This really didn’t fit in with the characters forum, so I figured it would be best here.

I was considering an interesting mechanic that I thought may prove rather interesting. Events is a misleading name, though, so I’ll do my best to explain. Note, this is in my preliminary testing stages, so I definitely need to iron out a lot of the kinks for it. Just wanted to get the actual idea out, though.

Events act as “Training Cards” for individual cities. Whenever a city is knocked down in city strength, you would draw an event card. That being said, training cards affect individuals… what if there was a positive or negative effect for damaging cities? Say Brant decreases Karakura Town (our blank tile was renamed thus in honor of Bleach… you can draft shady and HS from it) from a 6 city strength to a 5 city strength. Brandt’s controller would then draw an Event card from the stack.

Event cards could do a number of things.
Events may make it so a character who damages the city is “arrested” by the city police. Brandt was thrown in jail for a number of turns (aka: removed from play, but still counting towards your maximum number of characters).
Perhaps Brandt’s actions knocked a statue of the mayor over onto a rampaging villain and thus he was given the key to the city and has an easier time attempting to dominate it that turn.
Maybe Brandt’s actions caused the explosion of an aphrodisiac plant (this IS an anime board game, anything can happen!) and everyone gains more libido points during the next libido phase.
It could even be as simple as Brandt ripped through an oil tanker and everyone cannot dodge as well until it’s cleaned up.

Events would only affect the actual city and only one at a time (to keep things fair). Maybe certain events could affect a neighboring city instead of the actual city (smoke from massive fires causes reduction in dodge? nuclear radiation mutates everyone on city over into the opposite gender until they are cleaned up? So many possibilities!)

I just through I’d chuck that out there. I’m taking a break from my character creation due to the advent of fall semester. Yay me.
I’ll post my next batch of characters once I’ve finished them.

I’ve got a set of characters I’m balancing out for Fate/Stay Night. I have a few ideas for characters to use for School Rumble. I’ve even starting drafting a few just plain original characters to keep the “ranks” even (alien, shady, HS).

For now, I say we use this forum for what it was made for: solving glitches with play variants!

I’ve invented about three different CCGs (collectible card games for those who don’t know) that never saw the light of day. I LOVE trying to make things and balancing them out. Certainly, some of my powers could use some work, but I could really easily draw up a set of rulings for “events.” Here’s what I’ve got so far, though.

Firstly, we need to establish a few things…

1) How exactly would events trigger?
I have thought about this, and I’m still going to stick by my ideas.
a) events trigger whenever a city is reduce by a point of city strength. If a city loses multiple points of city strength in a single round of combat, only a single event card is activated. This would make the events somewhat frequent (cities get hurt, deal with it), but perhaps this can be made so if a city is reduced to an even city strength (from a 5 to a 4 or from a 9 to an 8), then an event is played.

b) events triggers on dice rolls. If player A attacks player B and a certain dice roll comes up, then an event triggers for that dice roll. The only problem I can see is multiple triggers in the same battle. Perhaps you keep rolling the same thing over and over again, that wouldn’t be very nice.

Regardless, I still think only a single event should be active for a single city.

2) How long would an event last?
I think events should be like they are: events. An event would only last a single round (combat, most likely) or affect only a single round in the future. Something like the “everyone is affected by an aphrodisiac” wouldn’t really last outside of combat.

3) What sorts of effects would events have?
I have a few events brainstormed up already, but I’m trying to determine whether or not to post them as a huge list here, or as a list as a new thread.

I do believe that events should have a very generic feel to them, sort of like mass-effect training cards that everyone can see…

Here’s some quick examples. They’re as basic as you can get, but I have some that affect only females. Some that effect only males. I have a HS/Alien/Shady only ones. I’ve even got some that affect only the surrounding cities (one that bestows Roger’s power onto every character in the city for the next automatic movement phase).

Event: Aphrodisiac leak
Every conscious character in the city gains 1 point of libido.

Event: Banana truck accident
Every character in the city takes a -1 modifier to any dodge rolls taken until the end of the combat round.

Event: Peace rally
Every character takes a -1 modifier to any strike rolls taken until the end of the combat round.

Event: Damage Management
Increase the city strength of this city by a single city strength (move it’s damage by 10 units).

I think it should be a very simple and basic trigger, though.

I’m guessing the triggers come down to one or more of the following: dice, collateral damage, city strength reduction, and character damage.

Since Random changes genders on doubles, I’d like to avoid using doubles as a trigger.

1) I’d say something during combat or during love. If you roll a dice total that equals the city’s current strength that the combat/love is taking place in, or something like that. City’s current city strength is a 6. One person rolls a 5, other person rolls a 1 OR a player rolls a 6 for their love roll, then you draw an event card.

2) If a city is dealt collateral damage equal to a certain amount (like 4?), then you draw an event card.

3) City strength reduction is pretty easy… I already explained it. If a city is reduced by a point of city strength (from a 5 to a 4 or a 9 to an 8), then you draw an event card.

4) If a certain number of characters are knocked out in a round, you draw an event card that affects the area where the last character was knocked out. I don’t like that, one, but then again, it’s still a choice.

5) If a character takes a certain amount of damage in a single strike, you draw an event card.

