I bought doom some days ago, and played my first game as invader.

We loved the game, but ther ewas something that made us "meh" a little inside. It is the marines fragging.

The fact that a marine never really dies, and that he just respaws the next turn, kills a little bit the mood of the game. We would really love to see some mod that makes marines death permanent, yet balanced. I know it is the way it is so dead marines won' just sit and watch, but it would be cool that for example dead marines could help the invasor player: returning as a zombie, picking invasors cards with a max hand of 1 card...

But how could this be balanced? Marines having more life? More armor (could make weak invaders pretty much useless)? When a marine loses all of its heal, he needs to be rescued by another marine in less than 2 turns or he definetly dies, and if he is rescued comes back with half of the standar amount of life, so the second time he is taken down would have just a quarter fof his original life?

We would really love to see some mod like this!! Do you guys know from any mod that works like this?

Our group has been playing this game in "ironman" mode pretty much ever since we got it. By "ironman" I mean that marines don't respawn. Period. We didn't change any other rules and it worked out fine. It did make the game substantially harder, but that only added to the grim atmosphere we all so dearly craved from the game.

Actually, I lied about not changing other rules. We also used the suggested variant rule about all guns coming with a token of ammo inside (or is that the base rule and the variant said two units?) It's been a little while since we played last. Anyway, the game was VERY hard for the marines, but also VERY fun for everyone! And nobody seemed to mind being down and out after their marine got geeked. Usually once one marine fell it wasn't long before they all did. This game really taught us the value of teamwork! And yes, the marines did manage to win the first scenario after a couple tries, so it wasn't entirely one-sided.

Interesting. I was thinking about doing that, but i though that it would make the game too much harder. Well, I mean... you said that they completed the first scenario after a couple of times.

Considering that it is the first scenario, and that in each game they lose thew knew a little more about the scenario.... maybe it really is too hard.

I think some scenarios will be utterly impossible using this type of play without changing the rules (just have a look at scenario two from the base game). And you would have to play a scenario perfectly and with a bit of luck to win... the game is designed for the marines to have some losses.

Though I would love some good perma-death rules for Doom, there would have to be rule changes before my gaming group would enjoy them. Having to try each scenario 5 times before coming close to winning wouldn't be their cup of tea. I would start with changing damage outputs and changing the way defence works.

Me likes the respawn method. It is like the game, or like any fps in multiplayer. Frag frag frag respawn frag frag frag respawn and so on.

For a feeling that your death is much more a tragedy, play descent (or arkham if you were not only talking about dungeon crawlers)

I actually *don't* like the frag/respawn, since it feels too gamey. In the single player game of Doom, you don't respawn when you die, you have to reload and try again. I think that's the only mechanic of Doom: The Boardgame that I wish was done differently (though it's a key element for the Advanced Campaign, so I can't really complain too much

If you want to try to retain the original balance, then calculate how many "frags" the Invader needs, and just make sure there are that many wounds in the game. I.e. if there are 3 marines that normally start with 9 Wounds, and the Invader needs 5 frags to win, that's 5x9=45 Wounds. So give each marine 22 wounds. Then just make death permanent.

Or you could try what Steve-O suggested, the IronMan route, though I still think you should give at least a few more wounds to each marine (I'd say at least double their starting wounds, effectively giving each marine a 2nd life).

-shnar

Oh, we also allowed the marines to carry medpacs around and use them at will. I just remembered about that.

I don't deny that our ironman style made the game more difficult, but we all agreed a survival horror game ought to be hard, so we were willing to go this route. Others may not be, that's cool.

I think i'll try what I said before: Leaving the game as it is, but:

-When a player loses all his wounds, he stays in the ground.

-While in the ground, he can only move 1 square. And each round he starts being on the ground, he gets 1 point of damage.

-After 3 points of damage he permanenly dies (like the encounter in the first scenario, the one where a scientist tells you where the BFG is)

-To rescue a marine from the ground, you need to use a "Ready" order, so he can move 4 squares and rescute a fellow marine, or shot and rescue.

I'll tell you how it goes!

Over on boardgamegeek.com, someone had created a Left 4 Dead variant for Doom, which had a similar concept, when a Marine goes down, he's not dead yet, and the other marines can revive him...

-shnar