Welcome to the Nova TCG, a TCG based on the LotR game design and AgentDrake's innovative, glorious, dark, and epic sci-fi trilogy! (What a plug! Twenty years from now, when I finally find a publisher dumb enough to print it, I expect you all to buy, read, and con your friends into doing the same!
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There are 5 main cultures in the first set: Atlantia, Britannia, Corrinia, Superiors, and The Hidden Ones. Future sets will also include the Charybdis Pirate Nest, The Schism, the Ghendi, the Chicoms, and possibly others.
But for now, let's examine the 5 cultures of the first set:
The Atlantia is one of the two Free Peoples cultures of the set. The Atlantia is the ruling government of mankind, which has begun to spread across the galaxy. With no form of alien life ever encountered, the only difficulties the Atlantia anticipates are internal… political tensions, civil strife, criminal bands, and other forms of anti-social behavior. Born out of an ever-expanding NATO, the Atlantia has soaked up all other nations into one enormous interstellar coalition with no rivals, besides itself. Until something goes wrong….
For the purposes of the game, the Atlantic culture represents the Atlantia as a whole. Some groups which are treated as separate cultures could be considered Atlantic, as far as storyline goes, but not in gameplay.
The Britannia, the second Free Peoples culture, is a nation within the Atlantia, composed of a re-unified United States of America, Great Britain, and Australia. Once the most powerful nations in the galaxy, the Britannia has diminished to become only a small clan (nations are called, in Atlantic terminology, clans) situated on the edge of explored space, among the Outer Systems. The Britannia also maintain a secret agency: The Department of Off-World Information. What began as an agency to analyze reports for the government grew into a full-fledged intelligence/espionage service.
The Corrinia are the first of three Shadow cultures. While the Corrinia have always been somewhat… unusual, their latest actions have thrown the Atlantia into chaos. Following secession from Atlantic membership, the Corrinia launched a full-fledged war against the galaxy, until suddenly, overnight, every single Corrinia vanished—military and civilian. The Atlantia, already in chaos over the unexpected secession and sudden war, finds itself searching madly for the Corrinia. But there's something else hidden in the depths of space. Something the Corrinia already know about.
That something is the second Shadow culture: The Hidden Ones. The first alien race humanity has made contact with. Unfortunately, their philosophy is one of absolutes. Absolute night. Absolute silence. Absolute secrecy.
Absolute unity. Absolute isolation.
The Hidden Ones have no desire to enslave humanity, only to exterminate this threat to their existence. There may be no two intelligent species in the galaxy. There must be one.
Diversity is Disunity. Disunity is Discord. Discord is Conflict. Conflict is Destruction. There is no room for two races. Only one can survive.
For the very survival of their people, humanity must be eliminated. Without conflict. The solution is to strike out of the shadows, undetected, unhindered. Uncontested.
Their means to this end is to destroy humanity from within. Manipulation of events, people… controlling the Corrinia are their first step towards human self-destruction. Unfortunately for them, their plans don't work out quite as smoothly as they had hoped, and soon they are drawn into open conflict.
The final Shadow culture is the Superiors. Very little of them will be seen in this set, but they'll make a strong appearance in Nova Immolation. For now, let me simply say that neither the Hidden Ones nor the Atlantia anticipated fighting against genetically enhanced neo-nazis.
Now, a horde of genetically altered beings who have renounced the name human have set themselves up as superior. Superior to mankind, and therefore superior to mankind's equals, the Hidden Ones. Of course, we all know what always happens to these sorts of badguys. They get fed to the sharks by the "inferiors." Or do they?The Rules(With the following exceptions, the rules are the same as LotR TCG)
Okay. You're not going to have to remember all this for now, but I wanted it out there for easy reference:
COMPANY: Company instead of Fellowship; Company Phase instead of Fellowship Phase.
FOLLOWERS: All FP followers transfer to companions. All Shadow followers transfer to minions by default, whereas in LotR, Saruman specifies that he transfers to minions.
HERO: Instead of the ring-bearer, just like in Dain's Halo. Also like Halo, there's no Ring, and no resistance (see below.) I almost had resistance representing mental stability (more than one character goes mad over the course of the story) but I figured a better approach... you'll see.
