The Book of Chase Stein

[Karat]

Cool. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't missed.

[IAmBatman]

[johnny139]

Naming problems in the SP are updated. I'm not seeing anyone pushing for x-ray or leap powers, so I'll assume we don't see them as necessary?

I'll propose this for Initial over the next few days. Might be a bit until I can run it, though.

[IAmBatman]

No idea who this character is, so I'll have to trust you on what's necessary.

[Tornado]

Is there going to be a healer in the Runaways?
This guy feels a bit fragile to be taking wounds for others. 4 Life, 3 Defense
Besides that, cool design, very cool art(makes me want to play him) and an interesting bio. Looking forward to the rest of the Runaways.

[johnny139]

No likely healers, no, but Karolina should help their survivability for sure. In general, though, I think a blitzkrieg strategy of "fast and hard" suits them - they're just kids, after all, and in the comics they tend more toward flight than fight.

[Lord Pyre]

Loving the Runaways!

I think it'd be cool to add at least the X-Ray Vision from Superman. Not a huge deal of a power anyway! Jet boots he doesn't have all the time, so while useful, not as "iconic."

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Chase Stein

Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero Tests

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein (130 Points) vs. Harley Quinn (130 Points)
Summary: Harley Quinn wins; 0 Wounds, 1 Round. Well, Smilex succeeds, and then he gets punched to death... so yeah, he's not the hardiest dude.

TEST 2
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein (130 Points) vs. Two-Face (130 Points)
Summary: Chase Stein wins; 0 Wounds, 5 Rounds. Bad rolls all around - it takes FOREVER to even do damage - but Chase does his damage in the end.

TEST 3
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein (130 Points) vs. Jonah Hex (130 Points)
Summary: Jonah Hex wins; 0 Wounds, 2 Rounds. It's not exactly surprising, but Jonah Hex has superior stats, so he pretty easily wins the day.

TEST 4
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein (130 Points) vs. Green Arrow: Connor Hawke (130 Points)
Summary: Green Arrow wins; 0 Wounds, 1 Round. One lucky shot at the start dooms Chase, but the fact he was always playing catchup made luck hard to match.

TEST 5
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein (130 Points) vs. Karolina Dean (130 Points)
Summary: Chase Stein wins; 2 Wounds, 1 Round. Quick and dirty, but they definitely felt evenly matched - Chase more consistent, but Karolina more mobile. Which says to me that it'll come down to which power is more valuable... I feel like they could both end up at 130, though.

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Army Test
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes (440 Points) vs. Huntress, Batman: Terry McGinnis, Robin: Tim Drake (440 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Karolina goes after the high ground, and manages to blast Terry for two, but is teamed up on by Huntress and Robin who manage to take her out. Chase takes cover, but Terry tracks him down and deals two. Molly follows.

ROUND 2: Huntress hits Molly for one, but she then hits Tim for three. Terry throws a good 'rang at Chase and takes him out, then they focus on Molly. She ends the round at 4 Wounds.

ROUND 3: Molly blows through Tim, and then turns to Huntress... she manages to deal two, but takes two from Ruthless Counter Strike, so that ends that story.

Who won?: Vigil-angst-ies win; 2 Wounds on Batman, 2 Wounds on Huntress, Robin destroyed, 3 Rounds.

Thoughts: Chase is VERY fragile, which is, naturally, a rough position for a "Decoy" figure. But that's intentional, since he's A) always taken out quick and B) should ideally have Karolina to protect him. Unfortunately, she didn't survive very long....

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, Zero-G, Lightspeed, Energizer (610 Points) vs. Nightwing, Starfire, Raven (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Chase and Karolina move forward onto height, but and are met by the full force of the Titans - thankfully Karolina only takes two wounds. Molly and brought up by Lightspeed at the end of the round.

ROUND 2: Molly swings hard at Starfire - taking FOUR wounds! - but the Titans go next turn. They manage to kill Karolina and do two wounds to Molly. Chase goes after Starfire, but he and she both whiff on their attacks. Molly punches Starfire into oblivion. Raven hits Chase for two.

ROUND 3: Chase takes another wound, deals none. Dick dodges Molly's punch. Chase takes nothing from Raven. Molly manages to hit Dick for three! But Raven heals him, then uses that Wound to kill Chase.

ROUND 4: The Titans can do no damage to Molly, but... she falls asleep. Raven puts another on her.

ROUND 5: Dick dodges every swing from Molly. Raven puts another wound.

ROUND 6: And... Molly falls asleep again. But they can't hurt her, either.

ROUND 7: AT LAST! One punch from Molly takes Nightwing out of the game... Raven does no damage.

