Freedom Planet
Developed by: GalaxyTrail Games
Gameplay Genre: Speed Platformer/Action Platformer
Narrative Genre: Alien Invasion, Anthro
Released for: PC, Wii U, PS4, Linux systems
Subjective Length: About ten hours per playthrough
Overall: 8/10 If you've already got one of the consoles this will play on, then it's worth getting this game. If you're a big enough fan of old school platformers with modern polish, then that might bump up to a 9, which is: "this game is worth buying a console for". This is a game in the tradition of the early Sonic the Hedgehog titles. There are multiple characters to play as. As Lilac, the game becomes a speed game with a very Sonic feel. As Carol: the game slows slightly to a more Knuckles experience. Meanwhile, Milla is a glass cannon only available after a few levels of play, and whose playstyle will form a true test of timing, planning, and precision. The controls overall feel like a fluid blend of Sonic and Megaman titles.
There has been some criticism of the story. I'll say this: the story is probably not award-worthy, but it's perfectly good for the game, and probably still better than it needed to be to make this game shine. It's somewhat simple, and there's occasional tonal dissonance, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised by a story more coherent and well told than a lot of what passes for triple A these days.
It's going for $14.99 right now on Steam, and there's a free demo up as well for anyone eager to give the game a try before you buy. The store page is here. I say, give it a go. Happy gaming, all.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
On the Proper Deployment of Ghouls
Hey all,
Still sick, doctor's appointment Wednesday. Whatever happens with that will probably effect posting this week, but until then: I said the 26th, so we'll see what my brain's making at the moment.
OSRIC stands for Old School Reference and Index Compilation. It's partly an AD&D retroclone, and partly a slicing down of the original rules to an open license core of the system. It's a resource for players seeking to use the OGL, or "open game license", which makes certain aspects of the original mechanics legally usable by third parties. This license allowed for the creation of many derivative works, including, most famously, Pathfinder.
When I last ran an OSRIC game, some good came of it. That was, unfortunately, also the campaign that turned into a rolling dumpster fire of relationship drama before the end. Still, the system itself is pretty fun, and includes a much more robust bestiary than a player would expect from a pure OGL resource.
One of my favorite enemies I got to use were Ghouls. I only got to throw them at the party twice, but they had an impact. The first thing that I think gave them that impact was using them sparingly. This was a campaign that ran slightly over a year, I think, and usually once to twice a month. They faced a trio of them early on, and then, months later, straight "noped" their way out of an infested mortuary. Two steps in, torches reveal Ghouls, two steps back and locked the door behind them.
One great thing with Ghouls in the OSRIC book is their paralysis attack. With no warning to a party of newer players, that paralysis is a frightening thing. Imagine their reaction to hearing "two damage, and roll against paralysis". This stat had never been called for before when they first encountered these enemies, and it gave a thrill of the unknown.
Another thing that made the Ghouls a seriously scary enemy was that I was getting into a school of thought on GMing at the time that involved replacing "cannon fodder" NPCs with NPCs with motives. That is, mercenaries will probably flee before fighting to the last man. For Ghouls, that meant feeding. As soon as the first character went down with paralysis, the Ghoul she was fighting took her character by the shoulders and began crabwalking backwards towards and up the pillars they'd descended from. Paralysis is bad enough, but undead monstrosities attempting to cart away players' paralyzed bodies adds a time component to the fight as well as a new thrill of fear of the unknown.
So, that's my experience with Ghouls. I say, give 'em a go, these old school foes can present quite the frightening encounter for a low level party of adventurers. Happy gaming, all.
Still sick, doctor's appointment Wednesday. Whatever happens with that will probably effect posting this week, but until then: I said the 26th, so we'll see what my brain's making at the moment.
OSRIC stands for Old School Reference and Index Compilation. It's partly an AD&D retroclone, and partly a slicing down of the original rules to an open license core of the system. It's a resource for players seeking to use the OGL, or "open game license", which makes certain aspects of the original mechanics legally usable by third parties. This license allowed for the creation of many derivative works, including, most famously, Pathfinder.
