WotC's Focus on Mechanics - A Discussion

[Schulzy]

Full title should read: WotC's focus on mechanics - a discussion on moving opponent's figures.

I played Magic: The Gathering for a few years, and one thing I know WotC liked to do with that game is to focus on certian mechanics within a group of expansions (i.e. blocks - three expansions that share thematic elements and the same fantasy setting). The Invasion block focused on multicolor cards, The Mirrodin block focused on the artifact card type, so on and so forth.

I get the idea that that's what's happening with the first wave of D&D boosters. So far, we have seen the Drow Chainfighter and Wyvern which are both units that can significantly alter the location of an opponents figure. This mechanic has the potential to wreck certian stratigies, or just plain mess up an opponent's plans.

The discussion I would like to..well, discuss, is whether or not people would be receptive to this kind of focus on mechanic on a per-wave (per 2 waves? per whatthehellever?) basis. I understand that there are seperate development teams for MT:G and 'Scape, but the introduction of two major unit-moving abilities makes me consider that maybe WotC will follow a similar pattern with 'Scape.

The upside to this is that we could see certian mechanics explored in depth - terrain bonuses, bonding, synergies, etc. The downside could be that units won't feel as 'compatable' from wave to wave as they have so far (a side-effect that MT:G suffers from greatly, in my opinion).

Discuss. Any of the devs want to chime in? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Robotech Master]

Originally Posted by Schulzy

Full title should read: WotC's focus on mechanics - a discussion on moving opponent's figures.

I played Magic: The Gathering for a few years, and one thing I know WotC liked to do with that game is to focus on certian mechanics within a group of expansions (i.e. blocks - three expansions that share thematic elements and the same fantasy setting). The Invasion block focused on multicolor cards, The Mirrodin block focused on the artifact card type, so on and so forth.

I get the idea that that's what's happening with the first wave of D&D boosters. So far, we have seen the Drow Chainfighter and Wyvern which are both units that can significantly alter the location of an opponents figure. This mechanic has the potential to wreck certian stratigies, or just plain mess up an opponent's plans.

The discussion I would like to..well, discuss, is whether or not people would be receptive to this kind of focus on mechanic on a per-wave (per 2 waves? per whatthehellever?) basis. I understand that there are seperate development teams for MT:G and 'Scape, but the introduction of two major unit-moving abilities makes me consider that maybe WotC will follow a similar pattern with 'Scape.

The upside to this is that we could see certian mechanics explored in depth - terrain bonuses, bonding, synergies, etc. The downside could be that units won't feel as 'compatable' from wave to wave as they have so far (a side-effect that MT:G suffers from greatly, in my opinion).

Discuss. Any of the devs want to chime in? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

While all of this is possible, I think the designers were more involved with creating these powers than WOTC was. WOTC read their powers to make sure they fit from the canon of the figure in D&D, but otherwise I believe it was all our designers.

Moving/effecting your enemy figures is a hallmark of many strategy games, and I think the designers just thought it was something HS needed that was lacking before.

[killercactus]

I get what you're saying, but I think the focus of this wave seems to be more broad. Maybe more "disrupt the opponent" than "move their figures".

We also have figures like the Air Elemental and Notorious GIE that have powers to disrupt the opponent's figures to go along with the Wyvern and Chainfighter. I think Skyhunter will have a similar ability to mess with fliers, and I could see Torin having a "mess with the opponent" ability.

[Cleon]

Magic The Gathering has so many cards per set that it can create themes or mechanic focus in blocks. At the same time, Magic can create cards that don't follow that theme and could fall into a completely different block's mechanic focus or work with stuff from past sets and decks. I don't think Heroscape will ever be too theme specific since they only release about 11 units a set, or 20 or 30 a "block". I think it more follows the, "lets give them something new, cool, and helpful in every set." Themes included in BftU and Wave D1 (and maybe D2) could be the focus of common/uncommon heroes, or units that work with shadow tiles. So the mechanic themes in Heroscape sets aren't as focused on and that static as they are in Magic. Like there hasn't been a wave as themed as Magic's Morridin block, but maybe in a way lesser extent.

