The Undercity Card Preview: Inspector Crowther

jtkauff

This post is for discussing the fourth card preview from The Undercity, Inspector Crowther, and the ability Investigate.
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J.T. Kauffman

Mordimer · Peasant Joined: 12 Jan 2005 Posts: 11

First target for assasination Idea

jtkauff · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:42 pm Post subject:

Heheh, very true. Though since Investigations take place before the crimes and are preventative measures, he can add to the Investigation on his own assassination attempt.

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

GuJiaXian · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:44 pm Post subject:

Heh. The flavor on that is downright odd. "Hmm, someone seems to be planning to assassinate me. I'd better track them down and confront them about it." :)
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jtkauff · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject:

Oh, I dunno - it seems like a twisted episode of Law and Order or something. Crowther, at work one day, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts. Receives a phone ca... er, telegram... er, carrier pidgeon with an anonymous note stating "Watch your back Crowther, Darkmoor has it in for you." But will he be able to dig through the mess of The Undercity in time to find his killer before they strike? Tune in next week to find out on... bum bum bum... CSI: Allegiance.

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

funkypea · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:39 pm Post subject:

Not sure whether he's useful at all - seems way too overcosted, 6 cost for one single FI, a one strength exhausting debate and the investigate. big problem is that investigate exhausts him, it's still a random ability (only 50/50 vs Gregorious' assassinate) and if you were going to commit crimes you'd almost certainly ensure you exhaust the investigators first.
in our games he's almost certain to be hit by a siren / tavern / discredit prior to being any use.

Just looking at that cost he's in the same league as:

Archbishop Lawrence - 4FI, crusade, pray and retain, not to mention 4 rel str for holding invocations.

Hews Etherin - 4FI, berserk and unkneeling defender with 5 offence - probably the best troop out there.

Rowen Tregorian - 3FI, discredit, debate, retain plus the huge FI boost from having more mosfin characters, in our 4 player games he's frequently worth seven or eight FI in total.

Senator Mirrows - 3FI, discredit, fear - with his high defence and fear he can easily shut down attacks.

There is no way Inspector Crowther is even close to these guys in terms of worth.

jtkauff · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:14 pm Post subject:

Yes, we've already looked at the cost of Crowther, and later in the same day that he was posted, decided to drop his cost some - he is now 1 econ and 3 political to play. We've not yet had a chance to update the cost on his card, though.

For the most part all the cards that we are posting are final, but there is always the chance that details will change.

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

jtkauff · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject:

It appears that there was a bit of confusion about how investigations work. For the full rules text for crime resolution, as well as the text for the five revealed abilities, take a look at the product page for The Undercity:

http://www.lucidraven.com/products/undercity.php

Basically, anyone can call an investigation at strength 1. Crowther, or any other investigator, can add to that score. Criminals can help add to the crime score. Once you end up with those two scores, the total crime score is subtracted from the final investigation score, with the result being the target number. Roll that or lower on a die, and the crime is negated. Roll higher, and the crime resolves. A roll of 1 is always a successful investigation, a roll of 6 is always a successful crime.

Make more sense now?

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

funkypea · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:10 pm Post subject:

so you can use criminals with the same crime in order to ADD to the crime strength - ie they make it easier for the criminal to get caught...

or can you choose to get them to help the criminal and make it harder to get caught?

jtkauff · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:01 am Post subject:

They make it harder for the criminal to get caught.

Anyone with the same crime can exhaust to add their strength, and any Rogue can exhaust to give +1 (if they don't have the same crime). Kinda like Ocean's 11 - one criminal is ok, but 11 together can pull off the most impossible heist.

So, they increase the crime strength, and investigators increase the investigate strength. Both are just what they sound like - the stronger they are, the better chance they have of succeeding.

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

funkypea · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:19 am Post subject:

yeah - that makes more sense - all the adding to a strength and rolling under a number was confusing. Didn't notice there were two strengths, so figured all adding was bad...looking forward to these coming out...

shame there's no way to play online like with some other ccg's. would be cool to play across the world...

jtkauff · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:26 am Post subject:

Yeah, it's kinda confusing when you're just describing it. We'll be putting together an extended example or two that have some nice visuals with them and posting that before the set comes out.

For now, though, you'll have to get by with just the rules text on the product page :)

jt.
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J.T. Kauffman

Monk · LRP, Master of the Forums Joined: 15 Oct 2003 Posts: 1721

The final rules explanations will be a lot more clear than our spoiler attempts. We try to give the basics but not give away all the goodies at once.

As for playing online...we had several companies in theory doing something like this. Ask Patheos what happened to these...with a voice chat system it'd be pretty fun. =)

Monk
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