I think I’ve already mentioned the following opinions, which I believe are all solidly in the minority:
[list]
[]I don’t think the game needs scaling (though I appreciate the solution that someone offered of picking the number for H).[/]
[]I’m not interested in HP trackers. I enjoy using dice.[/]
[]I’m not interested in damage amount/type trackers. I don’t have the sense that they’ll help me very much.[/]
[]I don’t particularly care that the box can’t hold all of the cards. It’s a bit annoying, but the very inexpensive card boxes I’ve been using work great and
are readily expandable to handle more expansions.[/][/list]
My latest counterintuitive realization is that I don’t actually like the thicker card stock. Partly, I think, this is because having sleeved my cards I don’t think I notice the difference very much, but the other problem is that it takes up more space to have thicker cards. So, yes, my cheapo card boxes can be easily expanded to hold more cards, but now they have to be bigger and the box ends up weighing more than it otherwise would.
All of these are rounding errors for me in the sense that I love the game and it none of this greatly increases or decreases my enjoyment.
I think the only time the I don’t really like the H scaling is when we accidentally pick a hero who ends up just being dead weight. We tried using Bunker against Matriarch and Spite, and was essentially useless. Matriarch can destroy almost all equipment every other turn, and with Spite, the guy playing Bunker just got really unlucky draws. Maybe I haven’t played enough of RC to really see H’s full effect, but for now, I think as long as you keep heroes that are useful, it works.
And yeah, I like using dice too, but I think with the HP trackers and damage modifiers, it’ll just look nicer. Also, I’m finding myself running out of dice. All I have is 18 d10s.
I agree with the counter tokens, not that important to me, I tend to use a pen and paper to keep track of HP of Heroes and dice for Villians (I don’t have a huge collection of dice). I also use coins to keep track of HP on the HP Trackers, just because it is really cool and has some neat artwork.
Everything else I do see your point on everything else. Some people will love it, personally I am either way. I’m going to go ahead and get the second edition anyways just because I can and it’ll at least give me the option of using the scaling if I so choose to.
Yeah, but every review of the game I’ve read has mentioned the lack of hp tracking and counters and such as the game’s only weakness (except, maybe the lack of scaling). So even if only some small number of people actually use the new stuff, the SotM guys really do need to make it available.
I agree with Spiff on this. As always, though, there are lots of different opinions on these kinds of topics, as we all have different play styles, preferences, and expectations.
I think the hp counters are going to take less space than the dice in my box, which I really like. I like using dice, to be honest, so we’ll see how I feel when I start using the counters.
The damage amount/type trackers I’m ambivalent about, but I have a feeling I’ll like them more than I expect. I fear what will happen when we forget to remove something and keep applying it even though we shouldn’t. :-\
I understand your concern with the use of “H” for scaling (having had a recent conversation with you about it ;)), but I think it’s an improvement over the original, wherein there was no option. One of the things about comics (and other stories in general - Joss Whedon is famous for this attitude): The villain is generally as powerful as needed to evoke drama. If drama necessitates the villain be more powerful, they will be. I think the “H” mechanic represents that well, in making the villain more powerful in the face of greater adversity (i.e., more heroes). Just my opinion, though. 8)
I’ve been using Stone Age food counters for HP counters. Work great. Even better if you have Colosseum counters (but I don’t). Dice are, well, disaster prone.