In one of my other threads, where I asked how people would change certain cards in X-Wing if they could, @CRCL brought up the idea that he would change stress to be binary... instead of having multiple stress tokens, you're either stressed or you're not. If you are already stressed, you simply can't do things that require that you take a stress (à la no popping Glitterstim). I liked that idea very much. I hate Dengaroo, Stresshog, old-school Zuckuss, pretty much any build that piles on stress, simply because it bothers me from a thematic standpoint. A ship and pilot with 6 stress assigned to it should be an expanding cloud of red mist and ship parts!

I have an idea that I think would be a cool new take on the stress mechanic: Imagine that you CAN take additional stress when you are stressed. Hell, you can even perform red maneuvers when stressed! (Still no actions, though.) However, if you would receive a stress token when you are already stressed, you (might) take damage instead. I'm thinking one of the following options:

• You take 1 automatic damage
• You receive 1 facedown damage card
• You roll a red die and take any hit or crit result in damage or critical damage, kind of like flying over an asteroid
• You roll a red die and receive a facedown damage card if you roll a hit, or a faceup one if you roll a crit.

So basically, you either take automatic or rolled damage, either as regular damage (shields first) or to your hull, regardless of shields. If the damage went directly to hull, which I think is thematically appropriate, it would make bigger ships like Y-Wings and Bombers better at handling stress than their more fragile/agile peers. However, even a fragile ship in a tough spot might decide it's worth the risk to take that red maneuver or use that special ability, knowing it might fly apart as a result.

Obviously, many cards, pilots, abilities, and interactions would need to be adjusted to work within this new ruleset. For example, Tycho would need a different ability... RAW, he's effectively immune to stress except that he can't do red manuevers while stressed. So I'm thinking that his new ability would be something like "When you would receive a stress outside the "Check Pilot Stress" step, you may discard that stress instead." This would mean that he still gets in trouble if he performs a red move, and will need to get rid of it if he wants to perform any actions, but otherwise he can do anything else that would stress him without worrying about it. Other examples: Hera Syndulla (Crew) might say that if you perform a red maneuver while stressed, you don't take damage. She might need to be increased to 2 points in that case, since you wouldn't go into "stress debt" with her new ability. Assaj's ability might need to be tweaked to only work on ships that aren't stressed, so it's not just a free damage dealing ability. I'm sure there are many similar examples.

Aside from the obvious fact that many cards would need to be adjusted to make something like this work, any thoughts?

This would be a pretty major change requiring a ton of cards to be completely re-written. I like the over all idea but it would need to be included in X-wing 2.0.

Nah, I think dropping off all red maneuvers unless pilot ability or upgrade allows you to do so is enough for the game. I mean stress is already binary, additional stress tokens just makes you have to do more green maneuvers to get un-stressed. Also it is hard to get 2 stress tokens at once. Also what about Tycho, sure he doesn't care for stress but he is often prevented from K-turning. However Tycho was fine in Wave 2 and is still fine today. All the other ships that can pile on stress doesn't do as well as him so stress mitigation is not to the point where it is meaningless.

6 hours ago, Marinealver said:

Also what about Tycho

You know I brought up Tycho in the OP right? This happens a lot with my threads... people don't read them all the way, and then comment anyway.

I actually liked the Stress mechanic in the original game and concept as personally inflicted stress on yourself making tough maneuvers as a pilot. I often thought that the more experienced pilots should be able to shed stress immediately if a dice roll makes it so. However, it quickly diverged from what "stress" really is, and became a "weapon" of sorts....I really struggled with and against the evolving concept, but couldn't grasp it, so I think it lost logical traction. Then, with pre-nerf Zuckuss, I just lost my mind in a few games with the ridiculousness that it had become. Yes, post-nerf Zuckuss makes stress a little better to swallow, but still, it's so confusing to me still.

Sorry for the bunny trail.....I added nothing but salt to a thread yet again. Wooops.

