Campaign Rules - 1st Draft

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
1

Following recent encounters with Obliveon, Deadline & Chokepoint a member of my gaming group enquired as to whether there was a campaign structure for SotM. Having searched through the forums I found a few ideas but nothing that covered everything we now currently have available so I set about creating my own campaign which would culminate in a battle with Obliveon.

 

This is my initial draft. I don't have the time to do the extensive play-testing required myself and it would likely take months, if not years, for my gaming group to work through. So I thought I'd open it up to the community to gather feedback and opinions.

 

Feel free to offer suggestions & opinions for improvements, changes or cuts. If you think something could be phrased better to make it clearer or something needs more clarification, let me know. All opinions welcome, even if you hate the idea or it is a horrendously broken scenario. :-)

2

Villain Set-Up

 

For Baron Blade, Gloomweaver, Infinitor, Kismet, Omnitron & Spite pick one of their villain cards and put the other back in the box.

 

Divide the fifteen Vengeance villains into three groups of five.

 

Take the twenty-four villains and divide them into three zones of eight, adding one group of Vengeance villains to each zone, so each zone has nine villain encounters.

 

Assign each villain encounter an environment (27 environments for 27 encounters)

 

You can do this through player choice or completely at random.

 

 (These are my suggestions based around the themes of Earth-bound, Mystic/Time & Cosmic zones. I am open to opinions and adjustments. There will inevitably be odd pairings but I've tried as best I could to mitigate these.)

 

Earth-bound

 

Chokepoint - Fort Adamant

Akash'Bhuta - Insula Primalis

Ambuscade - Champion Studios

The Chairman - Rook City

Spite - Megalopolis

Plague Rat - Pike Industrial Complex

Miss Information - Freedom Tower

Mad Bomber Baron Blade - Mobile Defense Platform

Vengeful Five - Mordengrad

(Baron Blade, Ermine, Freight Train, Friction & Proletariat)

 

Mystic/Time

 

La Capitan - Time Cataclysm

The Ennead - Tomb of Anubis

Kismet - Silver Gulch, 1883

Skinwalker Gloomweaver - Realm of Discord

Apostate - The Court of Blood

The Matriarch - Madame Mittermeier's

The Dreamer - Nexus of the Void

Iron Legacy - Ruins of Atlantis

Mercs for Hire - The Temple of Zhu Long

(Ambuscade, Greazer, La Capitan, Operative & Sergeant Steel)

 

Cosmic

 

Citizen Dawn - Celestial Tribunal

Omnitron II - Omnitron  IV

Wager Master - the Block

Progeny - Enclave of the Endlings

Infinitor - Wagner Mars Base

Kaargra Warfang - Dok-Thoroth Capital

Grand Warlord Voss - Maerynian Refuge

Deadline - Magmaria

Revocorp  Recon & Execute Team - The Final Wasteland

(Biomancer, Bugbear, Citizens Anvil & Hammer, Miss Information & Plague Rat)

3

Hero Set-Up

 

For every hero pick two character cards and put the other character cards back in the box, they won't be needed for the campaign.

 

Put aside Doctor Medico, Idealist, Mainstay, Writhe, Akash'Thriya, Harpy, La Comodora, Lifeline, Luminary & Stuntman.

 

Take the remaining Twenty-Seven hero decks: Absolute Zero, Argent Adept, Benchmark, Bunker, Captain Cosmic, Chrono-Ranger, Expatriette, Fanatic, Guise, Haka, K.N.Y.F.E., Legacy, Mister Fixit, Naturalist, Nightmist, Omnitron X, Parse, Ra, Scholar, Sentinels, Setback, Sky-Scraper, Tachyon, Tempest, Unity, Visionary & Wraith.

 

Assign nine heroes to each zone, preferably matching nemesis icons.

