Wild Fire - a Fire variant

[ATOEtalGeek]

Because of its random nature Fire sometimes feels like a nuisance in the game...and sometimes we go "Oh, yeah, we have to do the Fire phase." On some occasions it's been forgotten...I think because it's not always relevant. Rolling for each fire is cumbersome and time consuming - not necessarily bad things in the scheme of the game - but it's compounded by the sometimes pointless nature in the way the fire spreads.

In an effort to make Fire relevant I've come up with an idea for competitve control of the Fire. I would really enjoy some feedback, suggestions, comments, ideas, improvements, etc. We haven't play tested this yet so it's likely in rough form. Hoping we can fine-tune it here with the experts. Let's brainstorm it!

Wild Fire:
1. The Fire Phase occurs at the end of the Zombie turn, as normal, and only when there is Fire on the board.
2. The Hero team(s) and Zombies roll 2d6 head to head, each with a set of White & Orange dice - highest roll wins control of the fire for that phase.
3. If this is the first fire of the game the winning team gets to set the initial direction of the wind. That direction becomes North. some sort of point will have to be used. (I don't see anything handy in any of the punchouts, except maybe the meteor, otherwise something will have to be used.)
4. If doubles are rolled in the winning or losing roll, and this is not for the first fire of the game, the losing player may change the direction of the wind, prior to the setting of the new fires.
5. The wind pointer is set to North, South, East or West - the arrow indicates the direction the fire will have to spread.
6. New fires must spread down-wind from an existing fire, or may spread laterally from an existing fire. Fire normally only spreads to spaces adjacent to existing fires. Example, if the wind is blowing to the North, fire may spread to an adjacent space without fire to the West, North, East, Northwest or Northeast (diagonals) of an existing fire.
7. Fire is stopped by the board edge and other fires, as normal.
8. The numbers 1- 6 on the fire token are ignored, not used.

The 2d6 roll will result in a White die roll and an Orange die roll:

White die result:
• 1 - 6 Place that many new fires adjacent to existing fires. Each new fire placed must be adjacent to at least one existing fire. Diagonals are adjacent.
• Fires may only be spread down-wind (or laterally) of an existing fire, notwithstanding the Orange die roll. If there is no place to spread a fire then it is not spread.
• If all 8 fire tokens are already on the board the player may move existing fires as needed to fulfill the die roll. The moved fires become new fires when placed.

Orange die result:
1 - Heavy Gust - Existing fires minus 1 (min. of 1) go out after placing new fires.
2 - Backdraft - up to two of the newly placed fires may be placed up-wind of an existing fire, but still must be adjacent to an existing fire.
3 - Flash-over - up to three of the newly placed fires may be placed up-wind of an existing fire, but still must be adjacent to an existing fire.
4 - Floating Ember - one of the new fires may be placed adjacent to a new fire, and does not have to be adjacent to an existing fire.
5 - Flare-up - one of the new fires may be placed in an empty space adjacent to a model - wind direction does not need to be considered and does not have to be adjacent to any fire.
6 - Swirling Wind – The direction of the wind may be changed prior to placing new fires. This trumps the rolling of doubles explained above.

- After all new fires are placed all new fire tokens are flipped over to become active fires.

- Wounds caused by the movement of Fire earn experience tokens for the controlling party of that Fire Phase.

I'm hoping this really brings out and plays on the nature of fire. It's often times very much subject to the direction of the wind. You'll have players taking advantage of wind direction - taking a wider route down wind of the fire or perhaps skirting close to a fire upwind - only to have the wind shift unexpectedly and put the fire right on you.

[ATOEtalGeek]

Hmmm...I guess there is no interest in this...folks must either enjoy Fire as it is...or don't play with it much?

[Achtung Panzer]

Sometimes adding more complexity, or even just requiring more die rolls does slow the game without adding much substance. But if it works for you and yours...

[ATOEtalGeek]

Hmmm...I was attempting to reduce the number of dice/rolls. Fire would become a 2d6 roll vs a die roll for each fire.

We play tested it on Thanksgiving night and we liked it. It was much more fun striving to win the fire roll so you could be in control of it over the Heroes. The fire roll was anticipated instead of forgotten or disdained.

[Fizzgaz]

I like the idea, fire does get forgotten unless it is in direct line of play.
My idea was basic
Both roll 1 d6
Draw nothing
Win you choose 1 adjacent movement or fire extinguishes

[ch82]

I don't have the expansion/base game that has fire so I can't really comment too much on this. Anything that makes the game less swingy/chance driven is a good thing. I'd rather have the game move towards something tactical like chess than anymore like yahtzee