Hello all!

I was inspired today to put together some custom cards for Agent Kallus based on his role(s) in the Star Wars: Rebels show. I wanted his role as a double agent to play out on the board and in his abilities.

For his Skirmish card and command card, I wanted him to mesh well with Agent Blaise but not mirror his abilities. I also wanted the low cost to balance with benefits to both the player and his opponent. For the Campaign card, I saw someone mention previously the idea of all the Imperial groups being revealed to the Rebels and built up the idea from there. I have very little experience with campaigns so I hope the balance works out. I am willing to hear some suggestions.

This is the first time I've made Imperial Assault cards so this is more of a proof-of-concept than an attempt to make gaming magic. Please let me know what you all think!

Interesting card; what is your intent for the "~: +1 Strain" ability? Does the target need to suffer damage for this to trigger? Is it reduced by blocks?

Yeah, the "~: +1 Strain" needs to be defined. The game does not have such a mechanism. Adding strain tokens into the attack pool does nothing.

(See Relentless and Punishment, which are the closest we have.)

Does the icon next to the name tell you if its Skirmish / Campaign?

If so im guessing the 'two planet' icon is campaign? (not touched skirmish yet)

Yes, the round one is campaign. The symbols are described in the expansions that have different skirmish and campaign versions, for example the Twin Shadows rulebook from https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-imperial-assault/

Hey guys thanks for the feedback! For the +1 strain, I was thinking it would only need a bullet point added to the current strain rules. What I came up with is in bold below, under the current rule, so let me know what you think!

Quote

Strain in a Skirmish

When a figure suffers (strain), it suffers an equal amount of (damage) instead. The player controlling the figure can prevent any of this (damage) by discarding one Command card from the top of his deck for each (strain) that he wishes to prevent.

• When a figure suffers (strain) during an attack, it is treated as (damage) and only cancelled by defense results after all other (damage). The choice to prevent this (damage) by discarding is resolved at the end of the Calculate Damage step.

That still does not explain what the ability "~: Strain" does exactly.

The addition to Strain in Skirmish only applies once you explain what the ability does.

Does the attacker or defender suffer the strain and what is the timing? You are mixing during attack and at the end of the Calculate Damage step - do you mean after the attack resolves ? Does the defender (objects cannot suffer strain) need to suffer damage from the attack for the strain to apply?

To use the current conventions with minimal new rules, I assume you want:

1. "~: Strain" adds strain to the attack results.

2. When calculating damage, if there are more block results than damage results, the excess blocks can be used to cancel strain results.

3. After suffering the calculated damage (can be 0), the defender suffers the remaining Strain results.

The Strain in Skirmish rules do not need to be changed, because the regular rules allow to discard a card instead of suffering damage instead of suffering strain.

Yeah, honestly, I'd get rid of the Red Alert ability in Campaign and replace it with something like:

Relentless Tactician

Spend Two Surges during an attack. After the attack resolves, if the defender suffered any damage, they suffer two strain.

Assuming that was the intention, of course.

If it was the other way around, maybe something like:

Guilty Conscience

During an attack, this unit may spend two surges to take two strain. This must be done before any other surge abilities can be used.

Otherwise, I really like this card! I especially like the Top Secret ability, I think it makes a lot of sense for Kallus, and helps justify his extremely low cost. Maybe (and again, not trying to be overly critical here) that ability might have a different name, though. A certain 7 letter "F" title might be appropriate

It would work as damage that can be prevented by discard one Command card, only after all defense results are resolved. So an example might be; Kallus attacks an Alliance Ranger and rolls 1 damage and 3 surges against the Ranger's 3 blocks. The Kallus player chooses to surge for 2 strain and Pierce 1, Hide. The Rebel Trooper would then cancel the 1 damage and 1 of the 2 strain, only to have 1 strain left to resolve. The Rebel Trooper player chooses to mill one card in lieu of damage.

See my edit above.

12 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

Yeah, honestly, I'd get rid of the Red Alert ability in Campaign

My goal with Red Alert was to create a counter-effect to Leia's campaign ability "Aggressive Negotiations" but I have received a lot of feedback regarding Red Alert and To Your Stations so I think I'll need to re-do the campaign card completely.

Regarding the application of strain, the new Jawa card is the only recent example of applying strain through an attack but I also recognize that that surge specifically declares that the strain is applied 'after the attack resolves, if it did not miss.' Maybe I just drop the strain mechanics but that was really where I wanted his focus to be.

12 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

Otherwise, I really like this card! I especially like the Top Secret ability, I think it makes a lot of sense for Kallus, and helps justify his extremely low cost. Maybe (and again, not trying to be overly critical here) that ability might have a different name, though. A certain 7 letter "F" title might be appropriate

Hilariously, that was the initial name for that rule but then I chose to use that word as his 'sub-title' (or however it is referred) on both cards. I could probably think of a better sub-title and then use that for his campaign ability.

