What's everyone's opinion on adding weapons and skills (i.e. Marine cards) and making the various effects tokens (like Health, Adrenaline, Beserk, etc) act like potions in Descent (i.e. can carry 3, takes 1MP to use), to the Advanced Campaign?

Here's a brief list of the new things I'm currently adding:
- Skill: Weapons Access - Plasma Gun
- Skill: Weapons Access - BFG
- Skill: Weapons Access - Missle Launcher
- Skill: Weapons Access - Chain Gun
- Skill: Weapons Access - Sentry Bot
- Skill: Weapons Access - Land Mines
- Skill: Weapons Access - Sniper Rifle
- Skill: Weapons Access - Flame Thrower
- Skill: Door Breach - 2MP to blow up a closed door (remove from board), plus all figures directly behind door suffer 1 Red Die attack
- Skill: Demolitions Expert - +2Aim with Blast weapons
- Weapon: Land Mines - 1MP to plant, if Invader moves next to it, blows up, 1Red Die + Blast attack, new ammo (Land Mine)
- Weapon: Sniper Rifle - 1 yellow, 2 green, +2 dmg, +3range (and maybe Aimed?) shells ammo
- Weapon: Flame Thrower - 1 red, 1 blue, uses flame template like Descent, uses Oxygen tokens as ammo
- Token: Stimpack - grants Agility ability until Marine's next turn (i.e. dodge)
- Token: Health - +3 wounds
- Token: Beserk - Instant kill fist only (might take this one out though, too powerful?)
- Token: Adrenaline - +4 MPs

I guess I'm wondering if A) this is getting too much like Descent and less like Doom and B) without Fatigue like Descent, is using tokens as potions a good thing? Also, I'm not sure on the new weapons. I like the Land Mines, but the flame thrower? Sniper might be all right but I'm not sure on its abilities.

So, is adding things like this kosher or too much for the Advanced Campaign?

-shnar

Speaking only for myself, I LOVE this idea. What flexibility this allows! Suddenly the marines are going to have to THINK.

Kudos, Shnar!

I like everything listed here, and I think it's perfectly kosher. My only concern is the Door Breach, might be too powerful. Taking a door out of commission is a huge advantage for the marines, but also dealing damage to figures on the other side might be a bit much. Then again, if you leave it as is the Invader will just learn not to leave monsters there, so it might be okay. Everything else = win.

If you're worried about the lack of fatigue regarding MPs, I say to you this: Give the marines fatigue. 3 fatigue sounds about right to me. Give Medpacks the ability to restore 2 wounds OR all fatigue. Only one medpack can be used to restore fatigue per turn, as many as they want for health (fatigue potions were the main reason for that rule in Descent, as far as I can tell.)

Edit: With regards to making the game "too much" like Descent, as long as you remember to keep the focus in Doom on resource management, I think you'll be fine. ie: no new weapons with infinite ammo, no super easy ways to restore health (or fatigue, if you add it.) Doom is suspenseful because the marines are always scrambling for ammo and health packs, always weighing their ability to take a group of monsters against their odds of surviving the mission as a whole. Just make sure you don't lose that and the game will be as distinct from Descent as it ever was, thematically.

Steve-O said:

Aren't all the Marine Cards pretty powerful? Which is the point of these 'skill' cards, they give some cool powerful options to the marines.

IMHO, removing a door isn't super powerful, gives a slight advantage to the Marines, but probably not that big of an advantage, since the maps are going to be a lot smaller (like Descent), so there won't be that many doors. Also, the 1 Red Die attack 1) isn't that large of an attack (same as a fist punch) and 2) only affects the two squares right behind the door, so the Invader only has to be careful about those two squares. I like it and think it will go in as described

Which does make me wonder, should we create a 'flash bomb'?

As for fatigue, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to include it in the first version of the Advanced Campaign. My only concern was whether the lack of it would be a big factor if we require MPs to drink a potion...

-shnar

As far as your "Berserk" concern, I've played the video games (not Doom 3) many times for many years and have found that getting hit by someone with the "Berserk" effect is roughly equivilant to getting hit by a rocket. Minus the "Blast" ability, of course.

I /am/ a little worried about making Beserk a carryable token like a potion, since it's a pretty powerful effect (instant kill on *any* model? I might change that to instant kill on any non-named model, so leaders can be insta-killed like that).

-shnar

Do you feel that making someone who is using "Berserk" roll the dice for a 'rocket' attack (minus Blast, of course, and the target must be adjacent) might be too powerful? It would naturally affect heavily armored enemies less than the little guys. I feel this would achieve the effect you desire as far as turning little baddies to bloodmist, while only putting a dent in a Cyber-demon. The normal chance to miss would apply, of course, but no ammo would need to be expended.

Man, I love this campaign idea!

Edit - spelling, d'oh!

XmenDynasty said:

Can't be more powerful than an intsa-kill. =P

Seriously, I like that idea though. Making the Berserk token carriable and giving it this attack instead of auto-kill is a good balance I think. It's still a powerful advantage, but it probably won't one-shot the more powerful enemies or bosses.

That's not a bad idea, some sort of fist booster rather than instant-killer. I do also like the instant-killer idea though, so maybe I'll have Beserk and Uber-Beserk lying around

-shnar

Berserk = Adds 2 blue dice to a punch

Super-Berserk (VERY RARE AND OUT OF PLACE SPOTS, out of the main mission path, guarded by strong stuff)= Instant kill punches

Maybe that'll give you some ideas.

I just read the Class system on BGG that Shatterhouse360 developed ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/384122 ) and he had an idea of "God Mode" for the berserk tokens:

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"I think berserk tokens should be GodMode tokens. No more one-punch kills, but instead you get invincibility and unlimited ammo for the turn you pick it up and the next two turns. It usually works out that berserk tokens are only useful in regular play if you have Scout, FrontGuard, and KillerInstinct all rolled into one. Also, we're dealing with permanent death here. Three turns of not being able to damage just one marine is not so much to ask.

Update: Tried this out in scenario 2, which has 2 berserk tokens. Treating these like GodMode tokens is the most fun anyone has ever had or will ever have in a board game. You can charge up to zombie and hit it in the face with some rockets, then use knockback to rocket-jump yourself 3 more spaces. Or run into a small room packed full of demons, shut the door behind you, and suicide bomb everybody with grenades dropped at your feet. It makes it better for taking out big packs because you can mow them down with impunity, not caring about ammo or anything else, but it takes a couple rounds to go through the big guys that would normally be dropped by instakill punches. So there's a small tradeoff. GodMode is more powerful overall and also a lot more fun.

On the other hand, Invincibility is too much of a buzzkill for the invader player. It might be better to give the GodMode player some temporary bonus health from which damage is subtracted first. Maybe as many as 20, which you won't think is that many after a single charging/raging maggot drops 11 of them in one turn."

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(wish there was a better quote system)

I like the idea of Berserk being a general buff, rather than instant-killer. I think I'm going to tweak it to be something similar. Maybe not God Mode, but something along the lines of unlimited ammo/extra temp health.

-shnar