Tech Tantra Thursday - Bill Eberle

Bill Eberle: ELECTRO-MAGNET (ed: now renamed as IMPERSONATOR)

Zachery Gaskins: Do only the best player's cards get transferred to the EM? Or do the foreign colonies go as well?

Zachery Gaskins: Ignore that - the idea is that the EM itself is attracting players and their hands. If they ended up with the most foreign colonies, then they would stop swapping.

Jefferson Krogh: This is really clever. I need more coffee to totally wrap my brain around it, but EM sounds like it acts as a gentle brake on whoever is in the lead. It does so by taking away their power!

A couple of questions on using EM on the tabletop -- 1) Do the players physically change seats, thus changing the turn order a bit? 2) "Beginning of each first turn" would equal the "Start Turn" phase in FFG parlance, wouldn't it?

Peter Olotka: How about The Impersonator, power to impersonate

Zachery Gaskins: Not that I would relate it directly to "The Menagerie", but I see this alien as being one who collects the best specimens of other races/

Bill Eberle: For the tabletop version, yes the players and their cards switch positions. The turn (who is starting a first turn) changes only when that 3rd tie breaker condition is needed to break a tie for who is currently the "best player" - highest number of foreign colonies, highest number of cards, lowest number of ships in the warp, and, if those conditions are all tied, the player who is about to start a first turn (which is the timing for when the ELECTRO-MAGNET's power is invoked).

Bill Eberle: For clarity, as a default, the turn is position (alien) based . . . this alien can change which players are at two (2) given positions.

Zachery Gaskins: when you say "first turn", you mean "first encounter of the turn"? (i.e. the Start Turn phase in FFG terminology)

Zachery Gaskins: FYI I crossposted this idea over on BGG, naming it "Patron". That should get some eyes on it!

Bill Eberle: Yes, first encounter of the turn. I've revised the power description to make that clear.

Jefferson Krogh: (Meta question: is it really a "homebrew" if one of the original designers created it?)

Bill Eberle: In the sense that we're all brothers and sisters and fellow Cosmic entities, we're all homies. All intelligent creatures from anywhere or when, in any universe Cosmic Encounter becomes known, is welcome and encouraged to invent new, and hopefully profoundly different, aliens and related game artifacts.

Bill Eberle: Zach, I like the name ELECTRO-MAGNET; I'd like to see that name associated with this idea. Thanks.

Zachery Gaskins: Done.

Bill Eberle: Thanks.

Editor note: ELECTRO-MAGNET has been renamed; now it is IMPERSONATOR