Renegade AoA Release: The Future of Map Making

[chief]

I'm starting this thread to discuss anything and everything related to the future of map-making with the new Renegade AoA release.

A big point I would like to drive home is that new players will most likely only have access to these new sets and none of the old stuff. They may eventually buy into the old stuff but I feel that it's important to support them by making maps with just the terrain that they have access to from day one. I have broken up the AoA release by set, along with any important talking points, and then added my actual map-making thoughts in a separate post.

What we know so far...

Master Set
Includes a decent amount of terrain and the new Laur Ruins.

Laurs Ruins: No special rules.

Important Note: At the current price point, I highly doubt that most new players will buy two master sets off the rip so any new maps should only utilize one of these sets.


Battle Box
Includes a limited amount of terrain along with 2 Laur Jungle Trees and 7 Wellspring Water Tiles.

Laur Jungle Tress/Bushes: Rules are identical to Ticalla Jungle.

WellSpring Water: When a hero lands on a Wellspring they may choose to roll the D20. On a roll of 1-2 take 2 wounds, 12 or higher heal 1 wound.

Important Note: The battle box includes 6 standard water tiles but Kita requires three of them so we have to deduct 3 standard water tiles from any map using a battle box.


Grove at Laurs Edge
This set includes 3 Trees and 6 Bushes but the molds are bigger/taller than Ticalla Jungles.


~~Please elt me know if this post belongs somewhere else~~

[chief]

Generally speaking, I think that new players will only buy one of each set to start. They may buy a second master but with the current wellspring rules, I don't see a big advantage to owning multiple battle boxes.

If a new player buys all three sets they will have plenty of terrain to make some good maps. If all they buy is a battle box, the maps are going to be small. If they buy a battle box and jungle set, the maps are going to be small and tight due to so much water and jungle but the reality is they will only have a few figures to play with anyway.

Assuming that someone owns all three sets the options for competitive maps are going to be interesting. New maps are going to be jungle-heavy for sure. With the wellspring water power being optional, there is going to be a push-pull between using it all for the sake of using it as normal water versus sitting a few tiles to make them a little more valuable. I also think that they included 7 wellsprings so that all of the scenarios in the campaign can have a "7 hex" wellspring but in terms of competitive play, I don't think we will want to be putting a giant wellspring in every map.

This is all I can think of for now. Eventually I'll try making a few maps, pre-release, but I have to figure out a way to represent the Laur Ruins first.

[chas]

Renegade will be releasing many new AOA maps, most with more than one scenario for each. They will also, starting in September, be putting free maps online once a month--they say they have three already.

My question is, will any of the maps and scenarios be also put online so we can use them without purchasing? As an old Scaper with tons of old terrain, I'm not buying any of the Wave 1 stuff: I'm mostly interested in the Figures and Cards. In my local group, the New York City Gang of Four, who have been playing at least monthly for 17 years now--see my signature thread for our activities--we've been playing with Anitar's AOA cards right along after Haslab failed, on large multiplayer maps as I set up as my AOA Revival Project after Haslab failed.

While Hasbro rarely put anything online for free, Renegade has already put up the rules for Wellspring Water, which can be easily proxied with regular water tiles (I may put gold stars on 7 of them to start off). We also have 3D printed wall sets that are very close to the new ones which will come out officially.