Villain + Environment = Scenario

General GTG General Discussion
1

In designing my submissions for the Create a Villain Contest, I was thinking how neat it would be if a villain deck and environment deck were created to be played together as a scenario. Think of the narrative possibilities if there was intentional synergy between the two decks.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the mix-and-match, sometimes wildly random element of the current villains. In fact, there's something really Kirby-esque about fighting a giant robot in the ruins of Atlantis. I just think there'd be a lot of potential in an expansion of preconstructed scenarios - four villains and environments intended to be played as pairs.

Another possibility would be to create "plot" cards tying existing heroes, villains, and environments together, but upping the stakes or personalizing events to those characters. For example, Wraith, Spite, and Rook City could all get two or three plot cards that give the specific characters some effect. These should be narrative, event-driven things depicting things that have happened in the continuity that I'm sure exists in Christopher's head (or a million notebooks somewhere).

Have any of you thought of this before or tried your hand at something like this?

2

We already sort of have villain/environment pairs in that some villains were created to fit narratively in particular environments: Baron Blade/Megalopolis, Citizen Dawn/Insula Primalis, Chariman/Rook City, Ennead/Tomb of Annubis, so I'm not sure exactly what you're proposing.  If you mean to have environments that can only be played with their paired villain, I'm not sure if that would be a step forward.  As it is, we've got ones that work especially well with their paired villain but can be used with any of them.  That seems like a pretty good system to me.

I took a shot at making scenarios, strings of fights vs. a particular villain/environment combo that made a narrative arc when played one after the other.  You can find it on my site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm.  I also included individual victory conditions to make the fights seem different from a regular game.

I like very much the idea of plot cards that add a story-driven twist to a fight and would require a particular combination of villain and environment.  For example, Plague Rat in Pike Industrial could have three plot cards.  When the first one is in play, he's working his way towards the surface.  When that's done, you flip the next one which shows that he's chewing through some sewer pipes, trying to flood the city with irradiated goo.  When that's been dealt with, he tries to fight his way back to the depths.  I would totally play something like that.

3

Yeah, reading over my OP and then your post I can see that >G is already doing what I first suggested.

The plot cards, however, have some promise I think. Do you envision them being a separate, smaller deck?

I could see plot cards working akin to the Tales and Legends expansion for Small World where they simply change up the way one part of the game works for a set number of turns. To take your Plague Rat example, maybe the first plot card allows PR to draw one extra villain card each turn to simulate his initial frantic struggle to the surface. Then, when he has met a certain condition, maybe the rradiated goo in the water is simulated by making all damage dealt by the environment toxic. Once the heroes have him on the ropes, maybe he gets a slight damage boost and the heroes get one extra power play each round. Simple things that don't make the game any more fiddly, but with some flavor text and art to make you feel like you're playing an issue of a comic.

I'd love to see an Abuscade hunting Haka in Insula Primalis set of plot cards. What plots would you all like to see?

4

I'd love a Chairman/Rook City plot card deck where it details the search for the Chairman and the eventual defeat of the king of crime.

5

I love the plot cards idea.  Do you think there'd be more of a restriction for a set of plot cards than just the villain & environment?  What about plot cards which also stipulate that a certain hero be one of the heroes played because they're integral to the story being told?  Maybe that'd be interesting, maybe not.

If someone were going to make a set of prototype plots, I'd like to see two different ones for the same villain/environment and see how different they make the games you play with them feel.  For example, before making one for Baron Blade and one for Voss, it would be interesting to have one for Baron Blade when he's attacking a mall in Megalopolis and one where he's attacking a newspaper building in Megalopolis.  Does playing each one feel different from the other?  Do they make the game feel like a unique story, or are they just window dressing that doesn't really affect anything.  Would be a good test.

6

Spiff, you're just full of wonderful ideas. Plot cards is a brilliant idea. I would really love to see stuff like this. It'd give the game an even more story-driven feel, which is just a huge plus for me.

7

I've been going through and charting who is in which comic and such and I think some of the actual comics coud be a great place to start for pulling scenarios. A few of the short run comics are almost pre outlined as to who should be in the fight, though not always where.

For example:

Sunrise: Thus far the Sunrise comic has Citizen Dawn as the villain, with 4 heroes quoted, Visionary, Bunker, Wraith and Ra. I'd assume to play this in Insula Primalis since that's her base.  You now have the basic set up for a scenario to which you could add plot specifics.

Singularity: Haka, The Wraith, and Ra are all quoted in this comic, vs Omnitron.  Would need to pick an environment to go with it.

Moonfall: Baron Blade vs Legacy, Visionary, and Tempest (all quoted in the comic). Probably Megalopolis on this one.

Freedom Four Annual 2: The Matriarch (its her first appearance in comics) vs Absolute Zero (also his First Appearance...maybe a plot line could involve him joining the battle late or something), and one could assume the Freedom Four at the time, Legacy, The Wraith, Bunker and Tachyon.  Would need to pick an environment.

