The Book of Joker (Injustice League)

[Ronin]

The Book of Joker (Injustice League)

C3G DC WAVE 38
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the World's Finest set.
Its model number and name are #054 / Joker.

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Character Bio - Stop me if you've heard this one! A clown, a scientist, and a gorilla walk into a bar...
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• Joker receives one Injustice Marker for every Antagonist, Criminal, Misfit, or Thief you control.
• As a figure who starts the game with Injustice Markers, Joker has these Injustice Marker Synergies.
• As an Antagonist, Joker has these Antagonist Synergies.
• As a figure with the Insane personality, Joker has these Insane Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• N/A

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• Injustice League faction strategy guide

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Ronin
• Second playtest: Arch-vile
• Third playtest: Zakizzryn
• Fourth playtest: AlexH12
• Fifth playtest: Arkham
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Arkham
• Joker created by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane

[Ronin]

NAME = JOKER
SECRET IDENTITY = ???

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ANTAGONIST
PERSONALITY = INSANE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3

POINTS = 245

JOKER'S FALL GUYS
At the start of the game, place a black Injustice Marker on this card for each Unique Hero you control with a class of Antagonist, Criminal, Misfit, or Thief, to a maximum of 3. When a Unique Hero you control is destroyed, you may immediately remove an Injustice Marker from this card to end the current player's turn and move any 3 figures you control up to 4 spaces each. Figures moved with this special power do not take leaving engagement attacks.

PERNICIOUS PRANKSTER
When the 20-sided die is rolled for Joker or a Hero within 5 clear sight spaces of Joker, if X or lower is rolled, you must choose either that Hero or a figure adjacent to that Hero to receive a wound. X is equal to 2+ the number of Injustice Markers on this card.

CHEAT DEATH 11
Whenever Joker would receive enough wounds to be destroyed, roll the 20-sided die. Subtract 6 from your roll if you do not control any other figures. If you roll 11 or higher, ignore those wounds.

Original design:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = JOKER
SECRET IDENTITY = ???

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ANTAGONIST
PERSONALITY = INSANE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3

POINTS = ???

JOKER LEAGUE OF ANARCHY
At the start of the game, place a black Injustice Marker on this card for each Unique Hero you control with a class of Antagonist, Misfit, or Psychopath, to a maximum of 6. Before rolling the 20-sided die for a special power on the Army Card of a Unique Hero you control, you may remove an Injustice Marker from this card. If you roll 5 or lower for that special power, that Hero receives a wound. If you roll 11 or higher, you may choose a figure adjacent to that Hero to receive a wound.

THE FALL GUY
When any other Unique Hero you control is destroyed by an opponent's attack or special power, you may immediately reveal an "X" Order Marker on that Hero's card. The current player's turn immediately ends, and you may move up to 3 figures you control up to 4 spaces each. Moved figures will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

CHEAT DEATH 11
Whenever Joker would receive enough wounds to be destroyed, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 11 or higher, ignore those wounds.

[Ronin]

Comic:

Spoiler Alert!

(no particular order of preference, just tried to find some stuff that'd work - not sure if we're gonna go for a motif on these guys like all the JL ones have?)

Mini:

Spoiler Alert!

[Ronin]

Alrighty - I know some people were looking for shuffled/tweaked effects out of the convo in the LCW, but most people seemed generally on board with the take. So I'm starting with pretty much the same design - just a couple power name tweaks so far.

[Yodaking]

My thoughts on Fall Guy haven't changed from the LCW, still think it needs something to be more relevant. Just don't see what it does for me at the moment. Too random of a trigger to be reliable.

Haven't been keeping up with the Injustice League discussion, not trying to re-open a can of worms here, but what is the thinking behind the class list. I'm guessing Antagonist is this teams Champion and every 'leader' will have it, but then Misfit and Psychopath seems like his normal circles. I don't know this run at all, was HQ a regular member? I see Psychopath gets you Zoom, who else does it pull that is a regular member? Justice League has ~10 fairly regular members, who are the top 10 Injustice League members we are trying to team up here?

[Ronin]

I mean, it ends the enemy's whole turn on top of giving you all the free moves. It's not 100% reliable, but I've definitely rethought who I'm attacking based on the potential turn derailment of Psychic Defense X.

On classes, I originally had Criminal in there too, but dropped it to keep him from just being the fifth member of the Wrecking Crew.

Antagonist is the staple IJL class, yeah. Psychopath is one that's also been talked about getting used there a lot, so it would give him some more overlap with other hubs. Misfit is for Joker flavor.

There's been a lot of intense dickering and bean counting over exactly which figures should call out which classes in the Injustice thread, and I haven't entirely paid attention either. Down to swap out Psychopath if people think something else would be a better fit there.

[Arch-vile]

I think it's a solid draft. I liked the suggested tweaks in the LCW, but I like what you've got too.

Here's a class breakdown for DC villains I posted in the IJL thread. Not comprehensive by any means but I took all classes I felt could be options.

Spoiler Alert!

