HAZARD MECHANICS
Of course players could use the rulebook Solitaire Rules, but in those rules all hazard cards per company are revealed up front; players never need to make tactical decisions balancing unknown information. Here I’ve tried to design an alternative offering more surprise elements at the expense of some simplicity. The intention is for the hazard side mechanics to be at least as powerful and definitely more versatile than in a standard game, offering enough of a threat to make cooperation meaningful without requiring any single strategy or burying players under impossible odds.
Note: to avoid conflicting with “reveal” effects in game, I use language of “unobserved” (or “observe”) to designate when card information should originally be unknown to players (or when it becomes known). I recommend unobserved cards be manipulated face down, and once they are observed to be turned face up.
Hazard play is broken up into four hazard decks (and corresponding discard piles):
1) Pre-creature deck
2) Creature deck
3) Post-creature deck (with Nobody’s Friend agent pool)
4) On-guard deck (no hand)
None of these decks trigger passive conditions based on a deck being exhausted.
Hazard Hands and Draws:
Decks (1)-(3) have distinct hands. These hands combined represent the overall hazard hand. If any mechanic would normally cause the hazard player to draw some number of cards, instead progress a draw tracker according to the below pattern by an equal amount, drawing a card for each number reached from the deck (and into the hand) corresponding to the number. Cards should be added to hands unobserved and only be observed as instructed by their corresponding individual deck rules, below. Whenever the hazard portion would need to choose a card to discard, discard the oldest card from the next-to-draw-into of the largest-sized hazard hands. Whenever a card is returned to a hand from play, it remains observed and is considered the newest addition to the hand.
The hazard drawing pattern (with “x” meaning no actual draw for a normal draw): 1x2x3x2x1x3x2x1x2x3x
This cycles every 20 normal draws (or 10 actual draws). Every 3 cycles should be treated as exhausting a deck for triggering passive conditions.
Phase-based Hazard Procedures:
At the start of the game, progress the draw tracker by increments of 2 until reaching an overall hazard hand of 5. This will make starting hands of 2,2,1 cards each for decks (1)-(3).
At the start of each company’s movement/hazard phase, note the starting hand size, then progress the draw tracker for cards drawn for moving companies as usual (with Darkness modifications).
At the end of each company’s movement/hazard phase, discard down to the starting hand size if greater than the starting hand size; otherwise progress the draw tracker equal to the loss in hand size.
At the end of each turn, discard down to an overall hazard hand of 3 (if more than 3). Shuffle one random (unobserved) hazard from the discard pile into the deck of the next-to-draw deck that has more than one card in its discard pile. Repeat these deck additions for successive next-to-draw decks for a total number of times equal to the number of players divided by three (rounded up). Then, progress the draw tracker by increments of 2 until reaching an overall hazard hand of 5. Shuffle the on-guard deck.
Pre-creature Hand Rules: (deck 1)
At any point during any company’s movement/hazard phase, if playing any observed Pre-creature cards could be foreseen to negatively impact the resolving company (including assuming the company would enter the site to which they are moving if they could) then play the oldest such card (if within hazard limit). Otherwise, if the hazard-limit has not been reached, observe the next unobserved Pre-creature card. If there is available hazard limit at the end of a resolving company’s movement/hazard phase (after On Guard placement), play the oldest valid observed card that could be foreseen to negatively impact ANY company (such as, e.g., boosting the automatic attack of a company that already moved or is not moving), then the oldest valid observed card.
Creature Hand Rules: (deck 2)
When no Pre-creature cards can be played, play and resolve the oldest valid observed card from the Creature hand. If no Creature cards can be played and within the hazard limit, observe the next unobserved Creature card. Creatures keyable to multiple regions (and the site) are considered keyed to all valid regions (and site) for the purpose of inclusive hazard conditions (including Darkness) and exclusive resource conditions, and (when possible) keyed to an alternative valid region (or site) for the purpose of exclusive hazard conditions and inclusive resource conditions, for each condition. For example, a Stirring Bones played on a company using starter movement from Rivendell to Goblin-gate cannot have a strike canceled by Elven Cloak (because it could be keyed to Shadow-hold), but if a player uses the alternative effect of Quiet Lands to change Goblin-gate to a Ruins & Lairs in response to the Stirring Bones, Elven Cloak could be used on a strike.