When I last ran an OSRIC game, some good came of it. That was, unfortunately, also the campaign that turned into a rolling dumpster fire of relationship drama before the end. Still, the system itself is pretty fun, and includes a much more robust bestiary than a player would expect from a pure OGL resource.
One of my favorite enemies I got to use were Ghouls. I only got to throw them at the party twice, but they had an impact. The first thing that I think gave them that impact was using them sparingly. This was a campaign that ran slightly over a year, I think, and usually once to twice a month. They faced a trio of them early on, and then, months later, straight "noped" their way out of an infested mortuary. Two steps in, torches reveal Ghouls, two steps back and locked the door behind them.
One great thing with Ghouls in the OSRIC book is their paralysis attack. With no warning to a party of newer players, that paralysis is a frightening thing. Imagine their reaction to hearing "two damage, and roll against paralysis". This stat had never been called for before when they first encountered these enemies, and it gave a thrill of the unknown.
Another thing that made the Ghouls a seriously scary enemy was that I was getting into a school of thought on GMing at the time that involved replacing "cannon fodder" NPCs with NPCs with motives. That is, mercenaries will probably flee before fighting to the last man. For Ghouls, that meant feeding. As soon as the first character went down with paralysis, the Ghoul she was fighting took her character by the shoulders and began crabwalking backwards towards and up the pillars they'd descended from. Paralysis is bad enough, but undead monstrosities attempting to cart away players' paralyzed bodies adds a time component to the fight as well as a new thrill of fear of the unknown.
So, that's my experience with Ghouls. I say, give 'em a go, these old school foes can present quite the frightening encounter for a low level party of adventurers. Happy gaming, all.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Brief Hiatus
Between a touch of sickness, and a mounting to-do list, I've gotten in over my head in life in general. I'll be putting the blog on hiatus this week to try to catch up, and the blog should be back to normal starting again on September 26th. Until next time!
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Five RPG genres with unique challenges
Often, when a group sits down to play an RPG, there's only a handful of story genres that get real consideration. Fantasy naturally comes up often, and rightly so. The D&D origins of the hobby hold a special place for many gamers. After fantasy, science fiction seems to be popular, and tends toward the future fantasy side of the genre rather than hard science fiction.
All that said, there are some fun story types that tend to be less likely choices in these games, and while we'll be looking at some of the challenges that accompany these genres, please don't take it as a discouragement to consider some of these underplayed genres when you start looking into trying something new on game night.
#5 Westerns
"HerdQuit" by Charles Marion Russell
The western genre has a rich pedigree in American culture. Many modern stories like the Jack Reacher series still borrow the trope of the mysterious stranger and the lone gunman. Shows like Firefly seek to reinvent classic tropes in new settings. Meanwhile, video games like Red Dead Redemption and movies like The Revenant are forming a revival of the genre for a modern audience.
The challenges attendant on a Western game are twofold. One, westerns aren't as popular as they once were. Put in the simplest possible terms, westerns were on their way out of the cultural consciousness as role playing games were on their way in, and it could be a hard sell to the typical gamer to get invested in a story like this. Two, the power fantasy is present, but lessened. Cowboys, ranchmen, and all the attendant players in events are larger than life, and the core audience served is one seeking a power fantasy; and yet, the fantasy is not as overblown and potent as in fantasy and science fiction. Players will be saving homesteads and towns, not kingdoms, planes, and planets.
The western genre is worth considering for creating a power fantasy that deals with old American ideals. Freedom is more important to the fantasy than rule or dominion. Individualism comes from isolation and the apathy or unavailability of greater armies rather than from the players simply dealing with problems out of the league of anyone else.
For the logical cap of the power fantasy, stories of the famed Texas Rangers may be good source material.
#4 Stone Age
"Imaginative depiction of the Stone Age" by Viktor Vasnetsov
". . . solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short", the stone age is a genre seldom explored in fiction. Nevertheless, the nature of it incorporates elements of travelogue, survival, and man vs. nature in whatever form it enters the public imagination. Films and books like Clan of the Cave Bear explore a world familiar, yet frightening in it's harsh intensity.
