Definitive Edition

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
#21

To be fair, I think that’s just re-releasing all the old material.

Definitive Edition - has twelve heroes, six villains, and six environments. I predict it’ll be the ten original core heroes plus Unity and the Scholar, the four original core villains plus Ambuscade and Miss Information, and the four original core environments plus Omnitron-IV and Silver Gulch.

Big Box 1: Rook City and Infernal Relics [12 decks]

Big Box 2: Shattered Timelines and Wrath of the Cosmos [12 decks]

Big Box 3: Vengeance [12 decks]

Big Box 4*: Villains of the Multiverse [14 decks, but no heroes so not as many cards]

Big Box 5*: Standalones. Seven heroes (Benchmark, Guise, Stuntman, and Void Guard) Two Villains (Chokepoint, Wager Master) and Two Environments (Celestial Tribunal and Final Wasteland.) [11 decks, but more hero-tilted] 

[* - It’s possible that they’ll rearrange Villains and the Standalones to balance them out a bit more; maybe five Vengeance-style villains, one standard villain, three or four heroes and three environments per set.]

Big Box 6: Oblivaeon. [14 decks: five heroes, five environments, and four Oblivaeon-specific decks.]

That’s a full six boxes of re-released Sentinels material without actually having any new decks. 

#22

I wasn't sure what to expect art wise from this update but I was amazed by the varying styles that Adam is able to do.  It adds more flavor and history to it.   

#23

I'm on the mixed bag train too. Like the art nails the look its going for, but I think the game will lose something having different styles on the board clashing with each other. Rather then a shared art style making everything feel like a living world happening "now" it is going to make different elements feel like they belong in different times and places. Which I could see being seen as a plus, but its not what I would go with. They also just look less visually pleasing.

#24

Christopher clarified that there will be 6 boxes total, not 6 expansions.  The core box bas been confirmed to include the Freedom Five, Prime Wardens, Unity, Ra, and the original core villains and environments plus Akash'Bhuta, Matriarch, Magmaria, and Freedom Tower.

My personal guess is a core box, a Dark Watch urban/magic box, a Void Guard cosmic box, a timelines/multiverse box, and OblivAeon.  That's five.  No idea what direction Vengeance/Villains is going.

 

#25

That may be an issue even with a hero's deck, so someone like Wraith could have old style and modern cards being laid out next to each other. It's an interesting choice, but I could see it being pretty divisive for fans. There seems to be enough people against screencaps for card art, and that's a pretty similar issue

 

EDIT - anyone know how to get the HTML tags to work for the quote? Thanks Rabit!

#26

Oh, I was way off. Thanks for the update, MindWanderer!

#27

You have to use the [ quote= “name” ] tag, just remove the spaces. 

#28

Thanks Rabit, they might need to change the info under the posts, I got confused with the line below, so couldn't figure out what was wrong. I tried quote, but didn't change to square brackets

" Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <u> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <p> <br> <img> <b> "

#29

I don't really have an opinion on the "polarising" art. It's all better than I can draw! ; D

I am, however, quite saddened that they're relesing new mechanical content (variants, scenarios) that, in order to get, one would need to buy many dollars worth of content that one already owns.

#30

I purchased my first copy of SotM from Chris and Paul at their convention table in 2011, and I've participated in every Kickstarter, pre-sale, etc., since. I'm extremely disappointed with today's news.

When the DE was first mentioned in the Letters Page, I had one question: "What about those of us who have followed this game for 10 years and spent hundreds of dollars on the product?" The answer we got today was loud and clear—thanks, but if you want to keep following SotM, you're going to have to keep paying. Oh, and by the way, we're calling this new game the "Definitive Edition," and we're making sure it's "improved in just about every way" and is "the best version of Sentinels of the Multiverse that anyone ha[s] ever seen"—hope you're not a completionist or prone to FOMO.

And what's so frustrating to me is that I love this game. And I think the new art is great, and I'm interested in seeing the streamlined rules and new iterations of characters. But in order to do that, I have to re-buy everything I already own. And to a certain extent, I think GtG is banking on the fact that many of us are going to keep ponying up because we love the game and want to have the latest and greatest version of it. I feel like I'm getting taken advantage of, and it sucks.

