Explanation of Balance of Power card no. 1 (english)

This House-Rule was build by openCards user LuthySloan.

• 4 sentence version for player
• detailed checklist for judges

The card in 4 sentences:
You may now draw 3 cards at end of turn. However if, during your turn, anything happens that brings
more cards into your hand (increasements), you draw that amout less at end of turn. E. g. Gain 2 cards during your turn, draw just 1 at the end. You may only gain up to 3 cards during one turn. (Draw 0 at end of turn then). If you draw 1 card and discard 1 card during the *same* action (e. g. during one Mission attempt), you have not gained cards in total - always look at the change in the number of cards in your hand, after the full action is completed.

Want another explanation?

7 sentence version:
Draw 3 cards at end of turn minus all cards you gained turing your turn (incresements).
What are increasements?

When an action is completed (incl. all sub-actions and suspend play actions = inc. all actions that happened during that action) you may have more cards in your hand than before that action. If so, that’s an increasemtent (more cards in hand after an action is fully resovled).
At end of turn draw 3, minus all increasements during your turn then.

Also all your increasements are limited to up to 3 per turn total. (in which case you draw 0 at end of turn)
Cards you would gain above the limit of 3 per turn are shuffled back into the deck instead.

With any of that 2 explanations you cover most of the cases and may play Balance of Power. If you want to understand it fully and cover all rare rule exceptions that might accur, you need to read further.

The checklist version:

• Draw 3 cards at end of turn minus all "increasements" during your turn.
• An increasement is, when an *entire* action (including their sub-actions and suspend play actions) results in having more cards in your hand than before that action. Every increasement of your hand size due to an entire action reduces the number of cards your draw at end of turn.
• At the end of your turn you draw 3 cards minus all incresements during an entire turn.
• Your highering in number of cards in your hand (incresement) is limited to 3 per turn. (all actions together - in which case you draw 0 at end of turn)
• If you would increase your number of cards in hand by more than 3 in the entire turn (all incresement actions together), you musn´t and shuffle all cards over the 3 per turn limit back into the deck. (your choice)
• Decreasing your hand during an action (=a sub-action or suspend play action) is substracted from the incresements so you might not have an increase by that action. E. g. Draw 2 and discard 2 (e.g. throught the card mutation) is not an incresement since you still have the same number of cards after the action.
• Seperate independent actions that decrease your number of cards in hand are irrelvant for all purposes. (e.g. Playing personnel seperate from other actions)
• The term "draw" is irrelevant. If you increase your number of hand cards (gain cards) with an entire action, it´s an increasement, no matter if the term “draw” was somewhere or not.

Exceptstions: decay, containment field and converting to download.

• Cards returning from 2E decay mechanism cards and containment field never count as increasement, since you only re-gain those cards.
• If you would increase your number of cards in hand, but prevent it by converting those cards into a download, that number of cards still counts as increasement.

Important:
There are actions that have nothing to do with each other. The decrease of number of cards in hand
of those action is not countercalculated with the increase of other actions.

And there are actions that are suspend play or sub-actions of other actions (therefore happen during that action). In that case a decrease in the number of cards in hand is countercalculated with the increase of cards in hand, resulting in a lower or no increasement of the main action. Simply look if you have more cards in hand after all sub-action are completed. E.g. Playing Kivas Fajo - The Collector (3 Draws) results only in a 2 card increase, since kivas fajo is discarded during that action. After playing an uncountered Kivas Fajo (+2) you may only increase your number of cards in hand by up to 1 or draw 1 card at the end of turn. 3 cards gained total.

LINK to the card: (german)
LINK to the card: (english)

Another way to read about the cards is here: Glossary add-on

Your Balance of Power team
Luthy Sloan, creator
Klim Dokachin, lead designer
Dukat, supporter

Please remark this notes from the author when you try this House-Rule out!

• This House-Rule should only be used with original ST1E cards and NOT with backward compatible ST2E cards.
• This House-Rule should only be used as an enhancement of basic ST1E rules in a Balance of Power scenario!
• Finally this House-Rule could be used in all tournament formats!