I love the intro and I'm sure it gives everyone a good time.
A few small things I do different.
1) When I introduce the villain I give a little more flavor to their first turn. For instance, I always mention that the villain goes first because he/she arrives and starts to put their nasty plan into action which alerts the heroes.
2) Some players have now played other cooperative games like Pandemic. In that case, I emphasize that our game is more like an "experience" than a "puzzle" I try (although sometimes unsuccessful) to have players read the title of their cards and optional to read the flavor text to get to know more about their character. Overall, I say a few times that this is like Avengers the card game, not a just think to yourself kind of game. Players can talk, but also, the player each turn gets the final decision about their play.
3) I explain heroes enough so players can pick one they like but not much more than that until it is there first turn. But YMMV I could see that working differently.
Khedron, I think it would be better if you make one, then send it over to Spiff to see if he would be willing to host it?
In general, as long as it's something players find genuinely useful and it doesn't take up much storage space, I'd be happy to host it (though Drak is right, creating this is not on my to-do list currently). However, a one-sheet explaining the heroes to new players could easily be something that someone makes and attaches to a post here, meaning that I could just as easily just link to it instead of host it myself.
Nice! I try to set the flavor of the villain, but perhaps I can also nudge people towards a mindset of this being an unfolding situation.
[quote="Pushingthelimits"]
Some players have now played other cooperative games like Pandemic. In that case, I emphasize that our game is more like an "experience" than a "puzzle" I try (although sometimes unsuccessful) to have players read the title of their cards and optional to read the flavor text to get to know more about their character. Overall, I say a few times that this is like Avengers the card game, not a just think to yourself kind of game. Players can talk, but also, the player each turn gets the final decision about their play.
[/quote]
Interesting. I've recommended reading the flavor text, but usually after the game while extoling the awesomeness of the backstory of the characters and the multiverse. I like the idea of helping people enjoy the experience of the game, though I'd want to avoid telling people that it's NOT a puzzle. Different people will like different aspects of the game.
[quote="Pushingthelimits"]
3) I explain heroes enough so players can pick one they like but not much more than that until it is there first turn. But YMMV I could see that working differently.
[/quote]
Yes – depends greatly on the people and I occiassionaly get this wrong and have to adjust. Complete newbies to the game? I'm pretty comfortable just handing you a hero. Unless you frown or look longingly at another person's hero, I'll assume you're happy enough. Occassionally I'll ask groups or individuals how much they like complexity. If someone confidently says they want as much complexity as I can give them, I am not afraid to hand over AZ, AA, or Nightmist to a new player. It has always worked out and is usually great. My favorite is still the woman who sat down at PAX Prime last year and said she wanted to play a sorceress. I said we have one, but the deck is a bit complicated. The player said she was confident she could pick it up. I handed over NightMist and after flipping through just a few of the cards in the deck, the player said, 'I got this' and then proceeded to have a ton of fun.
Yeah, I still loved GenCon last year, handing AZ and Bunker to a couple friends I knew who'd never played but would totally have a blast. They wanted a really hard villain and decided on the Chairman. The other three people were okay with this, so they went with it. Christopher was really worried they'd get the wrong experience, but these guys have been gaming for years and totally grokked the game, the heroes, and the villain. They took down the Chairman with hit points to spare (although AZ was single digits).
Sometimes, the spiel is really short, as in this case. It really depends on the players and the situation.