| From: | Jeffrey Nuremburg <xanatos@********.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Tokens and Semantics |
| Date: | Wed, 4 Mar 1998 02:02:37 -0500 |
I was watching the devoping thread concerning tokens and whether or
not they can be regarded as Gear. Here is my perception on the matter.
We all play this card game (and hopefully everyone loves it) but
what we all must face is that card games such as this often come down to
issues of semantics. The wording and text of a card are critical in the
interpretation of its purpose and meaning. When the wording is confusing or
erroneous the card tends to debilitate game play or offset the balance of
the game itself. This "token" issue is just one such situation. Good
groups of players can usually come to a consensus on how a card is to be
used, but in the heat of a game (and especially when you're about to win)
people get a bit wacky and tend to get a little bit heated when they play a
super cool move and the guy across the table says, "You can't do that.
That's not what the card is saying." Fortunately we have some level of
communication with the designers of the game so we actually have the
facility to implement change in the rules of the game itself. In the light
of that, here is my personal take on the "token" situation.
In the rule book it clearly states that runners may exchange
"Gear/<something>" cards between them with the exception of
Gear/Cyberware.
This text seems to define that the text attribute "Gear/<something>" is
required in order to be traded. With tokens, say on the card Shadowland, it
talks about an "Info token". Note that it does not specifically say,
"Gear/Info token". The token itself inherits the text attributes assigned
to it by the card that creates it (in this case the Location Shadowland).
The token is thus only an "Info token". Since it is not a "Gear/Info
Token"
it cannot be affected or utilized in terms of effects that require
"Gear/<something>". This can be compared in a similar light to the effect
that the Objectives Cermak Blast and Cleanse the Hive have on Bluffs. If a
Bluff is revealed the card is not converted into an Awakened creature
because it is not a Challenge card (i.e. - lacks the text attribute that
defines the card as a Challenge). In much the same light the "Info token"
(and to my knowledge all of the other tokens that currently exist in the
game) lack the text attribute that classifies them as "Gear/<something>".
As I said earlier, card games of this type often boil down to
semantics (and the will of the playing group). It is the semantics of a
game however that define its limits and rules and that ultimately make it
challenging and fun. Although it often stinks to have to engage in an
analysis of the context of the game rules (I'd personally rather just play
most of the time), it is sometimes necessary in order to establish a rules
set that stops certain cards from becoming too powerful and ruining the
game. I hope that the designers of the game agree with me. If it was their
intention that the tokens be able to be used as gear (i.e. - traded,
sacraficed to Street Scum, etc.) then they should consider changing the text
on Shadowland and other token creation cards to include the "Gear" term.
Okay enough ranting for now. That's my two-cents.
Thanks.
--
Jeffrey Nuremburg / System Administrator
xanatos@********.net
cgiguy@********.net - All CGI related requests
"I've been an atheist - I had found it difficult to
have religious beliefs and scientific ones, but I've
accepted that I have a duality - there's a human
way of interacting with people but also a mechanistic
explanation of what people are and how they work."
- Rodney Brooks, Director of MIT's AI Lab