[chas]

I think the focus on HS design has been more on balance in the Metagame, that is on continuing to providing many different kinds of units, rather than one particular theme mechanic. But you're right to notice a trend in the new packs on moving opponent's units, which was lacking before. I'd say the basic focus is still on the right hand numeric factors of the character stats: endurance, movement, range, attack, defense, and cost, and enhancing these with special powers. If there is a theme in the expansion packs, its more about introducing certain types/races of characters. Currently its fantasy heroes, Drow, Elementals, etc.

[airdroppers]

Originally Posted by chas

Currently its fantasy heroes, Drow, Elementals, etc.

Correct if I am wrong, but isn't everyone from D&D fantasy?
I'm sure we won't catch a pirate or a soldier coming out.

More Drow are going to come. In one of the threads it's said they are going to be "the new marros". I doubt it, but there are more too come that's for sure.

[Agent Minivann]

I think it is less about some sort of mechanic motif, and more of a coincidental grouping of thematic powers. I can see something like Magic with a bunch of releases in during a period of time where the designers want to introduce some new mechanic, or emphasize an existing mechanic. Designers are putting together a whole lot of cards from scratch. It makes sense to have some mechanic that takes the spotlight. It gives the designers a focus for the new releases. Heroscape is a different animal, and D&D Heroscape possibly more so. There are a set of figures that are given to the designers, and they are tasked with putting together some cards that are thematic. They need to fit with what the figures depict. With new sculpts I could imagine the designers looking at the existing unit catalog and determining what units might not be represented, or a faction that isn't "complete". Then they come up with a thematic card that represents that unit. I don't really think there will be "mechanics blocks" of similar unit powers during a span of releases. I think it is more coincidental than anything.

[Jexik]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

I think it is more coincidental than anything.

Yep.

I pointed it out to the designers once. I said something like, "Hey, it's really cool that the Drow Chainfighter and Wyvern can move your opponent's guys. Toss in the pressure caused by the elementals, and all of the adjacency-related stuff in MS3, and I like the tactical stuff going on here a lot!"

"Heh, you're right; that is pretty cool."

But it wasn't part of a broad arching plan. Most of it is just trying to capture the essence of what these figures do. In a lot of cases, they're directly trying to translate a power from D&D to HS. (The 4 heroes in MS3 are great examples of this).

When they made Tandros, I don't think they were thinking, "the Heroes really need a way to kill two squad figures per turn, if they're both standing close to each other." They just tried to make Cleave work like it does in 4E. +2 Broadsword is just a fun power, because it sounds like you're talking about a Magic Weapon, but it's also informative to the game mechanics. Most people who have played both HS and D&D probably got a good smile out of that one.

Take Ana. There aren't a ton of Undead figures out there, so her Turn Undead Special Attack wasn't done to fill a need in game balance, so much as trying to make her do what players expect a Cleric to be able to do. Buff the party, kill Undead guys. Done.

With the Wyvern and DCF, they used the figures and lore as inspiration. As it turns out, those are cool new abilities in HS which might help counter some popular strategies that already existed, like using Raelin to buff figures or Rats to hold glyphs. But they didn't start by thinking, "We need a new unit to counter Raelin."

Then they rely on the playtesters to make sure that the points and abilities get balanced right so that the figure is fun, useful, and draftable. Sometimes we do a better job than others.

What's probably not very clear at first is that the bulk of the design is done by some folks who are more "Heroscape people" than "WotC people." Look at the first page of the MS3 rulebook sometime. You might not recognize the names, but Peter Lee and Paul Barclay are the Wizards guys who have tons of experience with getting miniatures to the market and all of that stuff, but the other 3 designers are all long-time HS fans who used to playtest back when Craig Van Ness, Rob Daviau, and Richard Baker were the main guys. Most of the listed playtesters are regular posters here.

Even having said that, I can still see some developing themes in each of the coming waves. I think of this one as the "Cool movement related powers and classic synergy" wave. But there's some stuff in the wave that doesn't fit that at all. The Warriors of the Ghostlight Fen is more, "Cool stuff that's worth playing."