As in the example of westerns above, the difficulties here deal with getting players interested in trying a game idea that might seem "weird", as well as in taking players who are used to wielding the elemental forces of nature and selling them on a game where they are left huddled against the deprivations of cold and hunger.
If wolves have become blase to your D&D power gamers, a trip to the primeval tundra may be just the thing to put the fear of man's ancestral foes back into the group. This can also be a great exercise for you as a game master in dynamic and challenging terrain design, environmental hazards, and many more of this type of mechanic that can be so easily left underutilized in the more common tabletop modes of play.
As stated above, Clan of the Cave Bear in either the book or movie form is required reading when embarking into this narrative genre.
#3 Superheroes
"Public Domain Superheroes" by Chaostar
This one is iffy, but I'll include it here as a nod to my own experiences in tabletop gaming. Superheroes are certainly popular since Marvel's experiment in building their shared universe for The Avengers. Though, their popularity has been steadily gaining since their creation. Christopher Reeve's performance in Superman and even Adam West's fun and campy take on the genre in Batman got things rolling toward the earliest X-men and Spiderman movies, and Christopher Nolan's work in Batman Begins and onward have all together built a vibrant and robust genre of source material.
Unlike the prior examples, superhero stories can be an easy sell for players. The difficulties are coming, however. Most glaringly is the difficulty of ensuring a "Good always wins" tone to match genre expectations, without killing suspense in gameplay. The other difficulty is in managing power levels. The ability to level a city block in your heroes makes it hard to construct a plausible threat. Add to this that superheroes tend to value law and order as a means of narratively reigning in their awesome powers, and that tabletop players tend to justify their actions by their results, and you've got an out-of-control team of death that answers the question "What if the Punisher had Superman's powers?" The answer, of course, being, "The stories just turn into an unkillable deity smiting foes at will until bored."
That said, the popularity of the superhero genre means that, sooner or later, you'll have players at your table eager to roll up do-gooders or, more likely, morally ambiguous vigilantes, in order to take to the streets and clean up the scum. Best advice: cap the power levels. Street level heroes like Luke Cage or Spiderman are much more manageable for the game master.
For source material on superheroes, I mean, seriously? Just go outside. Leave your house in 2016 and you will know what superheroes are.
#2 Pirates
"Title Unknown" by Jean Leon Jerome Ferris
To be fair, there are a handful of solid pirate game expansions out there, but, in my experience they tend to be D&D on the coastline with rum in place of mead. What I'm talking about with pirate stories are stories of ocean-bound outlaws, facing the hazards of the sea and the crown. The first Pirates of the Carribean movie does a great job of this, and the sequels definitely have their moments of capturing the feel of buried treasure, unknown lands, oppressive authority, and a culture of rumors and legends cobbled together from homeland fairy tales, stories brought back by marauding conquistadors, and the strange and frightening beliefs of little understood native peoples.
The challenges here are similar to what one would find in attempting to run a hard science fiction game: that is, there is a high barrier of entry to get all the fiddly little details accurate to modern knowledge. Ship-board life, ship classifications, celestial navigation, and naval engagements are esoteric information not generally known to the average gamer or game master. Meanwhile, the social mores and beliefs of the time could prove uncomfortable for modern players. Lastly, the chain of command aboardship can put some players in direct authority over others, which can be a point of contention and resentment in some groups.
Despite all this, a mature, intelligent group, who are willing to do a little academic legwork for their fun, could find a lot here to love. Piratical stories of the unknown and potentially mystical can hit a sweet spot between power fantasy and disempowering horror (think Captain Jack's marching into the mouth of the kraken in the second Pirates movie).
Obviously, Pirates of the Carribean is a great source here, and also consider classics like Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
#1 Post-Apocalyptic
Part of "Life After Apocalypse" by Vladimir Manyuhin
While there are some great post-apocalyptic games out there, they tend not to be the go-to genre for many game groups. With influences as diverse as Fallout, Mad Max, The Road, later entries in the Terminator franchise, Time Enough at Last, and I Am Legend; this is a difficult genre to give a more specific definition than "The world's different now, and we're still not quite used to it."
