Stacking

Had an idea last night and shared it with the WildStorms CCG brain trust (that is, Chris Crowther, Brian Hartless and Adam Bishop) ... so now I'll share it with you.

The game revolves around a basic "hit" limit for characters: one to stun, two to KO, three to kill. That's true of everyone from Aunt May to Superman to Galactus (or the Anti-Monitor, if you prefer). A very high Defense value mitigates that--it's harder to knock out someone who's invulnerable--and there are cards and character powers that affect that too. But...

...maybe we can have an optional rule to address this.

I'm talking about Stacking.

Under this optional rule, players may recruit a second copy of an active character and play it *on top* of the already-active character (we'll call this one the primary, to avoid confusion; the stacked-on-top will be the secondary).

The game effect is:

• the character gets +1 on attacks and D, using the higher value between the cards (if there is a difference)
• the character is able to use the special abilities, skills, and team affiliations of both cards (but all weaknesses and vulnerabilities carry over too), and
• any successful attack affects the secondary first; once the secondary is KO'd, it is discarded and the above benefits are lost.

There is a big caveat: the secondary MUST be the same person. That is, you can stack Peter Parker/Spider-Man on top of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but you cannot stack Miles Morales/Spider-Man on Peter Parker. Similarly, you can stack Connor Kent/Superboy on Connor Kent/Superboy, but not on Jon Kent/Superboy.

• Note: these can be different versions of the character with different special abilities; that's allowed under this rule. You could have Peter Parker/Iron Spider on Peter Parker/Spider-Man because... they're both Peter Parker. You can have different models of Batman stacked as long as they are all Bruce Wayne under the mask.

Let's anticipate some questions:

Q1) Could you stack Kon-El/Superboy (the 1993 version) on Connor Kent/Superboy (the current version)?
A) Under this rule, yes, you could. Because they are the same person, even if at different points in their lives.

Q2) Could you stack an alternate universe version on a main universe version?
A) Under this rule, yes, you could as long as it is the same person. You can't stack Calvin Ellis/Superman on top of Clark Kent/Superman; they aren't the same guy.

Q3) Could you stack a third card?
A) Ooh, here's where things get interesting. Give it a try! Just remember, if you want to stack three Supermen, that's a HUGE number of points you're investing in your deck. That could easily rule out having other characters in place to help fight your battle. But, some people like the idea of having one guy stand against a whole lot of enemies, so if you're interested, give it a try. Rules would be as above for a tertiary card added on.
I think three would be the absolute limit, though.

Q4) Can you stack in the staging or holding areas?
No. A character must be active on the battlesite to be stacked. You can't build Mega-Supreme in the staging area and then spring him on the site fully stacked.

Q5) So what now?
A) If you find this idea interesting, please playtest it. Let me know here or on the WildStorms CCG Facebook page what you found, good or bad. If we get some good feedback, we'll troubleshoot and publish a revised Optional Rule for the game.

Errata:
It will be fun to see how this works with characters that are already stackable (e.g., Maul, Dozer, Max Faraday, etc.). There's real potential to see some nigh-unbeatable combinations. Do we need plot twists to unstack characters?

Time Flies

Hey there,
Been thinking about boosts, which led me to speculate about their opposite: anti-boosts. (We need a better name, maybe drawbacks?) Tony Stark had a bad heart AND alcoholism to contend with; Wolverine has rage issues; Spider-Man had a sickly aunt and crippling financial worries... you get the idea.
I'm thinking about doing some drawback cards that can be played to REDUCE a character's point value. They'll have game effects--random inability to attack, etc.--but not to the point of making a character unplayable.
What do you think?
If you cannot comment here, I'll post in the WildStorms CCG FB page and you can let me know what you have to say there.
Later!

Sorry!

I know, I've been away for a long while now. My apologies.

Been thinking about mentors in a game like WildStorms. Batman mentors Robin after Robin, Professor X teaches class after class of X students, and even Superman and Spider-Man have helped out a protégé or two.

So I'm devising a subset of COACHED BY... cards that would act as boosts. You put COACHED BY BATMAN on your hero and they add Subterfuge and Street Invisible (new power alert!) as extra abilities. COACHED BY CYCLOPS adds to one's Energy Blast and might also add Tactics (not sure yet). COACHED BY SUPERMAN could give one Reputation (villains cannot make the first attack on the hero).

