Me likey, but not sure if it is thematic.

BEHOLD! THE FIRST BOSS BATTLE!

So, I am good with this thematically and I imagine Raichu is as well. I don’t really care about that much in general to be honest as long as it isn’t wildly off theme. My problems with this lay in several parts of the text being ambiguous enough that I’m almost certain it either wouldn’t work or would be exploitable. Don’t get me wrong, I can clearly understand the intent at all points but intent doesn’t mean much with this being a nomic and all. I’m going to list some of the examples I noticed at first glance.

First though, I want to mention that I would not track health that way. It makes it difficult to find out it’s current health at a glance, especially if it has been awhile since anyone attacked it. I would suggest either giving it a GNDT row or have it’s health tracked in the rule and have a clause that reads “After battling the Crab the Hunter should update this rule to reflect its current health”. Same with the appendages by the way. I would say that in order to not clutter the GNDT and because Health isn’t a stat tracked for Hunters that the in-rule option would be better.

Anyways, some ambiguous things:

- “The sum of the results is the amount of damage done to the Crab.”

This doesn’t actually say that the amount of damage dealt is subtracted from it’s health.

- “The Hunter who attacks the Crab must write out how much HP it has left in a Comment when they roll for damage in the GNDT.”

This is a problem because as I read it, the comment MUST be made at the EXACT time they roll for damage and obviously that is impossible to do since they don’t know the result to afterward.

- “If a Hunter engages the Crab in battle, they must move their ship away from Crab Edge by the next day.”

This is none optional but what if they can’t do it for some reason? It is illegal not to move so what happens if they don’t? I understand the idea was for the crab to destroy them if they didn’t leave but the sentence doesn’t allow for them not to leave.

- “If an appendage’s HP is depleted to 0 or less, that appendage will be considered defeated and the Crab will the Stunned for one day, giving the Hunters more time to attack before they have to flee.”

Again, I understand the idea but I don’t believe that it is sufficiently explained what happens when the crab is stunned.

Some of the aforementioned problems repeat again in appendages section.

This is by no means an in-depth look at it but I just wanted to point out a few things I noticed before going to bed and this is already WAY longer then I originally intended it to be.

Also, “the Crab will retaliate and destroy their ship” doesn’t work because Hunters always have a ship, according to the Ships rule.

Per Larry and Kevan.

I am, however, thematically alright with hazards, even the absurd monster boss fight kinds. However, the loot payouts are a bit much. Well. A lot much.

I think the proposals for enemy ships that could be fought and looted for 2-4 Pieces, and shoved off, but never actually permanently defeated, were a better implementation of an enemy concept; a boss monster that can scuttle ships is a little off the tack of the gameplay established thus far.

All that said, have a meaningless because I snickered.

“Destroyed” should mean “turned into a raft”.