T.I.M.E Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons, Smash Up: It’s Your Fault, Level 7: Extreme Prejudice, Adventure Land, Pretense, Star Wars: The Card Game-The Forest Moon and Android: Netrunner-Business First
T.I.M.E Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons
7553 AT:
Forget all you know about the Middle Ages, and explore a new reality in which magic changes everything.
T.I.M.E. Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons is the third T.I.M.E. Stories scenario.
Smash Up: It’s Your Fault
Smash Up turns over the wheel to all of you! Through a huge nomination and run-off process, players from all over the world helped choose the four factions that will take part in Smash Up: It’s Your Fault!. The winning four factions have been announced as Sharks, Superheroes, Greek Myth, and Dragons!
Level 7: Extreme Prejudice
After the Agency executed Omega Protocol, Subterra Bravo was nothing but a smoldering crater. We thought there were no survivors. We were wrong. Dr. Cronos is at large. A new team of Agency commandos, call sign Tin Man, has tracked the rogue alien to a secret research facility in Russia. Their mission: exterminate. Meanwhile, Cronos has revived Russian experiments incorporating Ghin technology. In his new Russian collaborators he has found the means to protect his nefarious research.
To reach Cronos, the commandos will first have to go through his army of Spetznaz and confront a new genetically engineered nightmare. But Tin Man has a hulking mech suit bristling with weapons and high-tech capabilities, as well as an unlikely ally in Thoth, a Ghin scientist with powerful psychotronic abilities and the sworn enemy of Dr. Cronos.
Extreme Prejudice is an adrenaline-fueled expansion for LEVEL 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL], a semi-cooperative board game of miniatures-based tactical combat for 2–6 players. Includes five new scenarios, three new enemy types, and two new commandos.
Pretense
Pretense is a game night social metagame, essentially a game that you play DURING other games. You have a secret role and a secret objective, and if you accomplish it, you gain a point AND you steal someone’s role. With that role you can try to gain more points and more roles. The game plays from 2-12 and is great on a good-sized game night with about 5-6 people.
Adventure Land
In Adventure Land, King Agamis rules from his castle. Rich cities, vast forests and rugged mountain ranges dominate the country. The large river is known to be lined with gold and the forests filled with medicinal herbs, but dangers lurk beneath the fog!
Only the bravest adventurers dare to face the challenges. When you move your adventurer tactically and bravely fight the fog creatures, you’ll win the favor of the king. Illustrated by Franz Vohwinkel and designed by acclaimed duo Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling who between them have won the highly coveted Spiel des Jahres award 5 times.
There are three different adventure scenarios to choose from, depending on the age/skill of the players:
-Adventure 1 (The Fellowship ) the simplest of the three adventures
-Adventure 2 (The Magnificent) a little more challenging
-Adventure 3 (Escape to the Cities) the most challenging because there are many things to pay attention to simultaneously
Android: Netrunner – Business First Data Pack
(Available starting on 3/10)
“We may be outraged, but we’re not surprised.”
–Sunder
Business First is the second Data Pack in the Mumbad Cycle for Android: Netrunner!
In the future of Android: Netrunner, the world’s economy relies heavily upon the cheap labor provided by andoids. These include the artificially intelligent bioroids manufactured by megacorp Haas-Bioroid and the millions of genetically customized clones grown and distributed by Jinteki. Their labors have helped control the prices on all manner of goods and services, from agriculture and textiles to the tech industry and solar exploration. They have also made Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki two of the world’s richest and most powerful organizations.
Now, in the Mumbad Cycle, Jinteki faces a looming crisis as clone rights have become a central point in the Indian Union’s national elections. Business First introduces sixty new cards (including a full playset each of nineteen different cards) that explore the tensions and conflicts within this tumultuous environment. As the horror stories about the treatment of Jinteki’s clones begin to emerge, you’ll find the Corp’s public relations division drawing attention to its work with sustainable foods. And as it seeks to capitalize upon the scrutiny directed toward Jinteki, you’ll find Haas-Bioroid showcasing its advanced assembly lines and smartfabrics.
However, the question of clone rights doesn’t end with the Corps, and you’ll find new cards for each of the game’s seven factions. Naturally, their responses to the situation at hand vary as wildly as their motivations, and you’ll find bomb threats, elaborate raids, and populist rallies. What will result from the Indian Union’s exploration of clone rights and Jinteki’s Business First mentality? Will the clones be granted citizenship? Or will Corporate sales teams help Jinteki successfully rebrand their efforts and lead everyone back to business as usual?
Corporate Scandal
As the Indian Union more closely explores the issue of clone rights, Jinteki’s rivals do all they can to capitalize upon the biogenetics giant’s defensive stance. Some seek to promote their own wares and services. Others go dirty, buying Runners to dig up and expose negative archival footage.
Corporate Scandal (Business First, 25) appears as a neutral Runner current inBusiness First, but it would surprise no one if the scandal were discovered in response to a tip-off by one of Jinteki’s corporate rivals. After all, that’s the way you play the game: whether Jinteki loses to a Runner or to a rival business, the point is that Jinteki loses.
Mechanically, Corporate Scandal creates a point of bad publicity that stacks with any bad publicity the Corp has already taken, but this point of bad publicity can’t be removed by cards like Restoring Face (Fear and Loathing, 94) or Veterans Program (True Colors, 80). It can only be removed if the Corp manages to deflect the public’s attention by playing acurrent of its own or by scoring an agenda.
This means that Corporate Scandal is an excellent trigger for cards like Investigative Journalism (Order and Chaos, 49) and Blackmail (Fear and Loathing, 89).
