The Book of Nico Minoru

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I think you can pretty easily tack Curse of One on the end of Staff of One. I mean it's effect literally comes from the staff. But this design looks great!

[Lazy Orang]

I like her, she looks like fun, but I question whether as the leader she does enough to make the Runaways competitive. I mean, sure, movement bonding's nice, but the Runaways are a low-power faction anyway, and I fear that without anything in the order of full turn bonding they'll never get much use because they'll just be ripped apart by anything half-decent that looks at them funny.

[johnny139]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

I like her, she looks like fun, but I question whether as the leader she does enough to make the Runaways competitive. I mean, sure, movement bonding's nice, but the Runaways are a low-power faction anyway, and I fear that without anything in the order of full turn bonding they'll never get much use because they'll just be ripped apart by anything half-decent that looks at them funny.

In a sense, that's kind of what I'm going for. The Runaways have some heavy hitters (Molly's 7 Attack, Nico's 6 Attack, Old Lace's two attacks of 5), but they all have limited uses or built-in weaknesses. They need to move in, hit hard, and break the opponent first.

Karolina and Chase are safety valves just in case they don't succeed immediately, but you shouldn't have to bend them far before they break. They're a bunch of teenagers - the only time they should take on the Avengers head-to-head is when they keep them on their toes.

That being said, if movement bonding isn't enough to make that strategy work for our testers, I'm more than happy to tweak things.

As far as future designs go, I see Alex Wilder offering OM flexibility, with Victor as crowd control and Xavin as an alternate to Molly as a beatstick.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I think Xavin and Victor can definitely add some beat to the Runaways stick. For those who don't know, they are teen versions of Ultron and Super-Skrull.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

A thought, Curse of One probably should be worded more like 'Nico cannot cast a Spell that shares a name with a Spell she has cast this game' or something like that. The current wording feels a little off to me, as it is trying to treat separate cards as the same card. Like if someone had a power that said 'Joe cannot attack the same figure more than once' you wouldn't take it to mean that after attacking one Street Thug he couldn't attack any Street Thugs for the rest of the game.

Either way, it seems like the 'common' bit should be removed. On the off chance there is ever someone that lets you get back Unique Spells, I don't see why Nico should get to cast Enchant or whatever twice.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

A thought, Curse of One probably should be worded more like 'Nico cannot cast a Spell that shares a name with a Spell she has cast this game' or something like that. The current wording feels a little off to me, as it is trying to treat separate cards as the same card. Like if someone had a power that said 'Joe cannot attack the same figure more than once' you wouldn't take it to mean that after attacking one Street Thug he couldn't attack any Street Thugs for the rest of the game.

Either way, it seems like the 'common' bit should be removed. On the off chance there is ever someone that lets you get back Unique Spells, I don't see why Nico should get to cast Enchant or whatever twice.

I wouldn't consider that necessarily an off chance, personally, so good catch.

[Yodaking]

Yeah I didn't follow until the end when you mentioned a different character with a different power that could retrieve spent unique spells. That certainly is a possibility and would allow her to cast the same spell twice as is.

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Nico Minoru

Army Test
Map: Ravaged Ruins (Custom Map)
Units: Nico Minoru @180, Molly Hayes, Karolina Dean (490 Points) vs. Luke Cage, Jewel, Ken (490 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Nico sends the team out first, moving everyone into the center stage. Jewel and Luke hide behind as ruin as they move in. The Runaways waste a turn, then Ken and Luke charge in - neither can wound Karolina, though. They strike back next, Molly being moved into engagement with Luke and Nico (burning a Marker) hitting him for one. He and Jewel try to strike back (against Molly and Karolina) but fail.

ROUND 2: Molly continues to stand up to Jewel's assault, but Luke starts to chip away at Lina Bean - one wound on his first two, two on his second. Molly manages to deal another to Luke, but whiffs on her second turn. Karolina survives another turn with Luke, then decides to flee on Nico's turn... she succeeds in disengaging and runs into the river. Nico moves to block Luke's path, then swings at him, dealing two damage after burning a Marker.

