Another alternative for the explosion card

[von Fustercluck]

Based on our last game, in which explosions seemed to come up way too often (mainly thanks to collisions), I am proposing a new alternative. It's based on the mortality chits in REPUBLIC OF ROME (another great card-driven game). Here it is:

If someone draws an explosion card, it is immediately returned to the damage deck. The deck is reshuffled, and the same person must then draw TWO cards from the same deck. Gun jams on the cards drawn do not apply.

Since the explosion card keeps getting returned to the deck, it is possible that the same person could keep having to draw more and more cards. It's still a bad result, but not nearly as bad as instant elimination (and a lot less work than adding a whole new "critical hit" deck).

What do you think?

[das Phantom]

I like explosions, but right now we have a lot of new players so we are trying "draw an 'A' damage card." If it is a special damage card the plane is destroyed (return this card to the deck). That gives you about a 40 percent chance of disaster, and if it happens early in the game... we give the new player another plane from his board edge. With our more seasoned players... sorry chap... you're down!

As an example, our last new player exploded after using this method... and his replacement plane on his first return to the fray... yep... exploded again. We recommended he stay with the ground crew for a bit. Grins... he took it well... (dang black spot!)

[LOOP]

We shuffle the decks without the explosions and inset them back in at a random place in the second half of the deck.
They're still there and as the deck get smaller the stakes get higher. Works for us.

[fast.git]

I like explosions, but right now we have a lot of new players so we are trying "draw an 'A' damage card." If it is a special damage card the plane is destroyed (return this card to the deck). That gives you about a 40 percent chance of disaster, and if it happens early in the game... we give the new player another plane from his board edge. With our more seasoned players... sorry chap... you're down!

I like this. It's simple, and doesn't really add that much in terms of time or complexity. I do have a few questions, however. What happens if the player draws a card w/o special damage? Are those damage points then applied to the player's kite? And what about the explosion itself... does it do any damage points?