The Book of Plastic Man

[Matt Helm]

The Book of Plastic Man

C3G DC WAVE 2
BRAVE AND THE BOLD

Comic PDF

Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Hypertime set.
Its model number and name are #100-102 / Plastic Man.

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Character Bio - When Patrick "Eel" O'Brian was struck by a stray bullet and doused in a mysterious acid, a lifetime of superheroics was the last thing on his mind. A criminal since childhood, a failed heist left him abandoned by his gang, lost and alone with strange new abilities - the power to stretch, mold, and reform himself from head to toe! With an amazing new body of rubber, he decided to use his powers for good; as Plastic Man, he'll take on any evil-doer... assuming there's a paycheck at the end.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Metahuman, Plastic Man has these Metahuman Synergies.
• As an Adventurer, Plastic Man has these Adventurer Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

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-Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses-

Immunities

• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Plastic Man cannot be affected by aspects of certain special power. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Super Strength Special Power.

Benefits

• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Plastic Man interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Super Strength Special Power.

Weaknesses

• As an Adventurer, an opponent's Impossible Man may add 8 to his roll for Shapeshifting Prankster if he chooses Plastic Man.
• Plastic Man cannot use his I'm Rubber, You're Glue special power when attacked with a Special Attack. Current Special Attacks.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• Plastic Man's Plastic Wrap special power can help fellow Adventurer Human Torch with his Flame On 4, allowing him to disengage and wound an opponent's figure without taking any leaving engagement attacks.

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial Playtest: Griffin
• Second Playtest: scapemage921
• Third Platest: quozl
• Fourth Playtest: IAmBatman
• Card art by A3n

Card Updates:
3 January 2021 - Bounce-N-Stretch wording update

[Griffin]

NAME = PLASTIC MAN
SECRET IDENTITY = EEL O'BRIAN

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ADVENTURER
PERSONALITY = QUIRKY

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 7

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 4
RANGE = 2
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 145

PLASTIC WRAP
Friendly figures do not take leaving engagement attacks from opponents' figures that are engaged with Plastic Man.

I'M RUBBER, YOU'RE GLUE
After rolling defense dice against a normal attack from a non-adjacent enemy figure, you may choose a figure within 3 clear sight spaces of Plastic Man. All excess shields rolled count as unblockable hits on the chosen figure.

BOUNCE-N-STRETCH
While moving, Plastic Man has the Flying special power, but will not take any leaving engagement attacks. After moving, if Plastic Man does not attack this turn, he may move 4 additional spaces.

SUPER STRENGTH



I like a lower life of 4, Plastic Wrap and Sling Back strike gone, and a range of 2 to imply his stretchyness.

[IAmBatman]

Love the pictures (first and third are my favorites), love the leftbox, love the stats other than his life which is way too high (I think 6 life and 6 defense probably make him worth more than 170 already, and it's too much hardiness for his character - I'd rather see him more low level than this). I'd prefer a life of 4 and everything else the same.
Four special powers? Really? How un-Matt Helmish. Honestly, I'd kind of like to cut the first one, as it just doesn't do as much for me. I'm not terribly enamored with Sling-Back Strike either - I'd almost rather he got an adaptation of the official "Reach" power that has a really long range to it (like 25/30 levels) - call it "Ridiculous Reach" so that his range of 2 feels like he's stretching to hit you instead of just shooting or something.
I really like Entangle, but I think the current wording is confusing. I think it reads like he wouldn't take leaving engagement attacks himself, but that's not the intention, is it? I'm presuming, from the title, that the intention is just for it to be a support power that would let his allies have a free disengage from any figure Plastic Man is engaged with. It's something that needs a little cleaning up on the wording, but I really like the power idea if I'm understanding it correctly.
I like Bounce-N-Stretch too. I didn't think I'd like a flying type of power on him, but I totally do. You've sold me on it. I think the first sentence needs a bit more clarity so it's clear that this is used with his normal movement, and not in place of it, but I think the basics are all there.
Great stuff! A few changes I'd like to see, but some great creativity here. I'm glad you decided to do an Ala Carte design, my friend.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Griffin

I like a lower life of 4, Plastic Wrap and Sling Back strike gone, and a range of 2 to imply his stretchyness.

He already has a range of 2, but other than that, I agree with you, actually.

Edit: PS, if you want this to get noticed, how about some linkage to the Life of a C3G Design Thread?

[Balantai]

Very nice, Matt.

I agree that high life and high defense is too much for Plastic Man. I'd rather see one or the other.

Plastic Wrap isn't really that exciting to me, either. Maybe because I'm a bit confused on the theme.

I actually really really like Sling-Back Strike. It's a fun thematic ability for Plastic Man. I can see someone shoot a bullet at Plastic Man and him bouncing it back as someone else.

Entangle is an great ability I can see on Mr. Fantastic some day.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I think Entangle and Plastic Wrap could be rolled into one power. Both rely on opponents being adjacent. I agree with Bats that Bounce N Stretch needs to reference his normal movement. I really like Sling Back Strike, seems really thematic for Plas to have an aimed, ranged, counterstrike.

And I disagree with the idea that both his Life and Defense should be weaker. Next to Superman, Plas may actually be the hardest to destroy. I say destroy because, Plas cannot bleed, or suffocate. He has no Kryptonite or Fire type weakness, so how? Usually he is captured and held in a small space to drive him insane and limit his ability to escape. I think really defense with pretty low Life makes good sense. Way more so than the other way around.

[quozl]

I love the name Plastic Wrap. Perfect! The power, however doesn't do much for me. Maybe something like a cyberclaw power?

Sling Back Strike might be better named "I'm Rubber, You're Glue" or Bounce Back Strike if you don't want to get too silly.