ROUND 3: Ken wounds Molly, since she's out of Lina's range. Luke misses Nico. Molly... falls asleep. Ken deals another two to Molly, Luke decides to finish her off and fails. Nico then finishes him off! He had the last OM, so Nico takes her turn to move everyone around. Molly takes an LEA. Nico tries to hurt Jewel but can't manage.

ROUND 4: Molly gets the first turn and a GREAT attack, which deals four damage to Jewel. Ken tries to Shoryuken Molly, but whiffs on his attack.
Molly deals another two wounds to Ken. Ken just barely manages to avoid wounding Molly as he moves into the water toward Karolina. Nico takes a turn, moving Lina back and herself next to Ken. He take a wound as she burns her fifth marker. Ken, despite being in the water, uses his turn to attack Molly and successfully finish the job! He also wounds Nico.

ROUND 5: Karolina gets the first turn and attacks Ken (with +2 attack from Sensory Assault and height), and finishes the job. He had all three OMs, so Nico tries to take her first turn, and... uhh... misses, burning her last Marker. Nico moves Lina away and fails to wound Jewel.

ROUND 6: It's essential Jewel vs. Nico and Karolina sniping from afar. Nico takes two wounds, and Lina does no damage to Jewel.

ROUND 7: Nothing happens all round, until Jewel finishes Nico off.

ROUND 8: Karolina flies back onto height as Jewel flies in to follow... one good shot almost fells her, but no, Jewel attacks and Lina whiffs.

Who won?: Street Fighters win; 4 Wounds on Jewel, all others destroyed, no Magic Markers on Nico, 8 Rounds.

Thoughts: Wow, what a close match! Back and forth and down to the wire. Very happy with the performance here. Nico's Magical Defense on the front lines was valuable to keep enemies away from Karolina, and the flexibility of moving around her allies is incredibly useful for such a fragile lineup. I feel like "burn marker, hit for 6" is the smart move most of the time but I think in bigger games there'll be more motivation.

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Army Test
Map: Ravaged Ruins (Custom Map)
Units: Nico Minoru @180, Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Gert Yorkes, Old Lace (610 Points) vs. Nightwing, Cyborg, Starfire (610 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: The Runaways charge in, and hide behind a ruin to try and defend themselves. However, Starfire takes a turn, wounding Karolina for two, and Cyborg moves into position just after. The Runaways prepare to defend themselves, but Cyborg lets loose with his Sonic Cannon, blasting through the wall, hitting Old Lace for one and finishing off Karolina. Starfire charges in to the fray, but doesn't hurt Chase. Chase takes a wound from Nightwing though.

ROUND 2: Old Lace takes the first turn, but does nothing to Starfire. The Titans have a devilish manuever - Cyborg moves in and lets loose with his Sonic Cannon, dealing one to Nighting, and two to Old Lace. Starfire takes her turn then, using her Protective Fury to blow Chase away. Old Lace tries to pin down Dick but fails, then turns to Starfire, dealing two wounds. Starfire does another to Old Lace. Nico takes her turn, engages Starfire, burns a marker, and deals one more wound. Cyborg takes a turn and hits another Sonic Cannon blast... bad move Nightwing takes three wounds. Starfire takes two wounds. Old Lace takes two wounds. All three are dead. So it's Nico with one wound marker against an unharmed Cyborg...

ROUND 3: Nico runs in to engage Cyborg - she has five markers to burn. Her first attack is a big one - FOUR wounds to Cyborg. He hits back for one. She whiffs on her second attack, he hits for another. She's at 1 Life, with three markers left. She attacks again... one more wound. Just barely killing Cyborg and winning the game.

Who won?: Runaways win; 3 Wounds and 2 Magic Markers on Nico Minoru, all others destroyed, 3 Rounds.

Thoughts: Wow. So, the Titans were tearing up the Runaways until Cyborg made a dumb, dumb move and killed his entire team. It was then pretty much Cyborg alone against Nico alone, and surprisingly, Nico was able to pull it off. Magical Defense is clutch in the endgame, again, even if "TRY NOT TO DIE" wasn't super relevant here.

