| From: | Matb <mbreton@**.NETCOM.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: greetings/new card idea |
| Date: | Sat, 20 Sep 1997 06:14:37 -0700 |
> Type: Contact
> Cost: ?
> Notes: Loan shark lends you 12 nuyen, but you must pay back 16. During
> credstick phase, if 4 nuyen payment is not made trash (frag?) target
> (random?) runner.
> Of course, you would roll to see if you get anything in the first place,
> and either trash loan shark after full payment or be unable to get more
> until current loan is paid off.
I could see this card bending a couple different ways. (Tho to be
honest, at first glance it smacked me a lot of Netrunner and its Corp
cards).
First comment: Money's nothin'. Having to pay back X just doesn't do
much, as far as losing the game: most likely you're going to play this
as a last ditch, get Torgo, FastJack and Sally Tsung all out on the same
turn - and make it into either I win or my opponent wins this turn, and
to X with future payments.
Second: Runner's are nothin', especially when you don't have any.
"Target" runner, also, makes it sound like you can angle you opponent's
Flatline (*and* get yours into play! Keen!) On the other hand,
*Reputation* makes the penalty worth avoiding.
Third: A reusable contact that does this. Ouch. Use the Loan Shark,
then the Hitman or Even Steven to get rid of the debt.. yeuch.
So, I propose a couple of alternates:
Variant 1:
Loan Shark
Type: Location
Cost: 2
Text: Turn visiting runner. Take any Gear card (except Gear/Magic and
Gear/Cyber
cards) from that Runner and place underneath Loan Shark to add an
amount equal to
its deployment cost to your credstick. Turn a visting runner and pay
the deployment cost
of any card (plus one yen) underneath Loan Shark to play that card on
Visiting Runner.
If Loan Shark leaves play, frag all cards underneath Loan Shark.
This is an expensive way to trade items between runners without tapping
them both at the same time.
This Loan Shark doesn't make much money, but I'd probably use it in a
game (which I wouldn't do if I had to pay, say, double deployment
cost). Right now there's no way to steal gear from opponents, so it's
safe that way (otherwise, steal and frag, steal and frag..) Not sure
how it would hangle the Egg of NERPS Ku, however.
Another close variation is to play a card onto Loan Shark from your
hand, and pay double to get it into play, which also seems very
workable.
Might also force a loss of Reputation (either total deployment cost,
including the Location's, or a flat five rep per card) when Loan Shark
is trashed.
Variant 2:
Playing the Odds
Type: Special
Cost: 0
Text: Play during your credstick phase. You may skip your credstick
phase to add a token
to Playing the Odds. As a stinger, you may trash Playing to Odds and
add 6Y to your
credstick for each token on Playing the Odds.
Not very exciting: you sacrifice a definite pay-off for a potentially
larger one; if your opponents don't play with LotI, though, you're
always going to win. Sucks for Fame decks, too. Other possibilities:
Skip your Legwork or Shadowrun phase, each time adding a token.
Variant 3:
Blood Debt
Type: Special
Cost: 3Y
Text: Play on a Yakuza Runner you control. Turn that Runner and add an
amount equal to its deployment cost to your credstick.
(a) Pay twice deployment cost to unturn (ugh)
(b) Pay deployment cost during next Legwork or trash/frag runner
(c) Upkeep: 1. Instead of paying this upkeep, you may choose to lose
an amount of
Reputation equal to card's deployment cost.
(d) Trash Runner and add deployment cost to credstick (or, frag Runner
and add twice..)
