From:	Jeffrey Nuremburg <xanatos@********.NET>
Subject:	Widow's Trap
Date:	Tue, 31 Mar 1998 21:55:45 -0500

Hey all.

Here is my take on Widow's Trap:

Widow's Trap
Challenge (Indoor)

When Widow's Trap is revealed, shadowrunning team may choose to pull
out of the shadowrun immediately or roll D6:
1-2: No effect.
3-4: Trash a randomly determined Runner.
5-6: Trash 2 randomly determined Runners.
7+: Trash entire shadowrunning team!
Trash Widows' Trap after encountered. Only Runners who are present
can be
trashed.

Now, the problem with this card is the term "encountered". I noted
the problem with this term the first time I saw the card. I've given it
some thought, and I definately do NOT feel that "Trash Widow's Trap after
encountered" can be replaced by "Trash after revealed." I think that the
intent of this card is that it must eventually be faced. It is obviously an
extremely harsh card to confront, thus the design that the Shadowrunning
team can opt to pull out. This allows the player to consider his options
and perhaps run with a single Runner next turn (someone perhaps, that is
considered expendable). In my take on the card, "encountered" means that
one actually "encounters" or deals with the card itself, that is rolls on
the cards table.
If the the card is "Trashed after revealed" then this card is worse
than Chomps 2000 (which can offer the same 1 turn Run stopping power and
which also deals 6 points of damage each time encountered). Of course one
could argue that Chomps 2000 can be sleazed with a 2 Social whereas this
card has no sleaze requirement, but this card was most likely made a rare
for a reason. It is, in my perception, supposed to be an extremely serious
challenge that the player is eventually going to have to confront or
"encounter".

LOKI: I hate to ask this again, but would it be possible to see what the
nice folks at
FASA have to say concerning this card. I mean, they designed the
darn thing so
they must have some idea what the heck they were talking about. :)

That's my .000002 cents.
--
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