 

#31

Another old fart over here. I'm going to paddle against the stream and say that I like it, every bit of it.

Even way back around the Infernal Relics/Shattered Timeline era I felt that >G should have recognised some of the problems with the game as it stood at the time, stopped everything and gone into revision. Instead they went on to do numerous reprints knowing all the time that there were very simple and easy fixes such as changing to more legible fonts, improving the graphic layout and highlighting the game phases where effects happen. Even during Oblivaeon they were still making unforgivably dumb graphic choices like putting dark text on a dark background.

Offering us balance tweaks, clearer and more economical wording, and Adam's art and composition getting better are just the icing on the cake.

The only thing that I dislike is that the font size appears to be getting smaller which is not a sensible thing to do, especially the Ongoing/Equipment tag which ought to be at least four times bigger so that it can be easily seen across the playing area. I remain blessed with good eyesight and the new font, despite being significantly more readible, is just on the edge of becoming too small for me and would really benefit from being a couple of points larger. Anyone suffering from vision impairment is going to struggle for sure, I can see the future negative feedback all the way from here.

I have to confess that I rarely play Sentinels these days as Spirit Island and other games are far more attractive to us so having a new edition might well be the re-invigoration that we need to get it back on regular rotation again. I shall quite happily sell all of my current stuff and start buying into this new version instead.

2 Likes
#32

The history you describe fits me, also. :-D 

In no way am I going to say your feelings are wrong – they’re your feelings and I will not invalidate them – but I had a very different reception to the Definitive Edition announcement. I’m really glad they are taking this step to introduce the game to a new audience of people who weren’t able to appreciate the original (due to art, inconsistencies, whatever) by addressing those concerns. And they haven’t invalidated everything that we loved in the first place, although I understand and appreciate the point about completionists / FOMO. :-(  

However, I think that, if they were just going to take advantage of us, they would have just continued to create new expansions. :-\ I mean, people were begging them to do so, and it’s not like they couldn’t. But they didn’t want to just keep trolling people for cash (as some other games have – I’m looking at you, Dominion :frowning: ) and had a very specific story to tell. 

But that’s just me and how I’m looking at this. :-) 

1 Like
#33

On the Ongoing/One-Shot thing, can you also distinguish between them by the color of the card background?

EDIT: Looks like not, it's just a hero/villain card distinction that I was seeing in the examples.

#34

Actually, you don’t, FWIW. Paul mentioned on the LP server they’re going to have a conversion document that will update the old cards to the new rules if you want to use the new rules. It won’t be perfect since some cards have been replaced/split, but it’ll still let you use the new rules if you want. (I do think this should be said publicly by the GTG folks to alleviate this concern, but it has been said.)

#35

Also, I'm pretty sure the upcoming [REDACTED] episode of the Letters Page is going to be all about the Definitive Edition. The timing is pretty convenient. I'm guessing they will answer a lot of these questions there, if asked. 

#36

My biggest hope is that they'll release the First Appearance Variants and Scenarios seperately, so those of us who already bought the "First Edition" can buy them without having to buy so much stuff we alreay own. But I doubt that'll happen. :' (

Also, according to MindWanderer's post above, I guess that means no The Visionary. . . She'll probably be in the "timelines/multiverse box" MindWanderer guessed about.

#37

I wish them well in this new edition, but I'm good with what I have. Time will tell if this move was worth it. 

#38

Quote: My biggest hope is that they'll release the First Appearance Variants and Scenarios seperately, so those of us who already bought the "First Edition" can buy them without having to buy so much stuff we alreay own. But I doubt that'll happen. :' (

 

That is my hope and fear as well.

#39

It is, and they do in fact want people to get their questions in today.

#40

Yup. After reconciling myself to "No More Sentinels" and a Sidekick app that STILL doesn't include Oblivaeon (and now the black box coming apart) the news that those of us that have given GTG 400+ dollars on this one game get is "spend more for an improved in every way game" feels like a bit of a bummer.

But it is what it is I suppose.