u/ZenShrugs

The Falconwood Files is one of the most complicated sets available for Final Girl. However, there's a sneaky way to make it simpler. You don't have to use the Missions for the Falconwood map if you don't want to. It's a good way for new players to get the hang of Slayer, who is pretty complicated all by himself.

Here's all you have to do:

1. Remove 1x Event card from the deck - 'Helping Hands'.

2. You cannot choose to Lose Progress or Gain Progress on the Mission ... because there isn't one. You must choose a different effect.

No really, that's it.

Ignore the Special Setup rules for the Falconwood location. Ignore the 'Missions' and 'Friends' rules for the Falconwood location. Leave all the mission sheets, Friend cards and Mission cards in the game box. Leave the 'Survive the Hunt' Terror card in the box as well--make sure you haven't accidentally shuffled it in with the other Terror cards.

You'll still use the River Crossings rules and the Twenty-Sided Die.

Only three cardboard tokens should be needed: the Pizza Van, the ! Sign and the Bridge.

Now you can play a vanilla game of Final Girl at Falconwood against Slayer or any other Killer you like. You just need to defeat the Killer the normal way, without worrying about completing a Mission as well.

Notes

If you're new to The Falconwood Files, or to Final Girl in general, this is a good way to keep the rules simple for your first few games. When you're confident you know what you're doing, you can start using the Mission and Friends rules.

For experienced players, you now have the option to treat Falconwood as another rules-light location like the Storybook Woods, Camp Happy Trails or Buddyland. It makes a nice change of pace if you feel like wandering around town without the pressure of an objective.

Just keep in mind that without the Missions, this map may feel a little strange.

- Firstly, it will be easier to win because there's no requirement to complete the Mission before the Killer can be killed. The size of the map also may make it easier for you to rescue Victims while keeping away from the Killer.

- Secondly, because the map is so large and zoomed out, it may feel sparse and lifeless without a Mission to liven it up. My games here felt a bit like arthouse movies with hardly any dialogue and lots of long moody landscape shots.

I played three games here without Missions to try this out--two against Hans and one against Slayer (my first try at him). I didn't run into any rules issues, although it's possible I've missed something.

The second game was the funniest. Reiko got the pizza van as her starting event and spent the whole game zooming around rescuing people while delivering pizzas on the 4th of July. Unfortunately she made a stupid mistake (dozing off in her van when she only meant to take a breather) so her final delivery turned out to be herself, well cooked, to Hans ...

Geppetto is the easiest Killer I've tried so far. A lot of his apparent difficulty comes from his Carnival of Blood map, but even at max Bloodlust he's a feeble old man if his Puppets are busy or dead. I've come up with some house rules to toughen him up. If you find him too easy, you might like to give them a try.

Ideally you should use both house rules together. Each is intended to plug a gap in Geppetto's defences.

>1. Each Puppet on the Puppets card adds 1 damage to Geppetto's Attack Value (knife symbol).

>2. When Geppetto is killed, the game does not end as long as there is at least 1 Puppet on the board.

>Remove Geppetto's meeple from the board. From now on, there is no Killer, so ignore his Killer Action and any other effects that refer to the Killer.

>Puppets no longer spawn. They are no longer bound by strings. Instead of their usual target, they will target the nearest Exit space.

>If a Puppet starts the Killer phase in an Exit space and an effect would move it toward that Exit, it escapes and you lose the game.

>When all Puppets on the board have been killed, Geppetto is truly dead and you win the game.

Theme

The idea is that Geppetto puts a portion of his power or his soul into his puppets. While they're on the board, Geppetto is weakened. But when they're destroyed, their power returns to him and he becomes stronger until he makes more puppets.

If he's killed, his evil essence lives on in his surviving puppets and tries to escape, so that it can find another unlucky individual to become the new puppetmaster. The man they call Geppetto wasn't the first, and he may not be the last. The show must go on ...

Notes

I've tested these rules in about 12 games using Charlie and Asami--about half at Camp Happy Trails and half at the Carnival of Blood.

Rule 1 makes Geppetto more dangerous at the start and end of the game. For instance, if Bloodlust is at its lowest (Attack Value 1) and there are 2 Puppets on the card, G will do 3 damage per attack. It doesn't matter if they're on the 'exhausted' or 'ready' space. As long as they're on the card, they add to G's attack value.

This means you can't simply run up to Geppetto on turn 1 and start punching him to death. Well, you can try, but he will hit back hard. Especially if you draw a Terror card with multiple Killer Action lines. Charlie got herself killed on the first turn in one test game when she tried to rush him and copped 3 x 3 damage to the face--one attack from the basic Killer Action and two more attacks from the Terror card.

And if you kill off all his Puppets, knowing they won't respawn during the Finale, he will be doing 4 or 5 damage per attack, making him more of a threat in the final showdown.

Of course, by itself this rule still leaves a weak spot. You can simply wait until all his Puppets are on the board and he's at his weakest, and then run up and punch him to death, ignoring the Puppets. That's why it's a good idea to use rule 2 as well.