When a player defeats a non-unique creature (or the attacks from a non-unique permanent event giving kill MP), make a note of the MP value but do not place the card in the player’s MP pile or as a trophy. Instead, place the card in a “reserve” pile, to be placed back into its discard pile after the Creature deck is exhausted and its discard pile is shuffled into a new deck. As a reminder, players’ effective kill MP are reduced by a factor of 3, rounded down, although unique kills are worth double toward these multiples of 3.
If a company enters a site at which a creature may be played as an additional automatic attack, play the oldest valid observed card from the Creature hand, observing additional cards if needed.
Post-creature Hand Rules: (deck 3)
When no Pre-creature or Creature cards can be played, play and resolve the oldest valid observed card from the Post-creature hand. If no Post-creature cards can be played and within the hazard limit, observe the next unobserved Post-creature card.
On-guard Cards: (deck 4, no hand)
If there is a hazard limit remaining, place one on-guard card at the new or current site, to be observed after a company declares its intentions for its site phase and revealed if possible. When an on-guard card would normally be returned to hand, discard it unobserved instead.
Optional - Nobody’s Friend Agent Pool Rules (special Nobody’s Friend effect):
The hazard portion has an additional pool of available agents (separate pools if also using Inner Cunning). When Nobody’s Friend is played, a random agent from the agent pool is placed (unobserved) with it (not counting against the hazard limit). Agents will attack when they are allowed (below) following creature strike assignment priority, except when BOTH of these are true:
1) agent cannot avoid facing defenders that have at least as large of a prowess (accounting for known modifications);
2) there are no untapped defenders, or agent cannot guarantee assigning a strike to all untapped defenders.
When a company enters a free-hold or border-hold with agents in play:
1) if there is an agent played with that site, it may attack;
2) additionally, all observed agents with that home site that aren’t played with a site may attack. When each attacks, if no agent is currently played with that site, the attacking agent is played with that site. Attacking agents not played with that site are returned to their Pool at end of turn;
3) while there is not an agent played with that site, observe the next oldest agent with Nobody’s Friend, discarding Nobody’s Friend. If any company is at one of that agent’s home sites, the agent is not immediately played with a site; however, if the resolving company is at any of that agent’s home sites the agent may attack as per step (2). Otherwise, once an agent is observed with no company at one of their homesites, the agent is played with the resolving company’s site and may attack.
For each company’s movement/hazard phase, after all other hazards have been handled, unused hazard limits are used to perform heal (to untapped) or turn face-down agent actions, prioritizing the agent played with the resolving company’s new site, then the oldest observed agents that have that site as a home site, then the other oldest observed agents, maintaining the one agent action per turn limit. At the beginning of a team’s site phase (companies are all at some site), for each observed agent that is with a site, remove the site if there are no companies at its site. Then, for each observed agent that is not with a site, shuffle it back into the agent pool if there are no companies at any of its home sites.
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DIAGRAMS
Recommended layout of hazard portion:
Code: Select all
___(reserve)
_____ |___|_ _____ _____
|disc1||disc2||disc3||disc4|
|_____||_____||_____||_____|
_____ _____ _____ _____
|deck1||deck2||deck3||deck4|
|_____||_____||_____||_____|
,=====,,=====,,=====, _____
|hand1||hand2||hand3||agent|
‘=====’’=====’’=====’|_____|
Diagram of hazard card draw order:
Code: Select all
,-> 1 --> x --> 2 --> x --> 3
| 1 <-- x <-- 2 <-- x <--’
| `--------> x ---------.
| 1 <-- x <-- 2 <-- x <-- 3
| `--> x --> 2 --> x --> 3
`-------------- x <--------’
(3 cycles = deck exhaust)