League of Infamy: Alarm and Infamy
24th Oct 2019
Rob Burman
We’re rattling through the League of Infamy rules now! In our previous blogs, we’ve covered everything from Villain cards to loot and today we’re talking Infamy and Alarm. For the Villains, they want to gain as much Infamy as possible. It will make them notorious down the local Rogue Headquarters. “Oh, you’re the nasty piece of work that stole all those gems and killed those baby drakons. Nice one.” *sound of tankards bashing together, followed by much rejoicing*
On the other hand, the courageous Keep Master is hoping the Villains totally mess up the mission and start generating Alarm. This will help to bring in more reinforcements and make sure the Villains have a trickier time when it comes to completing the mission in question. “Oh, you’re the idiot that smashed all those doors down and let the elves know you were there.” *sound of tankard being bashed over a head, followed by much screaming*
Infamy and Alarm tokens are represented by double-sided tokens, which come in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 and are kept in a communal pool until needed. When players gain these tokens, they should put them in front of them; when they lose or spend them, they should return them to the pool.
Infamy Tokens
While they might ostensibly be on the same side during a Raid, the Villains are in direct competition with one another as they attempt to gain favour with the League. This is represented in the game by Infamy tokens – the more you collect, the more impressive the stories told of your deeds will be! Villains can also spend Infamy tokens to ignore damage or improve dice rolls. This represents them scrabbling for their life or acting in a manner unbefitting of a mighty Villain, losing face but hopefully gaining an advantage.
A Villain can gain Infamy in the following ways:
• When they slay a Defender, they gain Infamy equal to its Infamy Reward / Reinforcement Cost. So there’s an incentive to try and take out those big enemies!
• When they successfully pick a lock, they gain two Infamy. This is great for characters – like Glum the goblin – who don’t excel in combat but are very good at being sneaky.
• When they play a Disorder card, they gain Infamy as shown on the card. As covered previously.
• When they make an Assist Action, they gain one Infamy – if possible, this comes from the Villain they assisted. This is a fun one! Occasionally you may have to help out your ‘colleagues’ but you’ll need a little incentive.
But why are you trying to earn all this Infamy? Well, firstly it’s going to help in a campaign because you’ll be able to learn extra skills. However, it can also help during the game because you can ‘spend’ Infamy in different ways:
• Once per dice roll, spend one Infamy to add one to the result. This is handy for when you’re trying to take out more powerful Defenders, which in turn could generate more Infamy.
• Once per attack or game effect, spend one Infamy to reduce the amount of damage suffered by one. The Villains aren’t averse to doing whatever it takes to survive… but they may lose a bit of rep for doing so.
Alarm Tokens
The Keep Master will also be gathering Alarm tokens during the Raid. BOOOOOOOOOOOO! They get a certain number of these each round and receive more when the Villains smash down doors or brutalise the Defenders. These tokens can be spent to bring in more reinforcements, activate additional Defenders or play certain Keep Cards.
The Keep Master gains Alarm tokens in the following ways:
• They gain Alarm Tokens based on the number of non-subdued Villains in each Start phase. This helps to balance the game depending upon the amount of players.
• They gain one for each Alarm token drawn from the Exploration Bag. This is a bag prepared before each mission that contains Loot, Alarm and Infamy tokens. It also contains cats… not actual cats, of course. But cat tokens that spawn howling elven cats that generate Alarm tokens each round.
• They gain one when an Alarm icon is rolled on the Loot die. As mentioned previously, the Loot die is pretty much the Alarm die.
• They gain two when a Villain destroys a door or scenery token. “Oh, please don’t destroy my beloved antique mahogany dining table!”
Just like the Villains, the Keep Master is able to spend Alarm tokens to give them bonuses during each mission.The Keep Master can spend Alarm tokens in the following ways:
• Activate additional defenders in the Keep Phase (costs one token for the first, two for the second, etc)
• Bring Defenders onto the board as Reinforcements during the End phase by spending tokens equal to their Infamy Reward / Reinforcement Cost.
As a result, there’s a definite balancing act for the players taking on the role of the Villains. Yes, earning Infamy is great but it’s often likely to produce Alarm tokens for the Keep Master. This will then make their mission harder… but they’re also more likely to get rewarded with Infamy.