 

(Below are the zone assignments for the heroes by matching them with their nemesis villains whenever possible)

 

Earth-bound                            Mystic/Time                            Cosmic

 

Argent Adept                          Sentinels                                  Expatriette

Haka                                        Ra                                            Omnitron X

Mister Fixer                             Setback                                   Guise

Wraith                                     Nightmist                                K.N.Y.F.E.

Chrono-Ranger                       Fanatic                                    Captain Cosmic

Parse                                        Tachyon                                  Sky-Scraper

Legacy                                    Visionary                                 Tempest

Unity                                       Absolute Zero                         Naturalist

Bunker                                      Benchmark                           Scholar

4

Campaign Structure

 

There are four stages to the campaign:

 

1) Confrontation stage

2) Rematch stage

3) Attrition stage

4) Obliveon stage

 

Confrontation Stage

 

Choose a villain from one of the zones as the target for confrontation. Then choose the number of heroes to battle the villain (the standard three to five) and which variant character card, out of the two picked at the start of the campaign, for each hero.

 

Play that confrontation as a standard SotM game.

 

If the heroes win a confrontation the villain is defeated, removed from the game, and the environment is marked as saved. They receive 1 Victory Point and they may also revive one incapacitated character card from that zone.

 

If the heroes lose a confrontation, the villain remains in the zone, the environment is marked as contested. Three of the character cards that took part are incapacitated, any other heroes from that battle are able to escape but become exhausted.

 

After that, pick a confrontation from another zone, play that. Then pick a confrontation from the third zone, play that. Repeat the process until all nine villain encounters have been confronted in each zone.

 

Rematch Stage

 

Once each villain encounter has been confronted the heroes will attempt to liberate any contested environments by taking on the villain for a second time.

 

If the heroes successfully defeat the villain at the second attempt the villain is removed from the game and the environment is marked as saved. They receive 1 Victory Point and they may also revive one incapacitated character card from that zone

 

If the heroes are defeated for a second time the villain remains in the zone and the environment is marked as conquered and removed from the game. Three of the character cards that took part are incapacitated, any other heroes from that battle are able to escape but become exhausted.

5

After that, pick a contested environment from another zone, play that. Then pick a contested environment from the third zone, play that. Repeat the process until all contested environments have been fought over.

 

Attrition Stage

 

Once all the rematches have been completed, if there are any villains left in a zone, the heroes have a choice.

 

1) They may attempt to engage the villain at a saved environment of their choice from the same zone.

 

If the heroes win the villain is defeated, removed from the game, and the environment remains saved. They receive 1 Victory Point and they may also revive one incapacitated character card from that zone

 

If the heroes lose the encounter the villains desire for conquest/destruction is satisfied and the environment is marked as conquered. Remove both the villain and environment from the game.

 

or,

 

2) If they do not wish to face the villain again they may sacrifice a saved environment to

satisfy the villains desire for conquest/destruction. Remove both the villain and environment from the game. (Considering making it one environment for level one & two difficulty villains and two environments for level three & four difficulty villains)

 

Continue this process in each zone until there are no more villains to deal with.

 

Obliveon Stage

 

Play the Obliveon scenario as described in the Obliveon rulebook, with the following  two restrictions.

 

1) You pick/draw the five environment decks for the Obliveon fight from the saved environments from all zones at the end of the Attrition Stage.

 

2) You may only use heroes who are not M.I.A. and you may only use character cards which are not incapacitated. Heroes who are exhausted

6

Incapacitated Character Cards

 

An incapacitated character card is unavailable to be used until it is revived. If the hero has another character card available they may enter battle with that card. However, if both character cards of a hero are incapacitated at the same time that hero is considered M.I.A. (Missing In Action) and is removed from the campaign

 

Exhausted Heroes

 

An exhausted hero is:

 

1) A hero who escapes an encounter that they were defeated in.

 

or,

 

2) A hero who fights in consecutive battles in their zone.

