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Welcome to Puppet Wars Unstitched!


Justin

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Welcome to Puppet Wars Unstitched! You can find the rules and puppet stats on the Puppet Wars site. Be sure to read them closely. You can read Eric's announcement here.

Use this forum to give us feedback on this game before it goes to print. We're interested in hearing what you have to say!

The new box set will be in plastic and include 3 copies of each pawn and one copy of each master and sidekick. Thanks all, and have fun! :)

Edited by Justin
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Loving the changes so far!

I did notice that under Performing an Action step 5 (Determine if the Action succeeds), the steps mentioned in parts a. and b. appear to be incorrect. They both say Steps 2 or 3 and should be 3 or 4.

---------- Post added 10-20-2012 at 12:07 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-19-2012 at 11:58 PM ----------

Favourite changes are drawing a card in your hand at the start of the animation round and choosing a card from your hand to use for the animation instead of flipping one and deciding to keep/cheat it. Also loving how easy it is to get upgrades and stealing an upgrade after you kill the enemy puppet. Awesome!

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Reading through the rules and looking at the puppet stats I like the streamlining that was done to the game. Removing the Free actions removes some of the more confusing sections for new players.

The "Feel" of the masters seems right too. I like how each has their own strengths - Lady J with the Guild Crit Hit, Pokey Vik giving ranged to her puppets, while Seamus makes his hard to kill. All play different, but all follow the feel of Malifaux.

I am sad to see that some puppets received no specials on their cards - you would think that the Ronin and the Belles deserved some ability. Just seems anti-Malifauxish, them having no text on their cards.

The new way to mark movement is a great improvement, and reduces the number of special abilities needed. I am not certain about activating a puppet and it not becoming exhausted if it moves but does not take an action. Makes for one fast puppet racing across the board to capture workbenches.

The rules state that "Masters have some additional Standard Actions available to them that no other Puppets have" but I did not see this listed in the rules. Would like to know what these are, since Masters should be head and shoulders above their minions.

Removing the random add to the Ace is quite a change, but it is still useful for dodges, with the duel suit add. With most animation requirements reduced, as well as most defenses, the game should play quicker, and more brutal. Reducing the number of action choices on the puppets, and making some of the free actions into abilities will also help. Overall, I like the new direction the game has taken. I have built some proxy cards for the new puppet stats, and hope to get a couple games in this week to see if the game truly plays how it feels when I read the rules.

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Oh wow. Just reading the puppet cards now. They look waaay simplified which I think is a very good thing and exactly what puppet wars should be.

It does seem odd that the belle/ronin have no abilities themselves... perhaps its an error?

I've got the old puppet wars base game but reading the new stuff I'm really stoked for the new edition and will definitely be picking it up. Nice work Wyrd!!

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Hi Folks,

I've just had a read through the rules, and spotted a few things (though they may fine, and I just missed the key bit).

Stitches from upgrades: it makes sense to outline this in no uncertain terms from the start. If a puppet has an upgrade which gives it an extra stitch, and only has one stitch left, what happens if the upgrade gets removed (does that remove the final stitch, or will the extra stitch already have been taken off).

Odd ordering of things: there are a few parts (for example "dodging", and "what pretty buttons you have" in the puppets torn apart section) where the order tells you how to do stuff, and then at the end says "actually, at step 1 or 2, the opponent can do xyz". I can see that this makes things easier in terms of "this is the basic rule" and "this is an extra bit", however to me it would make more sense to have them in chronological order (eg, declare attack - dodge (or not) - flip over Cb cards etc).

Scrounge: There seems to be a cycle here, where in the standard actions section, it says the cost is "special", and "you do not need to meet the Attachment Difficulty to perform this Action. See the section on Attaching Upgrades for more details". However, when you slip down to the attaching upgrades section, it says the cost is "special", and "You do not need to meet the Attachment Difficulty to perform this Action. See the section on Attaching Upgrades for more details"... but you're already in the attaching upgrades section, and it doesn't seem to be explained.

Effects: "Animation requirement", and "rusty" seem to be two different words for the same thing. Is there a need to have 2 terms?

In the Skillful bit, instead of "flipped or", it says "flippedor" (perhaps this is some kind of matador for cards?)

Anyway, those are generally picky points. Overall I think it looks really good, a lot faster and smoother than before, though the proof is in the playing. I've not had a proper look through the puppets yet, but what I've glanced at looks a lot easier to understand than before. Obviously the original version isn't difficult when you get the hang of it, but if I'm introducing a new person who's never played any wargames etc, it's a lot better if they're not faced with a card full of text. It feels like with the unstitched version I could pretty much run straight into the full game with a new player, and it would all be fairly straight forward for them (instead of going through the build up scenarios).

So all round, good job.

If anyone fancies some test games with the new rules via skype, give me a shout (yes, I'm still pushing puppets via skype).

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I see Counters tossed around here and there in the rules but there really doesn't appear to be anything that specifically addresses what they are and how they work in the game. My guess would be that they do not go away at the end of the turn just like the previous edition. The only way it seems to realize this is to read between the lines of step 3 of the turn sequence where it states to end effects (which implies that counters do not end?). May be a good point to clarify for new gamers if Counters are going to continue to be used in this edition.

Overall the changes in this edition make me think of Puppet Wars-lite. This isn't a bad thing, just what first springs to mind. Faster puppets, easier to animate, less need of cards for specific puppet actions (since very few have any).

I do think the changes to how attaching an upgrade works will be a lot of fun. This was one of those features in the original game rules that caught my attention. Unfortunately our games never seemed to end up with many puppets with any sort of upgrades so this whole feature seemed to disappear for us. Nice to see that it will be a LOT easier to use now.

