Post originally by Daniel Strain at 2004-06-18 14:20:16
Converted from Phorums BB System

Hey Chris, Thanks again for your input

On Xun, and bounties in general, perhaps the most significant thing is that he has a minimum bounty, which can never go away. This is a constant hassle to deal with. And the key thing about a high bounty, as opposed to a low one is that if you are imprisoned you will be in jail longer, which is a big deal. Then you've also got proportionately tougher bounty hunters that attack at higher bounties, but that's more of a minor thing than the prison time. I've seen Xun played a few times and it is troublesome for him. More importantly, the idea that he would dominate more often simply hasn't turned out in actual play over several games.

The high value destiny cards, events, crime lord offers, and contracts really are the core of the game and intentionally high value. The regular planetary trading is more of a background world to play in, in between these opportunities, and not meant to be thought of as the core of the game. But even then, there are ways of robbing those opportunities from your opponents, foiling their plans, and beating them to the punch. Having said that, I should say that I've seen many a character do quite well doing normal trade.

I think your comments on strategy point to perhaps the central area you are coming from. I have given a good example of the long-term versus short term (or strategic vs tactical) approach in my post at

http://www.rpg.net/forums/phorum/rf08/read.php?f=2510&i=31&t=25

and it specifically addresses that issue. Smugglers is not meant to be a strategic game (in the sense that you use the word). As in the post I just mentioned, this is what we call an "adventure game" not designed to be strategically planned from turn 1 to turn 20. Instead, it is designed for players to make what you refer to as tactical decisions on the fly, as events come up. These decisions do have an effect on how well they do overall, but there is unpredictability throughout as well. Like a roleplaying game, the unpredictability of what lies around the next bend is essential to the adventure aspect. Also like a roleplaying game, you would never make up a character and expect to be able to plan out that character's actions over the course of a campaign. Rarely do roleplaying characters even know what city they'll be in over the next few sessions. The post I mentioned above really explains the concept better.

Thanks!
Daniel