| From: | james <chrisk@******.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | srccg solo rules (long) |
| Date: | Thu, 4 Sep 1997 21:21:14 -0400 |
first time I wrote instructions to a card game, so please bare with me and
I will try to muddle through this without too much confusion.
The first thing you want to do is make three decks. Deck one consists of
only objectives. I use 20 different objectives and for every 10 objective
cards I put in one SUCKER RUN card. I'm not very picky about which
objective cards I used , I just wanted a good variety.
The second deck consists of challenges, stingers like GREEN APPLE
QUICKSTEPS AND BAD LUNCH and contacts like BOUNTY HUNTER. If you are going
to play a lot of solo games you might want to use a variety of challenges,
so the games won't get stale. If you want to make the game very
challenging, use a combination of challenges and objectives that work well
together to create a very demanding run. The amount of challenges in this
deck is not important. I use about 30 different challenge cards.
The third deck consists of runners and gear. Now we have to put more
thought into this deck. It is important to keep track of the amount and
type of cards used. The deck I'm using for testing consisted of 20 runners
(all different), and 30 gear cards i.e. 2 magic/spirit 4 magic/spell 2
drones 3 cyberware 3 gear accessory 2 armor 1 miscellaneous/stim
patch and 10 weapons of various types. I also put in two location cards
IRON LUNG and CLUB VORTEX. I found most location cards and contact cards to
be very difficult if not impossible to use in this type of solo game. You
can also build a deck around certain types of runners and or gear, but the
count should stay around 20 runners and 30 gear cards. If you increase one
(runner - gear) you should increase the other. You will see why when we
talk about building the runner team.
After you have completed the three decks, shuffle and place the
objectives face down in a stack to your upper left hand corner and the
challenge stack face down just above the objectives. The placement of these
two stacks are not important, as long as you know which ones are which.
Now for the runners, after shuffling the deck, count off 20 cards from
the top, face down. Place the remaining cards face down in a stack to your
upper right hand corner. This will be your draw pile IF you have a card
that allows you to draw in play. If not, you will not need any more cards
from this deck. Now the fun begins. Take the 20 cards and separate the
runners from the other cards. You should have anywhere from 7 to 9 runners,
you might have more or less but on the average you will have 7 to 9. It is
important to have 20 runners and 30 gear cards in your deck for this
reason. If you change the percentage you will change the amount of runners
per draw. This is not a bad thing if that is want you want, for play
testing I tried to keep the percentages consistent.
Ok, at this point you will build a team of runners and outfit them with
gear using no more than 40 nuyen points. For example say you draw 8
runners –REAPER 8Y-- CANNONBALL 6Y-- MACABRE 5Y-- SHADE 4Y-- RED WIDOW
6Y-- STOMPER 7Y-- SAM THE SLEUTH 5Y-- RAZORBACK 8Y. I will usually
spend up to, but no more than 30y on runners, depending on the types of
runners drawn and the type of gear left available with the other nonrunner
(gear, location) cards. If you use reaper, cannonball, razorback, red
widow, stomper and shade you have spent 39 y points and nothing for gear.
So you will have to find a balance between runners and what gear you would
like to use i.e. more gear less runners, stronger runners less gear. If
you have drawn a location card and want to put it into play, you have to
pay the nuyen, (that's assuming the location has a cost) out of the 40y.
Naturally you can increase the amount of starting nuyen points. Just be
careful not to make your team so strong that you stomp all the challenges,
no fun there. Remember you are playing agents a deck of challenges that are
in random order or are in a preset order (your choice), you do not have a
live player to block, hander or impede your run with a combination of cards
and good timing. It is very easy to build a team of runners that can stomp
any challenge by itself.
After you have purchased your team and outfitted them with gear, take 6
nuyen and set it aside. You can use this nuyen to pay for the cost of
runner pumping, location visiting if any, burst fire, piloting, upkeep
(helps keep unique runners under control). Cards like stim patch you
purchase with your gear and you don't need to pay for it twice. But cards
like "CRAWLER" PATROL DRONE which have a cost of 2y for the card (and a
cost of 2y for recon until end of turn) you pay for the CARD with your
starting 40y and you pay the additional 2y for recon with your bank of 6
nuyen. I personally don't use cards that make nuyen. If you feel it is
necessary to have more nuyen, increase the amount to 8 or 10, don't use
cards to increase your credstick account, you don't have a credstick phase
and the cards will not help.