ROUND 8: The Power Pack moves in for backup. Molly falls asleep, but Raven does no damage.

ROUND 9: Raven FINALLY puts that last wound on Molly. She turns to the Pack. They wound her, but she moves that onto Alex.

ROUND 10: Alex is killed in one hit! Tragic. Katie comes in but does no damage.

ROUND 11: Julie goes down pretty quickly... leaving Katie all alone. And she goes down in one hit just after that.

Who won?: Teen Titans win; Raven unharmed, all others destroyed, 11 Rounds.

Thoughts: This one was pretty brutal of a slog, between Molly keeping her defenses up and Nightwing dodging all of her attacks. But things were a lot closer - Chase actually blocked pretty well and some quick moves from Molly helped take out Starfire (and thus their biggest attacker) really early. Very happy with their performance here, if the dice were a little more in their favor it could have been an easy game for the kids.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Minnesota Mudlands (Custom Map)
Units: Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, Martian Manhunter, Jubilee (800 Points) vs. Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Jocasta, Magma (800 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: J'onn gets the Runaways onto height while Reed fails two of his rolls - he and Sue tussle with the Martian, with Reed taking one and J'onn taking three from one awful roll.

ROUND 2: Reed continues to roll poorly as he and J'onn slug it out. Reed goes up to four wounds, but Jocasta and Magma line up to protect Sue from the onslaught Chase takes a single wound from Jocasta.

ROUND 3: The teams bounce back and forth. Jubilee tries to sneak across the central pond to strike Sue and gets close. Chase goes up to two wounds, Martian takes a hit and goes up to four. Jocasta takes one. Very deliberate stuff.

ROUND 4: Jubilee makes it to Sue, hits her for two, but Jocasta intervenes, taking three wounds in total (one from leaving engagements) and sending one back at Jubes. Magma throws down her last lava bit to block off passage to Sue. Karolina flies over, hits her for one, Jocasta goes up to four wounds. She takes one back and is then hit for an additional two. J'onn goes down.

ROUND 5: Reed comes in and takes out Karolina. Chase fails to do damage with his Fistigons, then is hit for two. Reed takes out Jubilee. Molly can't hurt Magma and can't get around the lava... Magma then burns Chase out of commission and the four team up on Molly.

ROUND 6: Molly takes three wounds from one big Magma hit. She does no damage and falls asleep.

ROUND 7: Molly smashes Magma for three, but it all feels a bit like a waste of time. In more or less is... an attack from Magma and Jocasta each deal a wound and finish the game.

Who won?: Fantastic Females win; 4 Wounds on Mister Fantastic, 4 Wounds on Jocasta, 3 Wounds on Magma, Invisble Woman unharmed, 7 Rounds.

Thoughts: Chasa + Karolina is actually a solid wound soak, rolling 6 dice on defense. And when you get them all lined up with free group movement, hey, they make a decent little pod! Things fell apart a bit once Karolina threw a Hail Mary at Sue and J'onn went down, but until then I really enjoyed the gameplay of the Runaways.

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THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Tough to say on draftability and cost this early, but I'm confident he's in the right area (120-140) and is in no way unbalanced and the Runaways in general are coming together nicely as a faction - he, Molly, and Karolina are a fun group at 440 Points. I'm comfortable sending him to testing at 130, at least.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I'm a big fan! You bring him in side-by-side with the Runaways and he'll take some hits, give some back, and generally be the "big brother" that the character tries to be. The faction plays the way I wanted it to once I tried them with MM and got some free movement (which Old Lace and Nico will be providing), where you move them up as a cluster, swing with Molly/Chase/whoever else has big attacks.

Fistigons felt a LITTLE weak in these matchups - 3 Attack isn't much, even if you're getting multiple units. I'm not sure they need to be bumped up just yet, though; I'll wait for further comments. I do want to add X-Ray Vision, though, if only because there's room, he's not super complex, and it'll be cute.

[johnny139]

Also, I definitely did not tag the ERB on this one, so @dok @Dysole @weebaer @Soundwarp SG-1 , any thoughts? He's pretty straightforward.

Also also, I'm forgetting if we needed to vote for Initial or whatever. Pretty sure no, but sorry if we did!

[johnny139]

EDIT: Double post, but how, I didn't even press it once!?

[dok]

No concerns

[TrollBrute]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Also also, I'm forgetting if we needed to vote for Initial or whatever. Pretty sure no, but sorry if we did!

We do still vote for Initials, actually. That's when we typically tag the CRB. I think we're all on board with the design though, so not a big deal. Just make sure to vote before public testing!