House rules?

[Bluevoss]

I'm a newbie at this game - have been playing SAIS for about 2 weeks and WW for 2 nights (love it!). In reading through a lot of posts (especially the 10 questions that were on another thread), it seems that Hyperspace and the Bird-traders ruin the game for some people.

The question is, have you ever considered not using them? Or modifying your access to them?

See, I overuse the bird traders, esp when I'm on a scietific mission. I'll check out what they got but swap out for the best equipment for my ship. All the big-discovery animals, I'll leave with them. That way Esmerelda can't rip them off, and I'm not forgowing great weapons becuase I want a purple people eater. But then, right before I head home, I'll call the birds back and swap out everything I got for everything they have I want.

Now, one way to get around hyperspace and bird-trading would be to keep a six-sided dice handy (hey, its easier than modding). Everytime you use the hyperspace or trade (or gong or whatever else is really useful but very unballancing) you roll the dice and on a 1, you cannot do it anymore. Yeah, better keep a backup drive. Better trade for what you really, really need before just doing endless swapping. Better gong capital ships instead of waves of fighters.

Just a thought.

Great game, BTW - one of my favorites now. This ones going to be on the drive for a long, long time.

p.s. Retreat too easy? On a '1', you can't run from that battle. That might change the way you play.

[S.R. Krol]

Definitely like the idea of using a die to make the choice.

I will admit I never felt hyperspace and the Klakar are game breakers. I mean sure, they can be, but for every game in which I luck into something great right from the start that makes the rest of the game easy there are five games in which that doesn't happen. And then that one game in which every single system contains something hostile.

[Bluevoss]

Something I thought about while hyperspacing around - hyperspace is said to have a 2 month recharge, and the Zorg navigator something like 2 weeks (maybe?).

Well, a house rule (and it should have been a game rule) was if you were jumping into an unknown star and you've got a recharge time, its unlikely you could retreat from combat. So it makes sense to say that hyperspace and folding deny you a retreat.

THAT would put a crimp into people's play-style.