Busybody

Alert

Info

Support

Resource

Type

Power to Interlope

Interferes with Encounters

When not an actor, after approach, use this power to probe one of the leader’s drivers. You may relay an encounter pod from your cache to that leader and swap their driver with that pod. If you do and the targeted fleet wins the encounter, gain three boons. If you do and the targeted fleet loses the encounter, ravage two of your ships and the fleet’s leader gains one reward.

As a sponsor, after commission, use this power to ravage one ship belonging to each leader that did not commission you.

Legacy: After approach, the nature of each fleet is revealed. Leaders may ravage two of their committed ships to swap their driver with a pod in their cache.

The Busybodies believe they have all the answers to the mysteries of the Cosmos. They have come forth to spread their great wisdom and make the universe function the proper way, not that anyone asked them to.

Not Actor: Approach

Mandatory

Wild Flare

During launch, you may gift a pod to either leader. If that pod is discharged during this encounter, you and that alien each gain two boons. Otherwise, you must ravage one of your ships.

Not Leader: Launch

Super Flare

As a sponsor, after approach, you may discharge this flare to use your power.

Sponsor: Approach

Modifications

The FFG alien is named Force from the Eon Era. The original alien power is named Busybody from the Mayfair Era.
Original Force from the Eon Era has the power to “be with”. It is a lucre power that others can hire to help when it is not a leader. It can scramble destiny or moderate powers/artifacts/flares/moons/etc. as you desire.
Original Busybody from Mayfair has the power to “meddle”. FFG Force has the power to “interlope”, which works fine as the power name for Busybody.
Original Eon Wild Force is a burnout flare that can “be with” another alien that just gained a foreign base, except Filth. They can establish a foreign base with that alien when not an ally to that alien. My Wild Busybody is based on FFG Wild Force.
Original Eon Super Force may force another alien to hire it, rather than another alien needing to hire it. However, it can’t scramble destiny in such a circumstance. My Super Busybody is based on original Super Force.
Original power is optional. Power changed to mandatory since the original power is divided into two optional clauses. The objectively beneficial driver probing is made mandatory, with the swapping clause still being optional.
Busybody’s legacy provides information to both leaders during approach, allowing them to see the nature of their opponent’s fleet without learning the driver specifically. It also grants them the ability to ravage two of their committed ships to change their pod, taking a “partial loss” in exchange for a potential win, as long as they have at least two ships. This legacy gives aliens a huge advantage if they commit three or more ships and their opponent commits only one or two, since they can’t use the legacy with only one and would still be taking a loss in some form if they ravage two ships when they only have two. Negotiating can become both easier and more difficult, since aliens can swap into an envoy or swap out of an envoy by giving up those two ships, turning a negotiation into a massacre or vice versa. An alien like Roach can use its power to ravage only one committed ship and use the legacy more reliably, while an alien like Virus can struggle to use the legacy at all given how its power works. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

If Busybody is not acting in the current invasion, it can be very risky to use a strong driver like a 30 or 40. You run the risk of Busybody replacing it with an 08 and taking it for themselves later.
Busybody can leverage its power to get commissioned, since aliens don’t want it as a bystander if they are depending on their pods for combat might.
While Busybody is punished for destroying another alien’s encounter, it only ravages two of its ships. Destroying another alien’s encounter can definitely be worth it for a strong encounter pod, even if it means giving that alien a boon.

Development Notes

The original theme for Force is an obvious reference to the mystical power of the Force from Star Wars. It is an energy field that allows the Jedi to use their powers, such as manipulating objects without touching them. The original Eon power is the power to “be with” in reference to the phrase “May the Force be with you” from Star Wars. In the case of this power, the idea is that the alien uses the Force to move a driver and replace it with another one. It can work as a theme, but I find it lacking in personality for alien design. I think the original Busybody works better for characterizing the power, since it specifically doesn’t work when acting in the invasion.
Powerful users of the Force can perform what is known as a Jedi mind trick, which convinces the weak-minded to believe something is true when it is not. This aspect of the power likely relates to the original ability to manipulate powers in customizable ways. It is a remnant of the design of Eon powers, which allow much more human input than modern Cosmic. Such input can’t really work in my Cosmic, since I need to be able to control the parameters in my digital format. There’s no way to enforce the power of Force while maintaining the freedom of the power without an absurd amount of coding.
A “busybody” refers to one who engages in something when they are unwanted. A synonym for a busybody is an interloper, which matches the original power name. The Force in Star Wars isn’t really known for being involved where it is unwanted. It is more like air, where it is always everywhere, which has some thematic relevance. What is is really missing is why you can’t use the force when you’re involved in the fighting, since the Jedi use the Force as one of their primary means of combat. In that regard, Busybody works much better for this power.
Aside from the Star Wars reference, having a power called “Force” almost seems to necessitate some kind of combat power or something that destroys ships. It’s a term that communicates brute strength. While it could work in the sense that the Force from Star Wars is the opposite of that, I prefer how Mite handles such a concept, with the power spelled differently to communicate a subtle dual-meaning.
Busybody is most comparable to FFG Maven, or my retool of it as Judge. Since it can only use its power when not involved in an encounter, it can’t gain any dominion from it. While Judge simply decides who wins, Busybody can influence who will win, while potentially gaining resources. Judge is limited by its own cache contents in determining the winner, and it cannot gain resources from its power. Busybody can directly gain resources and prune its cache with its power, while also even gaining rewards if it helps its opponent get a win.
Busybody is also comparable to Prophet, another alien who uses its power when not involved. While that power can directly gain dominion with its power, it has a similar mechanic of rewarding or punishing the user based on the outcome of the encounter, just to a different extreme.
Though Busybody’s power could potentially be very annoying, I don’t think it has the potential to be oppressive. Since its ships are destroyed when it meddles in such a way that destroys an encounter, it has something of a hard limit as to how many times it can use its power in such a way before it loses its power. Though it does have the ability to cycle back and forth between saving an encounter and throwing an encounter since it gains three boons and loses two ships, this can be a difficult game to play since it can never guarantee the targeted side will win after it swaps a pod.
I concluded that the original power is pointlessly optional based on how it is phrased. Even the original Force doesn’t have to swap a pod after using its power to probe a driver, and there’s no downside to probing one of the drivers, aside from the time spent looking at it. While it does make sense to keep it optional when the power is manually activated, I think it makes sense that a Busybody cannot help but get involved no matter what. It doesn’t provide much tactical advantage to see the pod since it will be revealed immediately afterwards, but there could be some flares or aspects that activate during approach that Busybody could leverage.
Calculator’s power activates after approach, with the same timing as Busybody’s power. Since Busybody is not an actor, its effect would activate after the pods have been equalized. This would be true for any power that activates with such timing, like Mirror or Sorcerer, since the powers of actors will always take effect before bystanders. The case of Mirror is interesting, since the power applies to the encounter rather than the pod. Busybody can swap out a 40 with an 08 after seeing the reflection occur, giving them a much better chance at a win. But unlike getting an equalized pod from Calculator, Busybody will take the 40 pod, not the reflected 04.
The theme of Busybody isn’t really touched by another alien. The closest we have would be aliens themed around being annoying and undesirable like Parasite, Filth, and Klutz. The Busybody angle puts its own spin on such a concept, since it is specifically themed around interfering with an encounter for the sake of setting itself up to take credit. It could be trying to help or it could be trying to mess things up. The common “nosy neighbor” stereotype is a good fit for this alien. It would be funny to have Neighbor and Busybody as your neighbors in a game of Cosmic, even though Busybody’s power doesn’t relate to neighbors.