Non-official new environments

General GTG General Discussion
1

So I’m sitting around bored today, and I’m thinking, “how hard can it be to make an entirely new environment? It’s only 15 cards.” So I gave it a shot. You can find them on my SotM page:

http://www.spiffworld.com/sotm

Currently, there’s just one in the .zip file: “Frostfury Mountain”, the perfect frozen mountaintop from which to stage an invasion of Earth or just get away from it all while you run your criminal empire. The .zip has got PDFs for the cards and backs so you can print them out and play with them. If people really dig them, I could easily be talked into making matching card boxes as well.

Sample cards include “Whiteout” (All damage except melee damage is reduced by 1. At the end of the environment turn play the top card of the Environment deck. At the start of the Environment turn, one player may discard an ongoing card to destroy this card.), and “The Yetigo” (10 hp, is immune to cold damage. At the end of the environment turn, this card deals the non-environment target with the second highest hp 3 melee damage and 1 cold damage.).

Fair warning, I use the same types of icons on these cards to represent the “at the start of the environment turn” and “at the end of the environment turn” phrases as I do on my oversized villain cards. It’s just too convenient. So you’ll see those phrases represented by a red “SE” and green “EE” icon respectively.

I’ve got ideas for a couple more environments, so as long as my boredom holds out, I plan on continuing making (and posting) them. It’s a fun project.

2

I’ve added a second new environment to the .zip file in the original post: “Temporal Vortex”, another great place for a villain to try to pull a fast one on the heroes. Can you stop the Mammoth Stampede before the Temporal Undertow makes it impossible to take out the Red Baron? Perhaps the Future Cops can help. But keep an eye out for those Chrono-loops and Timeskips. They could make it tougher to get out of the Thunderdome.

As usual, if anyone finds any problems with the files, just let me know. And if anyone gets the urge to play test them and has suggestions for changes I should make, I’d like to hear that as well.

3

Well, there’s a good chance that I’m too lazy and too much of a purist to actually print these out and play with them, but they do look entertaining. I do have some comments for you nevertheless, mostly about formatting.

Hidden Supply Cache seems to have the static ability “Destroy this Card,” which seems like it would get rid of it before it does anything.

Whiteout might be more thematic if it reduced all damage but cold?

Hidden Crevasse only deals damage once? It seems like it could do that 2 damage at the start or end of the turn. (And annoy people even worse than Traffic Pileup!)

Timeskip and Timeslip: The precedent for environment cards that just have an effect and then die still seems to have them out for a whole round. Look at Hallway Collapse in Atlantis. This seems to me to be for the sole purpose of giving a boost to cards like Omnitron’s Terraforming and Spite’s Mind-Phyre, though the order of wording could also have interesting implications with New Wraith.

Temporal Undertow has strange wording as well. The way I read it, everybody has a one time reduction in their damage, then it doesn’t matter anymore. Why would anybody want to skip their turn?

They look really good!

4

Great feedback, thanks. I’ll take a look at them tonight and post updates.

re: Hidden Supply Cache, you’re right that the “destroy this card” needs to be tied to the End of Turn event.

re: Whiteout, the purpose was to make it harder to damage things except by punching them, since you can’t see far. Not good?

re: Hidden Crevasse, the card has hp, so it’ll stick around until you can blast your way out of the crevasse. Lame or good?

re: Timeskip/slip: your suggested change sounds good.

re: Temporal Undertow, yeah, looks like the “prevent” event needs to be pegged to the End of Environment phase.

5

The file has been updated. Thanks again for the feedback.

6

Were these taken down? The link to see the files isn’t working?

7

Whoops, looks like when I rearranged files during my last accessories update, I removed this one accidentally. I’ll put it back up tonight after work. Sorry about that (and I’m glad to hear that someone’s still interested in them).

8

The file is back in place.

9

Very cool, thanks for updating that post. Love both of these ideas.

10

I had a couple of other ideas that never made it into a Photoshop file because I wasn’t sure if anyone was interested. “Crystalvault Caverns” is one that has the heroes encountering cave-ins, impenetrable darkness, morlockey mole people, the mysterious Crystal Vault itself, and occasionally the Deep Ones. I think I had one other set on the launching pad too (maybe an underground sewer complex?) before I stopped working on them. If there’s interest let me know and I can try to find some time to finish them.

UPDATE: no, it wasn’t a sewer complex (or maybe I also had a sewer complex too…). It was a space station that has the heroes facing conditions that change depending on the current mood of the HAL-based artificial intelligence. So sometimes it’s helping the heroes, other times it’s venting them into deep space.

11

I for one would be interested. I feel like environments is something that could easily expand much more then has yet been seen in the game and I’m always game to try a new take on them. So here’s one vote that would love to see your idea come to be.

