Precinct Omega
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The Art of Solo Play - or, "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"
🕑 Added 2020-03-24 12:00:04 +0000 UTCIf you're in the Facebook group for Zero Dark (and if you're not, get with it!) you might have seen a recent exchange I had with a player who, in the course of five games, managed to essentially "solve" the solo game by (ab)using the cautious move rules.
So let me give you some insight into the design process that underlay Zero Dark.
Those of you who've been with the Patreon from the beginning might recall that, at one point, his "solution" wasn't possible, because bonus actions generated by cautious moves (indeed, by anything) had to be used by the active character and couldn't be shared with other characters in the team.
I introduced the sharing mechanic as a result of playtesting the PvP game, which showed that it both allowed the game to move faster and gave more of that sense of coordinated action between characters in a team, which felt more heroic, more cinematic and more natural.
I was vaguely aware of the issue with the solo game because I used it myself, several times, when under pressure in a mission. It genuinely never occurred to me, though, that someone would use it throughout a mission because it felt like the most boring, game-y way to resolve something when you are, basically, playing with yourself.
In due course there will need to be an FAQ for Zero Dark and probably an errata because no one's perfect, especially when working alone - although the input and feedback of several patrons will mean that these are both much shorter than they could easily have been - and I'l address this point in the FAQ. But I won't be "fixing" it in the text because, on reflection, it's not broken.
Solo or co-op play is an exercise in storytelling. If you want to put a high D Leader on the table and have her perform endless 1" cautious moves to essentially shut down the Red Force and just sneak your team up to the objective and off the table over and over again, well... you're not telling an interesting story. And the only person you're cheating is yourself.
The problem doesn't arise in the pvp game. All you're doing is depriving yourself of the participation of one of your heroes in the experience.
But this speaks to a bigger issue in the solo game which is "when is it OK to cheat?", and - as I alluded to in my Hammerhead AAR - the answer is "when it makes the game more fun". So I don't plan on removing this option from the game. It's there to be used, if it makes things more fun.
However...
You can be sure that the missions in Operation Nemesis will make a good deal less viable as a tactic to use for an entire mission!
Comments
Jonathan Lupton
(Damn auto-post on Enter) In this case I think the ability to pick stats that are linearly costed combined with the ability to control the difficultly of the cautious move means that you can pretty much guarantee bonus successes. My initial thought would be not to add more complexity to the rule, so don't add an exception to the bonus successes here. Instead simplify the rule, possibly even to be as simple as Move up to the characters M, no dice test, auto cancel the primary action on the flip, can't be done with 12" of a bogey.
Jonathan Lupton
I've had a nagging doubt in my mind about bonus actions for a while, but couldn't quite put my finger on the issue. I suspected there would be some way to "game" it that was overly powerful. I haven't had chance to play enough to try to break the rules, nor am I interested in doing that. It reminds me of a review I read of Horizon Wars where some pointed out that they could easily win one of the scenarios by building an all mech force and put all the points into movement. It was impossible to lose as the enemy couldn't shoot all the targets before they got off the board. While it was an interesting observation it didn't put me off the game as it wouldn't be the sort of thing I would do.
