The Book of Mandarin

[Griffin]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Just so everyone is clear, this is not a teleportation power. Teleporting powers "place" figures without "moving".

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Just so everyone is clear, this is not a teleportation power. Teleporting powers "place" figures without "moving".

Well the wording may need help, but it was a quick idea to cut down on text.

How about something like this?

MAKLUUAN TELEPORTATION DEVICE
When rolling defense dice for Mandarin, for each excess shield rolled, you may place him 1 space from his original placement. Mandarin will not take any leaving engagement attacks when using Makluuan Teleportation Device.

[IAmBatman]

I agree with what you guys are talking about for the 10 rings power and making it the only power here so we have the room to do it right.
I disagree with Griff on the Mastermind angle. This guy has been all over Organized Crime during his career, so that link makes sense to me.
I really like the power idea for lowering the numbers on other cards on a permanent basis ... but I don't think the theme of this character doing that works for me. It seems more like something a demonic curse would do than one of his rings. Nowhere in that description of his rings did I read anything about him being able to permanently alter reality or magically curse something. I'm starting to think this is a Chronos/Kang like situation where there's a great mechanic on the table that the LD is reluctant to get rid of ... but it's a mechanic that would be a much, much better fit for a different card (like some sort of demon).
The big ones I could see on the ring are 1) a power that lets you throw other figures 2) a power that lets you teleport yourself 3) a power that lets you inflict one wound 4) maybe some sort of area effect special attack?

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I see people are thinking of moving away from whitey's idea, but here is the power tweak I thought of. I have worded it to the best of my abilities, I hope you all see some potential here.

MAKLUAN RINGS 10

Start the game with ten Makluan Ring Markers on this card. If Mandarin is the target of an attack or instead of attacking on his turn and before any dice are rolled, roll a 20-sided die. Subtract one from your roll for every Makluan Ring Marker not on this card. If you roll a 10 or better, instead of rolling attack or defense dice, you may either:

• Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the card of any figure within 10 clear sight spaces. Place the marker on a single stat. If the card belongs to a friendly figure, increase that figure’s stat by one. If the card belongs to an enemy figure, reduce the stat by one to a minimum of one. Life and Height may not be reduced by Makluan Rings 10. No more than one Makluan Ring Marker may be placed on any single stat on any card.
• Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the card of any figure within 5 clear sight spaces and remove a Marker from the card.
• Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the card of any figure within 4 clear sight spaces and place that figure within 10 spaces of its original placement.
• Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the card any figure within 6 clear sight spaces and give that figure 1 wound.

Makluan Ring Markers may be placed on Mandarin and are considered on this card whether raising stats or unplaced. Any time a figure is destroyed, if that figure’s army card had any Makluan Ring Markers on it, return them to this card.

I have researched the rings and I think thematically these work. I can explain if I need to. Think of reducing or increasing Speed for example as controlling their Matter Density.

Has been used to create gravity powerful enough to make Iron Man bury himself by trying to walk forward.

I also think he should have the Flying symbol, but not SuperStrength.

[IAmBatman]

Some tweaks on that ... (man is that a lot of text ...):

MAKLUAN RINGS 10
Start the game with ten black Makluan Ring Markers on this card.
Before rolling attack or defense dice for Mandarin, roll the 20-sided die, adding one to your roll for every Makluan Ring Marker on this card. If you roll a 10 or higher, instead of rolling attack or defense dice, you may choose Mandarin or a figure within 5 clear sight spaces of Mandarin and either:

* Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the Move, Range, Attack, or Defense number on the chosen figure's Army Card. If the chosen figure is friendly, the marker adds one to the number on the card. If the chosen figure is an enemy figure, the marker reduces the number on the card by one, to a minimum of one.
* Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the chosen figure's Army Card and remove one unrevealed Order Marker from the card at random or remove one colored Marker from the card. Colored Markers may include Wound Markers or any Markers used for special powers other than Order Markers.
* Place one Makluan Ring Marker on the chosen figure's Army Card and place the chosen figure within 4 spaces of its original placement. The chosen figure does not take leaving engagement attacks.
* Or, place one Makluan Ring Marker on the chosen figure's Army Card and that figure receives one wound.