The challenges in post-apocalyptic gaming deal with the sheer breadth of material available to both the game master and the players. For the game master, the apocalyptic scenario needs nailing down, and the structure of the emerging culture needs enough definition to give structure to play. Neither of these would be too difficult if they weren't completely open-ended questions. For the player's options, the game master needs to constantly make rulings on what works, what doesn't, what knowledge humanity has, what knowledge the player character's have, and on and on. Can a man who can use a gun repair a gun? What apparatus and special knowledge is required to disassemble a grenade both safely and usefully? How far does science need to rebuild before players can power, but not reinvent, old world data systems? The list goes on.
Nevertheless, this can make for some fun gaming that takes our own world and empowers players to take what they like in clear conscience. Of all the genres in this article, post-apocalyptic most fits the playstyle and attitudes of most players in these types of games. In the post-apocalyptic world, the race goes not to the swift, but to the psychopath willing to break his opponent's legs. Nine times out of ten, your players are those psychopaths.
This is a hard one to give good influences for, since the genre is so large and loosely defined. Best I can suggest is to find material directly related to the type of scenario you'd like to explore.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy gaming, all.
All that said, there are some fun story types that tend to be less likely choices in these games, and while we'll be looking at some of the challenges that accompany these genres, please don't take it as a discouragement to consider some of these underplayed genres when you start looking into trying something new on game night.
#5 Westerns
The western genre has a rich pedigree in American culture. Many modern stories like the Jack Reacher series still borrow the trope of the mysterious stranger and the lone gunman. Shows like Firefly seek to reinvent classic tropes in new settings. Meanwhile, video games like Red Dead Redemption and movies like The Revenant are forming a revival of the genre for a modern audience.
The challenges attendant on a Western game are twofold. One, westerns aren't as popular as they once were. Put in the simplest possible terms, westerns were on their way out of the cultural consciousness as role playing games were on their way in, and it could be a hard sell to the typical gamer to get invested in a story like this. Two, the power fantasy is present, but lessened. Cowboys, ranchmen, and all the attendant players in events are larger than life, and the core audience served is one seeking a power fantasy; and yet, the fantasy is not as overblown and potent as in fantasy and science fiction. Players will be saving homesteads and towns, not kingdoms, planes, and planets.
The western genre is worth considering for creating a power fantasy that deals with old American ideals. Freedom is more important to the fantasy than rule or dominion. Individualism comes from isolation and the apathy or unavailability of greater armies rather than from the players simply dealing with problems out of the league of anyone else.
For the logical cap of the power fantasy, stories of the famed Texas Rangers may be good source material.
#4 Stone Age
". . . solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short", the stone age is a genre seldom explored in fiction. Nevertheless, the nature of it incorporates elements of travelogue, survival, and man vs. nature in whatever form it enters the public imagination. Films and books like Clan of the Cave Bear explore a world familiar, yet frightening in it's harsh intensity.
As in the example of westerns above, the difficulties here deal with getting players interested in trying a game idea that might seem "weird", as well as in taking players who are used to wielding the elemental forces of nature and selling them on a game where they are left huddled against the deprivations of cold and hunger.
If wolves have become blase to your D&D power gamers, a trip to the primeval tundra may be just the thing to put the fear of man's ancestral foes back into the group. This can also be a great exercise for you as a game master in dynamic and challenging terrain design, environmental hazards, and many more of this type of mechanic that can be so easily left underutilized in the more common tabletop modes of play.
As stated above, Clan of the Cave Bear in either the book or movie form is required reading when embarking into this narrative genre.
