing  it’s the injury table, you cant have one with out the other..

I agree with this assessment for the most part - that's why the house rules we use generate BP, but don't allow agents to be removed from the roster. (This at least affords players an opportunity to add equipment without having to wait for someone to die to do so.)

Although I think civilians should be able to come and go from a roster, if the player so chooses - after all, they're not Threshold operatives. Watch just about any genre TV series and you'll see this happen all the time: "civvies" tag along with "hunters" for an episode, only to be replaced in the next "adventure." They may have "glimpsed the truth beyond the veil," but this still isn't their day job...
 

Edit: As for "booting" agents with major injuries, I'd say: "Go ahead." It does make sense that "worn out" agents retire early. But it makes just as much sense that agents are hard to replace, so the team will be left weaker after such an event. So I'd also say removing an injured agent doesn't mean your team can re-equip, and I'd rule that Lurkers get a minimum of 15BP, regardless of the strength of the Threshold team. If you want to lose that crippled, half-mad agent, go ahead - but your team will be weaker for it.

[Mr. Peabody]

I think JNR has it spot on. Beam down a red-shirt, er, um, rather; should you enlist a civilian the option to re-equip will come about fairly quickly. Even if you have to feed the poor blighter to the protoplasmic energy being to make it so.

[Lupus]

I think JNR has it spot on. Beam down a red-shirt, er, um, rather; should you enlist a civilian the option to re-equip will come about fairly quickly. Even if you have to feed the poor blighter to the protoplasmic energy being to make it so.

Thats how i see Civilains you might get the odd one you keep on for good measure but apart from that they are just fodder

Wonder if Special Agents could be swapped to be full time if you lose an Agent.

[Uncle Mike]

Game Tip: You can't re-equip without a death...civilians die real easy...should have at least one in your list to push down the monsters throat. 

[ZenWired]

Game Tip: You can't re-equip without a death...

Yeah, see - that's the sort of statement that sends my players screaming from a game. They love this game, but I know the argument I'd get:

"Wait - I can't even give one of my guys a rifle unless someone dies?"

I can convincingly argue the inability to make roster changes with them, but if I tell them they can't add a new weapon until someone dies, I'll lose the ensuing argument - especially given that the game is set in America in the early 20th century, where side arms were loosely regulated and every farmer at least had a shotgun. (I can't say as I'd argue against their point of view too vehemently, since I basically agree with it.) And the game would get shelved for what they would see as a game-mechanic-over-common-sense rule. (Which would be a real shame, 'cuz I love this game.)

More power to you folks whose groups don't balk at such rules. 

[LidlessEye]

civilians die real easy...should have at least one in your list to push down the monsters throat. 

Or, if you're Mike, four or five... 

"Whaddya mean I need nine Lurkers?  This is an 18BP game!"

[D@rth J@ymZ]

Fielding at least 2 civilians in a Threshold roster just to die so you can have a re-equip is as much planning and stategy as it is a smart list management. 
Remember: Civilian=Fodder 

Skills and major injuries tend to happen independently of wins and losses anyways.  I've had "wins" where every model but one were removed.  He gets a skill, everyone else gets an injury (some minor - ie. no effect and some are major injuries - ouch)

Also, try Trophy Hunt for that "Free Re-Equip" Save it up for when nobody dies and you really need to stock up on dynamite! 

[gorillacrab]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Clearly, it is vital for new Threshold teams to have that all-important, sacrificial lamb civilian, who can die nobly as an instrument of change. So a new civilian will wear the Threshold jersey instead of a new agent. I'm tempted to start a collection to build a memorial to the Unknown Civilian.