There has been a lot of conversation about “alternate win conditions” in the game of Redemption. If you are not familiar with the concept, it is based on the idea that there could be another way to win besides the standard condition; which in Redemption is rescuing a certain amount of Lost Souls. So perhaps instead of rescuing souls, you would be able to have four specific cards all in play at the same time which would mean you win regardless of the Lost Soul score at the time.
The issue with that as I have come to understand it is that Redemption is inherently about rescuing Lost Souls and will likely never deviate from that. So in order for Redemption to even have a pseudo-alternate win condition, it must operate within the boundaries of rescuing Lost Souls. With the Cloud of Witnesses set, we were afforded a couple opportunities to build into cards another way to win a Lost Soul outside of winning a battle or rescuing it from our opponent’s Land of Bondage. Let me introduce you to two cards that provide a different path to rescuing Lost Souls!
Enoch is basically a Hero that you can target as a Lost Soul for rescue or use to rescue as a Hero normally. The fact that he is protected from discard and negates banding in battle makes rescuing him a fairly tough decision. When you add on top of that his versatility with cloud cards and being a dual threat as a blue Genesis and a green Prophet; Enoch may be rescued, but probably only as a late game strategy in most instances.
Eternal Inheritance, on the other hand, gives you a way to rescue that requires a rescue attempt but not in the traditional way. It has been said that the more we emphasize the battle phase, the better it is for the game. I have to say that I do agree with that sentiment in principle. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting idly by while my opponent plays combos that require little input from me other than to admit defeat and discard my characters. In the gaming world, that is generally known as a NPE (Negative Play Experience). Eternal Inheritance introduces a way to win the rescue without necessarily winning the battle.
Does this mean that there will never be a win condition based on collecting two of every animal cards in Noah’s Ark? Yeah, that will probably never happen. Does it mean that we are limited in our creativity and mechanics within the game of Redemption? Absolutely not. If there is anything being a play tester this last couple years has taught me is that we are always looking for ways to introduce new and intriguing mechanics in to the game of Redemption. Generally, we will only introduce one major concept per set. With the Cloud of Witnesses, it was the cloud icon. With the next set, only time will reveal what is to come.
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Wyatt_Marcum
so i Eternal Inheritence able to be negated?
Gabe
Absolutely! That’s the reason for the clause that allows your opponent to play an Enhancement. However, if it’s the final Lost Soul you need to win the game, the game will end before a negate can be played.
Lampy 2.0
Whoa… these cards are neat! Now I’ve got to find a way to use these in a deck.
Jonathan Gomez
From I understand about Enoch is that your SoG or NJ can rescue your Enoch as if he were a soul?
Gabe
You are correct.
Ironisaac
Super cool
Rex Adams (Spacy32)
Since Enoch died he gets this ability to be rescued? Does that mean we will see an Elijah card with the same ability since he never died?
Gabe
Not this year. 🙂
Reth
Hi there,
interesting stuff and a lot of work that has been spent! Thanks a lot!
Regarding the creativity towards new concepts – why not adopt some from other games which can be adjusted for Redemption?
Since we already deal with the visible and invisible world (demons etc.) we could spend things like shadow (or an alternate concept) where a character which has shadow can only fight against another character having the same ability or an ability which makes them able to conduct such fights (or name it invisible instead of shadow). Then also an artifact could be provided which gives all demons invisibility (of course appropriately balanced).
Or maybe something completely different…
Just some thoughts.
Ironisaac
I think that part of the charm of redemption is not having a cost system, beyond initiative. I feel like it might ruin the game a little bit if we introduced a cost system now. Interesting idea though. You should post it in the message boards!
Reth
Thanks for your reply – but what do you mean by cost system in this case?
Within the forums I already pointed into that direction a while ago (ashamed for my very clumsy English using back then!).
John David Cunningham
well i know where my birthday money is going.. 4x Eternal Inheritance for T2 xD