#3 Superheroes
This one is iffy, but I'll include it here as a nod to my own experiences in tabletop gaming. Superheroes are certainly popular since Marvel's experiment in building their shared universe for The Avengers. Though, their popularity has been steadily gaining since their creation. Christopher Reeve's performance in Superman and even Adam West's fun and campy take on the genre in Batman got things rolling toward the earliest X-men and Spiderman movies, and Christopher Nolan's work in Batman Begins and onward have all together built a vibrant and robust genre of source material.
Unlike the prior examples, superhero stories can be an easy sell for players. The difficulties are coming, however. Most glaringly is the difficulty of ensuring a "Good always wins" tone to match genre expectations, without killing suspense in gameplay. The other difficulty is in managing power levels. The ability to level a city block in your heroes makes it hard to construct a plausible threat. Add to this that superheroes tend to value law and order as a means of narratively reigning in their awesome powers, and that tabletop players tend to justify their actions by their results, and you've got an out-of-control team of death that answers the question "What if the Punisher had Superman's powers?" The answer, of course, being, "The stories just turn into an unkillable deity smiting foes at will until bored."
That said, the popularity of the superhero genre means that, sooner or later, you'll have players at your table eager to roll up do-gooders or, more likely, morally ambiguous vigilantes, in order to take to the streets and clean up the scum. Best advice: cap the power levels. Street level heroes like Luke Cage or Spiderman are much more manageable for the game master.
For source material on superheroes, I mean, seriously? Just go outside. Leave your house in 2016 and you will know what superheroes are.
#2 Pirates
To be fair, there are a handful of solid pirate game expansions out there, but, in my experience they tend to be D&D on the coastline with rum in place of mead. What I'm talking about with pirate stories are stories of ocean-bound outlaws, facing the hazards of the sea and the crown. The first Pirates of the Carribean movie does a great job of this, and the sequels definitely have their moments of capturing the feel of buried treasure, unknown lands, oppressive authority, and a culture of rumors and legends cobbled together from homeland fairy tales, stories brought back by marauding conquistadors, and the strange and frightening beliefs of little understood native peoples.
The challenges here are similar to what one would find in attempting to run a hard science fiction game: that is, there is a high barrier of entry to get all the fiddly little details accurate to modern knowledge. Ship-board life, ship classifications, celestial navigation, and naval engagements are esoteric information not generally known to the average gamer or game master. Meanwhile, the social mores and beliefs of the time could prove uncomfortable for modern players. Lastly, the chain of command aboardship can put some players in direct authority over others, which can be a point of contention and resentment in some groups.
Despite all this, a mature, intelligent group, who are willing to do a little academic legwork for their fun, could find a lot here to love. Piratical stories of the unknown and potentially mystical can hit a sweet spot between power fantasy and disempowering horror (think Captain Jack's marching into the mouth of the kraken in the second Pirates movie).
Obviously, Pirates of the Carribean is a great source here, and also consider classics like Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
#1 Post-Apocalyptic
While there are some great post-apocalyptic games out there, they tend not to be the go-to genre for many game groups. With influences as diverse as Fallout, Mad Max, The Road, later entries in the Terminator franchise, Time Enough at Last, and I Am Legend; this is a difficult genre to give a more specific definition than "The world's different now, and we're still not quite used to it."
The challenges in post-apocalyptic gaming deal with the sheer breadth of material available to both the game master and the players. For the game master, the apocalyptic scenario needs nailing down, and the structure of the emerging culture needs enough definition to give structure to play. Neither of these would be too difficult if they weren't completely open-ended questions. For the player's options, the game master needs to constantly make rulings on what works, what doesn't, what knowledge humanity has, what knowledge the player character's have, and on and on. Can a man who can use a gun repair a gun? What apparatus and special knowledge is required to disassemble a grenade both safely and usefully? How far does science need to rebuild before players can power, but not reinvent, old world data systems? The list goes on.
Nevertheless, this can make for some fun gaming that takes our own world and empowers players to take what they like in clear conscience. Of all the genres in this article, post-apocalyptic most fits the playstyle and attitudes of most players in these types of games. In the post-apocalyptic world, the race goes not to the swift, but to the psychopath willing to break his opponent's legs. Nine times out of ten, your players are those psychopaths.
