Twisted Games

Other Games SotM Story Challenges
1

Had a random thought about one hero today, and then started brainstorming for similar ideas about other heroes.  This is very, very rough, not all that serious a suggestion, but just some off-the-wall ideas about how to jazz up your game with some surplus weirdness in case you're bored.

* When playing as Bunker, mentally assign a cost of $1000 in taxpayer funds for each power he uses, each card he draws (these are cumulative in the case of Initialize), and each card he plays or otherwise expends through his actions (so it applies to cards used to charge an Omni-Cannon, but not if the villain forces him to discard).  Decide upon an acceptible mission budget for each game and try to avoid going over.

* When playing Fanatic, draw all your cards face-down and do not look at them.  Each card you play is either selected randomly, or better yet, find a person in the room who isn't playing and doesn't know SOTM at all, show them your cards and get them to pick one based on complete ignorance.  (Illegal picks such as a duplicate Limited card are rerolled.)  Any time one of these "miracles" turns out to be the card you would have chosen to play, Fanatic regains 1 HP as her faith is bolstered by this apparent divine intervention.  Whenever a card play goes horribly wrong, randomly discard one of your cards while she struggles to rationalize the setback as "part of God's plan for the trials which I must endure".

* If intending to play Parse, get a set of forty blank index cards, then write the name of each card in Parse's deck on the top of an index card in binary, and play the result in place of your normal deck.  Bonus points if you replace the index cards with old-style computer punch cards, keeping them in opaque-backed plastic sleeves so you can't see through them.  Also, program your Iphone to dial the number of a fax machine, and when you play a card, switch the Speakerphone on and off in time to the binary code.  (Disclaimer: GreaterThanGames LLC is not responsible for Iphones destroyed by anyone in earshot.)

* When fighting against Plague Rat, any player whose hero is Infected must sit on the floor, shuffles his deck by throwing it in a messy pile and then laboriously scooping it back up, and can speak only in monosyllabic growls and feral chittering, accompanied by various rude gestures.  Players get a +1 to their damage against the Rat if they roleplay correctly, and a +1 to their damage against themself or other heroes if their performance is unsatisfactory.

* When fighting in Insula Primalis at the height of summer, turn the air conditioning off and close all the windows.  Reduce the villain character's max HP by 1 for every degree the temperature increases during the course of play.

2

200+ games so far this year and I'm not at all bored yet.

3

I don't know if I'll ever be bored with Sentinels, the amount of possible variations there are even if you were to play multiple games in a row using the same decks :D.

4

I like it, really like the Fanatic one.  Could be really fun, esp. against some of the easier villains.

5

We'll have to disagree there. I think this one sounds like no fun at all, because it removes a whole chunk of decision-making which is what makes the game interesting for me. To each his own though.

6

I would never suggest removing decision-making ability from anyone but Fanatic (and maybe the Sentinels, where it'd be about representing the idea that the four teammates have different ideas which card you should play for them).  It's just about representing the flavor of someone who trusts in a higher power to choose her destiny for her.

7

Well I prefer an interesting game over thematics, myself. If you're playing a card at random Fanatic plays herself, pretty much. What's the point?

8

This is true.  You'd still choose which Power to activate once you random-play an Absolution or the like, but that wouldn't be deep.  It'd be fairly boring, much like playing an Incapped hero, but even from turn 1.  You'd probably have to be the kind of person who really enjoys playing Setback.

9

At least with Setback, you can choose whether to Risk or not.

10

Could also work with solo games, essentially having a hero run themself while you play the others...

11

Setback (for me) isn't about random chance and risk.  It is about taking his cards, which tend to have detrimental side-effects and turning them into something awesome despite all of that.  A well-played Setback isn't random.  A well-played Setback is tanking and healing his team while keeping them in cards and taking out high-priority targets.  

 

* Edited for spelling.

12

So do you never use his innate Risk power then?  Because there's no way you can use that and not have a chance of things going horribly, horribly wrong.  If that power is ever used, you don't have total control over what's happening, no matter how well the rest of your plays go.

13

No risk at all if you know what the top card is.

I feel that even a blind Risk is usually a calculated one.

14

It's also hardly the only occasion when a character can blindly play the top card of their deck. DDA, anyone?

On the other hand, DDA can itself help out Setback if he's got something in his trash that he'd like to get hold of again ;). Not that it's the only card that can do that, but still…

Anyway, when does any player of this game have total control over what's happening? You might if you know the top card of every deck and that the villain and environment are definitely only playing one card on their next turn. If I could fully control every little aspect of the game and know what was gonna happen all the time, I don't think I'd have nearly as much fun. It'd be like if every character had a bunch of copies of a card they could use to search for any other card in their deck, or something :P.

15

Oh yeah, the Searchy McSearch hero! Now with MOAR SEARCH!

16

Yeah, I feel Setback, to me, is about managing risk. You are often gambling a bit, but the point is to try and stack the odds in your favor. 

The Twisted Games idea does seem pretty interesting for some silly games though. Maybe for Fanatic you can give her an additional innate power:

Prayer: At the beginning of your turn, you may shuffle your deck and name a card. If you do, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is the card you named, put it in play and continue your turn as normal. If it is not, discard it and end your turn. 

17

I got a laugh out of most of these. Bunker's is actually pretty interesting. I wonder how I'd calculate what his limit should be, and the public outcry when someone in the media leaked how much he was spending.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3496