Rule 2 means that if you kill Geppetto while some Puppets are left on the board, you'd better be ready to chase them down and destroy them before they escape. (Note that the phase doesn't immediately end when you kill Geppetto and remove his meeple.)

So you have decisions to make about managing the Puppets. If you kill them, G will be stronger. If you leave them alone, they'll run away once G is dead.

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Overall these rules seem to work and have levelled up Geppetto to be on par with other reasonably tough Killers--though not unstoppable. Most importantly, I've found my games against him much more tense and exciting.

If you feel like trying these rules out, I'd appreciate any feedback. There may still be teething problems with a few combinations of Dark Powers and Finales that I haven't tried, or something else I've overlooked. See how you go. Be aware that Endless Maddening Laughter and any Terror card with multiple Killer Action lines on it will be more dangerous if there are Puppets on the card.

One funny situation could happen if you kill Geppetto just before the Finale flips and it turns out to be his Epic Finale from the Bonus Features box. It>!would make all the Puppets explode on their way to the exit!<and hand you the win, even if they killed you, since you're dying at the same time as the Killer. You might like to rule that this counts as a loss, like dying in the self-destruct on the USS Konrad. It hasn't happened to me yet so I'm on the fence about it.

^(For rule 2, once Geppetto is killed, I like to flip the cardboard Puppet tokens over to show the hat symbols on the back. It reminds me that G's soul is possessing his Puppets and that they're trying to escape. Obviously you can't do this if you use the miniatures, though.)

I recently asked AJ Porfirio (co-designer of Final Girl) how the Double Up and Combo cards work. They're optional Signature Action cards that can be used in any game. Double Up comes in the Box of Props, while Combo comes with Guest Stars. AJ kindly gave me permission to share his responses here.

tl;dr

- I asked whether Double Up and Combo can be played in the Killer phase, on Reaction cards. AJ says yes (in his view).

- I also asked what happens when you play Combo with two Action cards and the first one has a red STOP / X icon. AJ says you should stop at the STOP (in his view).

Details

AJ gave me some guidelines, but refrained from giving official rulings because it seems other designers at VRG disagree about how to interpret these cards:

>Feel free to use ROA in these cases, that is what they are for to be honest. We never wanted FG to be something that gets bogged down by technical rule questions and we knew as it grew exponentially that it wouldn't even be possible to keep up with every possible interaction. Having said that, here is my two cents... I'd call this guidance, not an official ruling as there is some disagreement on these internally.

"1. Can Double Up (Box of Props) be played in the Killer phase, e.g. to get a Reaction card back right after you played it?"

>Yes, Reaction cards are Action cards.

>We do think that the regained card should not really be able to be used again immediately, but that is our preference and again, not an official ruling.

"2. Can Combo (Guest Stars) be played in the Killer phase, e.g. to roll once for two Reaction cards?"

>Yes, Reaction cards are Action cards. I don't think this often provides much benefit (unless also using other Sig action cards) as an effective Retaliate nullifies all the damage so would render the Guard sort of useless, although I guess with one success it could matter in a desperate situation)

"3. When playing Combo, if the first card you resolve has a red STOP icon, does that end the Action phase before the second card is resolved? Or do you ignore the STOP because you're still in the middle of resolving the Combo action? e.g. can you Combo with Furious Strike and Critical Blow on a single success?"

>There is some disagreement internally on this one. My strong opinion is that STOP means STOP. This is one of the major reasons why selecting the ORDER of the cards is important. If you don't want to get stopped after the first one then play that card second in order. If you play a STOP card first, well then that is the risk you take.

Notes

For questions 1 and 2, I wasn't really asking if Reaction cards are Action cards, but rather if Double Up and Combo themselves are the kind of Action card you can play in the Killer phase. Looks like they can be played outside the Action phase all right (in AJ's view at least). But I haven't pinned down exactly why yet. Are they a special kind of card similar to Close Call, since they have the same look? If so, we don't have a name for that kind of card yet.

For question 3, several people here on the subreddit agree with AJ that STOP means STOP. But I've also heard the opposite. Apparently someone on Discord said the STOP wouldn't kick in until you'd finished resolving Combo?

There's a bigger question here about what exactly 'immediately end the phase' means in Final Girl. In some contexts you finish resolving the current action before you end the phase (e.g. if your Time goes into the red and hits the STOP icon) or the game (if you flip a final Health token and it's blank). But there are also times when the phase stops instantly and interrupts everything, like the Pepper Spray at Camp Happy Trails.

I'm not entirely happy with the idea of using ROA for understanding Double Up or Combo, because it's not about two cards interacting weirdly. It's basic stuff about what a single card means, what type of card it is, and how it's intended to be used. I wish this sort of thing were clarified in the rules pamphlets or the FAQ, similar to the commentaries for the vehicle cards in the zombies vignette.

Anyway, I hope the guidelines above help anyone scratching their heads over these cards.

Thanks heaps to AJ for taking the time to respond in the middle of all the Series 4 fulfillment madness.