Community Design Exercise - Ep.2 Console Wars (part 1)

Unfortunately we cannot go super story mode and make Edward Kim auto-trash bioroid cards. That would be really bad for design. However, he IS on the art of “i’ve had worse” so perhaps we could delve into something along those lines. A console for the self-damage anarchs maybe?

Hammer Pants
Console - Anarch - 3inf
4 cost
+1 Link. Whenever you take at least 1 meat damage, the corp must also discard 1 card at random. Whenever you take at least 1 net damage, draw 1 card. Whenever you take at least 1 brain damage, the corp must trash the top 2 cards of RnD.

The benefits could be changed, obviously, but you get the idea.

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$6
Console
+1MU
When your turn begins, lose one click.
All ice are barriers in addition to their other types.

i assume you mean mine, but if not, disregard.

Skorpios, Ark Lockdown, Chronos Project, and Salsette Slums already exist, so something that RFGs isn’t really that unheard of. corp doesn’t really need breakers, so you RFG something, they can still get by usually (ie: RFGing something is usually not much worse than trashing it in the first place). it’s also intrinsically a two-card combo, it specifically doesn’t allow RFGing agendas, and it works with stuff other than just Kim’s ability like Imp which has been an anarch staple forever.

anyway, here is a version that is kind of like how Comet is with Hayley. it works thematically but not mechanically. inspired a little bit by @ChairmanHiro

Mangchi

4c - *****

+1 MU

Once per turn, you may suffer 1 meat damage to reduce the trash cost of an asset you are currently encountering by 3.

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Maxx is trash then draw, hmm. This means the console triggers before the random draw. I like it a lot.

You should put “through a card ability” after the “trash”, because with someone else than Maxx you could replay Sure Gambles (like Skorpio rftg those).

This is my little something for Maxx. Yeah, that’s minus 1 MU. Yeah, that’s full of risks.

Stormy Days - 1c
Anarch Hardware - Console - 3 inf - non unique

-1 MU
4c recursive to install programs.
1c, [Trash]: put the 3 bottom cards from your heap on your stack in any order.

Whenever you initiate a run, you may install Stormy Days from your heap (paying its install cost).

Limit 3 consoles per player.

“Flame on. – MaxX”

Freedom - 1c, 2 inf
+1 MU
Whenever one or more ice subroutines fire during an encounter, draw 1 card.
“When you remove your material needs, the rest of the world ceases to matter” - Quetzal

Hey look, it’s the anarch astrolabe! Obviously it works well for Quetzal, but has synergies with the heap breakers and at 2 inf can be imported into pirate shaper decks. The card draw helps you deal with nasty subroutines, and means you can farm end the run subroutines for turning wheel counters and cards! It boosts any archetype that likes to run now and deal with the consequences later, which is how I like to play.

It would bring face checking back. The numbers need tweaked to nerf it though; it’s way too strong to be costed 1 and 2 inf. Also, limited to first ice encountered each turn.

You think? I just used astrolabe’s numbers, with the inf low so shapers can pick it up if they want. If multiple subs are firing in a run, you’re getting hit by some nasty stuff, and if you make lots of runs to trigger this that’s spending clicks you could be using to draw cards. I think people underestimate how much power gets reduced when a card goes from 1-2 credits.

Oh, that left the game ?
8)

The gap from 1-to-2 credits for an install is certainly greater than 1, but the console you’ve designed is far better than Astrolabe. The runner can control when it fires (unlike Astrolabe), and it would significantly change the way runners deal with a lot of ice and what ice people play (which is why it’s an exciting idea).

Fair enough then, what cost would you give it?

You have to clear the wording before. Since subroutines never “fire” at the same moment, for now, this cover any “-> 1 damage” subs. If you have 4 cards in hand before Komainu, you’d have 4 cards in hand after Komainu.

You could use “during an encounter with an ice that the runner did not break blabla, draw 1.”

Street magic can help you there (+ this is comboing well with your console).