 

If they fight in the next battle in their zone while exhausted they will start with just three cards in their initial hand and will be at 75% hit points (rounded up). They will lose one starting card & 25% extra starting hit points for each further consecutive battle, bottoming out at one starting card in their hand and 25% starting hit points (rounded up)

 

Using different character card variants of the same hero in consecutive battles will exhaust the hero.

 

Resting for one encounter in their zone will removed the exhausted condition.

 

Vengeance Villains

 

All Vengeance Villains in a group must be beaten to defeat the group. If there are Vengeance Villains undefeated in a zone the environment cannot be considered safe. Undefeated Vengeance Villains will revive enough of their incapacitated fellows to provide the necessary numbers to match the number of heroes assigned to face them.

 

Advanced Villains

 

You may choose to battle a villain using their advanced rules. If you do so and are able to defeat the villain you may revive an additional character card from the zone the battle took place in.

 

No Heroes Left

 

If there is ever a situation when you cannot assign three heroes to battle a villain then that zone is lost and all environments in that zone are conquered and removed from the game, the surviving villains rule that zone. Any surviving heroes in that zone are M.I.A. and removed from the game

7

Victory Points

 

You gain 1 Victory Point for each victory over a villain.

 

They can be spent in the following way:

 

1 VP - Revive an incapacitated character card

 

1 VP - Move a hero to another zone.

 

2 VP - If Baron Blade & Vengeance Baron Blade have been defeated then you may add Luminary as a hero to any zone.

 

2 VP - If Ambuscade & Vengeance Ambuscade have been defeated then you may add Stuntman as a hero to any zone.

 

2 VP - If Matriarch & one other villain in her lane has been defeated you may add Harpy as a hero to any zone.

 

2VP - If Deadline & one other villain in his lane has been defeated you may add Lifeline as a hero to any zone.

 

2 VP - If La Capitan & Vengeance La Capitan have been defeated you may add La Comodora as a hero to any zone.

 

2 VP - If Akash'Bhuta & one other villain from her lane have been defeated you may add Akash'Thriya as a hero to any zone.

 

2-8 VP - If the Sentinels have participated in at least one battle you may spend 2 VP per surviving Sentinel to upgrade to Doctor Medico, Idealist, Mainstay & Writhe respectively and add them to whatever zone's you wish. You cannot upgrade any Sentinel who is M.I.A. Upgrading the Sentinels can only be done once, you must upgrade all surviving Sentinels in the same action.

 

8

The more I look at this, the more I like it.  Dividing the villains into zones makes sense, and the assignment of villains to environments is highly appreciated.  I'm a little sick of fighting Akash'Bhutan in Insula Primalis, personally, but that's because it fits so well that everyone naturally gravitates to it.  Having a formal list to refer to will definitely be nice.  I recommend swapping Magmaria and Megalopolis, since Spite needs civilians to hunt, and Magmaria works fine for a Cosmic villain like Deadline.  I might also reverse The Block (over to Wager Master) and Silver Gulch (over to Kismit), just to better suit the Cosmic and Mystic/Time catagories.

It might be a good idea to give a VP regardless of victory (maybe change the name), just so weaker players, strategic oversights, or strings of bad luck aren't quite so detrimental.  Winning the battle is rewarding all by itself, and the more rubber-band-y the campaign is, the more people it'll work for.

Finally, I'd want to allow offical teams a bit more flexibility in joining up.  Maybe each team should have a "prefered zone" with free movement into it without spending VP?  Dark Watch gets free movement into Earthbound (Nightmist obviously still starts in Mystic of course, as well she should), Prime Wardens get free movement into Mystic/Time, Sentinels get free movement into Cosmic, and the Freedom Five (+Unity) get free movement... honestly, maybe wherever?  They're kinda the primary protagonists and appear on the most cards, so galavanting around fits.  Or maybe some other benefit - free travel to any zone a F5 member is already in?

Anyway, great work, any anything else I can think of to improve it might just overcomplicate the whole thing.  Verisimilitude and Elegance are often at cross-purposes, and you've done a fair job balancing them here.  Kudos!