This is a hard one to give good influences for, since the genre is so large and loosely defined. Best I can suggest is to find material directly related to the type of scenario you'd like to explore.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy gaming, all.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Speculative Design: Houseruling a Game of Legendary Legacy
After a conversation with my roommate, I decided to work out how Legendary could be made to work as a legacy game. If you're unfamiliar with the game, Legendary is a deckbuilding game where players take on the role of shield recruiters who are assembling superhero teams to face off against villainous masterminds.
Legendary can be bought here.
A great Let's Play can be watched here.
From here on out, I'll be continuing this post from the assumption that the readers are familiar with the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The goal I've got is to create a comic book story arc. In service of this goal, I've come to a few basic conclusions about what will need to happen in Legacy play.
1. Heroes can die. (the best comic books keep characters dead until at least the end of the story arc).
2. No single scheme occurs twice. Even if the villains win, the scheme is completed.
3. The schemes will be sequenced according to strong narrative design.
Set-up
Set Aside:
Skrulls: The skrulls do not enter play until the Secret Invasion of the Skrull Shapeshifters event.
Nick Fury: Nick Fury does not enter play until all other heroes have already been added to the hero deck.
Doombot Legion: The Doombot legion do not enter play until Dr. Doom's first time as the mastermind.
Enemies of Asgard and Thor: These are added to the first game where Loki is present.
Changes to standard rules
K.O. Aside from Shield Troopers and Shield Agents, cards in the K.O. remain in the K.O. from game to game.
Heroes: Every time fourteen non-shield hero cards have been K.O.ed, a new hero may be immediately shuffled into the Hero deck. Whichever player K.O.ed hero number 14 may choose the hero to add. A player may also spend fourteen recruit in a single turn to immediately add a hero to the hero deck.
Whenever a player defeats a mastermind, they may choose one hero card used in the attack and give it +1 attack or +1 recruit.
-If Spiderman is added, add Spider-Foes to the Villain Deck if not already added
-If Hulk is added, add Radiation to the Villain Deck is not already added
If a Villain Escapes: That villain card gains one additional point, plus an extra point for each bystander it escaped with.
Villain Team ups:
Shuffle together two random cards from each Mastermind. These two are working together on this scheme. Whichever master strike is on top of the pile when a master strike occurs, that is the mastermind whose master strike ability takes effect.
Option 1: Red Skull and Magneto
Option 2: Magneto and Dr. Doom
Option 3: Red Skull and Dr. Doom
Note, the decks are not sorted back out between games in Legacy play. The hero deck and villain deck remain as they are at the end of one game into the beginning of the next. Only the player's individual decks are reset each game.
Ending the Game
If the Mastermind wins: The Mastermind's point value increases by one and they run the next scheme. Each player, starting with the player whose turn the game ended on, K.O.s one hero from their hand.
Villains play in the following order: Magneto, Red Skull, Dr. Doom, Loki. Beyond this, special rules for each unique scheme apply.
If the Heroes win: The Mastermind is added to the K.O. Each player adds one villain card and one henchman card to the K.O. If eight villains have been K.O.ed the player who K.O.ed villain number eight adds another villain group to the deck.
The Sequence of Games
Game 1: Unleash the Power of the Cosmic Cube
Mastermind: Magneto
Heroes: Choose from: Emma Frost, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, or Cyclops
Henchmen: Sentinel + as many more as necessary for number of players
Villains: Hydra, Brotherhood + as many more as necessary for number of players
Game 2: Midtown Bank Robbery
Game 3: Replace Earth's Leaders with Killbots
Special Rules: Escaping Killbots do not get the Legacy play advantages for escaping.
Game 4: Portals to the Dark Dimension
Game 5: Negative Zone Prison Breakout
Special Rules: All K.O.ed villains are returned to the Villain deck. All K.O.ed masterminds return as playable options. Any Masterminds not K.O.ed by this point gain 1 point. Follow the rule on the card about adding an extra henchman group.
Villain Team-up: Choose one of the villain team-up options.
