The Book of Squirrel Girl

[ALEXAN2507]

Again I may totally be out of turn with saying this but to me it seems like either
A. She gets a passive marker generation ability
or
B. She gets a defense boost (either an ability or increased stat)
Would make her overall more useful

[Ronin]

You're welcome to chime in on public designs. We're open to input! I agree that she would benefit from getting markers more easily or having a little more staying power.

[japes]

Originally Posted by ALEXAN2507

Again I may totally be out of turn with saying this

Nope, that's why we do Public Designs...think of it as super hero training. If we didn't want the public to say anything we'd design it in the Sanctum. Feel free to chime in as you feel necessary.

[Yodaking]

Yeah, I'll just echo Japes and Ronin on that point. The public designs are done in the public specifically so the public can provide input and so we can introduce the public members to how our process works so that they might one day run a design of their own. So don't hesitate to jump in and contribute, you just never know how you might shape the design/project.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Yeah, I'll just echo Japes and Ronin on that point. The public designs are done in the public specifically so the public can provide input and so we can introduce the public members to how our process works so that they might one day run a design of their own. So don't hesitate to jump in and contribute, you just never know how you might shape the design/project.

I remember being ludicrously proud the first time a suggestion of mine made it onto a finished card - I wasn't even an Ally yet! (Though, admittedly, I'd been making suggestions that never got anywhere for a long time before then... )

[johnny139]

I did actually consider giving her a Spidey-Sense like defensive power. It would A) up her survival rate and B) give her another way to accrue Squirrels. It'd probably read something like this:

LEAPING DODGE
When Squirrel Girl rolls defense dice against an opponent's attack, one shield will block all damage. If at least one shield was rolled, you may then move Squirrel Girl up to 3 spaces. When counting spaces with Leaping Dodge, ignore elevations. Squirrel Girl may leap over water without stopping, leap over figures without becoming engages, and leap over obstacles such as ruins. Squirrel Girl may not leap more than 12 levels up or down in a single leap. If Squirrel Girl is engaged when she starts her Leaping Dodge, she will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

So, after rolling defense dice, you can either reposition her or get yourself another marker by choosing not to move her.

Two big issues there, though. One, it's a lot of text and is kind of finnicky. Two, it means she can only leap when on her opponents' turn - not very squirrely at all if she can't even make her way up a tree! This could be solved by making it trigger after she attacks OR defends, but I honestly really dislike those powers, and I think it would too quickly become the focus of her powerset.

If anyone has a solution to those two issues, it's definitely a path I'd be interested in exploring.

As is, I feel like this is where we should be at. Adding one extra marker per round (not tied to the X Marker because, well, I don't really see a reason to), Swarm now an SA, Avenger dropped from her classes.

NAME = SQUIRREL GIRL
SECRET IDENTITY = DOREEN GREEN

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = STUDENT
PERSONALITY = ENTHUSIASTIC

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 160

SQUIRREL SPEAK
At the start of each round, and instead of moving with Squirrel Girl, you may place a brown Squirrel Marker on this card. A maximum of 999 Squirrel Markers can be placed on this card.

SQUIRREL SWARM SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 6. Attack 1.
Before attacking with this special attack, you may remove any number of Squirrel Markers from this card. For each Squirrel Marker removed this way, you may roll 1 additional attack die or attack one additional time with this special attack.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL SUPERHERO
If Squirrel Girl is within clear sight of an Agent, Crime Fighter, Reject, or Soldier you control, she is considered to have the same class as that figure.

STEALTH LEAP 12
Instead of her normal move, Squirrel Girl may use Stealth Leap 12. Stealth Leap 12 has a move of 3. When counting spaces of Stealth Leap 12, ignore elevations. Squirrel Girl may leap over water without stopping, leap over figures without becoming engages, and leap over obstacles such as ruins. Squirrel Girl may not leap more than 12 levels up or down in a single leap. If Squirrel Girl is engaged when she starts her Stealth Leap 12, she will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

[Tornado]

Cool. I think the best bet is to simply raise Defense if needed.
Or something quirky like Life 3, Defense 7-8.

[Yodaking]

Just want to clarify here, if she has 6 markers on her card she can remove all of them and either make one attack of 7 or 7 attacks of 1, but she can't mix the two and make 3 attacks of 4?

[Arkham]

Here's how I'd approach it. First, bump her defense up to 5-6. Have it trigger on giving up movement of any kind, and allow her a way to use her leap after attacking and defending. She's squirrely afterall, she should be all over the place correct? So she can sacrifice her normal move to gain one, then after attacking she can either leap or give that up to once again get one. Then on defense she can leap or gain one. She'll be earning them much more if she chooses to sacrifice her leaps each time.