Freedom Five Annual 11: Ambuscade vs The Wraith, Bunker, Tachyon, Haka and Unity (her First Appearance in comics).  Would need to pick an environment.

Rook City Renegades: This could provide a series of games. Its The Wraith, Mr. Fixer and Expatriette, first vs The Chairman, then Spite, then Plague Rat.  This at least is the order of their appearances in the comic. (Haka also shows up in the fight against Plague Rat). And this would for sure be in Rook City.

These are just a few possibles.  Most of the comics don't have quite enough to "pre-build" your scenarios.  Especially with environments.  But with the plot card idea propsed above maybe that could fill in the rest.

Just a thought.

 

8

Spiff, you're just full of wonderful ideas.

It was Flex Apollo's idea, not mine.

9

My personal preference would be for a (big) deck of scenario cards. You draw one before playing, it tells you the kind of story you will be playing, if there are specific villains/environment/heroes involved, and may give special rules - some may change the way villains work, give them alternate winning /losing conditions, or change the way some powers work...

For instance :

Prisoner !

Villain : any

Environment : any

Heroes : any

Special rules : One of the heroes has been abducted by the villain ! Choose a hero, and put it in the villain space under this card. This hero does not have a turn, and is immune to all damage, except damages done by this card.

This card has 30 hit points, and is considered a villain target.

At the start of the villain turn, if this card has been destroyed,the hero is free. Add him as a new hero in the team, at the last place, chose who will play him/her, and deal 4 cards. The hero keeps its current HP count.

At the end of the villain turn, this card deals 3 irreducible damage to the prisoner hero.

If the hero is incapacitated while under this card, the villain wins.

 

There could be cards for specific events in the life of heroes : Bunker is accused of treason, you must find proof of his innocence in the villain's lair... A hero's marriage/party/whatever is interrupted by a villain... Wraith's corporation is victim of an hostile take over...

More complex cards could lead to multiple plays : Baron Blade manipulates another villain. While this villain attacks Megalopolis, Blade begins to build his Lunar Beam : the longer it takes the heroes to defeat the decoy villain, the more advanced the construction is in the next game vs Baron Blade... Or Tachyon is ill, and only Thoratian scientists know the cure - but Voss won't help you unless you first defeat a villain who insulted him... Of course he then betrays you.

 

 

10

Great ideas.

11

@Spiff - But you were the one to seize upon it as the better of my ideas. Thanks for the credit, though.

@logan_mann - That list already has my mind chug-a-lugging some ideas for plot cards. It'd be so cool to play out actual in-continuity "issues" from the Sentinel Comics universe.

@TheSoundOfTrees - That'd be a great application of the idea, especially for groups where Sentinels hits the table all the time. Specifying which heroes face which villain in which environment with special conditions to the battle would be a unique challenge with some great narrative to it. It could go the other way too - a few tutorial battles with a heroes-villain-environment combo known to play well together.

I'm going to start trying in earnest to put together a couple plot cards for one of the storylines logan_mann listed above.

12

@TheSoundofTrees.  That is an awesome application of scenarios to the game. I want to see this deck.

@FlexApollo. Please share as you continue creating.

13

Right, yes, sorry, I apologize and would like to give credit to FlexApollo. Shows how carefully I read. But I do like the idea of the simple scenario deck that can work with any villain. Since the game is about being able to mix and match any combination of heroes/villains/environments, I feel like the scenario deck is more suited for this game.

On the other hand, I love the idea of a more story-driven game, since I love the setting of this world and the characters. Really, I can't decide which would be better. If we could, I'd just go for both.

14

I'm going to play the Devil's advocate here and bring up a few points. 

Complexity

If I play with four people, heroes not specific, vs someone like The Chairman in the environment of Rook City, then I would have six decks (normal) of cards that would need to be managed. The Chairman has the underbosses and then the minions. These mobs can come out incredibly quick creating a very complex game almost immediately. Adding that additional plot deck adds just another level of complexity that I don't think the game needs, plus it takes up an additional bit of table space. Right now one of SotM's biggest pluses for me is that yes, you can get those complex games, but with four heroes, an environment and a villain a new player could get overwhelmed very quickly. Who knows if that could be the tipping point for someone to go "No, this game is too complex for me to learn."

Replayability

Since a plot is going to be focused on a set of specific characters in an environment with a particular villain, what happens when you finish the plot decks? Personally, I don't like replaying games for the story. Once you've completed it, it's done. Unless this was some sort of mini expansion with small decks, then I would see no point in investing the time and money into creating a product that has limited replayability. 

 

However, if the plot cards were created to be something similar to a Villain Information card then I think it would reduce the complexity and since there wouldn't necessarily be a deck I don't think the problem of replayability would come into play.

15

As a random thought, rather than a specific villain + environment combo, how about a scenario deck with 3 or 4 scenarios per environment for random selection? Soemthing like the scenarios Spiff created on his site. Effectively putting the environment on advanced mode by giving the heroes something else to worry about. You could specify recommeded heroes and villains, but they wouldn't necessarily be required.