Forums of the Megaverse®

According to rules as written can you have duplicates of the same special character in the same army (or even the same squad for that matter)?

I see nothing that prevents this.

This will boil down to rules as intended trumping rules as written.

I would say never in the same army.

Technically, though I'd file it under the "don't be a dick" special rule, ha!

The malcontents character rules say you can't copy certain aces, but that's all I've really found.

Sadly there is no "don't be a dick special rule" in the book. So until this gets errata to say otherwise I believe that it would be legitimately within the rules for someone to do this.

By the letter of the rules I would say it was allowed but in the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship I would say it is a bad idea.

Given that this game was advertised with organized tournament/competitive play, that's something they'll want to be very clear about.

When prizes (and often even when just bragging rights) are on the line, otherwise normal and sensible players can start cutting corners.

If they don't want people taking 4 Khyron's (as an example), they should say as much. Otherwise, someone will do it, and if it's not against the rules, it'll either come down to the Tournament Organizer's discretion (not a good idea; leads to inconsistency across venues) or people will do it.

Hell, some will do it because it'll annoy some of the purists.

Note: this is said without clear access to the book, so if it does say something making that untenable, please point out the rule in question to enlighten us all. Otherwise, we'll need to wait for PB's errata and/or tournament rules to clarify that point.

I'd let them use whatever characters they want personally. The cost is close to the value most of the time. Do you want Khyron or an extra few Regults? meh. It needs to be clarified but I'd have no problem either way, just because there is one soldier like Khyron does not mean in the 5 million ships that there might not have been a few more like him.

It is also worth nothing that there is no limit to the amount of special characters that can be taken in a single squad. I do think this needs to be addressed, there are some pretty powerful 5 point characters that could easily lead to players making super units for marginal costs.

Personally in my venue (this is just out opinion) We allow duplicates of certain special pilots.

Specifically anyone the Malcontents can use as a template. meaning Rick,Roy,Max,Miriya, Breetai, Azonia, Khyron are Unique and non duplicateable.
Where others can be used as templates meaning there are other people out there with the same or similar skills so duplicate away.

You may say "but wait Azonia and Khyron can be taken as Malcontents" While this is true They are still Azonia and Khyron when they are malcontents and not simple templates.