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JohnHwangDD:

It's hardly deterministic. After all, it only occurs on damage rolls of Shaken or Stunned, and then it requires a 1D6 Crazed! roll.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that games are about making decisions, so that improving a game requires one of two things: That either more live options be made open in existing decision-situations, or that existing choices can be coordinated or made relevant to each other to produce greater combinatorial properties than otherwise.

Given this, we can deduce the corollaries that degrading a game may involve reducing the number of live options available to players, or that the relevance of these choices to one another is lessened.

At the core of most people complaints about Crazed are the corollaries I've just stated, because of the 1/3 chance of loss of options reduces the number of live options for the players, and that loss of control means that the Dreadnought cannot be factored into strategies and thus less relevant to how one plays their game.

So where the possibility (and to a degree the likelihood) of the Dreadnought being affected by Crazed! is delivered into the hands of one's opponent, we do the opposite of the current problems with Crazed and turn a perceived bug into a feature.

By tying Crazed! into the opposing player's option to shoot at the Dreadnought, we give additional weight to the upsides (may kill the Dreadnought, may provoke Fire Frenzy on own side, may spark Rage if the other player would prefer to shoot, etc) and downsides (may not kill the Dreadnought and waste fire, may provoke Fire Frenzy in return, may spark Rage in charge distance of units you don't want charged, etc) of that decision, and tie that into the players' overall strategies (do you want the Dreadnought to close, do you want it to hang back, will you try to distract enemy fire by offering a tempting target, will you risk enemy fire by offerering a tempting target, etc).

Incidentally, for those who think the Fury configuration is the only 'safe' configuration for Chaos Dreadnoughts, there's always the option of Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher for fire support and put him beside a Land Raider. But I digress.

@Nurglitch: Perhaps I misunderstood your proposal?

As I understand it:
- If the Dread is Shaken or Stunned, it always suffers Crazed, and the d6 result simply determines whether it runs or shoots.

Therefore, your opponent has complete control over whether the Dread goes crazy or not, as they are the only person who can cause Shaken / Stunned results.

That doesn't sound like fun at all.

JohnHwangDD:

My proposal was that if a Dreadnought suffered from a Stunned or Shaken result, the controlling player rolls on the Crazed! table at the beginning of the next Dreadnought player's turn.

Thus, if a Dreadnought has been Shaken or Stunned, there's a 1/6 chance it will Fire Frenzy, 1/6 chance it will Blood Rage, and 4/6 chance it will simply suffer a Shaken or Stunned result. This means that it is still a good idea to buy Extra Armour, as that will shift Stunned Results to Shaken if the Crazed! result is Sane.

Therefore one's opponent does not have complete control over whether the Dreadnought goes crazy or not, because they do not have control over whether Shaken or Stunned result causes Fire Frenzies or Blood Rages.

I've play-tested it and I found it fun. Your mileage may vary.