by GregF
Bill Martinson wrote:
• What if the movement of the drones required something like discarding a card from your hand? If they're something that already existed in this system before your people came along, or mysteriously popped up one day 857 years ago — rather than an aspect of your alien race, which would make them feel more like an alien power — maybe you need to "bait" them with something to lure them to a different world. Just a thought to try to answer the question, "how is this thematically different from an alien power?"
I'd say discard a Negotiate. It's a good "payment" that some other powers/Flares use, and it might fit thematically if there's a thematic explanation for why Negotiates trigger the auto-loss in the first place.
Or maybe the drones move in an automated fashion that's relatively easy for the owner to control. "Every turn/encounter, move one drone from the planet with the most ships on it to the planet with the fewest ships," or something.
And some minor points of my own:
• I'd use "reveal and discard" rather than draw and discard to not feed Remora (and match the wording on Bandit/Wild Bandit).
• Having the effect trigger on aiming the gate means that the offense doesn't actually lose any ships if it goes off, right?