I’m going to put my two-bits as a game-nut. Multiple triggers a confusing as hell. It took me about three play-through of CD to get the love rules down pat to where I felt comfortable with them. And I still forget them from time to time (lots of phases leads to lots of confusion).
I prefer simpler things. I think that keeping it to perhaps the die-roll trigger and the city-strength trigger would be best.

As for the event cards themselves, the fall into a few distinct categories.
1) Cards that raise/reduce dodge
2) Cards that raise/reduce strike
3) Cards the raise/reduce the city’s strength (like healing 5 points of collateral damage, or further reducing the city’s strength)
4) Other cards, such as ones affecting libido or ones that create odd game situations

There’s the card:
Orgy (tentative name!)
At the end of the domination phase, all characters in the city are reduced to 0 libido.

And cards can either affect the city or the surrounding cities, depending on the event you draw.
For instance:
Banana Truck Accident
All characters in the city take a -1 modifier to their dodge rating until the end of the combat phase.
VS
Oil Tanker Accident
Choose a random adjacent city. All characters in that city take a -1 modifier to their dodge rating until the end of the combat phase.

*nods* That was my original intention. It’s why I argued “city strength drops a point, draw an event” as the sole trigger. It’s a quick and easy to remember trigger.
One event active per city per turn makes it so you don’t forget it too often and that you still have to adhere to it’s game-changing rules.

As I said, it’s like an training card for the cities. It’s kind of how I’d wanted it to play out.

If anyone has ideas they’d like to throw out, I’d be appreciated. I have a base set, but it’s mostly very small things.
The current list has a card for each of the following.

Increase city/random adjacent city (RAC) by 10 collateral damage (or to maximum health if it has taken less than 10 points of collateral damage).
Increase city/random adjacent city (RAC) by 5 collateral damage (or to maximum health if it has taken less than 5 points of collateral damage).
Decrease city/RAC by 10 points of collateral damage.
Decrease city/RAC by 5 points of collateral damage.
Increase/decrease strike of every character in city/RAC by 1.
Increase/decrease dodge of every character in city/RAC by 1.
Increase/decrease libido of all characters in city by 1 (do not draw action cards for the characters knocked out by the decreasing one).
Reduce all characters in city/RSC to 0 libido. Do not draw action cards for KO-ed characters.
Increase/decrease movement of all character in city/RAC by 1 city during the next voluntary movement phase.
Increase/decrease range of movement of all character in city/RAC by 1 city during the next involuntary movement phase.
Switch genders of every character in the city/RAC until the end of the next libido phase. All rivals treat each other as love interests and all admirers treat their love interest as a rival.
The next character to be knocked out in the city/RAC this turn is instead lowered to only 1 libido. The controller of the attacking character still gains a point of notoriety.
During the recruitment phase, players may recruit from any recruitment center that exists in cities adjacent to the city.
Reverse the initiative order until the end of the mutual love phase for this turn. Lowest initiative ranking now goes first and highest initiative ranking now goes last.
All gang bosses have the option to draw an training card, but must also discard an training card if they do so.
Until the end of the combat phase, all attempts to book from the city are successful. Characters that do successfully book must spend 1 libido to do so.

Two that I’d like to figure out how to work, but not essentially screw up the gameplay:
All characters book from the current city.
All character in adjacent cities move to the city/RAC.

I have the horrible feeling that the latter would really mess up combat.

Everybody’s After Me: Drop a character with 1 strike into the city, attack a character with the highest dodge rating. If you miss and spend a boat-load of libido, you are almost guaranteed to now have a character that essentially draws “fire” away from one of your own (or someone allied with you…) characters.
Hostile Takeover: Anything that accelerated gameplay is usually a bit of a pain in the rear for other characters to deal with. YES, luck is a part of gameplay, but if you get this lucky and draw the card…
Natural Disaster: Booking is usually a rarity. If you really need to save a character extremely badly, there are better ways to do so (like having said character knock him/herself out first…)
Labor Strike: Solely the fact that you are damaging a city without having to do anything really unbalances this card.
If you can find a way to balance these cards out, nagash2, they may work, but as I can see them now, they could use some work…

Keep in mind, I came up with those events due to the games I have played and the situations I’ve run into during those games.

Everybody’s after me was based on the countless times I’ve had players grumbling because everyone in a city was knocked out after the fighting was over. This event switches the combat to attacking one person (ye who drew the card. If more than one of their characters in the space, he picks which one), and the combat stops after that person either books or is knocked out.

My #1 complaint from everyone I’ve ever demoed the game to is how long it takes to play (thus the reason I’ve switched demos and tournament points to 8 to win instead of 15).
Hostile Takeover does not help any one player. It is a +1 bonus for anyone that can get to that town and make a play to take it over.

Natural Disaster wasn’t thought up to stop someone from booking (I agree that it’s very rare). It’s more or less to keep others out of the city or to keep someone in that city from getting out (limits movement).

Labor Strike would be a great help. Remember, the #1 complaint I receive is the amount of time it takes to play the game. Anything to shrink this is a plus, at least in my area. This actually promotes people to try and take over a city when they normally wouldn’t.
A major problem with taking over a city is being able to recruit a character you want to sack to take over the city. You don’t want to turn your best fighters into guardians, but they are almost always the ones that are still standing when the combat round finishes. They would be forced to try to take the city over before it disappears.

Concerning a name change; Ignore Flashback doesn’t have a nice ring to it. I assume that you must drop a card before you take a new one, yes? In that case it’s more like ‘A Shot In The Dark’.