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Army Test
Map: Ravaged Ruins (Custom Map)
Units: Nico Minoru @190, Molly Hayes, Chase Stein, Old Lace (670 Points) vs. Black Canary, Batgirl: Barbara Gordon, Batgirl: Stephanie Brown, Batgirl: Cassandra Cain, Robin: Dick Grayson (680 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Canary moves first. The Runaways move as a group, with Chase being slingshotted ahead. Then Babs, with Robin alongside her; he hits Old Lace for two. Old Lace takes the next turn and attacks - he dodges the first attack, but is mauled and destroyed by the second. Stephanie comes from afar and throws a Batarang at Molly, dealing no wounds, as Cassandra swings into the fray. Molly attacks her next turn; despite Defensive Premonition triggering, she takes three wounds from a heavy attack.

ROUND 2: Molly takes the first turn, swinging again at Batgirl, but dealing no damage. Canary takes a turn, moving Batgirl away and letting out a Canary Cry, which she whiffs on. Molly moves in and swings at Dinah, dealing two wounds. Babs then swings in and tries to damage Molly, but just can't hurt her. Nico takes the final turn, burning a marker to deal two to Babs. Canary lets out another Cry, with four full dice this time - Chase is killed without taking a single turn, Old Lace goes up to 5 Wounds, Molly remains unharmed, and Babs is killed in the crossfire.

ROUND 3: Canary Cries, to no effect. Old Lace takes the first turn, leaping over Canary into an engagement with Steph... and rolls 4 skulls against no defense. Huh. Canary finishes off Old Lace in return. Molly falls asleep, Nico burns a marker doing no damage to Cassie.

ROUND 4: Molly hits Canary for one. Canary fails to hit Molly. Molly... falls asleep. Cassie swings and misses on Nico. Nico burns a marker and misses a wound on Cassie. Slow round.

ROUND 5: Molly disengages to go take down Cassandra, which she succeeds at. Canary follows and lets loose with her Fists of Fury, dealing three wounds to Nico, who just takes it all. Molly has her revenge next turn, though, finishing Dinah off.

Who won?: Runaways win; 3 Wounds and 4 Magic Markers on Nico Minoru, 2 Wounds on Molly Hayes, all others destroyed, 5 Rounds.

Thoughts: This one felt very unfair for the Vigilantes (they had a lot of whiffs, with characters dead before they could do anything). But by that note, Chase died fast, so it wasn't all one-sided. Nico did fine here - the figure movement wasn't as relevant here, but Magical Defense again came in handy.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Ravaged Ruins (Custom Map)
Units: Nico Minoru @190, Molly Hayes, Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Gert Yorkes, Old Lace (800 Points) vs. Cyclops, Phoenix, Jubilee, Beast, Iceman (800 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: The Runaways take the first turn, moving as a swarm into the battlefield. Cyke, Jean, and Jubilee take turn two - Phoenix blasts Karolina adjacent to her, dealing a wound, and Chase away. She then attacks Lina, dealing another one wound. Old Lace charges in next, bringing Molly along, dropping her next to Jean and engaging Scott - she starts mauling, dealing three wounds in two attacks. Hank and Jubes do nothing to Old Lace. Molly punches Jean, dealing two wounds, but Phoenix Fire does one to Karolina. Iceman doesn't do squat.

ROUND 2: Cyke moves a space, then Jean takes a turn - she blasts Molly and Old Lace away, dealing one to Old Lace, then personally finishes Karolina off. Jubes does no damage to Old Lace. Nico takes her turn, bringing everyone back together and Chase back into the action, then attacks Jean for one (and takes one from the Fire). Phoenix can't manage her Blast, Jubes hits Old Lace for one. Molly takes a turn and... falls asleep. Beast takes his turn, dealing two more to Old Lace (she's up to 5) and Molly takes her first. Old Lace, bleeding out, attacks Cyke (killing him!) and Beast (dealing three wounds!). Big turn.

ROUND 3: Old Lace takes the first turn - she takes out Beast with her attacks! Beast had OM1, so Molly takes the next turn - she punches Iceman out in one hit! Phoenix succeeds with her Psionic Blast, killing Old Lace and dealing a second wound to Nico. Phoenix then manually attacks Chase and does well - enough to finish him off. Jubilee does no damage to Nico. Nico takes a turn, dealing two to Jubes and burning a marker.