So what would COACHED BY JOKER, COACHED BY LUTHOR or COACHED BY MAGNETO be like?

I have some ideas. You have some? Comment here or hit me up on the WildStorms CCG page on Facebook!

Trying to figure out comments...

=sigh=

If you've tried to post a comment and it hasn't gone through, my apologies. I've been away from Blogger sites for a long time. I think the best bet is just to open comments without moderation and see how that goes. Should be possible to weed out spam, right? Hope so.

Okay, so I'll reset the settings and open 'er up, because I do want to hear from you.

Thanks!

On Teamwork

Teamwork is one of most basic advantages a character can get for being part of a team.
It can be a big help to give that +1 to a character at the right time.
But what does teamwork mean, beyond being a team name at the bottom of the card?

Teams are not just random collections of characters. The Justice League, the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Teen Titans are not just heroes who thought "hey, I'd like to hang with some buddies," while 'teams' like the Defenders... not so much.

What makes a team different from an ad hoc group? Why do they get an advantage in combat?

The answer is training. Team members train together: they run mock combats against each other; they work to develop their powers individually and working with others; and they do their best to ensure that the team, as a unit, gets the job done.

Some teams have an easier time of this than others, IMHO. The X-Men were created as a school; training is in their day to day routine, even long after successive classes graduated. WetWorks, a government special ops team gone rogue, is likewise grounded in military drilling and discipline.

Some have a harder time, for various reasons. The Suicide Squad, comprised of criminals drafted into a black ops unit, often has terrible discipline and fights among its members. Gen13, made up of five teenagers, sometimes has trouble getting serious about doing what they're supposed to do. And Power Pack struggles with the interpersonal dynamics of being siblings.

The game mechanics don't have a lot of nuance when it comes to things like this. By the rules of WSCCG, a character is or is not part of a team.

Should we adjust that? I'm not sure but I'm open to the idea. As it is, we have plot twist cards that affect teamwork bonuses, and maybe that's good enough for now. A card that sparks friction between team members is a pretty good card-based solution to this issue. (Right, Chris?)

Who makes up a team, then?

Most of the time, teams exist regardless of who is on active duty--like the Avengers, the Justice League, StormWatch, et al. Consider how many iterations of different groups there have been over the years just among the Avengers, Justice League, and X-Men.

Meanwhile, other teams would not exist (or would be radically different) if the founding members were absent--like Power Pack, the Fantastic Four, Batman's "family" of heroes, etc.

Which brings us to another kind of team: the hero- or villain-centric "family." Heroes like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk, and more act as coaches, mentors and sometimes surrogate fathers to heroes of all kinds. Batman has had enough Robins to field a softball team, while Superman has a basketball teams' worth of Superboys he could call upon, and that's not even getting into the female heroes they coach as well. While these aren't traditional teams, these collections of heroes work together often enough to know each others' moves and back each other in a fight. On that basis, it's entirely possible to have a team based around a major hero (or villain). And that isn't even getting into literal families like the FF and Power Pack.

So you see, teamwork covers an awful lot of ground. It's useful to think about this stuff as we build new things for the game, because anything that affects teams can affect a whole lot of characters too.

Thinking about equipment, as part of "building up" characters

Traditionally, in WSCCG, you have a character in play and you add equipment to them to make them tougher. Pretty basic, right?
Well, what if you have a hand full of equipment and no active characters?
That... is not good.
So maybe we have an optional rule where you're able to play equipment face-down during the recruit and equip phase, paying the point value normally but not assigning it to an active character if nobody is available (or qualified to receive that item).
What do you think?
Worth testing as an optional rule?
I feel like it might be good to have something like this available *as an option* as we add in magic spells, psi stunts, and boosts.
What do YOU think?
Let me know!

Post-Easter posting files (at last)

April 13, 2020

Hey folks, hope you had a good Easter.
I'm going to unlock the files today, so with luck you'll be able to see ALL the stuff here.
Lots and lots of development work to do, but I hope you'll be patient with me-- I'm just one guy with a day job and a family! :)
Take care and stay healthy-
Drew