INWOSOLO Update

After some playtesting I've made some more significant changes to INWOSOLO.

First, all Rival Plot cards are still considered to be powered by the appropriate action tokens, but any Rival Groups (including Illuminati) that show up on the table must have an Action token to do anything (attack, defend, special abilities, whatever) just as in normal INWO.  Thus Rival Groups are essentially powerless until the Action token phase of the Rival Illuminati Turn.

The biggest change is the playing of Rival Groups.  The new rule is as follows: at the beginning of phase 5 of the Player Turn (your turn), before taking any actions play a number of Rival Groups equal to the Intrigue Score.  These Rival Groups represent Groups in the various Rival power structures that have spent their Action token and are thus vulnerable.  During the Rival Illuminati Turn, these Groups are still in play (unless successfully attacked by you) and will gain Action tokens.  They may then use these tokens to aid (if eligible) any attack against your power structure.  Thus, as the game progresses you will have more targets as Rival power structures sprawl out, but you will have much more power arrayed against you on the Rival Turn.

If your die roll indicates you must play a Rival Plot (see previous update post) and an Illuminati Group is revealed; it is powerless during your turn as the Rival Groups in the previous discussion.  On the Rival Illuminati Turn however, it will gain an Action token as other Groups and Resources.  Hope at that point you roll high enough to avoid an attack on your structure.

The final update regards spending Action tokens to lower the Intrigue Score.  That is now considered a special action and gets its own phase.  Phase 7 of the Player Turn is the only time you may spend actions to reduce the Intrigue Score.

I played a solitaire game tonight using a Booster Draft (and computer randomization) to make an average deck.  I used Servants of Cthulhu and won the game with 4 Rival Groups destroyed and 7 of my own controlled.  The Intrigue Score got all the way up to a 6 and I got lucky and didn't roll an "auto-win" for the Rival Illuminati.  My power structure also weathered 3 successful attacks (good thing auto takeovers are part of INWOSOLO!).  On the victory turn I had an 18 to destroy a group due to bonuses but rolled an 11!  So I attacked a different target and picked it off, then committed Action tokens and attacked the Templars with a 3 needed for success.  I rolled a 6 and it looked like I failed, but I played The Second Bullet and added Stonehenge's Global Power of 3 (Tabloids initiated the attack so the Templars weren't Secret), raising my attack strength to 6 and a success!  The rules really preserved the feel of a multi-player game.