Entangle is interesting. The wording needs work. Maybe "your figures will not take any engagement attacks from opponents adjacent to Plastic Man"

Bounce-n-Stretch sounds too much like Teleport. (I'm kidding!)

[Hahma]

Pretty nice Plastic Man there MH.

I agree with the consensus that his life could drop to 4, but I like his defense at 6.

Plastic Wrap is a nice idea, but the reason I could not see it here is that if Plastic Man is surrounded by 4 Civilians, Plastic Man's team can get a plus 12 to their initiative because 45 points of a 1000 point army is "Wrapped UP" so to speak. So his team gets a huge bonus for tying up only a very small portion of the opponent's army and thematically, I don't know if that works. I understand the concept or idea of "Wrapping UP" the opponent, but thematically, for me anyway, that really only works if he's only facing a few figures total in an opponent's army.

I can dig the Sling Back Strike (though I like Quozl's name for it of "I'm Rubber and You're Glue"), that just sounds like something goofy that PM might say. It could give PM a little more zing and perhaps give an opponent some pause before attacking him with range if they have friendlies near him, and this could add to some decision making by the opponent. I can also see Bats' suggestion of Ridiculous Reach being thematic as well, though if he can stretch to attack someone 25/30 levels high, why can't he stretch to attack someone 10 spaces away? Would he need LOS, since he should be able to stretch around corners?

If Entangle is supposed to allow PM's teammates to be allowed to leave engagement w/o taking leaving engagement attacks, then perhaps it could go something like this.

Entangle
Plastic Man never takes leaving engagement attacks and friendly figures never take leaving engagement attacks if they begin their move adjacent to an opponent's figure that is engaged with Plastic Man.

[Matt Helm]

First off, this is OUR Plastic Man, so I will have no problem tearing him down and rebuilding him. In fact, Bats astutely pointed out that 4 powers was very un-Helm-like (never mind the fact that nearly every C3G card has 3 powers and a flying symbol = 4 powers). But the reason for that was intentional. I had 3 powers and couldn't decide where to go with a few so I broke them down into smaller ones and threw them up on the board to see what sticks and what we can get rid of. Surprisingly, Plastic Wrap has less love than Entangle (which was stolen from my NM24 Mr. Fantastic... and yes Bats, it means that PM doesn't get swiped either... which he won't with Bounce-n-Stretch anyway).

So let me explain the theories here and the thematic approach to the abilities. I wanted Plastic Man to be pesky, annoying, hard to kill, and funny to use. I am in love with the idea of changing Sling-Back to:
- I'm Rubber, You're Glue
- Rubber And Glue
- Bounces Off Me, Sticks To You
- Right Back Atcha

Think Spidey's survivability with Caps cautionary approach to attacking him. So I wanted him to have the incentive to bounce all over the battlefield trying to engage people to **** them off and at the same time, not making it easy for ranged folks to take him out.

Plastic Wrap started as an Order Marker removal power as in "Every time an adjacent attacker fails to roll a skull, remove one Order Marker from random from the attackers card". But then I thought it was too easy to engage him with single OM figures and it also didn't make sense against squads. So then I wanted engaged figures to lose initiative points considering PM is disguised as the floor, a rock, your pants, whatever... and then he wraps you up and his team gets the jump on you. The more folks he surprises, the more initiative is affected. And since I found it strange to lower an opponent's role, I went with raising your own. I hope that explains the theme.

Sling-Back is obviously a ranged Counter Strike and no offense to the evil eye business in Valhalla, I thought of nobody else who could thematically do this. I really don't understand why Bats and Griff would be so opposed???? I'm glad others like it.

Entangle was stolen from MR. F and just another alternative to the incentive to avoid letting him engage you. I think that Plastic Wrap and Entangle should probably not be on the card together and my original version had them combined with the OM thing.

Stretch-n-Bounce is a form of flying with the ability to bounce one more time. Sorry about the miswording as it was an artifact from an earlier more complex version.

Range of 2 made sense to me and I don't see the need to complicate it with "ridiculous reach".

So keep picking away now that you know my thoughts.

[GreyOwl]

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

Sling-Back is obviously a ranged Counter Strike and no offense to the evil eye business in Valhalla, I thought of nobody else who could thematically do this. I really don't understand why Bats and Griff would be so opposed???? I'm glad others like it.

I used the exact same power on some of my Star Wars customs, obviously with a different name. Ranged counter strike, but not necessarily back at the attacking figure. It's great for Jedis deflecting blaster bolts at other enemies.

[Velenne]

Wow what a great, thematic card! I saw the thread title and at first I was like, , but then I was all , and after that I was like .


The Sling-Back-Strike + 6 defense is a bit strong, especially in conjunction with the myriad ways to boost one's defense, and all the defensive powers already in the C3G collection. You'd always want PM in order to bypass that stuff. 5L/5D or even 4D sounds more reasonable to me.

I love the name "Plastic Wrap" but I'm not in love with the power. I guess it fits him thematically though. What's the word? Cowbell? With an ability like sling back strike I guess he's got enough cowbell on his card.

I'm sure you've been back and forth with this a few times, but the wording on entangle seems a tad off. I get what it's saying ... upon further consideration I'm not sure how to make it crystal clear. Maybe: "While adjacent to Plastic Man, opponent's figures cannot roll leaving engagement attacks against any other figures."

[IAmBatman]

OK ... you've won me over on keeping the ranged counter strike, but only if you change the name to "I'm Rubber, You're Glue."
I'll even drop the request for Ridiculous Reach so he can go down to three text powers.
I'm still in favor of dropping Plastic Wrap and still thinking about how to better word Entangle. And I'm still in favor of a life of 4.
But beyond some minor wording tweaks, I think I'm absolutely happy with everything else.