Character reveal #9 – Talya

Welcome Commander,

Martin here, trying my hand at this wonderful website. The article will go on BGG at a later time, but I thought it would be nice to have it debut here.

Talya Paranis is a young changeling with a skillset in high demand. This spotlight will hopefully make you see why.

Illustrators: Original concept by Angelita Ramos. Character by Dinulescu Alexandru, Action cards by Gunship Revolution. Note that Emil is the original writer of Talya and her mechanics, but I have taken over her story.

DESIGNER NOTES
Changelings have a very adaptable and extreme metabolism. Maybe that is why their life cycle is quite short. But this can be compensated for with intense lives At 16 years, Talya is fully grown and has experienced more than most adults of other species – also more than she would have preferred. Her talents for tinkering, which are also reflected in her action cards, have gotten her out of (and into) countless situations.

“I can build that”

DETAILS & ORIGIN
Full name: Talya Paranis
Species: Changeling
Gender: (fluid, currently female)
Date of birth: 984 ATA
Place of birth: Eva Arielle
Affiliation: (unknown)
Former work: Demolition specialist

The following section contains slight spoilers all found on the first page of Talya’s legacy folder.

Talya grew up on the Changeling capital planet, Eva Amarian, a happy and proud changeling. Clever with both mind and fingers, much came easy to her. But something happened along the way, as she became aware of certain political issues, leading her down a shady path. Now Talya is running away from her past, not knowing where she will end up. But there are probably more problems than solutions on the horizon.

DOSSIER AND PLAYSTYLE

Talya’s innate ability reflects her background, as she has built a nice “Augmented survival suit” for herself. Its ability to ignore damage cards can be very handy, especially for a changeling with hardly any shields. It is sadly not very reliable.

Her card deck has a lot of weapons that require some thought. Like “Claymore mine” which damages everything and everyone close to it. And “Sticky grenade” which not only displaces an enemy but also damages all that is next to it. “Hacker specialist”, her strongest interact card, works best if played as the first card of the round. And her mobility card “Jump and run” can potentially be played every round, but only if you manage to keep the “1” slot free. Finally, her “Electron rifle” is a nice and simple long range damage card, although it comes with the caveat that the two sweet dice that it includes cannot be used to regen shields or to move.

Playing Talya you have to be very careful. With only 1 shield, lowest in the game, she easily becomes injured. On the bright side she is young and can survive more scars than the other changelings. But it is probably best to team her up with a beefy (or healy) friend or two, that can keep her out of too much trouble.

Hopefully this has given you an idea about how to play this troubled changeling. If you want to help Talya figure out her future, you can try her out on Tabletop Simulator (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2539276749).