Ones and Fives

[evilgaz]

Gosh I love me some sexy acrylic tokens. I've had a bunch off Broken Egg Games, Team Covenant, accumulated FFG prizes, backed kickstarters. I've occasionally gone back to the cardboard ones and drooled over hard metal tokens elsewhere. I've seen people using glass beads of various sizes and colours. All very interesting.

But.

I'm finding it increasingly irritating to play against opponents with multiple types of tokens for their credit score. I'm down with "ones and fives" these days, but a rainbow array of different tokens - or, Jackson forbid - a variety of credits tokens from different suppliers all in the same pile is leaving me cold, and in some cases, confused.

How about you? Is it about time we went back to simpler times in tournaments - just have "one and fives" to count credits with, or is variety the spice of life?

[Anachron]

I don't mind folks using custom tokens. I generally ask them to make piles of 5's if they're using "non-standard" denominations.

[Epimer]

I've got this brilliant idea for a custom token set that'll solve this: only two denominations, i.e. the ones and fives. The fives will be bigger than the ones for ease of telling them apart. Also - and this is the bit I'm really proud of - while the fives will be double sided, the ones will be advancement tokens on their reverse!

I haven't seen a single custom token set that has this kind of revolutionary usability built in, so I reckon I might be on to something here. Kickstarter goes up next week.

[x3r0h0ur]

I don't find it difficult to decode basically any way of tracking other than broken egg tokens. I don't see why 3, 4 or 5 denominations are any harder than 2. Hell isn't money even color coded in Europe?

[Terrificy]

It can be very difficult when your opponent is simply fiddling around with 5 colors of bricks that you have seen once or twice before at tournaments, at it makes it a lot harder to keep track of their credit stake. If I can't easily ascertain what my Beth is going to do from their credit pile, then I do feel that maybe you should change up what kind of tokens you're doing.

It's also situations like multiple runs on a server. Let's say it costs 11 to get into HQ. My opponent runs once, putting away a 5, 5 and 4, and taking back a 2 and 1. Next time he runs he puts awya a 5, 3, 2, 2 and 1. It can easily lead to some states where you're pretty confused by what your opponent is doing.

In general I just think a lot of the tokens are pretty but shitty design when you haven't seen them before and are sitting across the table.

[Terrificy]

In general, I think the best tokens I've seen have been large metal coins. Bronze 1s, larger Silver 5s and even larger silver 10s. Way easier to keep track of than 5 (or even up to 7!) different colors of plastic tokens in equal sizes with different amount of small credits painted on.

[SavageOne]

I use the Hegemonic Metal Coins from when I backed the original kickstarter, (I think I've played the game maybe once), but I love using 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's if you get especially rich. The problem is that the 2's and 5's are both a grey or silvery metal so if I go to a tournament I either only use 1's and 2's or 1's and 5's to simplify things for both myself and my opponents.

[magikot]

I'm one of the few people I game with that uses the cardboard tokens from the core set.

They're perfectly functional and easy to quickly see what's what. 1's are in rows of five, 5's are in two columns next to it. Whenever I start my fourth row of 1's, I exchange two of the rows for 5's. As long as I announce what I'm doing and make the credits easy for both myself and my opponent to read, it's all good.

I also move my credits from my credit pool to the card using them if need be. For example, SMC costs 2 credits to use so I move 2 credits onto SMC before trashing it so my opponent clearly sees what I'm doing.

[x3r0h0ur]

Hilariously I found the hegemonic metal coins to be the worst for telling whats what, esp if they track on their ID and put it all the way across the table. No big deal, but a little harder than say, Covenant tokens

The bricks are the broken egg ones, and while they have the denomination written on it, you can't make it out, especially when they're stacked. They are easily the worst, especially if you don't know what colors are what, as they're all the same size, and the print is impossible to read. As for the Covenant tokens in 1, 2, 3 and 5 denominations, the amount is clearly printed on it, and they're different sizes, scaling up from 1 to 5.

