Bandit

Alert

Resource

Destroy

Type

Power of Slots

Tempts Opponents to Spin for Big Rewards

As a bystander, at the start of orientation, use this power to make the invader “take a spin.” Extract 3 pods and reveal them. If all three are different types, display them in a “pot” in the forge. If two are the same type, the invader may claim one of those two pods, displaying the others in the pot. If all three are the same type, the invader hits the “jackpot” and may claim any or all of those pods. Then, the invader may claim up to 8 pods from the pot. Then, you can take up to 5 pods remaining in the pot. The rest of the pot is scrapped. Up to twice per orientation, the invader may ravage a ship and spin again. Attack pods are only considered the same type for this power if they share the same tens digit.

As the invader, at the start of orientation, claim up to 5 pods from the pot. If there are fewer than 5 pods, draft up to 5 pods and place them in the pot first.

Special Offer: X influence – Take X spins. (max 3)

Legacy: Invaders take a spin at the start of orientation. Spinning 3 of the same type lets the invader claim any pods in the pot instead of only 3 pods.

Once a rogue race of thugs and miscreants, the unscrupulous Bandits achieved enlightenment through their appropriated technological advancements. They came to realize that wealth could not guarantee true happiness. It gave them the idea to offer the promise of wealth to the unenlightened masses and really rake it in.

Bystander: Orientation

Mandatory

Wild Flare

At the start of any orientation, you may discharge this flare to extract a pod from the forge. If it is a negotiate pod, gain four boons.

Any: Orientation

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare. Each time an invader takes a spin this turn, you may scrap one of the extracted pods and extract another pod to replace it.

Bystander: Orientation

Modifications

Originally the power to “take a spin.”
Original Bandit spins at the start of every turn and only for itself. When original Bandit gets the “jackpot”, it gets any of the extracted cards, and everyone else has to scrap cards of the same type.
Original Bandit does not have a “pot”. Only the extracted cards are possible to win.
Original Bandit’s power has no ability to scrap a ship to spin again.
Original Bandit’s Super Flare is the same effect, but it’s when you spin instead of the invader.
Gave Bandit the ability to offer its power during negotiations as a special offer.
Bandit’s legacy carries on the process of spinning, only without Bandit’s ability to take the cards for itself. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Without the Super Flare, much of Bandit’s power is outside of its control. The primary decision it makes is choosing which cards to take from the pot when it gets a chance.
If an opponent spins a jackpot, they get first pick of the cards while you get more picks.
The other aliens have the option to spin twice at the cost of a ship. This increases the odds of hitting a jackpot or a minor payout, but it also increases the size of the pot. If an attractive card ends up in the pot, spinning the second time might be worth the risk. However, spinning too much will give Bandit a lot of options once its invasion turn comes around.
Bandit gets to take resources from the pot at the start of its invasion, allowing it to stock itself up well before battle. However, anything it takes from the pot will be public knowledge, so be wary of taking things that aliens like Visionary or Hacker can exploit.
Taking valuable cards out of your pot as Bandit might remove the temptation for players to take multiple spins, but it might be worth it if you don’t think the match will last until your next invasion.

