Hi all! This thread is about a project I recently started thanks to @Bitterman who provided an awesome tool to create cards and hero sheets. I'm creating a Mass Effect campaign which has a different format than classic campaign.

The ME campaign has only 1 hero: Commander John or Jane Shepard. This will be the rebel player (Alliance) with 2 activation tokens. The imperial player (Reaper and Cerberus) works in a very similar way to classic campaign. Commander Shepard will start the campaign with 2 allies and will meet more allies during the course of the campaign. These allies are all the well-known characters from the Normandy crew. At campaign setup Shepard will choose its class amongst 6 available (Adept, Infiltrator, Soldier, Sentinel, Engineer, Vanguard). This will allow him or her to choose between 8 unique class cards recalling the powers available in ME saga.

I will also add new mechanics like "multiple exhaust" to simulate cooldowns, primer and detonators (from ME Andromeda), etc. I wish to get to a point where players keep experimenting and trying to build sustainable combos and detonation chains. To promote experiments I may allow respec-ing the hero like you do in ME eventually at a cost.

This post is for collecting ideas and opinions, to share prototypes and understand if I overlooked or underestimated something. You can tell me if current wording is incorrect or misleading or if you believe mechanic is unbalanced or broken. To get this new mechanics done, I'll provide additions to current RRG. On this regard new rules are marked in blue into the following google doc, so feel free to leave comments into the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BvsKntOC-XgMlHfnu_y17wg8I4iiFfS42ltMZ4Zw4-c/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for your help.

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UPDATES:

• Table of class cards
• Added Shepard Hero Sheets and class cards for Adept.
• Fixed foreground image on Hero Sheets - @Bitterman

I like some of the ideas here, the "choose your class" bit is particularly cool.

I'd zoom in on the character art and move it across and up, though.

"Multiple exhaust" for cooldown is a cool idea too, though I'd be curious how it works in practice - rotations of 90 or 270 degrees will be awkward, different people rotate cards different ways when exhausting.

Is "Jane" supposed to be hard mode?

Big fan of Mass Effect, excited to see your progress as this comes together.

Great art work. As others said, good ideas. I think 100 credits is way to cheap for the predator. 3 attacks is pretty good. I can't wait to see more.

47 minutes ago, Bitterman said:

I'd zoom in on the character art and move it across and up, though.

I'll do it in next update.

47 minutes ago, Bitterman said:

"Multiple exhaust" for cooldown is a cool idea too, though I'd be curious how it works in practice - rotations of 90 or 270 degrees will be awkward, different people rotate cards different ways when exhausting.

I know but I'm going to modify the RRG to specify counterclockwise exhaust mechanic and clockwise ready mechanic. You can see the few blue lines I added in my google doc where I track changes to RRG. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BvsKntOC-XgMlHfnu_y17wg8I4iiFfS42ltMZ4Zw4-c/edit?usp=sharing

31 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Is "Jane" supposed to be hard mode?

No, it's wounded side. I didn't put front and wounded for both John and Jane because they're the same it just change Shepard image.

31 minutes ago, subtrendy2 said:

Big fan of Mass Effect, excited to see your progress as this comes together.

Stay tuned!

22 minutes ago, Rikalonius said:

Great art work. As others said, good ideas. I think 100 credits is way to cheap for the predator. 3 attacks is pretty good. I can't wait to see more.

It's 100 credit because it's a starting weapon. You can sell it back for 50 credits. Also ME wiki says it's inexpensive, so I believe it's fine. Consider you only have 1 hero, so there's no need to consider the starting weapon as a class card so that the hero can't share it with others. It can be an item like all the others. If you look at the DDC Defender ( http://cards.boardwars.eu/Expansion-Boxes/Return-to-Hoth/Rebel Upgrades/Tier 1/DDC+Defender.jpg ) it works the same way. Damage is a little less than Verena's starting weapon but you can get an additional attack. Imagine you use the card Lift and then attack 3 times getting the extra damage because the enemy is lifted. It feels exactly like you would play Adept in ME!

love it, I'll be following with interest. Keep it up guys!

@Golan Trevize , regarding the multiple exhausts: while it’s a cool idea it might be easier to just put X tokens (maybe strain, or create your own exhaust tokens) and remove one at the beginning of each round.

This is awesome. I love Mass Effect so this is right up my alley. I’ll be keeping an eye out for your updates.

2 hours ago, Uninvited Guest said:

@Golan Trevize , regarding the multiple exhausts: while it’s a cool idea it might be easier to just put X tokens (maybe strain, or create your own exhaust tokens) and remove one at the beginning of each round.

This is awesome. I love Mass Effect so this is right up my alley. I’ll be keeping an eye out for your updates.

That's a good idea.

Or maybe something like you get a certain number of Biotic Tokens, and see abilities like this:

Pull-

Spend 1 Biotic token to use Biotic Pull.

Reave

Spend 2 Biotic tokens to use Reave

4 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

That's a good idea.

Or maybe something like you get a certain number of Biotic Tokens, and see abilities like this:

Pull-

Spend 1 Biotic token to use Biotic Pull.

Reave

Spend 2 Biotic tokens to use Reave

For Pull and Throw I'll soon post cards and rules for priming a target and letting it detonate. Prepare to biotic combos and detonation chains

Here is all classes and abilities, I will share a full spoiler on Adept by tomorrow!

Hero Sheet - John Shepard, Commander - N7 Adept

Hero Sheet - Jane Shepard, Commander - N7 Adept

Class Cards - N7 Adept

Changes to RRG

Exhaust
Many game effects and abilities can require a player to exhaust a card or token. Cards and tokens that are exhausted must be readied before they can be used again. Some game effects and abilities that require a player to exhaust a card instruct the player to exhaust the card multiple times. A card exhausted multiple times must be readied the same amount of times before they can be exhausted again.

• Each time a player exhausts a card, he puts a strain token on top of the card.

Ready
When a player readies a card, he removes a strain token from the card.

Mission setup
Campaign mission setup
8. Prepare Activation Tokens: Shepard receives two activation tokens and places them ready (green side faceup) on his Hero sheet.

Pull
Some abilities allows a figure to pull another figure. When an ability instructs you to pull a figure, push the figure the specified number of spaces to a space closer to you (see Closer Space).

Closer Space
In order to determine if a space is closer to you, you count spaces between you and that space. Then you count spaces between you and another space of your choice. If the second count is less than the first count the chosen space is a closer space.

Throw
Some abilities allows a figure to throw another figure. When an ability instructs you to throw a figure, push the figure the specified number of spaces to a space further from you (see Further Space).

Further Space
In order to determine if a space is further to you, you count spaces between you and that space. Then you count spaces between you and another space of your choice. If the second count is greater than the first count the chosen space is a further space.

Prime
Prime is a harmful condition. When a figure is primed it allows skills and abilities affecting the figure to detonate.

• When a skill or ability primes a figure, give a prime token to that figure.
• When a figure detonates, discard the prime token from that figure.

Detonate
Many skills and abilities can detonate a Primed figure. When a figure detonates, the player who owns that figure rolls 1 green die. That figure suffers 1<damage> equal to the number of rolled <damage> and Blast 1 for each rolled <surge>. Then discard the prime token from that target figure.

Lift
Lift is a harmful condition. When a figure is lifted it cannot attack or volutarily exit its space.

• A figure attacking a lifted figure applies 1<damage> to the attack results.
• During its activation, a lifted figure, can spend one action to discard the Lift condition.

Garrus Vakarian (Regular and Loyal)

Tali'Zorah (Regular and Loyal)