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Sunday 3 October 2010

Chance Cards

During the play-test I wrote about in yesterday’s blog entry, I mentioned trying – unsuccessfully – to use a set of tactical 'chance cards'.

The cards were originally designed to be used with a set of colonial wargames rules I designed some time ago entitled HEROES OF VICTORIA'S EMPIRE (or HoVE for short). I found the pack whilst tidying up my wargames room, and decided to try them out (after a few minor changes) as a possible avenue for further modifications of Richard Borg's BATTLE CRY rules.

The pack of 'chance cards' contains 54 cards made up as follows:
  • 18 x 'Dashed hard luck!' cards: No tactical advantage this turn
  • 12 x 'Enhanced firepower!' cards: A unit may fire twice this turn
  • 12 x 'Faster movement!' cards: A unit may move an additional hex this turn
  • 9 x 'Hand-to-hand fighting!' cards: A unit throws an additional dice if fighting an enemy unit in an adjacent hex
  • 3 x 'Rally!' cards: A unit may ignore any forced retreats this turn
Had I remembered to use the 'chance cards' after the first two turns of the play-test, I might have been able to judge whether or not they were worth persevering with. As it was, I forgot to use them so they might as well go back into storage for the time being.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting that there are no "negative" effect cards, only positive or neutral.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dale,

    I had already made the cards for a previous set of rules. Having found them, I thought I might as well try them out.

    If I were to pursue this idea, I would try to make the pack more balanced, with some more negative cards.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a Sci-Fi game, based on Aliens where every move each player rolls a D20 and applies the chosen result before doing anything else.

    Ten of the choices are positive (generally) and ten are negative (again generally).

    Occasionally the choice has no effect on the game whatsoever so can be considered neutral.

    These random events add considerably to the enjoyment of the game as you probably play more than ten moves a game and often more than twenty

    This balances out the bad results against the good.

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jim Duncan,

    I have used something similar myself in games, and it can add considerable to the enjoyment of all taking part ... and makes things just that little bit unpredictable as well!

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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