Yeah, that's why I think strain could work, it just doesn't work as a keyword like that in the current rules. That's why, even on that Jawa card, it's an ability that specifies exactly when it happens.

3 minutes ago, subtrendy said:

Yeah, that's why I think strain could work, it just doesn't work as a keyword like that in the current rules. That's why, even on that Jawa card, it's an ability that specifies exactly when it happens.

I think I will cut back his surges to just Pierce 1,Hide and +? Accuracy, and adjust his dice to GYY or BYY (maybe). Then I'll include an ability like you suggested that is basically surge-surge for 2 strain, with the same trigger as the Jawa.

Do you think his point cost and health (3/6) are balanced? Some folks have suggested (4/7) to line up well with Hera, but then he is getting closer and closer to being a knock-off Agent Blaise. I wanted him to be a reasonable alternative to 2x regular Officers and introduce game mechanics that might discourage taking Zillo Technique (because of the amount of drawing, cycling, and/or discarding).

There are cards and abilities in skirmish that require the hostile figures to suffer strain (Trandoshan's for instance). I think the defender should still be able to decide if the strain applies as damage, in which case it is added to the damage total of the attack die, or a command card discard. If this is the case, there wouldn't be a need to adjust any skirmish strain rules, unless I'm missing something.

11 minutes ago, Smashotron said:

I think I will cut back his surges to just Pierce 1,Hide and +? Accuracy, and adjust his dice to GYY or BYY (maybe). Then I'll include an ability like you suggested that is basically surge-surge for 2 strain, with the same trigger as the Jawa.

Do you think his point cost and health (3/6) are balanced? Some folks have suggested (4/7) to line up well with Hera, but then he is getting closer and closer to being a knock-off Agent Blaise. I wanted him to be a reasonable alternative to 2x regular Officers and introduce game mechanics that might discourage taking Zillo Technique (because of the amount of drawing, cycling, and/or discarding).

Well, I'm definitely not the person to ask for Skirmish, but I like his low cost, and I think Top Secret might justify it- but it's such a unique disadvantage, to have open information like that be the "price" for paying for a unit, it (like everything else) would require a lot of playtesting.

I remember (not sure if you saw it and got the idea from it, or if great minds just think alike) that I had suggest a pretty similar ability to Top Secret for Kallus last week. I'm wondering if all cards revealed is too many, or if the Imp player should just have to revael 3 cards (either chosen by them, or randomly chosen by Rebels)- or if they should only reveal open reserved or open groups. Again, it's a pretty unique effect, would require some testing for sure.

I like the fact that ability boost or negate both side ! Really scumy, but you catch the spirit of the caracters.

I white dice might be better (like all spy) if you stay with 6 Heath, otherwise geting him a little more health (7or8).

The stress mecanic is nice.

3 yellow dice : by default, he doesn't have any range ... ouch. Changing one to a green or blue might be better (like Blaise).

On 3/29/2017 at 10:24 AM, subtrendy said:

I remember (not sure if you saw it and got the idea from it, or if great minds just think alike) that I had suggest a pretty similar ability to Top Secret for Kallus last week. I'm wondering if all cards revealed is too many, or if the Imp player should just have to revael 3 cards (either chosen by them, or randomly chosen by Rebels)- or if they should only reveal open reserved or open groups. Again, it's a pretty unique effect, would require some testing for sure.

That must have been it! I knew I saw this concept earlier but I couldn't find the thread for reference. I only have experience as a Rebel player in campaign so I'm not sure where the balance can be found. Maybe reveal all cards, but the Imperial player is also allowed an additional Deployment card?

Here is more about How I feel my agent kallus.
A mix of ISB and imperial officer. His spy ability is to draw 1 card (Imperial don't have this ability)

Not sure about the dice color (maybe a yellow insted of blue?) but the auto-Hide is here to protec him and give a surge bonus.
Also the part "in your line of sight" maight be remove from the Coordinated Attack.

I really like your Secret Agent ability! That will really help him on defense, plus that free block, and he'll always have the extra surge when he shoots.

5 hours ago, Smashotron said:

I really like your Secret Agent ability! That will really help him on defense, plus that free block, and he'll always have the extra surge when he shoots.

That the idea
You can stay a little bit far from the battle thanks to the +2 acc also.
It's a little bit a sniper (unlike Agent Blaise) but don't deal so much domage. (5 might be the max - Or 4 with Pierce2)
The 7 points is there to counter Obi-One effect.

Based on Vinto / BT-1 cost, i don't think it's overcosted.

To your stations just seems tremendously unbalanced (especially for a unit with a figure cost of 3). You might want to limit that to at least non-uniques.