Reasons for LNOE Fans to buy IFOS Part 2: The Circus is in Town!

[LabRat]

I'm posting this as a separate thread because it covers a related but totally different topic from my previous thread. That covered using the IFOS board and this covers using the IFOS Heroes.

Having a new board still not enough to convince you to pick up LNOE's less popular sibling? Well, there's still more to IFOS that can be brought into your LNOE games and the next obvious components that are easily brought into LNOE are the IFOS Heroes. It's not as simple as playing LNOE on the IFOS board, there are several stages to incorporating the IFOS Carnies, but it's still quite simple that the transition should be seamless.

Stage 1 - LNOE Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, no Power Token mechanic
Stage 2 - LNOE Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, with Power Token mechanic

Stage 1 and 2 involves using the IFOS Heroes while retaining the LNOE Hero deck. Without the Power Token Mechanic, the IFOS Heroes aren't that different from the LNOE Heroes - most have abilities that LNOE Heroes already have. You really get the most out of the IFOS Heroes if you incorporate the Power Token mechanic, which is quite easy.

IFOS Heroes start with one Power Token and can have up to a maximum of three. When rolling for Movement, instead of rolling just one die you need to roll two dice: a white die for movement and a green die to check if you get a Power Token (green dice are provided in IFOS). Heroes get a Power Token if you get a 5+ on your green die roll. These Power Tokens can then be paid to use special abilities which are called Talents. Sound simple enough? How good are these Power Token Talents anyway? Well, they're so good that the IFOS Heroes can take on Zombies without the use of weapons. Well, let's take a look at each Carny and assess each one (and I should point out that when using IFOS Heroes in an LNOE game, all references to Martian should be changed to Zombie):


Carl, The Strongman (Carnival - Male; 4 Wounds)
Heavyweight - Rolls an extra Fight Dice. May not use Gun items.
Bash Heads - When he wins a Fight, may use a Power Token to do one additional wound to a Martian in the same space.

Carl is a powerhouse even without the Power Token mechanic as he has 4 Wounds and rolls 3 Fight Dice unaided. With the Power Token mechanic, he gains the ability to kill Zombies unaided, without Weapons or rolling doubles just by using a Power Token.


Cassidy, The Trickshooter (Carnival - Gunslinger - Female; 3 Wounds)
Gunfighter - Starts the game with a Brace of Pistols.
Trick Shooting - May use a Power Token to add +1 to a Ranged Attack roll to hit or to prevent having to discard a Gun Item.

Using Cassidy in LNOE is a little tricky because she starts with the Brace of Pistols, a Gun Item card that comes with the IFOS Hero Deck. You can house rule her to use a Revolver instead, or just put her in the game with the Brace of Pistols. The Brace of Pistols is essentially two Revolvers that runs out of ammo on a natural roll of doubles. Without the Brace of Pistols and her Talent, Cassidy is a less-effective Sheriff Anderson. However, with the Pistols and her Talent, Cassidy is a force to be reckoned with. She has a good chance of killing two Zombies per shot and her Talent helps nudge those close misses into hits.


Hannah, The Firebreather (Carnival - Mad - Female; 3 Wounds)
Torch - Always counts as having a Fire Item and may ignore Lights Out.
Fireball - May use a Power Token to make a Ranged Attack with Range 1. Roll a D6 for each Martian in the space. Martians are hit on a roll of 4+ (Heroes there are ignored).
Fuel - May discard Kerosene or Gasoline to gain 3 Power Tokens.

Without Hannah's Talent, she's a vanilla Hero that can light up explosives whenever she wants. Her true strength lies in her Fireball Talent which can potentially kill off entire hordes of Zombies unaided. Take advantage of Zombie Hunger, round up the zeds and roast them!


Jo Jo, the Dancing Bear (Carnival - Animal - Bear; 4 Wounds)
Bear - May not use Guns or Hand Weapons. May use a Power Token to add +1 to any of his Fight Dice rolls. Gains one extra Power Token at the start of each Hero Turn.
Dancing - May ignore any wound on the D6 roll of 5 or 6.

Even without his Talents, Jo Jo is a great tank having 4 Wounds and a 33% chance to avoid getting wounded. But what makes him, in my opinion, the toughest Hero in a one on one Fight is his Bear talent - with 3 Power Tokens, he's guaranteed to win any fight as long as he rolls a 4. And he's guaranteed to gain a Power Token every turn. He's also immune to "This Could Be Our Last Night On Earth".