9

Thanks for the ideas & kind words, they are appreciated. Once Obliveon arrived and the loss condition was based on destroying Environment decks I knew that any campaign would need to have Environment decks as the resource the heroes & villains are fighting over, while keeping the campaign as simple as possible.

I can see the validity in swapping Magmaria & Megalopolis, that makes sense. I was initially less inclined concerning The Block & Silver Gulch because I somehow had Kismet & The Block linked in back story. However, having gone back to bio's there is no direct connection so I can accept that change as well.

Altering the rate of VP hand-out might well be needed. it is one of the issues that I have most concerns with, without play-testing it is very hard to speculate what the correct rate is.

I did consider what to do about hero teams working together. Rather than free movement for certain teams to certain zones it might be worth having a team specific rallying cry available once per team in the campaign. A team member can call other members of the team to their zone for a one-off battle together. Following the battle the team members return back to their original zone. You could do this once for each team, Freedon Five, Termi-Nation, Dark Watch, Prime Wardens & Void Guard. This would be dependent on having enough team members that arent M.I.A. and incapacitated & exhaustion rules would still be in effect.

I have manage to start a campaign with my gaming group which saw Sky-Scraper, Captain Cosmic, Tempest & K.N.Y.F.E. handle Grand Warlord Voss with surprising ease, none of the heroes came close to being incapacitated. The second game was the complete opposite as Miss Information & Freedom Tower was a brutal combination, a steady supply of Entry Points really hurt, that saw Chrono-Ranger & Unity go down quick while America's Greatest Legacy & Parse grimly hung on long enough to get Aminia's health halved before they succumbed as well.

 

10

Yeesh.  Miss Information is often frustrating but on occasion she's absolutely lethal.  Sounds like some bad luck with clues there.  And remember, you've still got The Chairman in Rook City in the Earthbound zone.  Hence my concern of softening up losses a little.

11

I like it! I especially like the idea of areas being saved or conquered, and using victory points to buy back incapacitated heroes.

I'll definitely give it a try.

12

Inexplicably left out The Scholar from the hero lists so added him in and adjusted text slightly

13

Exciting idea! Thank you desmotic for sharing that. 
I'll give that a try, when time allow.

Would really love to hear other campaigns people thought of (perhaps a linear storyline?), for that is something I miss at SoTM the card game. 

14

Managed to play another two games this week. Ra, The Sentinels, Team Leader Tachyon & Supply & Demand Benchmark handled The Ennead in The Tomb of Anubis with ease. The environment played out very favourably while the Ennead never really got going. Four of there first six turns were spent bringing out new members while the heroes powered up and even The Sentinels were barely concerned until the final turn. Second match was also a comprehensive win, but much more expected, as Mr Fixer, Extreme Prime Warden Haka, Freedom Five Wraith & Engine of War Bunker cruised through Chokepoint in Fort Adament, barely breaking sweat. Planning on tackling some of the real heavy hitter villains soon...

15

Three more games this week. First saw The Scholer, Omnitron-U & K.N.Y.F.E. take-on Omnitron II on Omnitron IV. A brutal war of attrition which saw both villain & heroes at half health when Omnitron IV played a drone which triggered a villain draw, electro-pulse explosive. With no time to react Omnitron-U & K.N.Y.F.E. went down straight away and The Scholer was finished off at the end of the villain turn.

Second match saw Supply & Demand Benchmark, Redeem Variant Fanatic & Freedom Five Tachyon slog through Apostate and a multitude of relics for a long, but comfortable, victory.

Third match was another long haul as Akash'Bhuta proved almost fatal opposition for Prime Warden Argent Adept, Fugue State Parse, America's Greatest Legacy & Engine of War Bunker. The heroes took a battering until Legacy was able to use Lead From the Front & Next Evolution to soak projectile damage from Akash'Bhuta's Living Rockslides. With Parse using Recompile with all three Critical Multipliers to set-up Bunker for 10-15 damage Flak Cannons while Argent Adept provided healing & support the force of nature was eventually tamed.