It's also situations like multiple runs on a server. Let's say it costs 11 to get into HQ. My opponent runs once, putting away a 5, 5 and 4, and taking back a 2 and 1. Next time he runs he puts away a 5, 3, 2, 2 and 1. It can easily lead to some states where you're pretty confused by what your opponent is doing.

This makes no sense, why do you care what they're taking away and putting out, you should be tracking the total before and after running, how they make change is irrelevant. To me I'd say "okay you have 18, you run, it costs 11, you now have 7." It doesn't matter at all what tokens are put away.

[Terrificy]

I am not talking about the Hegemonic metal coins, luckily, but a non-ANR product somebody had re-purposed.

In general yeah, I think the Broken Egg ones are hilariously un-usable. The Team Covenant ones are OK, yes, but I do think you should just stick to 1s and 5s. I've seen way worse ones.

The problem is that situations like that makes it extremely hard to track the total before and after, when you're sitting across a table looking at what's basically just a pile of un-intuitive plastic bits you've never seen before. It's usually only a problem coupled with the kind of opponents where it isn't a hundred percent clear what's going on.

[corncobs19]

I like using the coreset tokens, but I wish they include 2s. They are really useful for reducing the amount of times you need to make change, and the amount of tokens you need to use for drip econ.

I recently bought Ra, and I think those tokens are seriously the best to use for netrunner. Plus you can flip them upside down and hide how many credits you have!!

[herrPantsy]

Euro bills are color coded and increase in size. Pieces exist in groups of 1, 2 and 5. [1,2,5 cents, 10, 20,50 cents, and so on.]

The thing is: the total amount of credits used in a game is to low to justify more denominations. The reception of the 10 credit 'pizza pie' in the nationals kit is a great example: there's just no use for it.

If you gain 7 credits, why take anything else then [5,1,1] or [1,1,1,1,1,1,1]?

[clercqie]

the 10 credit 'pizza pie' in the nationals kit is a great example: there's just no use for it.

It makes a great coaster for your drink!

[percomis]

I just don't get why 5 is the bigger denomination. 1 and 3 make way more sense from a bunch of card's perspectives.

[SavageOne]

I don't keep my money on my ID, I keep it on the right side close to the imaginary line where my stuff ends and my opponents stuff begins. I agree that the some of the hegemonic coins are easy to confuse, (the 5's and 2's) But the 1's are copper and the 10's are Gold. I only use the full set when I'm playing my friend that I normally play with. When I play against strangers, I only use 5's and 1's.

I had to play against someone using the broken egg tokens and it was maddening never seeing them before and being unable to read them because they were stacked on his ID.

[erinrockabitch]

I've found these great tokens that can represent any number up to six. They're solid plastic cubes with a number of contrast-coloured pips on each side that reflect the value I need!

[dogs]

I've found that no matter what I use, someone out there will be critical of it. I think as long as you as a player are clear and communicative both with your actions and your credit pool, everything should be fine.

To answer the OP, I used to use roll down D20s to track credits. But, after knocking my die over in a high profile match at Gencon (thankfully, my opponent was cool about it!), I've shifted to using the FFG credit tokens that were handed out as tournament prizes. So I use 1s, 2s, 5s, occasionally 3s, and honeycombs when I'm feeling spicy.

[Sotomatic]

I'm gunna go all baller and use real $1 and $5 bills to track my credits at Worlds this year

[dogs]

!ruined

[moistloaf]

I've done it. It's not actually ideal cause you will be !ruined by the slightest breeze or a gust of air conditioning. I switched to large bricks cast by a local mason. I use standard red bricks for 1s and his custom white bricks for 5s. Frequently I will construct a ziggurat by the late-game, entirely obscuring my board state, which I have found to be advantageous. Never once has my opponent asked how many credits I have, or if they have, I haven't been able to hear them. Cheap plastic fold out tables are the only concern now.