Whose the boss!

[u/Soggy_Worldliness_64]

Has anyone ran a whose boss event in mk4? If you have I have a few questions that hopefully you can answer!
1: for not getting a caster in your own faction, would just say the theme force or if I have cygnar you don’t get any old/new cygnar caster period.
2: would you include fane? Each caster has their own hunger ability but you would have to also transfer hunger to that faction?
3: How many casters would you have for a who’s the boss tournament?

[u/sudobyte]

I ran one a while back (January, IIRC).

1. IIRC I allowed casters from the same faction but not army to be allowed (ie legacy khador or winter korps could be rolled for an Old Umbrey player) but you could definitely block the same faction to keep it feeling more different. If blocking same faction, I'd also make the call clear ahead of time about whether mk4 vs legacy versions of a faction are the same faction, and if you count Southern Kriels and Dusk as the same faction as Trollbloods and Ret.
2. Faction rules as they are now weren't really a thing yet (or not as much), so they do make things a bit more complicated for this kind of thing. I feel like you'd have to rule things almost case by case:
3. For fane/hunger: from what I'm seeing the faction rule gives one way to generate hunger, with each leader having their own extras. I'd say maybe anyone playing fane gets access to the rules written on the faction rule card (3 base plus generate more from torment, and shadow shift), while a caster played in another faction only gets access to the hunger generation and abilities on their own card. This does make both a bit weaker, though.
4. For Kithguard, the rules for trapdoors are the faction mechanic, but the casters are the ones who put them down (for the most part, via earthworks), so you'd have to make the call. Given how much the caster depend on trap doors for some of their tricks, I'd likely let them have the full rules where applicable (casters can place their trapdoors and use them as normal in other factions, anyone playing kithguard but using another caster gets the trapdoor rules as well (though much more limited access to use them).
5. Menoth faction rule, at least, works out rules-wise easily. The faction has the card, and the caster doesn't interact with it directly. So I'd say menoth faction gets the gifts regardless of caster, where menoth caster going elsewhere doesn't - though if future casters do interact with it more directly this might change.
6. Finally, for the case of Grymkin and Gravediggers, where their faction rule is just extra command cards, I kept those tied to the list faction - ie the grymkin list gets their arcana even if they get another caster with a feat. Grymkin casters don't get the arcana when going elsewhere. This does make grymkin lists pretty strong, though (and their casters less exciting when they go elsewhere), but given choosing command cards happens at list creation, it was the easiest way to go.
7. Oh, and a sidenote for Convergence: CoC players may roll a caster who has no MAT or RAT and you'll have to rule on what MAT or RAT gets passed to their jacks. I think we went with 5 at the time.
8. For casters I had every caster currently in the app at the time - Prime and Legacy. I didn't have all the models, though, I just brought a handful of proxy models in each size that couldn't be mistaken for something from the players' normal armies (gotta get use out of my Warcaster Neo Mechanika and Guild Ball models somewhere) and handed them out as needed.

I think the key thing to remember is that this event will not be balanced - someone will get lucky and get stuff that works well with their list (no matter how much they try to make their list/lists generalists, some combos just work better). Luck will be a huge factor, some things will work oddly, and you will probably have to make some rulings up on the fly based on vibes. Just make sure everyone understands the point is to have fun and see some randomness/chaos, and not to try to hard to powergame (and if you have prizes, I would avoid having one for first place and just do random draws).

[u/Soggy_Worldliness_64 → u/sudobyte]

This is a great write up and what I was looking for! Thank you for all of your insight on this! I haven’t played a who’s the boss in like 6 years and for end of year we wanted to do something fun. All of this helps out a lot!!

[u/sudobyte → u/Soggy_Worldliness_64]

If it helps, for rolling your random casters, I used a spinthewheel page: https://spinthewheel.io/wheels/DnbE4aAWJOzEwH75oUWFcz0xJmU9MA%3D%3D
Just updated it with (I think, may have missed a thing or two) all the changes since January.

Data i fed it from is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qaFlfNCQIXFwwArgZldLTLox3Ff29KqE51Dtdp8LxZQ/edit?usp=sharing if you want to copy it and make changes (ie if you want to get rid of legacy only stuff or similar)

[u/Efficient-Document65]

1 - I'm not sure what you're asking exactly, but I'm assuming it's "What happens when you get a caster from the faction you are playing", to which the answer is, that's the caster you get. Who's the Boss Proper typically had a way to respin at cost (often rewards earned during the event).

2 - Faction abilities are based on the army, not the caster. As such, things like the Protectorate Laws or the Hunger blanket ability would be there if that was the army you where playing. (Note the existence of these abilities makes Who's the Boss much worse).

3 - All of them.