16

I like this idea, and am playing through a campaign.  I'm using a slightly different set of villain location pairings:

 

Earth-Bound  
Fort Adamant Chokepoint
Insula Primalis Citizen Dawn
Champ. Studios Ambuscade
Megalopolis The Chairman
Rook City Spite
Pike Plague Rat
Freedom Tower Miss Information
Ruins of Atlantis Baron Blade
MD Platform (Baron Blade, Ermine, Freight Train, Friction & Proletariat)
Mystic/Time  
Time Cataclysm La Capitan
Tomb of Anubis The Ennead
Silver Gulch, 1883 Akash'Bhuta
Realm of Discord Gloomweaver
The Court of Blood Apostate
Madame Mittermeier's The Matriarch
Magmaria The Dreamer
Mordengrad Iron Legacy
The Temple (Ambuscade, Greazer, La Capitan, Operative & Sergeant Steel)
Cosmic  
Celestial Tribunal Wager Master
Omnitron IV Omnitron II
The Block Kismet
Nexus of the Void Progeny
Wagner Mars Base Infinitor
Dok-Thoroth Capital Kaargra Warfang
Maerynian Refuge Grand Warlord Voss
Enclave Deadline
The Final Wasteland (Biomancer, Bugbear, Citizens Anvil & Hammer, Miss Information & Plague Rat)

Basically:

The Citadel of the Sun is in Insula Primalis, so fight Dawn there.

Baron Blade launched the Terralunar device from the Ruins of Atlantis, so fight him there.

Swap Spite and the Chairman to make fighting the Chairman somewhat less awful.

Use Mordengrad as a stand-in for the general awfulness of the Iron Legacy worl.

Move Akash'Bhuta to Silver Gulch, since she's an eternal enemy and can show up there, too.

Move the Dreamer to Magmaria because it has a nightmarish feel of its own.

Put Kismet back at the Block since she's a criminal.

Progeny can attack the Nexus of the Void as a stand in for all of Earth.

Wager Master is at the Celestial Tribunal because a trial is a form of wager, isn't it?

And Deadline can return to the Enclave.

 

Status so far, end of round two:

Round 1 (3 environments saved, +3 VP)

* Legacy, Haka, Parse, Wraith versus Baron Blade at Ruins of Atlantis: Curb stomp, Blade loses.

* Nightmist, Absolute Zero, Fanatic, and Ra versus Gloomweaver in the Realm of Discord: somewhat tight, but a timely Time Flies let the heroes rally.  Gloomweaver loses.

* Naturalist, Omnitron-X, Skyscraper, and Guise versus Deadline at the Enclave: Deadline loses.

Round 2 (3 environments saved, +2 VP)

* Chrono-Ranger, Bunker, Mister Fixer, and Expatriette versus Plague Rat at Pike: a nasty fight.  Combined Tri-Vats and Toxic Vats did a huge amount of damage, and Chrono-Ranger basically sacrificed himself to do a lot of damage.  Spent 1 VP to revive both the incapacitated heroes after the fight.  Plague Rat loses.

* Visionary, Benchmark, Tachyon, Sentinels, and Ardent Adept versus Ambuscade, Greazer, La Capitan, Operative, and Sgt. Steel at the Temple of Zhu Long: A tense match, with Glamour and the Bomb Specialist coming out on the first turn.  Writhe was MVP, with two Blackouts turning the villains against each other.  Three Mysterious Ceremonies by the second turn helped a lot two.  The Slaughterhouse Six and their allies lose.

* Setback, Scholar, and Tempest versus Kismet at the Block: A lot of damage thrown around, and Tempest using Cleansing Rain after catching most of Kismet's Jinxes.  Surprising, no one was incapacitated.  Kismet loses.

 

I'm looking forward to round 3 and beyond.