Nah, you echoed similar thoughts to mine about how the stress mechanic has become something different, and less thematic, than it was before. That's contribution enough for me! There's something wrong with how stress works in this game when you play're a casual game with your buddy, and you both agree to stop keeping track of the stress on a particular ship, because clearing the token stack would require at least 5 full games' worth of green moves, and you're running out of stress tokens.

I wouldnt mind perhaps trying a 'stressed'/'or not' situation (meaning, you dont pile on stress, it is just either 'yes you are' or 'no you arent') but the stressed ship MUST do a green maneuver next round. So a stresshog cant shutdown a ship for two turns, but it can really limit two ships movements (firing at two different targets). Jumpmasters would have to go left/straight. No white to block (no sloop either), and get a token from mindlink shenanigans. This frees PTL ships from worrying about being stress induced, but they cannot do a white maneuver if its the only safe move from being blocked. Meaning no kturns for defenders other than Ryad.

11 hours ago, mkevans80 said:

In one of my other threads, where I asked how people would change certain cards in X-Wing if they could, @CRCL brought up the idea that he would change stress to be binary... instead of having multiple stress tokens, you're either stressed or you're not. If you are already stressed, you simply can't do things that require that you take a stress (à la no popping Glitterstim). I liked that idea very much. I hate Dengaroo, Stresshog, old-school Zuckuss, pretty much any build that piles on stress, simply because it bothers me from a thematic standpoint. A ship and pilot with 6 stress assigned to it should be an expanding cloud of red mist and ship parts!

I have an idea that I think would be a cool new take on the stress mechanic: Imagine that you CAN take additional stress when you are stressed. Hell, you can even perform red maneuvers when stressed! (Still no actions, though.) However, if you would receive a stress token when you are already stressed, you (might) take damage instead. I'm thinking one of the following options:

• You take 1 automatic damage
• You receive 1 facedown damage card
• You roll a red die and take any hit or crit result in damage or critical damage, kind of like flying over an asteroid
• You roll a red die and receive a facedown damage card if you roll a hit, or a faceup one if you roll a crit.

So basically, you either take automatic or rolled damage, either as regular damage (shields first) or to your hull, regardless of shields. If the damage went directly to hull, which I think is thematically appropriate, it would make bigger ships like Y-Wings and Bombers better at handling stress than their more fragile/agile peers. However, even a fragile ship in a tough spot might decide it's worth the risk to take that red maneuver or use that special ability, knowing it might fly apart as a result.

Obviously, many cards, pilots, abilities, and interactions would need to be adjusted to work within this new ruleset. For example, Tycho would need a different ability... RAW, he's effectively immune to stress except that he can't do red manuevers while stressed. So I'm thinking that his new ability would be something like "When you would receive a stress outside the "Check Pilot Stress" step, you may discard that stress instead." This would mean that he still gets in trouble if he performs a red move, and will need to get rid of it if he wants to perform any actions, but otherwise he can do anything else that would stress him without worrying about it. Other examples: Hera Syndulla (Crew) might say that if you perform a red maneuver while stressed, you don't take damage. She might need to be increased to 2 points in that case, since you wouldn't go into "stress debt" with her new ability. Assaj's ability might need to be tweaked to only work on ships that aren't stressed, so it's not just a free damage dealing ability. I'm sure there are many similar examples.

Aside from the obvious fact that many cards would need to be adjusted to make something like this work, any thoughts?

Quickdraw might like that.. she can shoot twice in a round without having to get shot at or run baffles.

I actually like stress the way it is, it limits your (and your opponents) movement choices and limits or eliminates actions. There are however a great many ways to, ignore stress (Tyco and Hera for instance) or bypass stress (Mind Link or Jyn Urso fr example). While I'm lazy enough to not go back and read your "feeler" thread, I'm curious to know why you think the current stress mechanic isn't/doesn't work?

