Hello everyone, it’s time for the second installment of design challenges for you all to ponder over! For this one, I’d like to address the runners who do not have “canon” consoles to call their own. While most runner’s in the game have a console that is officially “theirs” in the story, there are a few that have been overlooked, and since consoles are some of the most important and fun cards in the game, I think it would be a good idea to try to give some of those lonely runners a new toy to call their own. However, there are enough console-less runners in the game that I decided to split this exercise up into parts for each faction. So let’s start off with Anarchs.
THE RULES
It must be an anarch console. (duh)
It must be designed specifically with Maxx, Edward Kim, Reina or Quetzal in mind and have notable synergy with them.
You cannot just paint E3 Feedback Implants orange and call it Quetzal’s console AS MUCH AS I WISH IT WAS.
My submission:
Pretzel (Quetzal’s console)
Console - 3 inf
3c install
+1 MU. The first time each turn you break all subroutines on a piece of ice, place 1 power counter on Pretzel. (2 power counters): Break up to 2 barrier subs or add barrier subtype to a piece of ice currently being encountered. You cannot use this ability more than once per turn.
YOL.0
Hardware - Console, 4 Influence, 1c Install
+1 MU.
The first time you trash a card each turn, you may have the Corp select a random card from your grip. Swap that card with the trashed card.
Limit 1 console per player. “I don’t give a sh** if they know I’m logged in. Try to catch me, a******s.”
Pretty good synergy with MaxX, with the randomness not really allowing you to sculpt the perfect hand. Her second trashed card is also still lost like it normally is. In addition, it has nice synergy with other runners' strategies (Geist or Pirate Hayley) while being a significant cost to import.
Sledge
Hardware - Console
3 credits, 3 inf
+1 MU.
The first time you trash an operation or ice card while accessing it each turn, gain credits equal to its play or rez cost.
This is obviously for Ed Kim but it also plays well with cards like imp. Also Reina does have a console deep red.
+1 link
The first time you trash a card from a central server each turn, reveal the top card of R&D. If it has a different type than the card last trashed, trash it. Otherwise, trash Reverb Stick.
The first time you trash a card from a central server each turn, you may access 1 additional card during this run.
I feel like Anarchs don’t have any good multiaccess, so adding a bit when you trash a card seems thematic to me. Obviously focused towards Eddie, but can be used by any Anarch with Imp and could have some use in any faction.
Mohawk - 2
Anarch Hardware - Console - 3 inf
+1 mem
As long as you have no cards in your stack, icebreakers have +2 strength.
Limit 1 console per player. “It sends a message. And that message is: f*** off.” - MaxX
Whenever a piece of ice is rezzed, place power counters on Kasparov equal to the difference between the rez cost paid and its printed rez cost. 2 hosted power counters, [click]: Make a run, during which the rez cost of all ice is increased by 1.
Limit 1 console per player.
“I used to attack because it was the only thing I knew. Now I attack because I know it works best.”
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The idea was to use Reina’s cost increasing ability to augment her aggression, while supporting that method of taxing. It’s not an angle we’ve seen in Anarch since Rook left. The wording means that Reina gets counters if the corp finds a way to discount their ice too, which is cute punishment (and has some weird synergies with Muertos Gang Member, I guess). Also, I kinda love that this Kasparov quote sounds like something Reina would say.
I like Jackhammer a lot, but I would reword it a bit:
(Console - stats)
Whenever you trash a corp card during the first run each turn, you may access 1 additional card during that run.
“from central server” can just be rewritten as “uninstalled card”, but since you already access everything in a scoring remote or archives anyway, dictating where the run is doesn’t actually matter since the effect will only apply to HQ and RnD. I like adding a “whenever” effect, because this means 2 things: first that using ice destruction like cutlery will give you multiaccess that run (which I REALLY like and is great synergy), and second that if you keep seeing things you can trash, you can keep paying money to trash them to keep digging, giving you power now at the risk of burning out and going broke (a very anarch flavored thing to do).