Before you are ready to make your first run there are some basic
rules.
RULE NUMBER ONE- every turn you must make a run, if you can't run you have
lost the game, reshuffle and start over.
RULE NUMBER TWO- if you can't achieve your objective because of a
challenge. For example MAGLOCK if you can't guess the right number with the
x+1guesses (use a d6 and cup it with your hand, don't look at it until
after you have guessed X-times) for each technical in your team, you have
lost the game, reshuffle.
VARIATION to rule number two: If you can't complete a run (a barrier blocks
your way, your runners were sent back to the safehouse ect...) and you have
most or all of your runners, you don't have to reshuffle and build a new
runner team to start over. You can take the objective points as a negative
to your reputation point total. And start a new run with new objectives and
challenges.
RULE NUMBER THREE. Do the best you can with what you have. This is
solitaire, you are playing against the odds - if you beat the odds the game
is fun, if you cheat the odds ---
The object of the game is to achieve 75 to 100 points (more or less
that's up to you) of objectives, if you can't achieve this for any reason
i.e. all runners are trashed, a barrier blocks your way, you don't have
what the object card requires ect…the game is over - reshuffle.
To make a run simply turn over the first objective on the objective pile
and take three challenge off the top of the challenge pile and place them
in front of the objective pile face down. Now turn over the first challenge
card and resolve i.e. sleaze, combat -standard game rules apply. If you
beat the challenge go on to the next challenge.
1. If the challenge can be pumped role a D6, on a 1-2 pump X2 on a 3-4
pump X1 on a 5-6 no pump.
2. If the challenge card turns out to be a stinger or a contact, resolve
the encounter and then draw an additional challenge. You must face three
challenge cards per run.
3. If the objective card says NO OUTDOOR CHALLENGES and the challenge
says outdoors (or viceversa) discard the challenge and draw a new card from
the challenge pile.
4. If you are playing with the location card IRON LUNG or a similar card
that allows you to draw a card from your draw pile, you can visit the
location card before your next run. But remember, DO NOT GO OVER YOUR 40Y
points. For example, your runner team cost 39y (between runners and gear)
and you used Iron Lung to draw one card (INVISIBILITY). To put the card
Invisibility into play , you must discard 2y worth of cards or what until
a card is trashed from play by a challenge or objective. If you use your
credstick to pay for the Invisibility card, your team becomes too strong.
5. Damage: I think damage is the hardest part of solo play. To be fair and
impartial to the runners I distribute the damage amongst the runners,
drones and sprits as evenly as possible. For example, I have 5 runners and
1 drone, and my team takes 8 damage. All runners take one damage (mines any
armor), any lift over damage is distributed by a D6. If I have 5 runner and
only take 2 damage I roll a D6, or use any other means of random type
system. It is too easy to play with the numbers i.e. stomper 6/7 A1 and
orion 3/3 your team takes 5 damage, give 5 to stomper 5-1=4. And 1 to
orion 3-1=2. If you use this system you will win 99% of all challenges.
Let random rolls decide the fate of the team, the game is more interesting
that way.
6. Healing: There are two ways you can heal your runners. The first way is
if you distribute the damage amongst the runners evenly, all runners and
gear will be healed at the end of each run (before the start of your next
run). The second way is if you select witch runner and how much damage
that runner receives. In that scenario you must use a turn to heal the
damaged runners, just like in multiplayer . The difference being in
multiplayer games, time is very important because your opponent is trying
to achieve objectives before you. In solo play you have all the time in the
world. Except for one solo play rule (you must make a run every turn). For
example you have six runners and you give the damage to the strongest
runners. Before your next run you tap the damaged runners (to heal) and
start your next run with your remaining runners. If you have three runners
tapped to heal and send your other three runners on a run, the chances of
survival are very low. I recommend the first scenario.
Well that's all I've been able to come up with, I know It's not the same as
real play, but without the benefit of interactive play, it's hard to judge.
I know that you will come up with hundreds of situation that I did not
cover, all I can say is, use your best judgment and try to stay in the
spirit of the game. Do your best with what you have and let the game take
you where IT wants you to go.
If you are having trouble understanding these instructions. Please feel
free to drop me a line and I will try to help.
Chris (aka Ground Zero)