Lucrezia, The Contortionist (Carnival - Strange - Female; 2 Wounds)
Human Pretzel - May move diagonally through doors.
Triple-Jointed - May use a Power Token to force an opponent to Re-roll one of their Fight Dice.
Youth - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.

Out of all the IFOS Heroes, Lucrezia seems to be the one that brings the least to an LNOE game. Without her Talent, she's got the same Youth ability that the LNOE students already have, and her Human Pretzel ability makes her a little tougher to corner, but that's about it. Her Talent is a weaker but re-usable version of Sally's Lucky ability as long as she has Power Tokens. Now that I think about it, she's like Sally without the weapon restriction, a situational movement advantage and can be as lucky or luckier depending on how many Power Tokens she has.


R.J. Flannigan, The Ringmaster (Carnival - Strange - Male; 2 Wounds)
Speedy - May add +1 to his Move roll.
Leadership - May use a Power Token to Heal a wound from one Hero in the same or adjacent space (including himself) on the D6 roll of 3+ (or a Crowd on the roll of 5+). This may not be used during a Fight or a Blast.

R.J. moves as fast as Billy despite his age and obviously without the benefit of Youth. With his Talent, he is so much more as he has a 67% chance to Heal his own or his fellow Heroes' Wound. If you thought Becky is awesome, R.J.'s arguably better. Wait, we're combining LNOE and IFOS right? Did anyone think Becky and R.J. and Father Joseph in the same Hero team?


Archibald, The Human Cannonball (Carnival - Holy - Male; 3 Wounds)
Boxing - Once per Fight, may Re-roll one of his Fight Dice.
Fire Me! - May use a Power Token while in a space with a Cannon to fire himself across the board as a Ranged Attack. Roll for distance using the Cannon Template and move to the target space. Any Martians landed on are Hit on the roll of 3+ (Heroes there are ignored), then continue the turn as normal.

Like Cassidy, bringing Archibald in an LNOE game is a little bit tricky rules-wise. Without his Talent, he's handy in Fights as he gets a chance to re-roll one Fight Die per Fight. With his Talent, you'll need to read about using the Cannon Template in IFOS Rulebook so that you can use his Fire Me! Talent. It's a fun Talent though, especially if you roll a 6.


Angelica, Bearded Woman (Carnival - Strange - Female; 3 Wounds)
Crafty - When drawing a Hero card, may choose to discard and re-draw (Limit once per draw).
Teamwork - May use the Talent of any other Hero in the same or adjacent space at the normal Power Token cost.

Without the Power Token mechanic, Angelica is a downgraded Jake Cartwright with her Crafty ability. With Power Tokens allowed, Angelica becomes as powerful as her teammates. One of the better combinations that I've had the chance to use in my IFOS games is Angelica and R.J. (double the healing), Angelica and Hannah (double the burning), Angelica and Jo Jo. I mentioned Becky, R.J. and Father Joseph earlier - can you imagine using Angelica, R.J., and Father Joseph in the same team?

And I just realized this now, but when comparing my IFOS games against my LNOE games, the Carnies give a different feel than the Small Town Heroes do - the Carnies feel much more like a team, almost like a superhero team that have been working together for quite some time, unlike the Woodinvale folk who just got thrown together because of the situation (ala Rachelle and Victor, Jake Cartwright and everyone else). You may get the same feel too, with the Carnies arriving in Woodinvale to save the town rather than just survive.

This is already quite lengthy, so I'll stop here and cover Stage 3 and 4 next time. What do you guys think? Is Invasion From Outer Space a worthwhile expansion to add to your LNOE Catalog now?

[Bokya]

If we try this method, how would we go about to fixing starting locations? Do we attempt to use IFOS L-Boards and just keep the Zombie deck and cards? Or do we just assume random buildings?

[LabRat]

Oh yeah i didnt mention that.. For this i was thinking of the Carnies in Woodinvale, so it's the Town Center for them or random locations.

[Bokya]

How unbalanced do you think the game would go if you used LNOE decks and rules, but IFOS boards and Heroes? If I recall correctly, there aren't any location-specific cards anyway.

[wisdomknight]

Im going to but a copy on ebay tomorrow most likely!

---

Man this is such a great way to expand LNoE!
Thanks again Labrat!

[LabRat]

@bokya: I'll try to cover it in more detail in a future post, but I'll give a quick answer now: I don't think the IFOS Heroes will have too much of an advantage if you play them against the Zombies on the IFOS board with the LNOE Hero deck. Zombies autospawn should keep things even.