Definitely a good idea, though, I would love to see something like this in the game.
Notorious R.E.D. (reina’s console)
Console - 4 inf
4c install
+1 MU, +1 Link. During the first run you make each turn, if no ice was rezzed during that run, you may access 1 additional card.
Simple and sweet, this works well with the core of a reina deck’s strategy: Threaten the corp with effects that will hurt them if they don’t rez ice, then punish them for rezzing ice and/or devalue their investment after they rez it. This helps a lot with the first part of that equation. If the corp doesn’t rez, you get multiaccess, meaning to prevent it they have to rez ice (for extra cost) as well as find new ice to install so they can rez it. I also really like reina having a console that gives link.
For Reina, the most “criminal” of anarchs, I came up with a criminal-ish console. It’s kind of like an inverse Doppelganger, but that would be an unimaginative name.
Shatpada
Anarch - Hardware - Console - 2 Inf
Cost 4
+1mu
The first time each turn a subroutine that causes the run to end fires on the innermost piece of ICE during a run, you may immediately make a run on another server. Bypass any ICE that shares the subtype sentry,_ barrier_, or_ code gate_ with the ICE which ended the previous run.
Explanation: if you get bounced off an innermost ice during a run, you get to make another run, bypassing ICE that shares the main subtype. The clumsy “a subroutine that causes the run to end” wording is to avoid the Endless Hunger problem, because pure ETR isn’t that common in this game anymore. This way it fires if the corp chooses to ETR with the 3rd sub of a FC3 as well, or by failing a Resistor trace, etc.
I originally had “bypass any ICE that shares a subtype with…” before realising that this would completely hose any corp that had lots of bioroid ice, or lots of tracer ice, or lots of AP ice. So pretty much 80% of corps. I then thought about making it “all subtypes” but that would make it far too restrictive.
The name is apparently an ancient Indian word for “promotion”, which I chose because it reminds me of the ability: your pawn gets to the first row of your opponent’s side of the board, is promoted to a queen, and gets to move in any direction. But I’m not crazy about the name because names of moves or gambits tend to be used for Reina events, so it feels wrong to name a piece of hardware after a move. Names of chess pieces for her programs so that’s out too. Her previous console’s name was a riff on Deep Blue, so maybe the name of another chess-playing computer would work.
That sounds less clumsy actually, thanks Do you think it only working on the innermost is too restrictive? If it were any ice it could allow bouncing off a Vanilla on R&D and then being able to bypass 2 stacked Chiyashis on a remote
Only working on the innermost ICE seems a bit to restrictive to me. Maybe if it only bypass the first matching ICE, to avoid it being too strong. Then we can also avoid the clumsy subtype clause. Something like:
Zwischenzug
Anarch - Hardware - Console - 2 Inf
Cost 4
+1mu
The first time each turn a run ends while encountering an ICE, you may immediately make a run on another server. Bypass the first ICE that shares a subtype with the encountered ICE.
(The name Zwischenzug is apparently “a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the expected move”, which seems fitting enough to me).
Is it weird if I think that Ed Kim not having a Console is kind of thematic? He does not seem like the type of runner to do much in Cyberspace anyways, but more focused on connections and hammering stuff in Meatspace. But then I am not too familiar with all the lore behind him either.
I like him for hardware for this reason. But it’s kinda thematic to give him a console without MU so that it creates a software opportunity cost in deck building.
The first time each turn you would trash a corp card without paying its trash cost, you may pay its rez or play cost to remove it from the game instead.
I don’t like too much the effects that capitalise on the trashing ability of Ken. I think it is strong enough by itself. I like the idea of him having a non-technological console though. So how about:
Hammer
3 cost, 5 influence
The install cost of connection resources is reduced by one.
Do you think it only working on the innermost is too restrictive? If it were any ice it could allow bouncing off a Vanilla on R&D and then being able to bypass 2 stacked Chiyashis on a remote 