I'm not sure about the new 'choose your own workbench' option at the start of the game. In a quick play-through last night we had Seamus vs Lady Justice (3 pawns each, 1 sidekick, all from suit). Played on the first map, Seamus took the right-most bench, Justice in the middle. Seamus deployed to the top of his bench, Justice to the bottom-right of hers. Justice went first with Judge, Judge walked 2 toward Seamus and got off Pins and Needles with Powerful +1 from being within Rg 2 and LOS of Justice. Seamus tried to dodge both attacks, failed, died before taking a turn. Now I know this was a just-so type of situation and not really what I'm basing my hesitance of the 'choose your workbench' option on, but it did make us go, 'huh'. Maybe adding a choice of workbench that is X number of spaces away from an already selected bench may make this work a little better? I don't really know how to alter the bench selection process, I like the idea, just not sure about the execution.

Looking forward to many more play-throughs. Can't wait to see the final product!

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Good to see some fresh feedback.

I've been playing these rules for a little while now, on top of a few more experimetal ideas, and while I'll be sure to have a game of First Edition from time to time, I agree that this is a positive shift.

However, it should be clear that this game is not meant to be competing with Malifaux (or be Malifaux lite), nor is it required to meet the standards of a wargame. Puppet Wars is a brutal boardgame with tons of variety, replayability and hidden depth; and one that should be easy to access, and applicable whatever the occassion. I feel that these changes take it in the right direction, but only further testing and feedback will tell when its ready to leave the workbench.

Good hunting Puppets =]

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It does seem odd that the belle/ronin have no abilities themselves... perhaps its an error?

Nope. No error.

Check out their animation requirements.

---------- Post added at 10:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 AM ----------

I'm not sure about the new 'choose your own workbench' option at the start of the game. In a quick play-through last night we had Seamus vs Lady Justice (3 pawns each, 1 sidekick, all from suit). Played on the first map, Seamus took the right-most bench, Justice in the middle. Seamus deployed to the top of his bench, Justice to the bottom-right of hers. Justice went first with Judge, Judge walked 2 toward Seamus and got off Pins and Needles with Powerful +1 from being within Rg 2 and LOS of Justice. Seamus tried to dodge both attacks, failed, died before taking a turn. Now I know this was a just-so type of situation and not really what I'm basing my hesitance of the 'choose your workbench' option on, but it did make us go, 'huh'. Maybe adding a choice of workbench that is X number of spaces away from an already selected bench may make this work a little better? I don't really know how to alter the bench selection process, I like the idea, just not sure about the execution.

Hmm...the starting workbenches mechanic hasn't changed at all. Only the workbenches in red are starting workbenches.

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Auto-animate with their associated masters, nice! Death Marshall is the same, and he gets the ability to shoot at range 2, though I suppose the Belle gets +1Rip and the Ronin +1Mv. Did playtesters find themselves using Ronin much or does she tend to get torn apart for her upgrade more often than not?

---------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 AM ----------

Stitches from upgrades: it makes sense to outline this in no uncertain terms from the start. If a puppet has an upgrade which gives it an extra stitch, and only has one stitch left, what happens if the upgrade gets removed (does that remove the final stitch, or will the extra stitch already have been taken off).

When taking damage you mark rips off of your puppet card first and only once they're all gone do you start marking rips off of upgrades. So if you are down to one rip left including the upgrade and the upgrade gets removed somehow then the puppet has no rips left and gets torn apart.

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Effects: "Animation requirement", and "rusty" seem to be two different words for the same thing. Is there a need to have 2 terms?

They are two separate things. Rusty either adds or subtracts (depending whether it is a + or -) to the Animation Requirement on the card.

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On closer inspection, rusty only applies when the puppet is not in play (ie when it's in the toybox or scrap heap), whereas +/- animation requirement (refering to the effects section, rather than the basic animation requirement stuff) is only while the puppet is in play. So they are two distinct things... my bad.

Similarly, the stitches from upgrades is clear, I just read through it too fast.

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Got to agree with Nix.

Until I can print the rules It's not going to be practical for me to try them out, as my Laptop stays at home when I go out gaming :(

Must say I like the look of the new rules though, especially stripping down the abilities of the puppets to make them simpler, which was admittedly one of my biggest concerns with the original rules.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Couple of little questions that came up during some of our games:

Cherub's Can't Say No to You- could this be used on an Enemy Puppet who is standing on one of their work benches to take a Mine! action and turn that workbench into one of yours?

Executioner's Not So Fast- How does this interact with Bete Noir's Under the Bed? Does the Executioner get his attack because she is leaving that space or does returning to the Toybox not count for this?

Seamus' Scary Face- does the ace of crows count as two crows for the purpose of playing one crow to prevent one rip?

Thanks!

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Couple of little questions that came up during some of our games:

Cherub's Can't Say No to You- could this be used on an Enemy Puppet who is standing on one of their work benches to take a Mine! action and turn that workbench into one of yours?

I would have to say no to this one. While the Cherub gets to make an enemy puppet perform an action, the enemy puppet is never yours, so taking a mine action would make the workbench your enemies, since it is their puppet that took the action, even though the Cherub forced the action. Hope that makes sense

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Cherub's Can't Say No to You- could this be used on an Enemy Puppet who is standing on one of their work benches to take a Mine! action and turn that workbench into one of yours?

Swan is right. If you did it on a neutral WB, it would belong to your enemy.

Executioner's Not So Fast- How does this interact with Bete Noir's Under the Bed? Does the Executioner get his attack because she is leaving that space or does returning to the Toybox not count for this?

I believe it wouldn't activate, since Under the Bed is not a movement.

Seamus' Scary Face- does the ace of crows count as two crows for the purpose of playing one crow to prevent one rip?

I would think so.

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