[Bokya]

It's not the advantage I'm thinking of. It's the overall feel of the game board as a Theme. It would make sense to see normal people in a Circus, but not have Carnies roaming about town when there isn't any circus around. Though the problem there I suppose would be the Zombie pits.

[LabRat]

(11-05-2012 01:53 AM)Bokya Wrote:  It's not the advantage I'm thinking of. It's the overall feel of the game board as a Theme. It would make sense to see normal people in a Circus, but not have Carnies roaming about town when there isn't any circus around. Though the problem there I suppose would be the Zombie pits.

Ahhh. Good point. Thematically, it'd be as if the Carnies from the nearby Carnival came into town to save the regular townsfolk Like I said, they really feel like they're a team of heroes, volunteering to use their unique skills to save humanity. As far as Zombie pits on the IFOS boards, you can use the new Spawning pit markers on top of the Landing Sites.

[LabRat]

We've covered using the IFOS Heroes on the LNOE board with the LNOE deck, so this time let's look at a few more combinations:

Stage 3 - IFOS Heroes, IFOS Board, LNOE Hero Deck
Stage 4 - IFOS Heroes, LNOE Board, IFOS Hero Deck
Stage 5 - IFOS Heroes, IFOS Board, IFOS Hero Deck

Using the IFOS Heroes on the IFOS Board would have minimal impact in terms of the game mechanics. In terms of theme though, it may be strange to have Spawning pits where the Landing Sites are - on the LNOE Board, the Spawning Pits make sense for some locations (Graveyard, Morgue) and not so much for others but can still be explained (pit beside the High School is just an entry point for an off-map actual spawning point; Farmer Sty was a serial killer and buried bodies in his Barn; can anyone take a stab as to why there are dead bodies in The Plant?). If you really want to have an explanation as to why there are Zombies coming out of the ground at the Carnival, just say that the Carnival was set up at the site of an old, massive burial ground without them knowing it.

Using the IFOS Hero Deck will require a bit of tinkering to work. Some dual-function cards will lose their second function due to the absence of Fires, Blasts, and Martian Tech in the LNOE game. The Acrobatic Dodge card becomes unusable - changing it to Just A Scratch will work, but I'm not sure if it will lead to balance issues. The Fire the Cannon card will not be usable if you don't add Cannon markers, and even so you'll be limited to only two. Any other references to a Full Martian Pack should equate to all Zombies in a space. I'm sure players can discuss how to use the IFOS cards in play; I've skimmed through the Hero deck twice and these are the only instances where there are conflicts between the two games. I've also read elsewhere that players can simply discard unusable cards and draw another in it's place, but that results in thinning the deck.

Stage 5, using the IFOS Heroes and Hero Deck on the IFOS board is what will really change the gameplay. The IFOS Heroes would be able to utilize the pickups on the IFOS Board more effectively because of the matching Hero Deck, and only Acrobatic Dodge becomes a dead card. Thematically, this also makes more sense save for the Spawning pit locations.

Now, let's recap the various stages of incorporating the IFOS Heroes into the LNOE game and check if these are applicable to the LNOE basic scenarios:

Stage 1 - LNOE Board, LNOE Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, no Power Token mechanic
Stage 2 - LNOE Board, LNOE Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, with Power Token mechanic
Stage 3 - IFOS Board, LNOE Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, with Power Token mechanic
Stage 4 - LNOE Board, IFOS Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, with Power Token mechanic
Stage 5 - IFOS Board, IFOS Hero Deck, IFOS Heroes, with Power Token mechanic

Die, Zombies, Die - This scenario will work with all of the mentioned stages, but I recommend it with Stage 2 to avoid balance issues.

Escape in the Truck - Works with Stages 1 to 3. Basically, you need the LNOE Hero Deck for this as the needed scenario search items are in there.

Burn 'Em Out - Works seamlessly with Stages 1 to 3. For Stage 4 to 5, all you need to remember is Gasoline = Kerosene and Dynamite = Bomb.

Defend the Manor - Obviously only works with Stages 1, 2 and 4. Using the Manor center board with the IFOS L-Boards looks really weird.

Save the Townsfolk - Works seamlessly with Stages 1 to 3. For Stage 4 and 5, Allies are the equivalent of Townsfolk.

I'm sorry if this all feels written abruptly, I've been quite busy lately and haven't really had the time to write more detail, but I think I've covered what's necessary.