My friend and I are working on an environment concept right now as well. We’ve been fiddling with fan made heroes and one of his is a character who is the inheritor of a family curse for having meddled in dark magic. So a little more wizard magic spell like in feel. The environment we are working on is his ancestral home which is basically an old haunted mansion. Different rooms have different effects as well as some ghost, demon type targets.

12

Printed them out and will test them with my gaming group on Friday.

13

I’ve updated the .zip file to include a total of five environments. I’ve got a vague idea for a sixth “backyard micro verse” environment where it’s a “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” kind of thing, but who knows if I’ll ever get to that. Each of the environments contains two PDFs of the cards themselves, one PDF with the card backs, one PDF with a card box you can print out to house the cards, and one PDF with an oversized mat to put the deck and discards on when playing (I use these when I play, but they’re not necessary in any way).

Many of the abilities on the cards are retreads of abilities from other official environment cards, with a few twists to make them feel fresh, though many are completely new too. I’m not trying to push the boundaries of great card design, I’m just trying to make a little variety.

Any feedback about the cards is welcome. I am not able to play test these like I’d like, so I’ll be happy to incorporate suggestions from people who have used these and have good ideas for improving them.

Info about the environments:

1) Crystalvault Caverns

A deep crystal cave of wonders. While playing in this environment, you’ll contend with cave ins, the mysterious Molodytes, devious Vault Anglers, narrow passages, sudden darkness, echoes and claustrophobia. If you delve too deep, you may encounter the Crystal Vault itself, as well as the mysterious Deep Ones.

2) Frostfury Mountain

The perfect frozen retreat for the villain’s latest schemes. Dangers include whiteouts, frostbite, hidden crevasses, avalanches, and the reclusive Yetigo monster. However, if you’re lucky, you could come across hidden supply caches or your base camp.

3) Odyssey Space Station

The bipolar artificial intelligence of this deep space station has gone a little nuts, sometimes hindering the heroes as they battle the villain, sometimes helping. While on the Odyssey, you’ll here the AI say “I’m afraid I can’t allow that”, “I have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission”, “artificial gravity is offline”, “hull breach on deck 4”, “life support systems optimized”, “life support systems compromised”, “communications access granted”, “the medical bay is located on deck 7”, “security system activated”, and “servo-bots reprogrammed”. If you’re lucky, you may even hear it say “my god, it’s full of stars”.

4) Styx Sewer System

This ancient sewer system could be located under any city, with dangers such as giant crocs (natch), noxious fumes, sewer-dwelling mutants, waist deep sewage, or burst pipes. Occasionally you may be able to come up for air, but be careful you don’t get lost in the maze.

5) Temporal Vortex

Time itself has gone crazy as denizens from the far future and distant past are drawn through the vortex to interfere with your battle with the villain. Don’t be surprised to encounter mammoth stampedes, pirates, future cops, WWII soldiers, the Red Baron himself and even the Black Knight. Of course, the Vortex itself is dangerous, as you’ll see when you have to deal with chrono-loops, timeslips, timeskips, and temporal undertows. And woe to the heroes who find themselves stuck battling in the Thunderdome.

14

Wow…very cool!

I’ll have to try these all out.

15

So, I made my set of non-official environments a few months back but had no idea if anyone had tried them or liked them.  Then, out of the blue, some guy on BGG starts posting little stories of his experiences playing in my environments!  How satisfying, that he not only enjoyed the environments, but that he enjoyed them enough to post a little story about it.  Love it.

Fighting Plague Rat in the Styx Sewer Complex: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/842152/plague-rat-styx-sewer-complex

Fighting Omnitron in the Temporal Vortex: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/841212/omnitron-time-warp

16

I printed off the Crystalvault Caverns and the Frostfury mountains.  They weren't bad, but my group and I felt that some cards were a bit ambiguous.  For instance, some of the cards (Narrow Passage) were a bit of a bother, as the hero with the highest HP changed a lot.  It made for a lot of math and really slowed things down.  The Deep One also really slows things down, and deals heinous damage.  Maybe he could just search the trash and environment for one of his mooks rather than shuffling the trash back into the Environment deck?  Also, it's kind of harsh that the Frostfury Mountains have cards that play the environment AND the villain decks out of turn.  Base Camp was interesting, and ended up helping a lot more than it hurt, and the Yetigo were pretty awesome.  Overall, the decks are interesting, but some cards just feel a bit too punishing for an Environment deck.  Maybe change some effects to the start of the Environment turn rather than the end?

17

Good feedback, thanks.

18

I've updated the file to incorporate some of this feedback.  Narrow Passage now just buffs the hero target and villain target with the highest hp while reducing damage to every other target by 1 (should be simpler math).  I've changed the wording on the Deep One to match the same kind of effect on an Apostate card and made its damage a bit clearer, which should help make it flow better.  I also updated the Red Baron's card (Temporal Vortex) and the "I Have The Greatest Enthusiasm For The Mission" card (Odyssey Space Station) based on some feedback I received.

Keep the feedback coming and I'll keep making changes until these environments are the most awesomest ever.