Game 6: Secret Invasion of the Skrull Shapeshifters
Special Rules: Add the Skrull, in addition to what's already in the villain deck.
Villain Team-up: Choose a villain team-up option not already used.
Game 7: Super Hero Civil War
Special Rules: Add Iron Man and Captain America, choosing replacements for either which are already in play.
Villain Team-up: Choose the last villain team-up option not yet used.
Game 8: The Legacy Virus
Villain Team-up: Mix three random Loki tactics, one Red Skull tactic, one Dr. Doom Tactic, and one Magneto tactic. Otherwise, play as a normal villain team-up.
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So, that's it. Bear in mind, this is a first draft, still untested, and I'm still looking for ways to try out the changing card values without risking ruining my copy of the game on what might be a failed proof of concept. If you've got testing ideas, tweaks to the rule set, or anything else that you think a concept like this might benefit from, please join the conversation in the comments below.
Happy gaming, all.
Legendary can be bought here.
A great Let's Play can be watched here.
From here on out, I'll be continuing this post from the assumption that the readers are familiar with the game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The goal I've got is to create a comic book story arc. In service of this goal, I've come to a few basic conclusions about what will need to happen in Legacy play.
1. Heroes can die. (the best comic books keep characters dead until at least the end of the story arc).
2. No single scheme occurs twice. Even if the villains win, the scheme is completed.
3. The schemes will be sequenced according to strong narrative design.
Set-up
Set Aside:
Skrulls: The skrulls do not enter play until the Secret Invasion of the Skrull Shapeshifters event.
Nick Fury: Nick Fury does not enter play until all other heroes have already been added to the hero deck.
Doombot Legion: The Doombot legion do not enter play until Dr. Doom's first time as the mastermind.
Enemies of Asgard and Thor: These are added to the first game where Loki is present.
Changes to standard rules
K.O. Aside from Shield Troopers and Shield Agents, cards in the K.O. remain in the K.O. from game to game.
Heroes: Every time fourteen non-shield hero cards have been K.O.ed, a new hero may be immediately shuffled into the Hero deck. Whichever player K.O.ed hero number 14 may choose the hero to add. A player may also spend fourteen recruit in a single turn to immediately add a hero to the hero deck.
Whenever a player defeats a mastermind, they may choose one hero card used in the attack and give it +1 attack or +1 recruit.
-If Spiderman is added, add Spider-Foes to the Villain Deck if not already added
-If Hulk is added, add Radiation to the Villain Deck is not already added
If a Villain Escapes: That villain card gains one additional point, plus an extra point for each bystander it escaped with.
Villain Team ups:
Shuffle together two random cards from each Mastermind. These two are working together on this scheme. Whichever master strike is on top of the pile when a master strike occurs, that is the mastermind whose master strike ability takes effect.
Option 1: Red Skull and Magneto
Option 2: Magneto and Dr. Doom
Option 3: Red Skull and Dr. Doom
Note, the decks are not sorted back out between games in Legacy play. The hero deck and villain deck remain as they are at the end of one game into the beginning of the next. Only the player's individual decks are reset each game.
Ending the Game
If the Mastermind wins: The Mastermind's point value increases by one and they run the next scheme. Each player, starting with the player whose turn the game ended on, K.O.s one hero from their hand.
Villains play in the following order: Magneto, Red Skull, Dr. Doom, Loki. Beyond this, special rules for each unique scheme apply.
If the Heroes win: The Mastermind is added to the K.O. Each player adds one villain card and one henchman card to the K.O. If eight villains have been K.O.ed the player who K.O.ed villain number eight adds another villain group to the deck.
The Sequence of Games
Game 1: Unleash the Power of the Cosmic Cube
Mastermind: Magneto
Heroes: Choose from: Emma Frost, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, or Cyclops
Henchmen: Sentinel + as many more as necessary for number of players
Villains: Hydra, Brotherhood + as many more as necessary for number of players
Game 2: Midtown Bank Robbery
Game 3: Replace Earth's Leaders with Killbots
Special Rules: Escaping Killbots do not get the Legacy play advantages for escaping.
