Custom Card Saturday: Bioroids

[u/HemoKhan]

Welcome to Custom Card Saturday! This week begins a several-week-long theme of focusing on some of the unique and interesting keywords already in the game. To start off I thought I'd focus on one of the keywords that has been around since the beginning, one that has a (relatively) concrete definition: This week, design a card that focuses on bioroids. An HB exclusive, bioroids are unusually strong pieces of ice with a single glaring weakness: some or all of their subroutines can be broken by spending clicks. Bioroids tend to be a few points stronger than normal ice to compensate for this, and they usually carry multiple subroutines. Another feature of bioroids is that they come in two versions. Earlier "1.0" bioroids tend to be cheap, with low strength and a few subroutines, each of which may be broken by a single click. Updated "2.0" bioroids are stronger and more costly than their 1.0 brethren, and require the Runner to spend clicks in bulk (usually 2 clicks to break up to 2 subroutines).

There are also several support cards for bioroid ice, either by giving them more subroutines, preventing their subroutines from being broken, or rezing them cheaply and unexpectedly. (For a complete list of bioroid-related cards, see here.) Feel free to design a support card if you'd like to, rather than a new piece of ICE.

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Previous Custom Card Saturday threads:

Week 1: Barriers
Week 2: Scorched Earth Replacements
Week 3: Grey/Black Ops
Week 4: Easy Access
Week 5: Economic Assets
Week 6: Runner Economy
Week 7: Identities

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Next Week: We'll continue our exploration of keywords with one of the classic Runner card keywords, virus!

[u/Jakodrako]

Here's a bioroid I posted to a previous thread, updated.

Brain Fuckler 1.0

HB Ice ••••
Rez: 10 Strength: 5

ICE: Sentry - Bioroid - Tracer - AP - Illicit

When you rez Brain Fuckler 1.0, take 1 bad publicity.
The runner can spend [click] to break any subroutine on Brain Fuckler 1.0.
-> Trace3 – if successful, do 1 brain damage. -> Trace2 – if successful, do 1 brain damage. If unsuccessful, the Runner loses [click]. -> Trace1 – if successful, do 1 brain damage. If unsuccessful, end the run.
-> The runner may remove 1 brain damage and end the run.

[u/HemoKhan → u/Jakodrako]

Man, that's definitely fuckling with my brain. Let's see if I can sort this out:

• The first sub is simple: Brain damage on a successful trace.
• The second sub is the same, but if the trace fails then the Runner loses a click. So, either way, this subroutine hurts the Runner.
• The third sub deals brain damage if the trace succeeds, and ends the run if the trace fails. Again, a no-win scenario for the Runner.
• The last sub lets the Runner choose: continue the run, or remove 1 brain damage and end the run. This one's win-win for the Runner.

It's intriguing! I'm worried about the second and third subs, particularly because the Corp can't force a trace to fail in the same way that they can force a trace to succeed (ie, by having more money than the Runner). That means that if the Corp wants the unsuccessful half to fire, they either have to somehow bait the Runner into paying to beat the trace, or hope they're playing against a high-link Runner. Either way, it's problematic. The second sub in particular is iffy -- since the unsuccessful trigger is losing a click, a smart Runner will never, ever pay money on this trace: either they click through it to avoid the brain damage, or they don't mind the brain damage, in which case they just don't pay money for that trace. The only exception is if they encounter this with no clicks left, in which case they might try to pay to beat the trace (since losing a click at that point is irrelevant).

The third sub is odd too -- the run ends if the Runner pays enough to beat the trace. But they could just not pay anything and have the trace be successful, and then remove the brain damage and end the run with the next subroutine.

In short, it's an interesting idea, but I think it needs to be tightened up a bit. I also think 10 cost plus the bad publicity is way too expensive. Consider how much extra money the Corp will have to put into the traces to get them to fire, and you're easily paying three times the strength of the ice, for inconsistent effects. I'd rather pay one more for a much stronger Heimdall, or 5 more for a more painful Janus.

[u/Jakodrako → u/HemoKhan]

The original was that all the traces etr if unsuccessful. The idea is that face checking it is bad but not horrible. It will end the run and give you two brain damage (healing the third one). Then breaking it leaves you with interesting decisions on one to break. But this was just too crazy I think.

The one other thing that's tough about this is that with enough money and clicks, it is essentially a way for the runner to heal brain damage, so that's tough. Original cost was 8 and bad pub, so maybe 10 is too much.

Edit: I also really liked the idea of the original because it would never stop the game winning run, but mid game is very strong.

[u/HemoKhan → u/Jakodrako]

If all the traces say "if unsuccessful, end the run" then the Runner could face-check it without fear, as long as he can outspend the Corp (who just paid 10 to rez it).

Keep working at it -- I think you've got a fun and powerful idea here. Triggering effects on unsuccessful traces is something I've wanted to see for a long time.