RANK: There is no ‘Resistance' in NOVA TCG; rather, characters have Rank, which will come in one of three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
SEMI-UNIQUE: Cards without a uniqueness dot do not have a limited number which may be in play. (Since you can only have 4 in the deck, though, your limit would be 4.) Some cards will have multiple unique dots. The maximum number of cards with that card title which may be in play is equal to the number of dots. Ie, a card titled ••
Atlantic Security Captain is limited to two copies in play, while a card titled •
Riali, Epsilon is limited to one copy, just like in LotR.
SNIPING: Instead of archery, you have sniping. Pretty straightforward.
SPACE COMBAT/STARSHIPS: Starships work on a similar principle to DainIronfoot's HALO TCG. Starships enter the play area, and may bear other cards. There is an added phase between the Assignment Phase (in which Starships may be assigned to Combat) and the Skirmish Phase, which is the Combat Phase. Basically Skirmish Phase for Starships, where Weapons = Strength and Armor = Vitality.
There are also two other important parts of starships: Systems and Staff Requirements.
Systems is the maximum number of cards a starship may bear, including staff. Each card borne by a starship reduces its systems by 1. Additional cards may not be borne by ships with a systems of 0. It is also important to note that some cards spot Systems counts, like LotR spots resistance, for bonuses or costs, so you don't want to overburden your ships.
Staff is pretty much the same as in Star Trek, HALO, et cetera. You have to have the staffing requirements onboard for the ship to do anything, otherwise it loses all its text (not including card type, costs, weapons, et cetera… just abilities, triggers, and the like.). Your opponent can still screw around with it (ie, attack your ship,) but you can't do anything with an understaffed starship. Like Dain's HALO, understaffed ships do not deal damage, even if they win. They DON'T DO ANYTHING.
Note that cards borne by characters in a ship are not borne by the ship itself, so they don't count against systems. For example, if the
CSS Retribution, with systems of 4, is staffed by
Basil Corrinia bearing
Royal Blade, the systems is reduced to 3, not 2. The ship isn't bearing the sword, Basil Corrinia is.
Minions borne by starships are not discarded at the end of a turn, and et cetera. If a ship blows up, all characters onboard are killed (unless otherwise rescued) and all possessions, conditions, et cetera are discarded.
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That said, let's jump into the first cards!
We'll be starting off with the first Hero:
•
The High Council, Governing Body [Atlantic]
Companion – Man
Strength – 4
Vitality – 3
Rank – Hero/Gold
Hero. Lord. Politician.While you can spot two other politicians, The High Council is strength +2.
While you can spot two other Lords, The High Council is strength +3.
While you cannot spot 3 threats, The High Council gains
muster."…Sol Prime, capital of the Atlantia, birthplace of the human race. And home to two and a half million politicians…."1C?
The keywords "Lord" and "Politician" are both unloaded. The Atlantic culture is very politics-based; the more political figures you have out there, the better the Council. Of course, I grant that its sorta weird to have a political body as the "Hero," but hey; I've got a more... um...
normal heroe for the Atlantia. We're just starting here.
The threat text represents the fact that the Atlantia isn't always as stable as it thinks it is. Threats are gonna be bouncing around a lot with this culture.
For example:
Breeding Rumors [Atlantic]
Event – Company
Spot a politician to look at two cards at random from an opponent's hand. You may reveal one and add X threats to discard that card, where X is that card's twilight cost (minimum 1.)
"…Political councils bred rumors like big fluffy bunnies bred little fluffy bunnies."1U?
And, because politics can get so dull, I have the other,
common rare, hero right here:
• Hakel, Atlantic High Admiral [Atlantic]
Companion – Man
Strength – 7
Vitality – 3
Rank – Hero/Gold
Each of your [Atlantic] starships is twilight cost -1.
Each time the company moves, each Shadow player may take a Shadow card into hand from his or her discard pile.
At the start of each maneuver phase, you may exert Hakel to draw a card.
" ‘First, the fleet ‘must' do nothing. The fleet ‘ought' to mount a defensive position, highly concentrated in vulnerable locations, and near every system in the Chimera and surrounding sectors…'" 1R?
The High Admiral of the Atlantia, himself. Not to spoil the story, but there's a reason why he's got a negative effect aside from just balance issues.... (Of course, you can only have 1 Hero-ranked companion per deck.)
Topic: Nova TCG (9/5 - Equipment and Conditions) (Read 16556 times)
