Least Favorite Cards

[Horizon Ian]

May be hard for playtesters to notice, but Jeff and I are still working on card ideas.

One thing that we run into frequently is our biases in terms of what we like and dislike in customizable card games. But, we don't represent a large enough sample size to reflect the audience.

I know cards that are useless in solo play are not desirable to some. What are people's least favorite cards, otherwise?

You, too, can help shape future products while we are in design and development. Whether we try to keep in mind avoiding cards that are particularly disliked or whether we think of ways to try to make the disliked cards more likable by having more cards interact with them.

If someone wants to start a thread of favorite cards, we won't stop you.

[electronjon]

Well, I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with the card pool, but Thulse is one I've struggled to use. The access to for is nice, but I have yet to find a use for him beyond his icon and his hit points. Once I start comparing him to other cards with , it gets hard to make a case for him: Gorbash at least has an additional use from hand and can use a much broader selection of . Walter Glen costs but can inflict equal to that 2-cost differential every round.

I'm not above using a low-cost chump blocker if need be, but considering the limited amount of one can have in play, it's a hard case to make room in a deck for a card that doesn't have a benefit other than an icon and hit points.

[Horizon Ian]

Well, I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with the card pool, but Thulse is one I've struggled to use. The access to for is nice, but I have yet to find a use for him beyond his icon and his hit points. Once I start comparing him to other cards with , it gets hard to make a case for him: Gorbash at least has an additional use from hand and can use a much broader selection of . Walter Glen costs but can inflict equal to that 2-cost differential every round.

I'm not above using a low-cost chump blocker if need be, but considering the limited amount of one can have in play, it's a hard case to make room in a deck for a card that doesn't have a benefit other than an icon and hit points.

Thanks.

Re: Thulse

I like him more than Jeff does. Do you normally play solo or with 2+ players? Sounds like 2+ if dealing wounds matters.

What I find as I've played against a lot of crew removal is that he's ... I could say resilient. Sure, he's not particularly difficult to remove, but you have to actually remove him unlike doing economic damage with other crew. Plus, the lower cost does feel impactful, to where I'm more inclined to run lower cost crew in general. The drawback does come up, so there is that. I actually think more cards should be like him where the card is not obviously good nor bad, but customizable card games are all about "good cards squeeze out bad" where it's common to see the same cards played all of the time.

He does come up every time we consider new . We try to review what already exists when determining whether something new is clearly better or worse than comps and we like to argue about where Thulse is on the spectrum.

[Horizon Jeff]

I don't tend to use Thulse much either, but in his defense, you could give him an Honor Blade or a Combat Knife and then he'd be a cheap inflicting source. And he could always do Aggravated Assault.

[electronjon]

Thanks for the thoughts! Mostly, I've played solo with a few games of 2 player - albeit with me playing both sides of the table.

Thulse strikes me as a card that gets more useful as the adventure card pool gets deeper. Easy to splash in for access to or to solve or . Until then, with limited crew slots and a large deck size, I've been tending toward slightly more expensive crew that give me more utility out of the gate.

[Cpt Ric]

I know cards that are useless in solo play are not desirable to some. . Who, Me?

The chat about Thulse got me thinking about in general, and certainly I like with more then just a skill to add if possible. I've used Thulse as a cheap way to get on my crew but as discussed with the limited numbers of it's tough to take on someone with only "one" thing to offer. And as a nearly always solo player, being able to deal isn't typically a high enough priority to take him on.

I find I don't use the Drop Capsules as they are too expensive for a one time use . If I need to generate , I'll take the LSP Mulit-Phased Array instead, its a little cheaper to install ( vs ) and it does have a cost to use ( ) but it's reusable, and it gives me to boot. The cost of for the Drop Capsules with its "once and done" use doesn't seem like a a good trade off to me. The boost is nice from the Drop Capsules, but that is an either or thing, I can't get both the and the boost.

[Traveller-Jake]

Drop Capsules do have the advantage that they are Trifling while the sensor suite takes up an slot. for a seems like a pretty fair exchange on a ship that already generates , actually.

[Cpt Ric]

Drop Capsules do have the advantage that they are Trifling while the sensor suite takes up an slot. for a seems like a pretty fair exchange on a ship that already generates , actually.

Yes that is an excellent point, but I play the Beowulf (semimetal reasons mostly) often which doesn't generate so I'm on the look out for that do.

[Horizon Jeff]

Drop Capsules do have the advantage that they are Trifling while the sensor suite takes up an slot. for a seems like a pretty fair exchange on a ship that already generates , actually.

Yes that is an excellent point, but I play the Beowulf (semimetal reasons mostly) often which doesn't generate so I'm on the look out for that do.

Yeah, I think for ships that have enough slots, the permanent options are going to be more appealing. But for the Scout or the Bounty Hunter, that Trifling can make a lot of difference.