The Book of Doctor Manhattan
 

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Character Bio - I am two-hundred and twenty-seven million kilometers from the sun. Its light is already ten minutes old. It will not reach Pluto for another two hours. Two hours into my future, I observe meteorites from a glass balcony, thinking about my father. Twelve seconds, into my past, I open my fingers. The photograph is falling. I am watching the stars. Halley's Comet tumbles through the solar system on its great, seventy-six year ellipse. My father admired the sky for its precision. He repaired watches.

It's 1945, I sit in a Brooklyn kitchen, fascinated by an arrangement of cogs on black velvet. I am sixteen years old. It is 1985. I am on Mars. I am fifty-six years old. The photograph lies at my feet; falls from my fingers, is in my hand. I am watching the stars, admiring their complex trajectories through space and time.

I am trying to give a name to the force that set them in motion.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• Doctor Manhattan is an Event Hero and follows Event Hero rules.
• Base Clarification: Doctor Manhattan is a single-spaced figure

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a potential tiny figure, Doctor Manhattan may gain these Tiny Synergies.
• As a Huge figure, Doctor Manhattan has these Huge Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: johnny139
• Second playtest: fret_gurglo
• Third playtest: Viegon
• Fourth playtest: Tornado
• Fifth playtest: Flame Gryphon
• Sixth playtest: Scapemage
• Seventh playtest: TrollBrute
• Eighth playtest: TrollBrute
• Ninth playtest: IAmBatman
• Tenth playtest: Red Eyed Jedi
• Art: Comic Art/Mini Art/Background
• Art by A3n

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

NAME = DOCTOR MANHATTAN
SECRET IDENTITY = JON OSTERMAN

SPECIES = ENTITY
UNIQUENESS = EVENT HERO
CLASS = RECLUSE
PERSONALITY = COLD

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 8

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 7
ATTACK = 7
DEFENSE = 7

POINTS = 470

RECONSTITUTION
Before placing Order Markers at the start of a round, if Doctor Manhattan is destroyed, you may place him on any empty space on the battlefield and remove all but 4 Wound Markers from this card.

GROWING APATHY
Before revealing a numbered Order Marker on this card, roll the 20-sided die. Subtract X from your roll, where X is equal to the current round, up to a maximum of 12. If you roll 4 or lower, remove the lowest unrevealed numbered Order Marker from this card.

INFINITE BEING
After revealing a numbered Order Marker on the card of a figure you control, if there is at least one unrevealed Order Marker on this card, you may do any or all of the following:

• choose if Doctor Manhattan is considered Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, or Huge;
• view any Order Markers on your opponents' cards;
• rearrange any unrevealed Order Markers on Army Cards you control.

MOLECULAR TELEPORTATION
Instead of taking a turn with Doctor Manhattan, you may place him on any empty space on the battlefield. When Doctor Manhattan moves with Molecular Teleportation, he will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

Comic Art: SOMEWHAT NSFW


Background:

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

Alright, so three issues for me:

1) Mini choice. THIS one is about Medium 5, fairly cheap (about $5), and in the Fast Forces pack we got the other figures from, but looks kind of odd and has the chunk of scenery. THIS one is Large, but pricier (about $8) and NOT in the Fast Forces pack. I personally prefer the larger but that's just me.

2) Comic art... I figure THIS one with the blue penis is out of the question, since we were touchy about nipples underneath clothes, but I figured I'd at least mention it, as I think it's essentially the ideal picture. :shrug: The ones I have in the post above are listed from artsiest to least artsy on a card. :D

3) This is the most substantial... is his current power set too much? I did my best to boil him down to the iconic stuff, but he's essentially omnipotent so it was a tough one. If there are too many powers, what should we cut? If there's too much text, do you think we could trim things?

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

Any genitals would have to be photoshopped. This is a family site. :-)

They're all very interesting powers. I don't think it's too much text (spitballing) or too much complexity.

I do wonder if he'll be fun to play or not, though. He's basically very hard to destroy, yet you could go an entire round without being able to use him to attack anybody else, quite easily.

Though he's not that hard to destroy, because so long as you kill all of his allies by the end of a round, then you just need to kill him off and he can't come back at that point.

So the power that most troubles me is this one:

PREORDAINED or APATHETIC
A player may only take a turn with Doctor Manhattan after revealing an Order Marker on this card. Before taking a turn with Doctor Manhattan, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 16 or less, Doctor Manhattan’s turn immediately ends.

1. I'm not sure if the first line is even needed. He's an Event Hero, so no mind control at all. Opposing players can't ever take a turn with him. So this will only apply to the player who drafts him. But are there any powers that let you take turns with Event Heroes or bond with them? That kind of seems like territory that we never, ever want to get into (bonding with Galactus?? With Anti-Monitor? No thanks!). So I'm not sure if that part will ever be relevant mechanically.

2. He can only take a turn 20% of the time, and on that turn he only has a single attack of 7? I know he can do some interesting cutesy things here and there, but why would I ever draft him over someone like Superman for considerably less? Or Thor, for that matter?

So I think if that power stays at all, the roll has to be dropped waaaaaaaay down. And even then, with how easy the resurrection power will be to counter, I don't see him worth 700 points as presently constructed.

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

1) Larger

2) We could maybe cut the bottom half?

3) I like them all, especially Apathetic. Maybe combine Infinite Being and Molecular Transportation? I'd drop the size changing bit and just keep the OM powers and the moving power.

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

I essentially see Doctor Manhattan as a support unit (you'd always give him the X Markers, I think) that you'll toss a numbered marker onto every now and then - since that's essentially how he functions in the comic. I could see the roll dropping for sure, though, and I see your point about the first line.

I could see it as a 50/50 chance... and, if we're feeling it, I could also see his stats going up to 9/9/9/9/9. I just wasn't sure if that was thematically warranted (compared to other Event Heroes in the 6-7 range).

EDIT: And I think lumping the teleportation into a once-per-round thing right with the X Marker would be interesting... could be somewhat broken, though, warping into an opposing start zone. :ponder: Though you couldn't attack.

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

:up: to the 9s!

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

Interesting stuff here Johnny. I don't know this guy, but he seems pretty powerful and reluctant.

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

We might just have to get him on the battlefield and see how he plays, but 700 points for a support figure is a hard sell! Professor X has support powers that are, IMO, much better than his (ending attacks/turns once per round and giving double turns to his own figures), and Prof X costs absurdly less.

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

I think infinite being needs to be made into bullet points because it does read very well as is.

I'm fine with all the powers individually & collectively they do represent DM, but I think it makes for a boring 700 point piece on the battlefield. :shrug:

Re: The Book of Doctor Manhattan (Design Phase)
 

We could lessen the effect of Apathetic like so:

i think that would still restrict him even if used his teleportation move with Infinite Being (rewritten below to include Molecular Telportation):