Hi all, I gathered all the questions that I in this forum—the ones I know aren't already answered in the rules—and took them in one bunch for address by Laurent Pouchain, so you good folk don't have to troll and assemble for hours as I did. (Thank you, HellFury, for the direction.) You can see the original thread at BGG under my username "Cadwe." but for those of you with rusty French, I've translated his answers here anyway—because go FFG for taking on this triumph of a game:
1. Niggling Injury
If you play a Niggling Injury at the START of a character's movement, the player just has to adjust accordingly, deciding which way to limp (with only two spaces to move.)
If you play it DURING a character's movement, it generally stops the movement (in its tracks), as it cuts the movement allowed by two.
If played at the END of a character's movement, you must allow the player to reconsider the character's steps. I think this should be back along the path the character came, because it makes the card more powerful, and because:
Our house rule now is the Niggling Injury can be played after a player sees where another player has moved a character, this is effectively a sprained ankle that doesn't let the character move where the card-playing Player doesn't want it to go, and as these cards are rare, I agree they should be so powerful. The way this balances with playing it at the very beginning of a character's movement is that we play the character can then NOT RUN. So you can hobble a character as soon as it is activated, and the moving player cannot play any Run cards for that character. Or you can stop him in his tracks. Or you can wait to see exactly he goes and play it at any point you want to prevent that movement. Beware, later play allows the moving player to play Run cards and get those extra spaces before his character sprains his ankle, or starts running out of blood on that slashed hamstring.
I like this rule a lot more now because it adds to the feeling of the hustle as these thieves move around. You are now literally involved in the reactions and speedy decisions that are made on the street. God I love this game. Oh, let me add, that we play that we place an action point token on a character's card to show that character is now activated to move or to act. Then proceed freely with pronouncements that you are going to move or act. You may be interrupted at any time.
2.
Letting Other Gang Members Pass
The designer agrees with me that characters should be allowed to pass each other, as a general rule. He says that at first he just wanted a simple rule for placement of characters, but that had he more time (I repeat, too quickly playtested) he would have allowed characters of the same band/gang to pass each other.
3. Repeated Militia Attacks
The designer further agrees that repeated or pin-balling guard combat is (retarded) not what he intended. Fleeing from combat, he says, a guard "must think to take his spirits" (pause to gather himself, as he has just been whupped and is in adrenalin shock, maybe even field-bandaging a flesh wound) and not attack anew. Also, he thinks it slows the play of game, as he finds the game to be more rhythmic when the Militia Phase is speedy.
However, he says, as this optional rule is not incompatible with the game rules, you could adopt it as an optional rule, "at the time of a friendly part" (I transliterated that last phrase because I'm not confident enough with my French idiom to translate his intended meaning. My guess is "as long as your group is friends with each other, and won't be disturbed by constant conflict.")
4. Bent Bases and Inconsistently Painted Collector Miniatures for Cadwallon
He is sorry that he cannot control manufacturing in China. Sigh. I vote for FFG to become the first Made-in-America game company. Ou peut-etre en la France. J'suis désolé aussi, Monsieur Pouchain.
5. The Controversy over whether to Place Treasure Tokens Face-up (during set-up)
"Here again the choice was difficult," because he had to balance geeks' desire for complexity and "open" rules" with beginners' need for simpler "closed" rules and reduced options. He think it's better to be able to see what treasures are in what hands because it allows players to know who to attack.
Well, that's obvious, but it's up to you guys. He agrees that it could be an optional rule. I think this is a good one to vary game to game, but it is true the rules already encourage players to hide their ducats [oh, it's pronounced "DUCK-ets," in case you wanted to know, god I love that term for money] so why not have characters able to hide their treasure? Right? Well I still don't like it much. And there is already a scenario with treasures hidden from foreknowledge, so just play that scenario! Or combine scenarios, as already suggested by another brilliant Cadwë. We play we can stack our treasure tokens, so one can see how laden a thief is, but only one glittering bauble will be showing (on top of the stack of tokens), dangling out from a sleeve I guess, and otherwise you just have to remember what which characters have picked up.
6. Dropping Treasures where They L ie
(If they're in a street, they can be scooped up with no roll; and if they're dropped in a room, they have to be lockpicked/searched for, or bashed open/ransacked for, as per the usual methods of finding a treasure in a room) (See my other entirely worthwhile "HOUSE RULES" thread for more.)
Pouchain says he originally made the rule that we must place a dropped treasure "in any empty room" because he preferred not letting characters get too concentrated in one area of the board. But once more he considers my change a viable optional rule.
I prefer a realistic game of smash and grab to unrealistic mechanics that jerk me out of the story just because they encourage dispersement of placement of characters, so letting them lie where they've been dropped is a general rule for me. It's playtested well in my group (again I recommend checking it out in the House Rules Thread.)
Monsieur Pouchain would like to thank us for our compliments about his game, and wants us to know he is working on an expansion "which will be the occasion to introduce some advanced rules for geeks," while continuing to focus on making the game "more fun and dynamic."
Well I think the dynamic nature of this game is already exactly what I've been seeking for years, and also the reason I predict this game has a massive future that will surprise most people, but I look forward to this expansion. He says it will include new characters, new scenarios, and EVEN NEW ROOMS OH MY GOD I JUST HAD A PETIT MORT!!
...
I have a couple more questions I will be posing to Monsieur Pouchain. If anyone wants me to include any well-considered glitches they've run into please post them here and I will return hither with a translated answer. Like I've said, FFG has converted me from a nitpicky hater to someone who thinks this could be the company that brings to us nice-component-lovers the justice to good games we've craved for years. I will never apologize for caring too much
but to avoid being again accused that my widespread attempts to consolidate veteran players' house rule fixes are not sincere, the pulsar rests its magnetic power... until the next concentrated pulse.
You're welcome.