So here's the deal. A lot of us peons are pretty excited for this create a villain contest.
I read up on the rules today and saw that it is supposed to be tied into the Time & Alternate Reality expansion. I more or less anticipated this, but it would help a lot of us contest folk greatly with villain background if we knew a couple of details about the world setting. I'd really appreciate some detial here, and I think it would be worth your time to lay on the goods, as you'll get better submissions that way.
Specifically:
1. How exactly do heroes travel through time? Is this something SotM universe people have been doing for a while and this is just the expansion for it, or is this a brand new, just-figured-out-how-to-do-this sort of thing?
2. Pretty similar for alt realities. Is um... compartimentalized? I guess what I'm trying to say is; Is there any possibility whatsoever that heroes from the "official" multiverse could make their ways into alternate realities? IE: Can Tachyon meet Bizzarro Tachyon? Would the paradox meter go through the roof if that happened?
Any further detail you feel like volunteering might help all of us really flesh out our villain backgrounds. Here's hoping you guys are feeling charitible =p
Honestly, you're best off just writing up a character that you find interesting, rather than trying to shoe-horn it into whatever you believe our expectations may hold. No, the characters you already know do not often go jumping through time, and certainly not of their own volition, and yes, there are many different realities (remember, it's a Multiverse), and those realities often intersect in strange ways, but don't get too bogged down with the nitty gritty of it all. This expansion is destined to be both wibbly-wobbly AND timey-wimey, so create the best villain you can and make up how that villain fits into the Multiverse as if you had control of the Multiverse. We'll make the necessary changes as we deem them, well, necessary.
While time-travel is obviously a valid approach (see also: Chrono Ranger), what I'm wondering is if one could approach it in a "gaslight heroes" sort of way as well...?
Remember that there is nothing holding you back. Because there is no actual comic (yet) and no established timeline, you can think of literally anything that fits within the parameters of the contest, which is really loose considering its about SpaceTime and alternate realites. Unless there is something I missed from my hiatus, you can go hog wild!
We probably don't necessarily want to publish our great villain ideas while the contest is still ongoing, but I'm hoping that once the contest is over, people will post their great ideas here for us to all oooh over.
I'd love to contribute to this contest, but I don't think I've got the capability of making up my own villain. But that doesn't stop me from wondering, what would happen if someone's entry happens to closely resemble one of the already planned villains? Say someone sends in an idea of a villain who is an evil sorcerer from the ancient world (Just totally hypothetical). If you guys already have an evil sorcerer from the ancient world as one of the planned villains, what will happen?
@Spiff: I'd love to once the contest's over, but I'm not sure the >G rules about not posting character builds wouldn't prevent it. Maybe name and non-mechanical details? Or maybe we can as we've already given the rights up by entering the contest so there won't be a legal conflict. Of course, that makes things a little confused with some fan creations being allowed and others not, so they may still prefer we follow the first rulle of Time Villain contests and not talk about it.
Actually, this case is rather simple. In the unlikely event that you create a villain that is similar in design to a villain they have already planned, they will likely not award your entry, and go ahead with their already planned villain. In the event that you contest stating that they took your idea without crediting you, they will have dated evidence of their original creation. (You might be surprised how dated their creations are, actually.)
Okay, that makes sense. This is actually important to me now, because I did manage to come up with an idea, so I think I'll try my luck with the contest. But my paranoid side is telling me this might already be a planned villain, and all my work would be for naught. Then again, I'm not very good at guessing these sort of things, so I'm probably wrong about the villain I think might be included. But I would never consider challenging the whole ">G stole my idea" thing. I know these villains have probably been planned for a long time.
At least now I've got something to do in my free time.
Dream-based? As in a villain who is just a dream to the heroes? That'd just be weird.
There are going to be a _LOT_ of submissions, so I recommend that people enjoy the creation process and not fret to much about not winning. That's my plan, anyway.
I'd guess there would be little problem from an IP standpoint in sharing ideas after the contest, because everything we contribute will become property of >G anyway, so there's no reason the >G people can't see it.
Hmm... I guess my thought process is a bit backwards. I had figured that because it becomes the property of Greater than Games that we couldn't discuss it.
Have a feeling that after this contest is over there will be a lot more villains posted to BGG.
Already have a villain of my own made, long before this contest, but doesn't quite fit the Time/Alternate Reality theme, he fits closer to the Relics theme. Being a playtester for IR helped me get ideas for him that I would have otherwise had to wait for. The more material available, the easier it becomes to create balanced characters. I may try to make one for the contest however, as I've got some experience in making a villain now.