To me stress is both on the pilot and on the ship, physical and mental stress, requiring a high level of concentration on the pilots part or against the physical limitations of the ship.

5 hours ago, mkevans80 said:

You know I brought up Tycho in the OP right? This happens a lot with my threads... people don't read them all the way, and then comment anyway.

You said different abilities, you did not state what they are. Sure Tycho in its form is not competitive but again you are targeting certain aspects of the meta you don't like and and just try and indiscriminately remove it. Tycho's ability as an Adrenalin junkie theme of an ace pilot works fine, but your proposal just wrecks everything. It is not a good proposal in any metric.

You do know there is more to X-wing than the Meta right? I mean it is sad that OP doesn't focus on all aspects but then again they have all of FFG's living games to include the card games and more miniature games to keep track of. Maybe if X-wing had its own department within OP we could get more focus on alternatives to competitive standard. Hanger Bay almost does that, but it is better than no alternatives.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

You said different abilities, you did not state what they are.

Oh my god, yes I did, right here.

15 hours ago, mkevans80 said:

So I'm thinking that his new ability would be something like "When you would receive a stress outside the "Check Pilot Stress" step, you may discard that stress instead."

Literally half of the last big paragraph is dedicated to Tycho specifically! What the hell, man, I can't even tell if you're just trolling me now.

I could debate with you about things like where you're telling me that I care about regarding the meta and how you're using some kind of phantom metric to judge my proposal when all you're trying to do is sound smart, but I know you won't have the ability/decency to read what I write in response, so I'm not going to bother.

IMO, stress was intended to be binary. It took a little while after the game release before "red adds one stress even if you have stress, green takes one and only one away" was added. It's not bad that it ended up the way it is ... it's just not baked into the original game. Stress also has a dual-role in X-Wing right now: it can be something the pilot suffers, or it can be something the ship suffers.

My own idea was similar to binary stress, except it would be bifurcated into "pilot stress" (with whatever name) and "ship stress" (with whatever name). Both would be binary. (Perhaps the current red "!" triangle, and add a yellow "!" triangle.) They would prohibit different things. Even dials could reflect it, with "red" maneuvers meaning stressful for the pilot, and "yellow" maneuvers meaning stressful for the ship.

Things that cause either type of stress can't be done if the ship already has a stress of that type.

And, yes, there could be ways to do the different types of stress even if you have one: e.g., "You may perform a yellow maneuver if you have a yellow stress token, but you must draw and discard damage cards until you draw a Ship critical. Assign it to your ship, then shuffle any other cards drawn back into your damage deck." And the same for "red" stress, except Pilot crits.

There's a lot of design space, and some inherent checks on unbalancing things, by having two types of binary stress. (Droid pilots? Maybe immune to "red" stress, but double effect from "yellow" stress. Or whatever.)

I agree 100% about the pilot stress vs ship stress. I can abide the two coexisting in the same space for simplicity, but it certainly has occurred to me over the years that the stress mechanic represents vastly different kinds of stress. Rage, for example, as well as Rebel Captive. You don't put strain on your ship shooting at a ship that's got your friend encased in carbonite, but it is psychologically traumatic, to be sure.

It's a very interesting idea two have two (red/yellow) stress that interact differently. I do think that pilot stress damage cards would need to be modified, at least thematically, as some of Pilot crits we currently have generally seem to be physical problems with the ship that interfere with the pilot's ability to do his job (damaged cockpit for example). In the case of a new edition, though, that could be easily changed. I also wondered if the damage deck could stand to be closer to 50% pilot crits, rather than the smaller percentage it is now...

I like the idea of binary stress - but in order not to completely invalidate weaponised stress, and still encourage clever flying/blocking, that you only clear stress if you complete a green manoeuvre without overlapping another ship or obstacle.

(oh, and of course, agree that anything that incurs stress to activate or as a side-effect, should be prevented if already stressed)