I want to avoid being nitpicky, but I did have a couple questions about some of these:
"Note: Cards that grant bonuses or inflict penalties are for use in refereed situations against the situation at hand or vs. an NPC opponent. They are not intended for use against other players."
The immediate question coming to mind are the Win Button and Superiority Complex (The Leg+4s). I get the idea of 'automatic success.' Are they subject to modifiers, for one? (Notably that even if they are, and -4 is the conventional max, it's still a success) Secondly, while I'm aware the latter is meant to do something suitably epic, how does the intent of their usage work with something like 'singlehandedly invading a planet?' Is there some kind of 'time limit' or somesuch on it?
Single-handedly invading a planet? I stop people from one-step stealth assassinating NPCs - it would take far more than one taskroll to invade a planet.
And, yes, the cards are ALL subject to modifiers. If someone gives you a -3 difficulty, you adjust based on the positive modifier of the card. --Comorro 22:52, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
Actually, upon further review: Win Button and Fail Button do not even require rolling and they ignore modifiers. If you play the Win Button, you got a Legendary+4. If you play the Fail Button, your opponent suffers epic fail. --Comorro 22:55, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
More than one roll, yes. Hence the question in the 'singlehandedly invading a planet' bit (which yes, is intentionally overblown, replace it with a smaller area for something more sensible) being more for the Superiority Complex, which promises Leg+4 for an entire scene. This is also why I'm asking if there's any kind of limit intended on how long the 'scene' lasts. - In a more general sense the question comes out to something like: Just how much can one do with that final card anyway?
As for the NPCs, are they valid as a defensive element against other characters?
One event, for our purposes, would encompass the time it takes to run an event card activity, for example. The time varies, of course, but usually is just a matter of hours (whether this is done in one day or over a couple of days can change). The intent isn't to run the table all the time, but to have the card available for those key event days when you want everything to go so right it'll be historically awesome for your side.
Regarding NPCs, I would prefer that they be used as defense/offense against other players' NPCs. I can see a certain potential for abuse if someone racks up enough minions to create a pretty bad situation - more on the offensive side than anything, really. So, maybe there's an exception to be made on the defensive side. If Player A has NPCs to use in the scene against Player B's NPCs, then it's a battle of the minions until we get down to the player "bosses." However, if Player A has no NPCs, but Player B has some that could be turned into human shields, it doesn't seem terribly unreasonable to allow Player B to throw them under the bus, as it were.
Sound fair? --Comorro 23:32, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
Naturally it's preferable that NPCs fight NPCs, I don't think there's any major dispute there. My concern is pretty simple in a specific case. I operate a character that's on the low end of the combat utility scale. A character for whom getting whacked/killed/whatever is a reasonable concern. The answer provided suggests that NPCs used in a defensive context could buy time, but couldn't so much as subdue a single PC intruder, which makes them, ultimately, next to useless as actual protection.
If NPCs used in a defensive context could, at least, subdue another PC it'd be getting closer to fair. Otherwise we're wandering back to the old culture of 'twink out your combat stats. Yes, it is mandatory' that we seem to have been attempting to get away from.