An Eventful Expansion By Brian Kibler
Big things are happening in the world of Vigil. The demise of Samael has left a world once united in purpose without a common cause to bring them together. Old rivalries have resurfaced as the factions struggle for power.
While the factions bicker amongst themselves, dark things are happening. At first it seemed like nothing. After all, who wouldn’t expect a few restless spirits roaming the land after a war as great as the one that sent Samael to his demise? But as the hauntings grew more frequent and less benign it became clear that something more sinister was afoot.
The scattered remnants of Samael’s cult, rather than dissipate, have grown all the more fervent. They whisper that their master’s death has shattered the gates of the underworld itself. Their ramblings seemed to have more truth in them than madness, as the trickle of souls became a torrent. The children of the realm seem to share a collective nightmare of a great beast descending from the sky to swallow the world whole.
http://www.ascensiongame.com/images/stories/card_images/SoS/Nemesis_L.png[/img]You got a first glimpse of Nemesis in John Fiorillo’s introduction to Storm of Souls, but here it is - the creature of nightmare itself. A few things probably jump to mind when you see this card. Those of you who read the last article on Trophy (LINK) are likely realizing this is the EVEN BIGGER monster I was alluding to and thinking “Wow, I can get back two Hoarding Tyrants and Unchained Fates with this reward!” – and yes, you can, and yes that’s as powerful as it seems. But the savviest of you probably read that Fate effect and thought – “Banish the current Event – what in the world does that mean?”
Here, I’ll show you:
http://www.ascensiongame.com/images/stories/card_images/SoS/Void_Rising_L.png[/img]This particular event was spoiled in our sell sheet a while back, but we never quite explained how it worked. That’s about to change! Event cards represent shifts in the world order of Vigil. Despite the factions’ struggle for dominance, the balance of power in the world remains largely the same, but sometimes things happen that can tip the scales. Events represent the result of that shift in power as one faction rises to dominance.
Events are a totally new card type and have their own set of rules associated with them. They are shuffled into the center deck as normal at the beginning of the game. When they enter the center row, however, rather than remain there like other cards they are immediately set off to the side in the Event zone. There can only be one Event active at a time, and when a new Event flips the old event is banished and the new one takes its place.
Each Event represents a particular faction – Void Rising, as you can see, says “Event- Void”. Events create rules that affect all players in the game, but generally tend to benefit those who have a lot of cards of that particular faction in their deck. Void Rising creates a Voidthirster effect for all players, which provides a much bigger benefit to someone with a lot of power-generating Void heroes in their deck than someone with a pile of Mechana Constructs.
Events originated from our testing with Fate cards that had ongoing powers rather than one-shot effects when they entered the center row. While many of these effects were cool and fun, they generated a few play experiences we didn’t like. When we had the effects on low cost cards, it was very common that the card would just be acquired or banished before it got to a player’s turn, meaning that the Fate effect did nothing for that player. We moved the ongoing Fates to more expensive cards so they might stick around longer, but that would often cause the board to clog up with multiple ongoing Fate effects at once, and often players would forget about one or more of them during their turn.
Ultimately, our solution was to just make ongoing effects another card type entirely. It was difficult tracking them and it often felt lame when they’d just get acquired or banished before they did anything. We decided that we only wanted there to be one at a time to avoid the potential clutter and confusion we experienced with multiple ongoing Fate cards, which led to the idea of each such card representing one of the factions rising in power above the rest.
Once we decided to make Events a new card type, we wanted to expand upon their role in the set to make them more integrated into everything that was going on. In addition to the natural synergy the Events have with their faction’s cards, some cards in Storm of Souls have bonus effects when their faction is in power. Like so:
http://www.ascensiongame.com/images/stories/card_images/SoS/Shadowcaster_L.png[/img]Shadowcaster is a powerful banishing card in its own right, letting you draw through your deck quickly and replace those pesky Militia as you banish them from your hand. On its own, its effect is up there with the best banishing cards in the game, but when the Void faction is in charge is when things really start getting crazy. When the current Event is Void – such as when Void Rising is out – Shadowcaster lets you banish both a card from your hand and a card from your discard pile, letting you tear through your deck at an incredible rate. All of the event-enhanced cards like Shadowcaster have a watermark of their faction’s symbol in the text box so you can distinguish them at a glance.
That’s a lot of cool things about Events already, but that’s not everything yet! There’s still the mysterious “Event Trophy” text to explain. Well, let it be a mystery no longer.
http://www.ascensiongame.com/images/stories/card_images/SoS/Fanatic_L.png[/img]The Fanatic is a new always available monster in Storm of Souls. That means that just like his good buddy the Cultist there are always Fanatics around to abuse when you’re looking for a fight. Also like the Cultist, the Fanatic rewards one Honor when he’s defeated, but his reward doesn’t stop there. The Fanatic is a Trophy Monster, which mean that when you defeat him you can place him face up in front of you and banish him later for an effect. Unlike most Trophy Monsters, the Fanatic doesn’t have a set effect when you use its Trophy. Instead, the Fanatic has a variable Trophy effect based upon the current Event. If Void Rising is active, the effect of all Fanatic trophies is to banish a card in your hand or discard pile.
Unlike with other Trophies, which are unrestricted, a player may only control one Fanatic Trophy at a time. This means you can’t stockpile Fanatic heads waiting for a particular Event to use them all – but you can save the one you have until you want to defeat another, which can lead to some interesting gameplay decisions. Do I want to banish a card now, or do I want to wait and hope that the Lifebound Event flips next turn so I can use it then?
And what is the Lifebound Event Trophy reward? Well, you’re just going to have to wait until next time to find out..
原文链接:http://www.ascensiongame.com/news-archive/item/an-eventful-expansion
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