Antagonist = Bizarro, Black Adam, Black Manta, Livewire, Ocean Master, IJL hubs (Grodd, Lex, Joker, Cheetah)
Assassin = Merlyn, Cheshire I, Talia al Ghul, KGBeast
Count = Count Vertigo
Criminal = Clayface, Killer Croc, Parasite, Scarecrow I & II, Poison Ivy II, Clock King, Metallo, Battlesuit Lex Luthor, Mister Freeze II
Crime Lord = Two-Face I & II, Ventriloquist, Blockbuster, Penguin I & II, Black Mask I & II
Destroyer = Cyborg Superman, Doomsday
Inventor = Doctor Light, Gizmo
Mastermind = Hush, Ra’s al Ghul I & II, Riddler I, Lex Luthor I, Mad Hatter
Misfit = Killer Moth, Shimmer, Clayface III, Crazy Quilt, Harley Quinn I, Riddler II
Outlaw = Bane, King Shark, Catman, Harley Quinn II, Bronze Tiger, Ragdoll, Black Alice, Knockout, Deadshot
Psychopath = Joker I-III, Mister Zsasz, Professor Zoom, Icicle, Killer Frost
Rogue = all the Rogues
Thief = Cheetah, Gentleman Ghost, Johnny Quick, Catwoman I & II, Chronos, Shadow Thief

I like Antagonist and Misfit. Psychopath doesn't offer Joker much, since only Icicle has a d20 power, but I'm fine keeping it as all the figures involved are pretty classic villains for these teams. Personally I'd add on Crime Lord as a 4th class to get more of Gotham involved (there's a lot of d20 powers there). Count would also be fun as Count Vertigo is pretty underused.

[Lord Pyre]

Well, it looks like none of my concerns were addressed. I'll give a quick run down once more, since the more I think about this design the more I dislike it.


To start, nothing about this screams "Joker" to me. Joker is a schemer, and he doesn't do much of that here. Fall guy KIND OF works, but shutting down a turn seems kind of lackluster for him framing one of his goons to die. I'd prefer a bomb or something attached to them. Then it hurts the attacker and provides a distraction for your other units to move. Not a HUGE thing, but it's something. Also a SUPER minor point, but I have a Fall Guy power on my Joker Red Hood write up, but that has dropped in my to do list significantly.


My main issue is his leadership power. This is supposed to me him leading the Injustice gang. It doesn't feel like anything Joker would do. It was described to me as him arming his goons with Joker gadgets, but I don't see that at all. For one I'd prefer to name it "Joker Gadgets" or something then. And second, it doesn't make any sense to be tied to d20 rolls. Why would he give Carnage a gadget that he can ONLY use while dodging something with Spider-Sense? And he won't give Green Goblin, he actively uses tools and gadgets, anything? There's just no thematic ties to anything here. A d20 boost to help his crew fight better would make sense. Giving your team a one-per-turn d20 roll to deal auto wounds definitely make sense as gadgets (and I wrote that up in the LCW). But right now it doesn't make any sense, as our game system doesn't define d20 rolls as anything. If all d20 rolls were attacks, or dodges, or whatever, we could key in on them. But d20's are general use, so any theme we try to paste on them doesn't make sense. Again, a static boost could represent a leader helping his crew fight better in general. But an attack keyed off of spider sense just doesn't make sense.


I'm sorry I hate being down on a design, but this doesn't feel like Joker at all, and the marquee power doesn't have any theme at all. So it's just a complete theme fail for me as of now. Some minor tweaks would get it there I think, but it's not there yet.


As for classes, Antagonist being the main Injustice class makes sense, and Misfits and Psychopaths feel spot on for Joker. So no issues with those!

[Yodaking]

For what it's worth, other than Antagonist I would go with two different classes after looking at the list and reviewing the team info on wiki. Looks like HQ doesn't have anything to do with this, so giving Injustice League Joker a specific reason to draft HQ with him is a theme fail for me. If you want to play out the Joker & HQ team up, you can already do that with the other 3 Jokers. This card should represent their time apart and give you a reason for new pairings. Then Psychopath is good for pulling the other 3 Jokers into the mix, so that should go on a card that isn't already named Joker.

Thief & Crime Lord seem like solid pulls if you wanted to maintain some Gotham recruiter flavor. Plus Thief pairs him up with Cheetah, who seems like a core member. I'm seeing Catwoman, Chronos, & Shadow Thief on some membership lists so they are also nice pulls. Crime Lord might be too much a Gotham hook though, might be better to put that one on someone like Lex. In which case Assassin also is jumping out at me. Merlyn and Cheshire are nice pulls.

Didn't really focus on d20 powers with those recommendations though. So an alternate avenue would be to just pair him up with the two classes that net him the most d20 powers to team up with. I can see why you would rule out Criminal though due to the WC.

[Lazy Orang]

I'd like to see four classes here rather than three. Antagonist is a must, and I could see Misfit, Thief, Psychopath, Criminal and Crime Lord all working. (Criminal might be a good one to come back if the D20 boost changes - I'm putting it on Lex, but it'd be nice to see it on someone other than Lex too so Battlesuit Lex could be taken in an Injustice build.) I like the idea of the explosion tied to the Fall Guy power.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

I think it's a solid draft. I liked the suggested tweaks in the LCW, but I like what you've got too.