Development Notes

Similar to Mite, I love the double meaning in Bandit’s name. It’s a reference to a slot machine, also known as the “one-armed bandit”, named for the machine’s lever that ends up stealing all your money with its flashing colors and addicting gameplay loop. Bandit could just as easily have been named “Casino”, (though given the treatment Arcade got as a name, Bandit was almost certainly the better option). A being that takes your money not through force or intimidation, but by getting you to voluntarily hand it over in exchange for the promise of riches. That was my biggest issue with the core design of original Bandit, as it doesn’t evoke this feeling at all. It spins the slots itself every turn and hopes for the jackpot, instead of tempting the opponents to do it.
With either version of the power, Bandit’s power is unusual due to its lack of agency. Instead, Bandit’s power gives additional agency to other players, allowing them to spin twice and gain rewards from it. Bandit’s power comes from passively tempting players to spin, increasing the pot over time. If the player does win the jackpot, it gives the player a big reward, which is necessary in order to tempt them. The pot is public to make it attractive, and the guaranteed spin each invasion ensures that the pot will develop over time. The idea is to create the sense that “the house always wins”, that while winning the jackpot is tempting and rewarding, it’s still all according to plan for the Bandit.
With attack pods required to share the same tens digit, the odds of the jackpot are relatively low. With my base Forge, there’s 26 Attack with 0 tens digit, 13 with 1 digit, 2 with 2 digit, 1 with 3 digit, 1 with 4 digit, 2 Morph, 12 Negotiate, 3 Poison, 11 Artifact, 9 Distress, and 8-24 flares. If someone gets the jackpot, it will almost certainly be 3 0-digit Attacks, and the odds of that happening with a fully stocked Forge are about 2%, with variation coming in as the pot gets diluted. Odds of getting 2 of the same are closer to 20%, which is much more likely to be the case.
The option for players to scrap a ship to spin again was an idea I had to really push the idea of tempting players to gamble. The first spin is free, in classic casino tradition, while further spins have a cost. I didn’t want to allow players to spin an unlimited number of times, since that makes it a stalling mechanic and possibly makes it too easy to spin the jackpot. I settled on up to three spins per turn, as a nice standard number to allow the pot to build up without taking too much time.
One aspect of this power I struggled a great deal with is the payout. I wanted this power to really capture the nature of “the house always wins”, where Bandit shares in the payout if someone wins the jackpot. I considered letting Bandit get its pick of all the pods in the pot, but if Bandit’s payout is too high it will disincentivize players from taking additional spins or even caring about the pot at all. For instance, if the 40 pod is in the pot, players might really spend their ships to go for it. But if they know it’ll just go to Bandit, why bother? I considered letting Bandit draw 1 for each pod taken from the pot, but the flavor didn’t feel right. In a traditional Casino, the house does generally lose when someone wins big, but they’re usually good at preventing that from happening. Given the low odds of hitting a jackpot, I decided to just let Bandit take whatever’s left over. With the pot adding 2-3 new pods every spin, the number of pods is likely to stack up very quickly.
If there’s a 2% jackpot payout, there would be an average of 150 pods in the pot before a payout. While it would be good for the jackpot to feel impactful, a player gaining a cache of 150 pods would be a bit unwieldy. It would be a massive advantage brought about from complete luck, which just wouldn’t feel good for anyone except the winner. This sort of situation is where it would benefit to have a hard cache size limit. For now, I decided to let the winner take 8 pods from the pot.
The fact that players are getting to spin at the start of invasion is meant to affect the temptation factor. It’s worth noting that the 30 and 40 pods are impossible to win via the slots, but they can be added to the pot and won via the jackpot. This means they are free cards for the Bandit if no one can win before then, but free cards for whoever wins if they get lucky enough.
It was tempting to make this power activate as an actor during arrival, to make Bandit more valuable as an ally, but I didn’t want to present a situation where the pot will only build up if Bandit gets invited a lot. For this power to be noteworthy, the pot needs to be continuously building up over time, like the bank from Mario Party.
It may seem like this alien violates my 6th Edict, that no alien should be counterbalanced by being lucky. However, that rule specifically applies to being able to defeat the alien in the match, not outright negate its effect. Bandit’s power has a lot of variance and requires luck to overcome its power, but the power itself is simply an accumulation of resources, comparable to Doctor or Miser. It would be a different story if you had to roll a jackpot to beat Bandit in an encounter, or something of that nature. A more pressing issue would be Bandit’s relation to my 3rd Edict, stating all aliens should provide an interesting new choice to the player. The only real choice Bandit adds is the choice of which cards to pull from the pot, which I considered significant enough to go with for the power. The Special Offer was also added as an additional component to give Bandit agency, and a free spin on the slot machine seems like something a casino would offer in lieu of capital.