Game 4: Portals to the Dark Dimension
Game 5: Negative Zone Prison Breakout
Special Rules: All K.O.ed villains are returned to the Villain deck. All K.O.ed masterminds return as playable options. Any Masterminds not K.O.ed by this point gain 1 point. Follow the rule on the card about adding an extra henchman group.
Villain Team-up: Choose one of the villain team-up options.
Game 6: Secret Invasion of the Skrull Shapeshifters
Special Rules: Add the Skrull, in addition to what's already in the villain deck.
Villain Team-up: Choose a villain team-up option not already used.
Game 7: Super Hero Civil War
Special Rules: Add Iron Man and Captain America, choosing replacements for either which are already in play.
Villain Team-up: Choose the last villain team-up option not yet used.
Game 8: The Legacy Virus
Villain Team-up: Mix three random Loki tactics, one Red Skull tactic, one Dr. Doom Tactic, and one Magneto tactic. Otherwise, play as a normal villain team-up.
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So, that's it. Bear in mind, this is a first draft, still untested, and I'm still looking for ways to try out the changing card values without risking ruining my copy of the game on what might be a failed proof of concept. If you've got testing ideas, tweaks to the rule set, or anything else that you think a concept like this might benefit from, please join the conversation in the comments below.
Happy gaming, all.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Video Bump: Design Club
Hey all,
Recently did a trip to Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, which ate my blogging time in massive bites, but will probably provide a few reviews in the near future. Until then, I thought I'd use this week's Wednesday post to bump a series that Extra Credits is running this week in their Design Club playlist. They're doing a five day dungeon analysis of Durlag's Tower from Baldur's Gate.
Extra Credits is, in my experience, unique. Many gaming enthusiasts are willing to insist that games are art, but Extra Credits is the most visible group I know of that actually treat the games as art. That is: they put in the effort to create a school of academic criticism. Their analysis is always rich and well thought out, and so far, this series has upped the already high bar set in the series.
It's only Wednesday, so I can't speak for where the series is going, but given Extra Credits' history of strong content, and the quality of this series so far, I feel completely comfortable recommending this series.
Here's the link to the beginning of the series. Happy watching, all.
Recently did a trip to Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, which ate my blogging time in massive bites, but will probably provide a few reviews in the near future. Until then, I thought I'd use this week's Wednesday post to bump a series that Extra Credits is running this week in their Design Club playlist. They're doing a five day dungeon analysis of Durlag's Tower from Baldur's Gate.
Extra Credits is, in my experience, unique. Many gaming enthusiasts are willing to insist that games are art, but Extra Credits is the most visible group I know of that actually treat the games as art. That is: they put in the effort to create a school of academic criticism. Their analysis is always rich and well thought out, and so far, this series has upped the already high bar set in the series.
It's only Wednesday, so I can't speak for where the series is going, but given Extra Credits' history of strong content, and the quality of this series so far, I feel completely comfortable recommending this series.
Here's the link to the beginning of the series. Happy watching, all.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Review the World: HOOK
HOOK
Developed by: Maciej Targoni and Wojciech Wasiak
Developed by: Maciej Targoni and Wojciech Wasiak
Gameplay Genre: Puzzle
Narrative Genre: Abstract
Subjective Length: An hour or so
Overall: 8/10 If you have a PC, it's
worth getting this game.
Hook is a fantastic little puzzle game.
The most interesting part, from a design perspective, is that all
tutorial instruction is done by intuitive design. The title screen
says “HOOK” at the top, and that is literally the only reading
you will do in this entire game. The difficulty escalates smoothly,
with no sudden spikes or long plateaus.
All that for $0.99 makes this a fantastic game for a good price. If I
have any complaint, it's that I've had some difficulty getting the
file to download correctly from Steam recently when I decided to
replay the game. I haven't heard much of similar issues, so there's a
chance it's my worn out, old computer causing problems.
Buy HOOK online. Happy gaming, all.
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