Bunker Suit Swapping

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

I've tried out an easy-to-use Bunker variant that adds some interesting options.

We know that many (if not all) of the old suits are stored somewhere (thanks to the art in Decommissioned Hardware).  Why not use them?

When playing Bunker, give him the option to switch character cards between his base and promo suits (while keeping his current HP the same).  For maximum flexibility, it can be a start of turn thing.  For a more tactical game, it can be a power.

This gives him the option of shifting to a suit that is more suited to the events at hand, and the cards available.  If there are tons of ongoings and modes, the EoW suit could be great.  Armored targets call for the GI suit.  The Base suit is good for increasing options/fueling discard-based guns.

 

2

Interesting option.  I'd want to add some type of time cost to it, discarding cards would make sense for how the mechanics already work, or you could just allow him to switch anytime he uses decommissioned hardware.

I use a house rule on Bunker when I want him to be a lot faster playing that gives you incentives for destroying modes at the start of turn, you could easily have him destroy a mode card, or any card or whatever at start of turn to switch suits.  That would give a tangible enough cost.

I would expect that most of the desired switching would be early on, getting cards and destroying ongoings if nobody has a one shot, and getting through early DR.

3

my beef with changing Bunker is similar to Spite's one: his cards are good thematically so it's hard to tweak them without losing theme. While the tweak is simple, thematically he is jumping from suit to suit in mid battle.... Turning black AND going back! That kills it for me. Maaaaaaaaaaaybe switching at most 1 per game could do it which goes well with the fact that you won't be using Initialize beyond early game.

4

Bunker is a very resource-dependant hero (in that he uses ammo), so the idea of him having a depot or a repair bay in a combat zone isn't one that really kills it for me.  I kind of figure that he gets dropped into combat via a cargo chopper, or a truck- so for me the idea is already there that Bunker is the kind of hero that tends to travel with a supply network.

5

Bunker is a walking tank. He isn't Iron Man. He requires ammo, yes. The guys that do the work on the suit make sure that the ammo bins are topped off before he's deployed. I don't see him having a "House Party Protocol".

6

Yeah, but he drops decomissioned Hardware mid-fight, which seems to involve him scavenging old suits to modify his current one.

It could work quite well in a specific scenario also, like the seige of Megalopolis or something where he could get quick access to his equipment.

I mean look at the actual comic they made, Bunker is thwarting Baron Blade from underwater, Tachyon from a computer room, only Legacy and Wraith actually fought the Baron, and even then it was pretty much only Wraith who damaged him.  It isn't just a room with everyone shooting at eachother.

7

Think of it this way, if it helps.  He's not swapping suits. He's got elements of all previous suits in his current version (and its difficult to tell the origins/construction date of the EoW suit), so its more that he's uploading different protocols into it that enable it to fulfill different battlefield roles.

No physical swap of components or exosuit needs to take place.   

8

sure sure, you can make sense theme wise to a lot of stuff but the goal to strive is to have the mechanics transmit/support that theme. If you said something like "Stack the characters cards one over the other so the ones below display the character power" support the idea of add-ons or configuration to the main suit much better. And dunno, use a token to mark which one is the 'active' power for the turn.

9

Someone tell Tachyon to invent the SotM version of the Extremis armor

10

Use it however you want.  My intention isn't to tell you that you have to use it, just that it's an interesting way to play as Bunker and expand some options. 

I like swapping the cards.  Stacking them also works, as does some kind of timed system where you change at predefined intervals.  Give it a try sometime.

11

Maybe even have your ability to swap suits be tied to your HP as it goes down you remove some of the promo cards from the game... this would simulate you taking damage to some components of your armor...

12

 

That's a cool idea.  I'd say that unless you do some kind of upgrade house rule like this, maybe make it skip a turn to change the hero card.  That way there's a real cost to it, but it could still be useful in some situations.

13

My group has added "Start of Turn: Discard Decommisioned Hardware and Ammo Drop and skip the rest of your turn -> Switch to a different version of Bunker"

It's being debated on if you can only switch to a particular suit once.

14

Creative. What a perfectly thematic choice of cards too. I like this a lot. 

15

I really like the feel of those cards being used, but I can't see the difference in powers being worth that much.  If you need to destroy an ongoing you're going to have to wait an additional round and discard a mode, and you just discarded 2 and skipped your draw.

That just killed your hand, and only if you had both of those two cards anyway.

By the time Bunker gets enough cards to really make discarding two cards affordable you aren't going to want to be shutting down for a round to switch for it.

If you want suit swapping to be something cool he has that makes him stand out you'd need the cost to be legit, but not harsh.

I don't think the tactical advantage of switching is good enough to warrant a cost that high.

 

I've toyed around with the following for a faster suit swapping:  

1.  End of turn:  Destroy one of your equipment or ongoing cards to switch suits.  This gives you a delay, but not as high a cost.

2.  When you play decommissioned hardware you may instead remove the card from the game to switch suits.  (I really like this one)

3.  Start of Turn:  Destroy one equipment or ongoing card in play and switch suits.  The next time you would play a card, use a power, or draw a card you do one less of that activity.  (gives the loss of time and a card, the wording is so you can't give up playing a card when in turret mode, you'd have to give up your first power use)

I actually just thought of this (thanks to boxerboyhomer):

Remove an Ammo drop that is in play from the game to switch suits.  Add that to the Decomissioned hardware one and it would give better availability of suit switching, and up the total number of switches possible from 3 to 6 in a game (though you probably would never get that many).

Alternately instead of losing that turn you could remove both cards from your hand, put them out of the game to switch suits.

I like the idea of a game long cost for switching, which is why I like removing them from play.  He only has so many suits in storage, when you switch you use one up.

16

I like the idea of removing the cards from play.  I'll have to suggest that to my group.

We do think the skipping a turn can/is a bit drastic but we don't want it to be something you just up and do an a whim.  We're working on finding the right balance.  We also look at it from the stand-point of you can't just quickly swap armors in the middle of a battlefield.  

We've also toyed with the idea of when you swap to a new armor you reset your life.  Meaning your hit-points are the integrity of the armor.  We then added that you could swap out armors as much as you wanted, you just had to keep track of each armors HP indiviually, but we found we prefered the limited swapping.  When I pass on the idea of discarding and removing from the game the two cards I'll include about not limiting how often you get to swap to each armor, but that the limiting factor will be the number of cards since you'll only be able to remove them from the game so many times.

And swapping armors can have a dramatic change to the game.  Voss with lots of damage reduction?  Switch to G.I. Bunker and he becomes a kitten.  Have a lot of ongoing, swap and they're gone.

We also find that Bunker has a ton of cards in hand almost every game, so getting rid of the cards seems to be a balanced trade off