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IDC Rulebook Update
- Battle of Endor
by
Len Fowler
Ever
so quietly, the Star Wars™ TCG Independent Development
Committee (IDC) snuck the IDC Rulebook "Battle of Endor
Edition" under your very noses! As the "reigning"
Chairperson of the IDC's Rules Sub-Committee, I figured this release
would be a cakewalk with just some minor image and wording tweaks.
How wrong I was!
It was brought to our attention that a number
of non-unit cards had effects that we all simply took for granted.
Though simple enough to grasp, a base level definition did not exist
for effects on Location and Equipment cards. Of primary interest
was the Dantooine
System card from Rogues and Scoundrels. This Location
has an effect similar to a Battle card or a unit's activated ability.
No rules existed to explain exactly how it was supposed to work.
So, the Rules Sub-Committee took on the mighty task of defining
such effects on cards other than unit, Battle and Mission cards…
and what a task it was.
I had it pretty well stuck in my head that
Rules needed to define these types of effects. If effects on units
were abilities, then what were effects on non-unit cards other than,
well, effects? We decided to stick with the general term
"effects" as it was already used throughout the Rulebook.
We then considered a few options for defining effects on non-unit
cards. Brainstorming came up with "activated effects"
(which I found unfavorable and too close to activated abilities),
"actions" as any effect on a non-unit card, and "payment
effects" (having perused some other card games with similar
usage). We finally settled on a simple solution suggested by Corjay:
Any card effect using the -> symbol is defined as an "effect
with an activation cost." Today, the rules for "when to
play activated abilities and Battle cards is simplified to "when
to play effects with an activation cost." In the case of Mission
cards (see Jedi
Master's Meditation), such an effect with an activation
cost is to be played during the build step. This change also meant
a slight modification to static and triggered abilities. This was
reworded to become static and triggered effects.
In essence, all cards with game text therefore
have effects. These effects are either static, triggered, or have
an activation cost. Effects on unit cards are called abilities.
That is to say, abilities are a subset of effects, and are specific
to unit cards. While a unit card can have activated abilities,
there is no such thing (or definition) as activated effects.
This was necessary for the preexisting rules applied to Disrupt.
Units still have triggered abilities and static abilities.
This rewording came in handy as the IDC was
coming up with some of the groundbreaking Equipment cards in Battle
of Endor. Hold-Out
Blaster was a big hit, allowing Pilot cards
to attack certain other units (and be attacked!) from unique positions
within the game. A player can attach Wristcuffs
to an opponent's unit (preferably!). Both cards provide an effects
that override rules in the Rulebook. For Hold-Out
Blaster, all the neat abilities the equipped Pilot can
do are all for naught if the Equipment can't grant abilities to
it! The first rule this card overrides is the one stating that Equipment
must be attached to units. Hold-Out Blaster can be attached to a
Pilot while it's piloting unit, even though the Pilot itself is
not longer a unit while piloting. The second rule this card overrides
is the one where Pilots have no abilities other than their Pilot
abilities. To override both of these rules, the Equipment had to
provide its own effect, not just effects to a unit or Pilot. For
Wristcuffs, a player can't normally
attach Equipment to units their opponent controls. The initial effect
text of Wristcuffs overrides this rule, allowing the player to do
so. The abilities granted by Wristcuffs are worded (as are all card
effects) in relation to the controller of the unit. The controller
of Wristcuffs controls normal attaching and detaching of the Equipment
card, but not the unit abilities granted by it. The opposing player
does not control Wristcuffs, but is the one who is affected by,
and able to use, the unit abilities granted to the unit.
Coinciding with the IDC Rulebook is the IDC
Select Annotated Rulings/Errata/FAQ Document (SARD) with updated
answers to questions, rulings and errata for specific cards that
are not covered by the IDC Rulebook. The latest entries involve
some other "special" cards from the Battle of Endor
set, as well as esoteric, but necessary, changes to some previously
released Equipment cards. As the IDC looks ahead at future sets,
we realized that in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, families
began to grow, and first names were reused in memory of past heroes.
This meant "familiar" names couldn't be used to identify
unique Equipment card names. We can have and Anakin's Lightsaber
(A) Equipment card, but would it apply to Anakin Skywalker,
or Anakin Solo? So, the decision was made for all Battle of Endor,
and future, unique Equipment for particular characters to include
their full name, rather than their "familiar" name.
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Beyond Battle of Endor, sometime-IDC-member
Corjay is working on a complete rewrite of the Rulebook, eliminating
the need for the green and blue markups contained throughout the
current IDC Rulebook. The result will be a lean rulebook that's
easier to read with fewer pages and redundancies as well as a "pocket"
rulebook covering only the essentials. We also have a gameplay diagram
that I'm looking forward to presenting. We'll be testing it out
within the IDC to ensure it's concise and worthwhile before making
it public.
As always, I'd like to thank my Rules crew,
Jedi Master DJR and Deltaforcels (Corjay, too!), for their valued
input. Even the new guys have shown this old dog new tricks. They
volunteered their services to the IDC at the beginning of Battle
of Endor's development wanting to participate more in Card Development
rather than Rules. The need at the time was in Rules whereas Card
Development was well staffed. But their enthusiasm for the IDC was
greater than their desire to just do Card Development. They really
stepped up to the plate and were of great assistance. For Clone
Wars Vol. 1, they'll get their chance to do Card Development
as well as Rules work when we rework the IDC Charter. We hope that
a more collaborative approach will get the most creativity and input
from our entire IDC membership throughout the card creation process,
be much more "fun" for our members, as well as nip some
card and gaming issues early in the process.
Players can discuss the IDC Rulebook,
SARD and IDC expansion cards on the IDC Rules Discussion forum on
Rebelbasers.com. You may view (click) or download (right-click)
the PDF documents using the following links:
Thoughts
or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.
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