Defensive Shared Risk
The rule is this: in the normal Mayfair set (and Eon, if I recall
correctly), third-party tokens on the planet of the main defensive player do
not count towards their total in the challenge, and are not at risk if the
defensive player loses the challenge. The only way to drive someone off a
base in a challenge is to challenge them in your own system. Well, I had
forgotten this rule when I came back to Swat, and I taught people here that
all tokens on a planet counted towards its total, and that all tokens were
also at risk. This means that if I attack a planet in Purple's system, where
Red and Yellow have a base, and I win, Red and Yellow's tokens are sent to
the Warp.
This kind of sucks for Red and Yellow, but it makes it possible to drag down
front-runners, by attacking their bases in other systems, when they can't do
anything to defend themselves. The primary result of this modification is
that games go on a lot longer (since it's a lot harder to win when other
people can pick off your bases)--we actually made it through the entire
destiny deck a time and a half in a six player game the other night. I think that everyone in that game
got at least three turns, and some probably got four--I don't remember for
sure, though. In contrast, this summer I played a number of games using the
official rules: I don't think I EVER got a second turn (out of at least a
dozen games), and there was at least one game in which I never got a turn at
all! The games we've played here tend to be much more competitive, exciting,
and active than the ones I've played with the official rules, and I don't
think that's a function of the players, since the folks I played with over
the summer were die-hard CE fans who got very much into having fun with
their powers (talking in silly accents, etc.)--that fact was the only reason
those games were tolerable, though.
Variant by Josh Smith
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