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There's still way too much text there, but all of what I added was needed for clarity, IMO. I think we should trim an option or even two out of there yet.
I'm iffy on this triggering before rolling attack or defense dice. I think there's a possibility of it causing some wonky mechanics, but we'll need to think that through more carefully if we decide to go with this approach. That's something that can be tweaked if necessary, though.

[Hahma]

Well my main concern with using a marker to reduce a move, attack, defense, range number is that cards get moved, bumped or whatever and the marker can get easily moved around. Who's responsibility will it be to remember what number/s got affected by the markers if they get jostled around? Not mine if someone lowers my stats, they need to keep track. What about multiple markers on a card, two or more can make it even more confusing and cumbersome on a card, especially a card like Absorbing Man that can have 8 of his own markers on his card, plus wound markers and plus a Hex marker or any other number of markers we can come up with to put on someone else's card.

I recall mentioning something about this for a certain power idea you had Bats, though I can't recall what exactly it was, but it also involved markers on stat boxes.

Just now putting 2 wound markers on a card and each marker takes up two boxes. Those Teacher's markers are even bigger.

I mean it's just my opinion and observation that it seems kind of clumsy and ugly if you cover up stat boxes. Others might find it okay and we can see what they say.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, that was an idea I had for Mister Sinister, where he could use his genetic manipulations on Mutants to replace their stats with different numbered stats. I think there'd be fewer markers involved overall with that one, though, and it'd be pretty much the power on his card, making it a little less to keep up with.
I do understand where you're coming from in terms of "table top complexity" level. I guess I can forgive that from time-to-time for a fun or unique mechanic, though.
However, I think while this write up has a ton of fun and unique mechanics, I wonder ... do we need to put them all on one card? Like I've said, I've got a Zatanna and a Mister Sinister brewing up that each have one of these options on them in a fully spelled out way. So it's not like these fun mechanics have to be lost for all of time. And I'm not saying lets cut all of them from this card either ... I just think there's a bit too much in this one power currently. I think I'd like it a lot better if we cut one of the first two options and then went with one complex option and two simpler options.

[Hahma]

Well I'm open to new ideas and whatnot.

Though what if each army has Mandarin? Wouldn't it get confusing if one player puts a black marker on his own figure to boost an attack and then the opponent puts a black marker on that card to reduce the attack? I know logic says you would take both off as it's a wash. But then one player adds another marker to that card to boost or lower it again and that can get messy. With 2 or more Mandarins in a game, you can have twenty or more black markers all over the place.

You can boost your own figure's attack and/or defense and then lower Darkseid's attack/and or defense. When your figure is attacking or defending with an adjacent attack, you'll have to start busting out pen an paper to figure out who adds what and subtracts what and then you have Intimidating Presence to add to the mess as well.

Maybe I'm seeing more complications than there really are. If that's the case, then I'm wrong and we can go ahead with something like this idea.

[A3n]

The theme here still is a little loose where he has 10 rings & gives them away. Him giving his rings away should be de-powering him.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by A3n

The theme here still is a little loose where he has 10 rings & gives them away. Him giving his rings away should be de-powering him.

Well that's kind of the other point in this. He's not giving his rings away, though I'm guessing the intent is that he has 10 charges to use up during the time period represented by a game.

[GreyOwl]

How about if the marker represent charges, not the rings themselves. Then we have one power that gives him a choice between several actions, maybe even up to 4 or 5, and each one consumes the markers (and as a side note, at least some of them should directly counter or annoy Iron Man)? Perhaps less than 10 markers, too.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by GreyOwl

How about if the marker represent charges, not the rings themselves. Then we have one power that gives him a choice between several actions, maybe even up to 4 or 5, and each one consumes the markers (and as a side note, at least some of them should directly counter or annoy Iron Man)? Perhaps less than 10 markers, too.

Yeah, I think this is a good direction to move to thematically.