Ok...
1) Yes.
2) I am sorry you are confused.
Ok, here is an explanation of what the game mechanics are trying to show.
First, each player starts off in a remote area separate from each other. AS they explore, the chances of running into each other (IE getting the same location in play) increases, and once they do, they can track the opponent back to their home territory and vice versa.
There are Main Characters (MCs) that represent Resistance folks and Machines of Death. The Infiltrators look and act enough like regular folks that whenever they have some of that Infiltration skill, other people do not panic and cower in a corner, screaming in terror at the mechanical monstrosity before them, and instead do obedient things let fetching another shotgun or stabbing to death that crazy homeless guy who keeps claiming to be from the future (seriously, that is like the
third one I ran into this last hour!).
The Supporting Characters (SCs) are essentially Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and cannot really be controlled. If they are that the same location, they will listen to you because you're cool or maybe because you are waving around a gun like a lunatic, but leave them alone for even a SECOND and they go hide in a closet and refuse to come out. Think of them as items. That .357 Magnum ain't going anywhere on its on, and it really does not care who is playing around with its trigger.
The Resistance is trying to save those helpless bastards, so they try to convince them to come with them if they want to, you know, live or something, and then hide them away from Deep Blue's grandchildren. Sarah is their deck because they are trying to save her because she has a honking set of victory points.
The Governor of California has to have Sarah in his deck as well because he wants to cut her taxes into bloody little pieces. Remember that when one comes into play, no matter who plays her, another one cannot - how would that be possible anyways, clone her? We all know how ludicrous and unrealistic "cloning" somebody would be in a setting that involves time travel and self-aware robots! What a foolish idea!
Anyhow, mechanics wise, you can also win by Mission Points (think Sarah Connor Chronicles, where they try to win by chipping away at each other since neither side knows where their nemesis (John Connor/Skynet) is exactly). So, if the Schizophrenic Homeless Guy Brigade (Motto: "Come with me if you want to live... and can you spare some change?") decides to build a Mission Point deck, they do not need to include Sarah. They are not trying to win by hiding Sarah in refrigerator buried under Billy Bob's trailer, and are instead gathering enough little victories to prevent Skynet from ever being created (or at least finding it and reprogramming it into the best damn espresso machine ever).
If High-in-the-Skynet was not allowed to include Sarah in their deck, they would be screwed at this point. But, they are, because they are searching for her as well. Remember, they would be after Sarah whether or not Resistance tries to stop them. Also remember that Sarah is not a "Good Guy" in the first movie, she is just the Target, you know, the treasure chest full of gold, the Holy Ark of the Covenant, the White Castle hamburger. The first movie is naked, fleshy, smelly man versus naked, fleshy, smelly robot, and thus both decks need the Goal of the story (IE Sarah) in their decks.
Also, while the Plucky Heroes ("I can tell you your future, baby - it's you giving me your number") need to save people, the Terminator needs to kill them, or, more accurately, get them killed. It takes time finding somebody, shooting them, and then finding another one. Why do that when you can find a guy, have that guy find another guy, have those guys find more guys, and so on, until you have a whole bunch of guys. And then give them all a bunch of guns like they were at a redneck wedding and go Future Boy hunting', heeyah!
See, If a Resistance-controlled SC picks up a gun and takes a shot at an Infiltrator, the Infiltrator will happily blow his head off and *DING* get some points for the effort. But if Infiltrator-controlled SCs do the same against the Resistance, they face a tough choice - shoot down the people they are trying to save, thus wasting their turn to GIVE THEIR OPPONENT POINTS, or simply do not engage the armed SCs, hoping that little girl with the shotgun doesn't have good enough game to slaughter them all.
Plus, it lets the Terminator do other things. Arming your SCs instead of murdering them the first chance you get lets Arnie dig around the Happy Burger's back closet for a much needed flashlight, while his horde of greasy-video-game-addicts-slash-future-war-heroes holds off the attacking nude hobos. Then, if the hobos do not kill off all of his minions (free points!), he can then turn around and murder them himself at whim because they just think he is
such a big hunk and do not realize that he is actually a vicious kitchen blender under all those sexy, muscular abs ("Come with me if you want to live on the edge by brutally killing your friends from the future, who are really just trying to save you from me, but you do not know that because I look prettier, smell a bit nicer, and found you first").
Hopefully that made sense.
Often I don't.
Make sense.
Heeyah!
Thanks nynax, that definitely helps. I do have a few more:
1) Couldn't the skynet player summon supporting characters and then just kill them on their next turn for the points? Or can you only target characters who are controlled by the other player?
2) I think that I'm missing something. Things like both starter decks having Sarah confuses me, coming from my experience with other games where a character only belongs to one side.
I've played the Star Wars CCG (decipher), the Star Trek CCG (fleer), Lord of the Rings CCG (decipher again), and Magic. I'm having a hard time 'forgetting' some of those rules and seeing these clearly