Welcome back to The Side Event, the series of blog posts that strives to enrich your Nexus experience without selling you more stuff. That’s Scott’s end of the business. I’m the cheapo trying to squeeze the last drop of purpose from a box that’s already chock-full of goodies.
This next one came to me during the winter, when I slipped and almost bashed my brains in on the sidewalk. Fun times!
The Flip Switch
‘Why the lull in the action?’
‘This crowd’s ful of hardcores, Captain. Seen it all, and then some! It’ll take something beyond unexpected for them to flip their lids off, if you get my meaning…’
‘I do, indeed,’ said the captain, reaching for one of the barge’s many control boards.
– transcript from the first use of what we now know as a Gravity Invertor, more commonly referred to as a Flip Switch, during a Nexus Bout. Unknown Barge. Unknown Captain. Unimportant crewmember.
Trigger: At the end of the third turn in a row during which the Crowd Pile has not gained any cred.
Instructions: Note the placement of any and all items and Hazards (take a picture). Remove all items at the same time, then start replacing them as instructed.
- Columns, Pillars, Spike Traps, Saws, and Fire remain in place, as the gravity alteration cannot pull them off of the Arena floor.
- Remove all present Tokens (Blood, Guts, Toxic Waste, etc) and roll 1d8 to scatter each token.
- Remove and roll 1d6 for each crate. On a 1, the crate shatters upon coming back down and is removed from the game. If it doesn’t shatter, roll 1d8 twice to scatter the crate.
- Remove and roll 1d8 twice to scatter the Fire of each Brazier, as if the Brazier had been knocked over. Determine the scatter point from the Brazier’s original position.
- Remove and roll 1d8 thrice to scatter each Waste Barrel. Upon determining the final placement of each Barrel, roll 1d6. On a 2+, the Barrel is koncked over, spilling Toxic Waste in that particular square.
- Remove and roll 1d8 twice to scatter each Helot. Helots may reduce the scatter by 1 roll for each Deftness or Cunning counter they spend, to a minimum of zero. If the effect of the rolls is reduced to none, it allows the Helot to be placed in the same square it was removed from, or to choose another square to return to, within two of the original, either orthogonally or diagonally.
- Remove half the Crowd Pile from the game as some of the spectators inevitably meet grisly ends during the gravitational anomaly.
Effect: Other than the indestructible items on the arena schematics, you should have a significantly altered layout and set of positions to continue the bout in. You’re welcome!
Modifier: Just after the end of the anomaly, the effects of the switch are not fully ended. Any Move that includes jumping, climbing, walking backwards, or spinning costs 1 extra MP to perform for the following turn.
That’s it for this time!
Let us know if you end up using these events in your games and how we can improve/clarify their effects for ease of use/understanding.
Hope it inspires!
Cozzy
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