As of today, it should be 6c at least, compared to a card like Daredevil. Don’t pay and draw, not only once / turn ? This is not cheap.

I’d say 4 cost. This console would be very strong early you want it to at least eat a Sure Gamble. I would also be strong mid and late game because the runner could creatively ignore certain subroutines to get cards.

If 4 seems like a lot, add a soft buff like another MU (a popular design solution for Anarchs) or a trash ability like "trash: draw 4 cards"
If you really want to go cheaper, add some kind of nerf. Maybe “the corp may draw a card whenever you use Freedom to draw a card”

i disagree with some of the earlier suggestions

if you just change ‘fire’ to ‘would resolve’ it would work like how i think you mean it to

as for cost, i agree that it’s too low unless you limit it in some way (x per run/turn or something). run into a vanilla to draw a card? that isn’t any better than just clicking to draw. but letting trace subs resolve and just using your link or money instead of breakers to deal with it could end up meaning it’s a much better deal for the runner. or just letting weyland get 1 from Hortum/Mausolus. until they advanced it 3 times, i’d take that deal every time

Recoil Boot
Anarch * Hardware * Console
Cost 2 * Infl 2

Whenever 1 or more cards is trashed from the Stack, trash the top card of R&D and gain 1cr.

Whenever Recoil Boot is trashed, trash the top card of R&D and gain 1cr.

————
Works ok with Inject and Persephone…which I fancy as Quetzal’s Killer. Can trigger by over-writing too. It’s a bit brutish, but I like toying with the Program opportunity costs of a console without MU.

But that’s sort of the point I was trying to encourage. Anarchs are the ones most likely to aggressively facecheck without a potential answer, so by encouraging that you also encourage the most obvious corp counterplay, which is to put their nastiest ice on the outside and force the runner to slam into it if the runner wants their cards. There are already runner cards that punish the corp for poor ice placement (e.g. farming turning wheel counters of etr subs, using low strength ice with aumakua), so why not make corps think about their ice placement a bit more.

I also don’t really get your example with weyland ice. Mausolus has plenty of nasty subs that you have to break even if you’re giving the corp money, and hortum etr’s so you can’t just farm draws off it. Even if you’re breaking the ice and getting paid back a draw, that all costs money, something anarchs aren’t supposed to have limitless quantities of. Smart corps could bait the runner into triggering Freedom a bunch to drain their credits and lock them out.

Like your reasoning here. But the effect is bland for me. I like a little more mechanism. What about an anarchy trigger (damage, trash installed runner card, sub-resolves, etc) that causes something else anarchy (trash hq card, reveal top cards of R&D, etc.) for every installed unique connection.

Yes, I was trying to get some non-technological triggers here, and encourage the hammer party decks that has been around. I want to imagine that Kim’s strength is in the meat space; that he finds it easy to find people who sympathise with him.
I also like the I’ve Had Worse style of effect.

What about a Gang Signy type effect for Ed’s console that works with link, tags, and connections? Isn’t exactly meatspace, but it feels right giving him the ability to get others in on the deed.

Retri Rotoboard
Anarch * Hardware * Console * Link
Cost 3 * Infl 3
+1 Link
Whenever the Corp scores an Agenda, you may take up to X tags to randomly access up to X cards from HQ. If any card accessed this way is an Agenda, the Corp may remove 2 tags to trash a unique Connection. X is the lesser value of: the number of installed unique Connections and your link strength.

if it’s for facechecking, then you’d probably want to include something for newly rezzed ice. as it’s worded, you can get cards by just not breaking a particular subroutine, which is what i meant by my examples.

i obviously didn’t mean you’d farm Mausolus or Hortum (when i said trying to farm Vanilla was bad), but you can run a server when you actually want to run and end up drawing many cards during that run. that was just an example anyway. the main thing was trace subroutines that are sometimes just paid through the trace anyway but Mausolus/Hortum were just other examples. there are many more though.

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