A new Hostage Negotiator kickstarter begins on the 30th April introducing a career mode that you play over several games.
I've not had much chance to player frequently, but Van Ryder Games are teasing the new campaign so I thought I'd take the opportunity to give it a go.
I've signed up as the rookie Officer Decar, and it's first day on the job.
I wont post any spoilers, but the new content seems to have you make decisions, in a choose your own adventure style, where you adjust stats and events throughout the course of the campaign's progress.
Here's my wrap sheet:
My first game starts with the terrorist Arkayne, who is holding 7 hostages captive in a warehouse in Down Town.
Activists from his group were arrested a few days before and he wants them released!
Little does he know Officer Decar doesn't negotiate with terrorists. No wait! That's exactly the whole point of the game.
If you're not familiar with Hostage Negotiator, your job is to save the hostages and capture an abductor over a limited number of rounds.
Each turn sees you plan your negotiation tactic, by playing a series of cards. You must roll to see the outcome of each negotiation card you play.
When successful the cards allow you to lower the treat level (talking the captor down), or increase your rapour allowing you to access better cards.
When you're unsuccessful the threat level increases and the conversation may end abruptly; and if the threat level increases too much, the abductor starts to kill your hostages.
At the end of each turn a terror card comes out that usually impacts the game or the next turn.
Your job is to save the hostages and capture (or eliminate) the terrorist before the deck of terror cards run out!
Arkayne is a relatively easy character to start the game. Our general strategy is to keep the threat level low, keep him calm and when possible build up my rapour to access good cards.
In the first turn, thanks to some good dice roll, I was able to attempt an early extraction, to manipulate my odds, I also got a card allowing me to treat partial success (a roll of 4) as success if I discard two cards instead of play them. Thankfully, I saved 2 re-rolls from the previous round.
So I play the mitigation card first but only roll blanks! What a total waste of a card!
I've got no back up now. It's time for my first Minor Extraction.... and I roll blanks again! Gah!
I use my first re-roll....but I get ANOTHER BLANK!
My months at the academy aren't helping now....breath.....I have to make this last re-roll count:
"No that's not what I meant", I gingerly snap down the telephone.
I roll a partial success, I discard 2 Small Talk cards to claim my first victory.
Arkayne's mad, the threat level increases, but we've saved our first hostage!
No sooner than we draw breath, the terror card comes out and Arkayne takes his chance nabbing 2 additional hostages!
Over the next few rounds, I struggle to acquire any powerful cards, but I manged to reduce the threat level right down and persuade Arkayne to let 2 hostages go.
I mange to wrack up 11 points to spend on cards, so the next round is likely to be make or break!
Over the next round or so, we successfully keep Arkayne cool, and rescue 3 more hostages.
But then, a terror card simply accelerates the game, towards the penultimate 2 rounds:
But, I should focus on the positives, Arkayne was calm, only 3 hostages to go and most importantly, no one had been killed...yet.
I was prepared for the penultimate round, essentially a replay of my first extraction.
Mitigate the dice and execute a minor extraction:
Officer Decar is clearly improving—all hostages saved, but only one round remains!
The pivotal terror card removed one of my negotiation dice!
After the last round the terror level had left me with only 2!
I was down to only one die!
I have to lower the threat level to gain an extra die, it's the only way I'll manage to eliminate the abductor.
I play a Keep Cool, but it fails.
I play my last Keep Cool: "Stay calm Arkayne, it'll all be over soon, the hostages are safe.", I stumble and use a re-roll: "No, no you don't understand..."—Success.
Officer Decar, pulls the mic away from his sweating brow....."Sniper, take the shot..."
"Damn it Jenkins! Execute Plan B!", my last re-roll; one die roll stands between the abductor's escape or elimination:
....
....
....
"Arkayne is down, repeat: Arkayne is down."
Pretty intense for a first day on the job!
I'm not quite sure how I feel about shooting terrorists, I didn't seem to have an option to capture him, so it was only going to end in one of two ways.
But at least the public is safe.
There are at least two more scenarios to play in the campaign during the kickstarter, so if I have time, I'll be keeping you posted!
Officer Decar chalks down the events on his crib sheet:
EDIT: I realize now that in order to capture the abductor, all I needed to do was successfully rescue another hostage. I hope taking that sniper's shot doesn't reflect badly on Officer Decar's permanent record
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