Sunday, March 20, 2011

Death Mesa: Minor Changes and Updated Page

I slightly modified a few cards, rules, and explanations in the Death Mesa Guidebook, which I will explain below. Of most significance is a modification for the dead Renegade in terms of his ability to affect negations. For those who do not understand what I mean by negation, let me explain by quoting from the guidebook below:
When a ghost plays a card, it is not guaranteed that the card’s effect will occur because other ghosts can thwart their plans. The other ghosts may immediately discard cards that will negate this card’s effect. A negation occurs if the sum value of the discarded cards of other ghosts (who may only discard 1 card each) is greater than the value of the played card AND the discarded cards are of the opposite color of the played card. Thus, if a black card is played, red cards must be discarded if the black card is to be negated. Take the following scenario:

A ghost plays a Spook! on his turn against a living player. The value of the spook is a king of spades (worth 10). Two other ghosts do not want this card to be played, so they discard a “Curse” that is an 8 of diamonds and a Syphon that is a 7 of diamonds. The cumulative value of the discarded cards is 15, and since they are both red and are greater than 10 (the value of the Spook!), the Spook!’s effect is negated. All these cards are discarded.

To help prevent negation, a ghost who plays a card may discard cards from his hand to add to the played card’s value. Doing so will make the played card’s value equal to the sum of the cards’ (played card + discarded cards’) values, a much more difficult value to negate. These discarded cards do not need to be the same color as the played card to add to the played card’s value.

This is where it changes for the Renegade, a stipulation which I added to the updated guidebook:
There is a special consideration for the Renegade. When another dead player plays a card, the dead Renegade may play cards from his hand, of the same color as the card played by the ghost whose turn it is, to add to the played card’s value and help prevent its negation.

The dead Renegade now has a lot more sway than before as a ghost.

As for cards, I made changes or provided further explanations for the following cards:

The East Wind: This card originally read, "Select 2 living players. They must play 2 BANG! to sucessfully fire at each another until your next turn." Unfortunately, this card left a few things open: what about cards that are not BANG! but use BANG! symbols? And what about Duels? I changed the card now to read: "Select 2 living players. They must play 2 cards with bang symbols to successfully attack each another until your next turn. They choose which card occurs when playing 2." To address Duels, I added in the Guidebook: "Since the cards are required to have bang symbols, no Duels can be played amongst them."

Unfinished Business: This card originally read, "The last player you attacked while alive must “draw!” On reds, steal 1 card from his hand and add it to your “buried goods.” On blacks, he is the target of a BANG! If the player is already dead, choose another living player, which your role dictates you must kill, to 'draw!'" One problem with this description is it didn't address the scenario where the last attack you did before dying targetted multiple players (Indians!, Gatling, Howitzer). To include this scenario, the text now states: "If the player is already dead (or if the last attack you executed before your death targetted multiple players), choose another living player, which your role dictates you must kill, to 'draw!'" Like usually, "you must be able to deductively prove, based on the revealed roles and number of players, that this is a player that must be killed for you to achieve victory."

I have also updated the Death Mesa to include these changes and the full rules. Download the updated Death Mesa cards now.

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