|
| Home | Forums | Gallery | Downloads | Blogs | Events Calendar | Register | |||||||
|
|||||||||||||
| Official Units: Discussion of official HeroScape units | |||||||||||||
 |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#25
March 26th, 2008, 10:01 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I've always thought of horror as deserving its own category. Maybe it didn't when the game was young, but now that we have vampires, zombies, wolf-men, ghosts, and a mummy, I'd say there's a strong case for it. I've left Marro with guns as sci-fi units, but moved all other Marro to horror. Like the original, this list is very subjective.
With some of the numerous marro moved into horror, and quite a few supernatural creatures sucked out of fantasy as well, it looks like Historical/Fantasy are driving the bus by this reckoning, and sci-fi needs some love after all. I'm not putting these five forward as the best or only or ultimate classifications, just the ones I use in my head. I'm not much of a flavor guy, but this is a good thread, 1Mmirg. 
|
|
#26
March 26th, 2008, 11:22 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
The Microcorp are sort of like modern day Navy Seals.
Boston Marathon 4/15/13 3:39:41 Last Race: Ruckus Boston 6/15/13 - 4MI Mud Run 38:43 Next Race: Naragansett Running Festival 7/21/13 - Half Marathon
|
|
#27
March 27th, 2008, 04:05 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
Face it, the boundary between Sci-Fi and Fantasy is always vague. Is the Dragonriders of Pern a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book? Is Dune a Sci-Fi book? But they have people with magical powers.
|
|
#29
March 27th, 2008, 08:40 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
For that matter, is the Bible Historical or Fantasy? :P Quote:
 B.U.D.
|
|
#30
March 27th, 2008, 09:02 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
  Sweetcurse is Marro Drone...YOUR INSURMOUNTABLE IS MY WALK IN THE PARK. PLAY NICE. ROLL MEAN.
|
|
#31
March 27th, 2008, 09:09 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
 Quote:
B.U.D.
|
|
#32
March 27th, 2008, 09:11 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
Though, if we start moving units like the Vipers to Fantasy (which may be where they belong), then the gap widens. I made every single questionable choice not Fantasy on purpose (to not skew my results). Personally, I don't think that Valguard really gets a Historical status. I don't think that the Ninjas and such are very Historical either (Isamu seems pretty fantasy-based to me). But if I had done that the gap would have been over 20 units. (If we put in Drake, b/c of his Thorian Sword, or the Vikings or Knights b/c of their Fantasy flavor and "Spirit" abilities, we might have about a 30 unit divide.) (Nice work, rdhight, on a similar list--I'm glad to see other approaches to the idea of genre. It is very subjective.) On the issue of how this all relates to Generals--a great point, Necroblade, and one I hadn't originally thoughts about at all--you are right that the surge in Historical units was part of the surge to get Einar to be as large as Jandar. There are clear genre links to generals. However, Sci-Fi is fascinating in that it crosses all lines but Einar's, currently. The Omnicron (and now Zetacron) are for Jandar, the VW (Mittens) still to me has a clear sci-fi feel to his sculpt and he is Ullar, and of course Utgar has the Marros and Vydar the robots and agents. I don't think building sci-fi has to be all about Utgar/Vydar love. I'm excited for Zetacron. Who knows where the Mariedians will fit (could even be Einar gladiators)? Thanks for all your comments and thoughts. I didn't honestly expect much response. Kroc, you are right about the sci-fi/fantasy line being blurry. The biggest difference is, as guido suggests, generally considered to be whether natural/physical laws are attempted to explain powers/abilities beyond what we consider "ordinary." But even that definition has tons of holes and blurry lines within it. Finally, thanks, Rev, for the well-wishes. It looks like at least one more day of resting up, hopefully not too many more... New? Read this. | The INDEX 2.0 | Mmirg's Maps Magnify Your Scape: BoV | SoV | C3V (Playtest!) | C3G The Dice Tower Con w/ Scape!
|
|
#33
March 27th, 2008, 10:58 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Modern-themed units are probably avoided because of the potential for moral and political controversy, something Hasbro is terribly afeared of. Even historical units are no longer allowed to be 'bad' or even significantly shady, now that everyone's teamed up with Jandar against Utgar.
There's no question that there's more fantasy than historical, and why is easy to see. It's a matter of marketing. What are kids and rpg geeks (like me, cough) gonna want to play with more? Semi-accurate representations of troops from centuries ago, or magic elves and orcs on dinosaurs? Yeah. The historical stuff provides great variety and thematic mixing, and I love it for that, but it's easy to see why they're not turning it into a game where historical units are the majority. There's plenty of more 'realistic' wargames for that sort of thing, anyway. As for scifi, it's more tricky to pin down why it would be neglected. But I would contend that this is not so much the fault of the unit designers as it is the fault of the genre itself. By and large, scifi is not about the creatures that live within it so much as it is about the overall social structures and technology levels. What would be a mutant or an alien in a scifi setting would be a monster in a fantasy setting, without changing a thing about the creature itself. And absent any environmental keywords we would tend to think of such a thing as a monster before we would think alien or mutant, unless it fit into a very narrow archetype (such as the 'grey'). Thus, the only things scifi have to set its actual units apart from other genres residents are robots (which are clearly a byproduct of tech), and fancy lasergun weaponry. Both niches are filled by the Soulborg, the Marro, and various human Vydar troops, and to a small extent by Drake as well. They've expanded those niches for all they're worth, and now, short of adding in very narrow, specific alien archetypes, I'm not sure what else they can do to represent scifi. Horror started out pretty neglected, but with the big undead wave, it's gotten its fair due now, so I'm pretty happy with it, and I imagine most other horror fans are, too. With zombies, werewolves, a family of vampires, some summoned demon-looking things, and ghosts, we've got all of the major scary monster types in place. And likewise with scifi, many horror monsters can slide seamlessly into fantasy or back, merely depending on how scary they're played up to be. But unlike scifi, horror has more clear unit-based themes to work with, and is thus easy to satisfy. Professional fiction Fanfiction To Ne-Gok-Sa Like dating women Statistics doom your players Till they get lucky
|
|
#34
March 27th, 2008, 11:06 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Professional fiction Fanfiction To Ne-Gok-Sa Like dating women Statistics doom your players Till they get lucky
|
|
#35
March 27th, 2008, 11:14 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
|
|
#36
March 27th, 2008, 12:30 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|||||||
| Official Units: Discussion of official HeroScape units | |||||||
Linear Mode