I also on second thought think it should just be a normal attack. Logic being she's the one throwing the swarm, correct? Like a big ball of squirrels she throws at her opponent? Why wouldn't a tactician be able to give her advice like all the other normal type of attacks out there? Why wouldn't the power gem make that throw more powerful? If I'm understanding it correctly. Otherwise, you can put the squirrel marker gaining bit combined with her 1st power to avoid 4 powers. It's unique to her afterall and further explains why she's not your ordinary superhero.

A:

NOT YOUR TYPICAL SUPERHERO
If Squirrel Girl is within clear sight of an Agent, Crime Fighter, Reject, or Soldier you control, she is considered to have the same class as that figure.

SQUIRREL SWARM
Instead of moving with Squirrel Girl, you may place a brown Squirrel Marker on this card. A maximum of 999 Squirrel Markers can be placed on this card. Once per round, you may remove any number of Squirrel Markers from this Army Card. If you do, Squirrel Girl has a Range Number of 6 and Attack Number of 1 until the end of this turn, and when attacking with Squirrel Girl, you may attack one additional time or roll 1 additional attack die for each Squirrel Marker removed this way.

SQUIRREL LEAP
After attacking or defending, you may move Squirrel Girl up to 3 spaces. When counting spaces with Squirrel Leap, ignore elevations. Squirrel Girl may leap over water without stopping, leap over figures without becoming engaged, and leap over obstacles such as ruins. Squirrel Girl may not leap more than 12 levels up or down in a single leap. Squirrel Girl never takes falling damage and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.

B:

NOT YOUR TYPICAL SUPERHERO
If Squirrel Girl is within clear sight of an Agent, Crime Fighter, Reject, or Soldier you control, she is considered to have the same class as that figure. Instead of moving with Squirrel Girl, you may place a brown Squirrel Marker on this card. A maximum of 999 Squirrel Markers can be placed on this card.

SQUIRREL SWARM SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 6. Attack 1.
Before attacking with this special attack, you may remove any number of Squirrel Markers from this card. For each Squirrel Marker removed this way, you may roll 1 additional attack die or attack one additional time with this special attack.

SQUIRREL LEAP
After attacking or defending, you may move Squirrel Girl up to 3 spaces. When counting spaces with Squirrel Leap, ignore elevations. Squirrel Girl may leap over water without stopping, leap over figures without becoming engaged, and leap over obstacles such as ruins. Squirrel Girl may not leap more than 12 levels up or down in a single leap. Squirrel Girl never takes falling damage and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Arkham

I also on second thought think it should just be a normal attack. Logic being she's the one throwing the swarm, correct? Like a big ball of squirrels she throws at her opponent? Why wouldn't a tactician be able to give her advice like all the other normal type of attacks out there? Why wouldn't the power gem make that throw more powerful?

I don't really know anything at all about this character so I could be way off, but I was under the impression that she can summon a horde of squirrels to attack you rather then her throwing a ball of squirrels at you. She speaks to squirrels and can order them to attack, similar to how Ant-Man works with ants. Some of the squirrels run up your leg, while others dive bomb you from the trees. In that case I would say no, Captain America can not inspire the squirrels to fight harder, Star Lord can't enhance the squirrel swarms tactics, high ground is already incorporated into the attack parameters, etc. Each marker represents another ~3 squirrels joining in on the attack, so burn one marker and you roll 2 attack die for the 6 squirrels that just jumped on Thanos, burn 10 markers and you roll 11 attack dice to represent Thanos being swarmed by 33 squirrels all at once. Or you could make 11 attacks of 1 and roll for each group of 3 squirrels attacking one at a time. At least that is how I envisioned it and thus why I said I supported the SA route earlier.

[ALEXAN2507]

I almost want to argue that Cap America can inspire squirrels purely because the idea of him co-ordinating a group of squirrels in combat is amusing

[Qualizium]

I think in some cases it's going to make thematic sense to let the squirrels be boosted, in other cases it won't, so I'm going to argue in favor of what I find cleaner mechanically, which is a Special Attack.

Don't know if anyone would support this, but borrowing some verbiage from Fist Fusilade:

Squirrel Swarm Special Attack
Range 6. Attack: Special
Before attacking with this special attack, remove 1 or more Squirrel Markers from this card. Start the attack with X dice, where X is equal to the number of Squirrel Markers removed. You may attack with any number of dice, until all X attack dice have been rolled.

So if she has 6 markers, she could make (for example)
- An attack of 6
- An attack of 4 and an attack of 2
- Two attacks of 3
- Three attacks of 2
etc.

I think making it a Lob type attack could be thematically sound as well. Squirrels would easily be able to scale obstacles to get to their target. I don't think there's a clean way to tack Lob onto a normal attack either, so consider that another argument in favor of the SA route

edit: Although come to think of it, Lob attacks need all kinds of additional verbiage about "choose a space to target", right? Probably forget about Lob then.