Of course, it also provides Runners with all the standard benefits of bad publicity. It’s a recurring credit that can be used each run, whether to pay for icebreakers, install programs from a Personal Workshop (Personal Workshop, 49), avoid traces, or trash cards that you access. And because the credits you gain from a Corp’s bad publicity are refreshed each time you run, they pay greater dividends the more you run, meaning they’re particularly useful against a Corp like Jinteki, whose shell games and powerful identity, Replicating Perfection (Trace Amount, 31), may force you to run multiple times before you find a valuable target.
In other words, if you’re a Runner who plans to run against a Corp, exposing that Corp’s dirty secrets in such a way as to lead to a Corporate Scandal is a solid first step. And then to keep that bad publicity in place, you might even try to limit the Corp’s available clicks and options by holding a Populist Rally (Business First, 26).
It’s All About the Bottom Line
“We can help others, yet also help ourselves.”
–Soraiya Suresh, VP Public Programs
At the end of the Corporate workday, it’s all about the bottom line. So even as the Mumbad Cycle and Business First thrust Jinteki face-first into the middle of a very delicate and politically charged situation, you’ll find the Corp and its executives lining up to face the challenges before them, quickly and professionally. Every challenge is an opportunity, after all, and fans of Jinteki will be rewarded for their faith with a new identity, asset, and piece of ice.
Can you use the scrutiny directed toward Jinteki to gain an advantage over the Corp? Or will you help Jinteki cleverly turn it into positive attention, focusing not on clone rights, but taking the name “Jinteki” and associating it with Palana Foods (Business First, 30) and sustainable agriculture?
The Indian Union’s national elections have led the nation toward a point of crisis. Things are bound to change, but who will drive those changes? Business First is scheduled to arrive at The Wandering Dragon on March 10th!
Star Wars: The Card Game – The Forest Moon Force Pack
(Available starting on 3/10)
“Although the weapon systems on this Death Star are not yet operational, the Death Star does have a strong defense mechanism. It is protected by an energy shield which is generated from the nearby forest moon of Endor.”
–Admiral Ackbar, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
The Forest Moon is the third Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!
As Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa descend to the surface of Endor with a team of elite Rebel operatives, the Rebel fleet prepares for its assault on the second Death Star. Once battle is joined, the Rebel capital ships will engage the Imperial fleet while a team of fighters and small starships flies inside the Death Star and attempts to knock out its main reactor. In The Forest Moon Force Pack, you can relive these fleet battles and dramatic adventures in your games of Star Wars: The Card Game.
The Forest Moon forms the next piece of the Endor cycle, and it provides more cards to fit into the climax of Return of the Jedi. Here, you’ll find ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets) that offer new versions of iconic characters and vehicles like Home One, Lobot, and the Super Star Destroyer, Executor. Take advantage of new fate cards to revolutionize your edge battles, and prepare for massive fleet on the Sanctuary Moon and in the skies above it.
Unmistakable Firepower
If you’re commanding the Rebel fleet above Endor, you’ll need to deploy plenty of Capital Ships to face the Imperial Navy in battle. Fortunately, the Rebel Alliance gains plenty of massive starships in the Rebel objective set included in The Forest Moon.
This objective set begins with the Solidarity of Spirit (The Forest Moon, 964) objective. After this Endor objective enters play, you have the option to put any Rebel unit into play from your hand! However, if you trigger this effect, your opponent may put an in-faction unit with equal or lower printed cost into play from his hand. Solidarity of Spirit lends itself well to a deck based around high-cost Vehicles and Capital Ships: any time you can bring a large starship into play for free brings you closer to victory. A unit likeIndependence (Evasive Maneuvers, 751) is especially well-suited to this effect, because it reduces the cost of all future Capital Shipsthat you play, and as you may expect, there are some expensive units in this set.
The centerpiece of this objective set is the new version of Home One (The Forest Moon, 965). This version of Home Onefeatures the same cost as the previous version, but you gain an additional unit damage icon and an additional damage capacity. The elite keyword is shared by both versions, but this new version features a different, but equally powerful, ability: “Reaction: After this unit resolves its blast damage icons, resolve those icons again against a different enemy objective. (Limit once per round.)” Rather than dealing blanket damage to each objective, this version of Home One offers a more focused offensive, especially if you can increase its blast damage with cards like Astromech Droid Upgrade (Core Set, 158) or Resupply Depot (Evasive Maneuvers, 753).
Despite its power, Home One is expensive: it costs five resources. Fortunately, there are ways to decrease this cost even within the objective set. This set includes two copies of the MC80 Liberty-type Cruiser (The Forest Moon, 966). These units are dangerous Capital Ships in their own right, but after they enter play, they reduce the cost of the next Vehicle unit you play this turn by one, allowing you to grow the Rebel fleet and prepare for a deadly offensive. At the same time, you can benefit from Rebel Fleet Command (The Forest Moon, 967), a free enhancement that generates resources to spend on your high-cost Rebel cards.
Finally, this set concludes with a copy of the Battle of Endor (The Forest Moon, 942) fate card. This fate card only has one inherent Force icon, but for each Endor objective and enhancement in play, Battle of Endor gains an additional Force icon, up to a maximum of three additional Force icons. Best of all, Battle of Endor accounts for your opponent’s Endor objectives and enhancements as well, which means it has a good chance of having more Force icons than any other fate card.
The Battle for Endor Begins
The battle for the Sanctuary Moon has begun to rage – on the forest floor and in the space surrounding the Empire’s new Death Star. Whether you command the Rebel or Imperial fleets, work with the Ewoks to destroy stormtroopers, or plot the demise of the Rebel Alliance with the Emperor, you can enter the climax of Return of the Jedi with The Forest Moon.
Look for The Forest Moon at The Wandering Dragon starting on March, 10th!