I’ll just say that I too am excited about horizontal movement in mechanics across factions. With a limited release cycle, it seems like the best way to open up new deck archetypes. As has been noted, a strong home (key!) + few thematic dudes + a few drifters can allow almost any theme to be played in almost any faction. Creative design can encourage these factions to retain unique identities even while adopting mechanics previously attributed to another. Slucksters seem like the best example, but 108 Aboms/Blesseds, Gadget Law Dogs, and Full Moon Call-Out also come to mind as flavorful reinventions of prevalent “themes”.
I wonder if printing more skilled drifters could help with this kind of “plug and play” approach. It would take very careful design to make sure said drifters didn’t disproportionately leverage the native factions, but I think we’ve seen good examples so far in Archer, Whateley, Whateley-Boyer, Crowley, Edwards, Hagerty, Byre, Jackson, Amador, Otwell, and Duncan. All allow for creative deck ideas. Some even crop up in native factions. But none break any particular theme.
The faction themes are great, but I am much more excited by the card mechanics Doomtown was developing at the end.
Dayl Burnett and Father Tolarios treat bounty as a resource to spend on cool abilities
The new deputies treat being wanted as an opening for negative combat modifiers
Aetheric Shockwave Inducer proved that the design team finally figured out a good risk vs reward for experimental cards
Feats and Transient dudes were opening a lot of interesting deck building options
And Post-A-Tron made me really excited for a fully mechanical deck
As for EW Kung Fu, I like the way it weaponized high influence dudes. Heck, with Bethany Shiile you can increase value of dudes with attire. I like the idea of playing a hyper aggressive EW deck that takes control of opposing deeds and then uses Kung Fu dudes as protection for your shamans to build totems there. (I think that was the end goal, Wei Xu and Zachary Deloria are bodyguards after all)
That was an explicit design goal for me. I love providing such effects where it has multiple uses Obviously Wei Xu is perfect for a Tao of the Bull Demon King build, but given the synergies that EW has with influence, it can easily slot in for those purposes.
Very good points, and those are all cards I’ve been tried or am using heavily since their release. Those also have great thematic feel.
Talarois was a dream come true for me. Some cards are such a struggle to figure out how you would ever justify playing. Not the father.
Focusing Chi and Showboating have powered so many of my decks since their release people are calling me obsessed with them.
I would also add doomsday supply to the list of cards that changed doomtown for me.
Post-a-tron is great as well. I feel it is well balanced because it costs you a booted scientist at the start of the game. MCC has options though to unboot that scientist with gadgetorium, or Lucky + Marty. It’s an investment for sure, and you have to hold the town square, but the turn one return is so good. Additional to all that, it can work well in deck for any faction running science.
I personally would prefer fleshing out existing themes instead of moving to new ones, while some of the deck archetypes are supported really well e.g. Morgan horses, others aren’t as strong e.g. LD science/blessed.
Also when a new theme or sub theme is introduced I’d like it to be a few cards supporting it, instead of one, two cards that are too hard to build around and basically nobody uses them until they get support in following expansions.
What would card distribution look like in this case? You always have to worry about the other side who complains that all the dudes for their favorite faction are focused on some stupid mechanic that they don’t care about.
Good point @spamman5r, design is a tough job! Cards like Wei Xu can help where they tie in with an existing mechanic (EW triggering off influence), but it is hard for everything to be this elegant.
By “fully supported” I mean with a playable module. The way I suggested it while in playtest (for AEG) was as follows:
In the Pine Box expansion, you release a “module” of cards (5-6) that support a single, specific, theme for a faction. This module gives you a framework for a deck, it’s not a complete deck, but it’s a set of cards that says “Look, build a blessed law dogs deck!” You split the module between narrow cards for the theme, and cards that are generally useful, but more useful for that theme.
Then, in the following saddlebags, you release additional cards that help the theme more generally, or are ancillary to the theme.
Of course, that’s with the AEG module. If PBE decides to do less frequent, larger, sets it’s even easier to release “modules”.
Also, one advantage of slow introduction is the ability to customize cards based on an evolving environment. If design was to drop a fully developed theme in one particular saddlebag, it is much more likely that it would be imbalanced. Sure, it is the job of playtesters to spot imbalance, but they will never have the time nor collective creativity of the whole community.
On a more personal note, it gives me great pleasure to see pieces slowly drop into place over time; niche decks fleshed out little by little.
All the saddlebags for a given cycle were tested simultaneously. Whether you spread the theme out over the saddlebags, or drop the theme at the same time there would have been no time for correction.
If I recall correctly it was 3 saddlebags per cycle. The main idea behind making modules, though, is there were deck themes that were intended but never came close to being filled out enough. EW Kung Fu is the one that stands out the most. And, while I can’t disclose what cards were tested and not released, I feel safe saying that even if the unreleased cycle had come out the theme would still be sorely lacking.
honestly, me too. I like the concept of building towards a settled meta game. Then, after it settles you shake things up again. The “constantly changing, constantly getting new cards” speed is not my favorite.
I think I’d like to cast another vote for less-frequent but higher-volume releases. So, Pineboxes over Saddlebags. Here’s my “why”:
This way, when a playgroup gets a hold of 'em, instead of everybody trying out the newest thing at the same time, you raise the probability that folks try out different new things, retaining a little “variety is the spice” factor for Monday nights (or whenever you and your crew meet).
Obviously Wei Xu is perfect for a Tao of the Bull Demon King build, but given the synergies that EW has with influence, it can easily slot in for those purposes.