Here's a class breakdown for DC villains I posted in the IJL thread. Not comprehensive by any means but I took all classes I felt could be options.

Spoiler Alert!

Antagonist = Bizarro, Black Adam, Black Manta, Livewire, Ocean Master, IJL hubs (Grodd, Lex, Joker, Cheetah)
Assassin = Merlyn, Cheshire I, Talia al Ghul, KGBeast
Count = Count Vertigo
Criminal = Clayface, Killer Croc, Parasite, Scarecrow I & II, Poison Ivy II, Clock King, Metallo, Battlesuit Lex Luthor, Mister Freeze II
Crime Lord = Two-Face I & II, Ventriloquist, Blockbuster, Penguin I & II, Black Mask I & II
Destroyer = Cyborg Superman, Doomsday
Inventor = Doctor Light, Gizmo
Mastermind = Hush, Ra’s al Ghul I & II, Riddler I, Lex Luthor I, Mad Hatter
Misfit = Killer Moth, Shimmer, Clayface III, Crazy Quilt, Harley Quinn I, Riddler II
Outlaw = Bane, King Shark, Catman, Harley Quinn II, Bronze Tiger, Ragdoll, Black Alice, Knockout, Deadshot
Psychopath = Joker I-III, Mister Zsasz, Professor Zoom, Icicle, Killer Frost
Rogue = all the Rogues
Thief = Cheetah, Gentleman Ghost, Johnny Quick, Catwoman I & II, Chronos, Shadow Thief

I like Antagonist and Misfit. Psychopath doesn't offer Joker much, since only Icicle has a d20 power, but I'm fine keeping it as all the figures involved are pretty classic villains for these teams. Personally I'd add on Crime Lord as a 4th class to get more of Gotham involved (there's a lot of d20 powers there). Count would also be fun as Count Vertigo is pretty underused.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

For what it's worth, other than Antagonist I would go with two different classes after looking at the list and reviewing the team info on wiki. Looks like HQ doesn't have anything to do with this, so giving Injustice League Joker a specific reason to draft HQ with him is a theme fail for me. If you want to play out the Joker & HQ team up, you can already do that with the other 3 Jokers. This card should represent their time apart and give you a reason for new pairings. Then Psychopath is good for pulling the other 3 Jokers into the mix, so that should go on a card that isn't already named Joker.

Thief & Crime Lord seem like solid pulls if you wanted to maintain some Gotham recruiter flavor. Plus Thief pairs him up with Cheetah, who seems like a core member. I'm seeing Catwoman, Chronos, & Shadow Thief on some membership lists so they are also nice pulls. Crime Lord might be too much a Gotham hook though, might be better to put that one on someone like Lex. In which case Assassin also is jumping out at me. Merlyn and Cheshire are nice pulls.

Didn't really focus on d20 powers with those recommendations though. So an alternate avenue would be to just pair him up with the two classes that net him the most d20 powers to team up with. I can see why you would rule out Criminal though due to the WC.

Fwiw, the main allure of Misfit for me is the other newer Misfits that Bats has designed, and not Harley.

Thief and Crime Lord seem like reasonable options.

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Well, it looks like none of my concerns were addressed. I'll give a quick run down once more, since the more I think about this design the more I dislike it.

The more I think about your concerns the more I dislike them.

I'm willing to hear you out on this, but I'm not going to treat your opinion as mattering more than everyone else's.

To start, nothing about this screams "Joker" to me. Joker is a schemer, and he doesn't do much of that here. Fall guy KIND OF works, but shutting down a turn seems kind of lackluster for him framing one of his goons to die. I'd prefer a bomb or something attached to them. Then it hurts the attacker and provides a distraction for your other units to move. Not a HUGE thing, but it's something. Also a SUPER minor point, but I have a Fall Guy power on my Joker Red Hood write up, but that has dropped in my to do list significantly.

I don't understand how tacking an auto-wound effect onto it helps. You can already read the theme exactly like what you're saying. Or is this more of a mechanical/power level concern?

If we wanted to try an alternate approach, I'd be down to do something similar to what's there, but with a d20 mechanic instead of the X OM thing, so it had potential to trigger Joker's d20 auto-wounds.

It was described to me as him arming his goons with Joker gadgets

It wasn't. I rattled off a few things you could interpret it as, and you latched onto that particular one. The main thematic point of it is just Joker getting at people in weird/unexpected ways. This is a hallmark of the character, in my experience.

[MrNobody]

I’ll chime in and say I dig the design as-is. (At least from a theoryscape perspective.)

Ending another player’s turn is a way bigger effect than I think we’re giving it credit for. If he can pull that off a few times per game, that’s a pretty decent effect, and you also have to consider the mind games effect it’ll have on your opponent.

Joker League is an abstraction, but I feel like the theme reads pretty clear? He’s the Joker, he makes chaotic stuff happen. Sometimes that helps his team, but also sometimes he hurts his own guys. You could slap a specific theme like Joker Gadgets or whatever on there if it needs to be concrete, but I don’t think it does.