ROUND 4: Molly swings, a finishing blow to Phoenix. Nico takes her turn,
burns another, and deals the last two wounds to Jubilee.

Who won?: Runaways win; 3 Wounds and 3 Magic Markers on Nico Minoru, 1 Wound on Molly Hayes, all others destroyed, 4 Rounds.

Thoughts: Not the strongest Mutant army around, but I was hoping for something just "okay" to go up against the first Runaways army in full. And it went really well! Everyone was relevant, everyone did their part, and there was enough forward momentum to win the day. Nico was integral in keeping the team in place after Phoenix's Psionic Blasts and helped clean things up once it was down to her and Molly. Great showing.

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THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: She's the centerpiece to a Runaway army and she does a good job. I think so far they've done very well, and I'm slightly concerned about it (3 wins vs. 1 loss, though one of those wins was due to a misplay on the Teen Titans' part), but not enough to mess with her points too much. I'll push her forward at 190 and see how other testers react.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I didn't use any spells, so we'll put that aside for now. The other three powers were all useful. Magical Defense is SUCH a big help for the centerpiece of an army, letting her survive some hits and generally last until the endgame, where she can tie down units if necessary. Her Magic Markers were only used for offense here, which I'm not entirely happy about, but I'm not sure if that's a fundamental problem or just with the games/my playing of them.

Of course, "TRY NOT TO DIE" was the big question, and I'm extremely happy with it. Not underwhelming at all. The Runaways are all about positioning - Lina's aura, Chase as a defender, Molly and Old Lace on the front lines. Having the ability to just fix everything once a round is a godsend. If we're looking at cuts, limiting it to just the X Marker once per round might be smart, but we'll see if that's necessary. All told, I love Nico and I love the Runaways, and they play just how I'd wanted them to.

[johnny139]

So I've updated the second post with her as-is (Staff of One and Curse of One folded into one power, updated with Soundwarp's wording, though that's still open for tweaks if people have another idea; cost at 190). I'm comfortable moving forward with her. If we want to tweak her down in power after some tests, my ideas would be to A) drop the first part of TRY NOT TO DIE, B) lower the number of markers, and C) drop Flying. In that order.

Oh, and I'm open to suggestions on new names for Magic Markers. "Black Magic Marker" definitely has certain connotations.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by johnny139

So I've updated the second post with her as-is (Staff of One and Curse of One folded into one power, updated with Soundwarp's wording, though that's still open for tweaks if people have another idea; cost at 190). I'm comfortable moving forward with her. If we want to tweak her down in power after some tests, my ideas would be to A) drop the first part of TRY NOT TO DIE, B) lower the number of markers, and C) drop Flying. In that order.

Oh, and I'm open to suggestions on new names for Magic Markers. "Black Magic Marker" definitely has certain connotations.

Sorcery Marker? Witchcraft Marker?

[Ronin]

Looks like you forgot to call for the vote to go to initial, but I don't think anyone had big issues with the design.

I think bumping Attack by X is going to be a lot more of a draw in most situations than increasing any other stat by the same amount. If you're okay with that, it looks like they're in alright shape.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

That's what I like about 'Mana' Marker, it's the easiest to reuse if needed. Plus Mana is the default name for 'spell energy' type systems in most video games so it's easy for people to figure out.

No major competitive concerns from me. Nico does some interesting things, but nothing too crazy and her faction overall isn't strong enough where she'd be the straw that broke the camel's back.

I do think that the Magic Markers are basically just going to be '+4 Attack Markers' 90% of the time right now. The Move and Defense might get used maybe once a game, but I can't imagine you'd ever bother with the range. Not sure how much of issue that is for you, though it does seem like a bit of a waste to me right now. If she ends up feeling a bit weak/playing in an undesirable way, I'd consider changing it from a flat once per turn to some sort of 'you may only add 4 to the same stat once per turn' or something like that. The move and range boosts become a lot more interesting and usable when you can stack them with the attack boost and basically let her go nova twice a game. It might end up making her need a price bump, but I think that's fine if it means all her options actually become useful.

I would worry about her just being a cheap way to access spells, but Raven completely eclipses her there at the moment. That might start being a concern if she gets any kind of significant price drop though.