Heavy Crossbows

[Malcolm_Reynolds]

They are Elite in Skull and Shackles but not Rise of the Runelords.

[Theryon Stormrune]

That's because they're better quality in S&S.

The string kept on snapping after 25+ uses. Plus they were able to institute a better crank system with the ones in S&S.

[Andrew L Klein]

The gameplay reason, because Elite cards get removed from the game at a certain point. Some paths they may want the Heavy Crossbow to be pulled earlier, some later. Basic and Elite are definitely traits that may vary path to path (though it wouldn't be often)

[Vic Wertz]

In between S&S and Wrath, we decided that if the traits on a card change, it's not the same card. Added to FAQ.

I think that Heavy Crossbow is the only card that did that between S&S and RotR, but if you spot any more, let me know!

[Malcolm_Reynolds]

Thanks, Vic!
I had remembered Mike saying somewhere that they had decided any two cards of the same name would be identical. Otherwise it would have gone well with most of the base set weapons being basic or elite.

[Longshot11]

Vic Wertz wrote:

In between S&S and Wrath, we decided that if the traits on a card change, it's not the same card. Added to FAQ.

I think that Heavy Crossbow is the only card that did that between S&S and RotR, but if you spot any more, let me know!

Sorry to necro the thread, but I was wondering about this resolution. The S&S Heavy Xbow was obviously meant to be Elite, but it was FAQed back into lacking the trait for consistency. Shouldn't the decision have been more in line with the current resolution for WotR Glibeness - "Yeah, we wanted an Elite 1d10 Ranged weapon, so just treat the Heavy Xbow like a mirror card called, idk, 'Arbalest' that is identical to the Xbow in every way except that it has Elite" ?

I'm asking for the Heavy Xbow in particular because I find the "different traits, different cards" rather detrimental in this case. There's no issue with FAQing Brilliance into having the Slashing trait, while would it be a problem to FAQ Heavy Xbow into having Elite trait?

Otherwise, it's quite annoying flipping a base deck non-magical weapon over and over into AD5 and beyond, when most chars are armed with Flaming Magical Bec-de-Corbins +3, for example. And now (with the Add-On Deck), there's 3 of them in WotR...

I don't see a problem with FAQing an old card with the Basic/Elite traits if design intent for the card changes in later sets, is all I'm saying.

[Vic Wertz]

If design intent changes for an old card going into a new set, they'll make a new card that matches their new intent. But that's not the approach the designers wanted to take here.