The Book of Nova

[tcglkn]

Yea, missed the proposal in that post but I like that version of the design.

[Yodaking]

yea

[Tornado]

Yea

[Soundwarp SG-1]

yea

[MrNobody]

Danke! I realized I screwed up the thread title, so everyone had probably already thought this had passed. This passes to Initial Playtesting.

Here's the initial playtest.

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Nova

Army Test 1
Map: Island Plane Crash (Glyph of Wannok)
Units: Team 1 (1,000): Nova (210), Luke Cage (190), Thing II (340), Iron Fist (260)
Team 2 (1,000):F4 (1,000)

Pre-game thoughts: I’m going to call the F4 Thing “Thing 1” and the Fighter Thing “Thing 2.” Plan here is to use Thing 2’s Four of a Kind to advance the troops for the first round, then just use him as a standard Fighter with Cage. Nova will hide slightly behind the melee Fighters until he gets a good chance to ram somebody. (Maybe he can pick off Sue.)

Summary of the game:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: T2 wins initiative
-Troops advance and attacks are made, but no damage is done

Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Nova powers up, using 2 Nova Markers
-Johnny takes an LEA from Nova
-Johnny inflicts 3 wounds on Nova
-Nova takes an LEA from Johnny
-Nova rockets into Sue, inflicting 4 wounds
-A fully enraged Thing 1 takes out Nova
-Reed inflicts a wound on Luke
-Danny inflicts 2 wounds on Johnny
-Johnny takes a LEA from Danny, but inflicts 2 Flame On wounds in return
- A fully enraged Thing I would take out Thing 2, but Thing 2 has One More Hand so he only takes 2 wounds
-Danny heals himself
-Luke breaks through Sue’s force field to inflict a wound on Reed

Round 3: T2 wins initiative
-A fully enraged Thing 1 inflicts a wound on Thing 2
-Reed inflicts a wound on Luke
-Danny takes out Sue
-Danny heals himself
-Danny inflicts 3 wounds on Reed
-A fully enraged Thing 1 takes out Danny
-Reed inflicts a wound on Luke
-Thing 2 inflicts a wound on Thing 1
-Luke takes out Reed

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-Luke takes out Johnny
-Thing 2 inflicts 2 wounds on Thing 1
-Thing 1 takes out Thing 2
-Luke inflicts a wound on Thing 1
-Thing 1 inflicts a wound on Luke

Round 5: T2 wins initiative
-Thing 1 takes out Luke


Special power usages:
Normal attack: 4 wounds inflicted (4 wounds on Sue)
Human Rocket: 1 skulls added
Gravimetric Pulse Special Attack: Not used
Forced To The Limits: 2 markers used in round 2

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Thing 1 (4/6 wounds)

Post-game thoughts: Nova was pretty fun while he lasted. He powered himself up in round 2, and forced Reed to make some hard choices about who to tie down to protect Sue. 4 wounds in a single attack isn’t bad by any means, he just didn’t have the staying power to last much longer than that.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test 2
Map: Island Plane Crash (Glyph of Wannok)
Units: Team 1 (1,000): Nova (210), Cap (240), Bucky (60), Luke Cage (190), Moon Knight (150), Human Torch (Hammond) (150)
Team 2 (1,000): Cosmic Boy (260), Superboy (330), Karate Kid (230), Lightning Lad (180)

Pre-game thoughts: N/A

Summary of the game:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: T2 wins initiative
-Moon Knight (MK) hops off the battlefield
-Karate Kid (KK) counterstrikes Nova, inflicting a wound
-Luke inflicts 2 wounds on KK
-KK inflicts 3 wounds on Luke
-Human Torch (HT) takes out KK

Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Clark inflicts a wound on Luke
-Cos takes out Luke
-MK lands next to Cos and inflicts 1 wound on him
-Clark inflicts 3 wounds on Nova
-Nova returns the favor, inflicting 3 wounds on Clark

Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-Cos tosses Bucky, inflicting a wound
-Cos tosses Cap
-Clark destroys Nova with his Heat Vision
-Clark inflicts 3 wounds on HT
-Lightning Lad (LL) inflicts 2 wounds on Moon Knight with a charged blast
-MK inflicts 1 wound each on both Cos and Clark with Crescent Darts
-LL inflicts 1 wound on MK with a charged blast
-Clark takes out HT
-T1 had OM3 on HT, so they lose a turn
-Clark takes out MK
-LL inflicts a wound on Bucky with a charged blast

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-LL inflicts a wound on Cap with a charged blast
-Clark takes out Cap
-T1 had OM1 on Cap, so they lose a turn
-LL takes out Bucky with a charged blast


Special power usages:
Normal attack: 3 wounds inflicted (3 on Superboy)
Human Rocket: 1 skulls added (Didn’t matter)
Gravimetric Pulse Special Attack: Not used
Forced To The Limits: Not used

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Cosmic Boy (2/4 wounds), Superboy (4/6 wounds), Lightning Lad (0/4 wounds)

Post-game thoughts: Losing Luke so early really hit team 1 hard, and they kind of fell apart after that. Some decent solo performances, but they just couldn’t keep up with the Legion’s double turns of pure offense.

Nova followed a similar pattern as last time, charging in and getting a decent hit on an enemy before dying. He makes a decent draw for enemy firepower for a turn or two, but that leaves most of his abilities feeling kind of untapped, which is a bummer.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test 3
Map: Island Plane Crash (Glyph of Wannok)
Units: Team 1 (770): Nova (210), Shredder (245), Hand Mystics (145), Hand Ninja x2 (170)
Team 2 (770): Commander Rogers (260), Wolverine (280), Shang-Chi (230)

Pre-game thoughts: So far, Nova has been kind of a one shot glass cannon type, so I figured pairing that up with some nice tie-down could be interesting. Also hoping some interesting stuff could maybe happen where Nova scores a kill for the Mystics? Not counting on it though. Shredder is there as a hype man too.

Summary of the game:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: T2 wins initiative
-A Ninja guards the Glyph of Wannok
-Shang-Chi takes out that Ninja then takes the Wannok for himself
-Shredder inflicts a wound on Shang-Chi
-A Ninja inflicts a wound on Logan
-Shang-Chi uses the Wannok to take out a Ninja

Round 2: T1 wins initiative
-Ninjas inflict 3 wounds on Logan and 1 wound on Shang-Chi
-Rogers takes out 2 Ninjas
-Shredder inflicts a wound on Shang-Chi
-Shang-Chi abandons the Wannok to attack Shredder, inflicting 2 wounds
-A Mystic takes out Shang-Chi
-Rogers takes out a Mystic

Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-A Ninja inflicts 2 wounds on Logan
-Rogers takes out a Mystic
-A Ninja inflicts another wound on Logan
-Logan takes out a Ninja
-A Mystic takes out Logan
-Rogers takes an LEA from Shredder
Rogers takes out the last Mystic, stopping the resurrection of Logan

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-Nova burns both his Nova Markers
-Nova shoots in from across the battlefield
-Nova takes out Rogers in a powerful blow


Special power usages:
Normal attack: 4 wounds inflicted (4 on Commander Rogers)
Human Rocket: 1 skulls added
Gravimetric Pulse Special Attack: 0 wounds inflicted
Forced To The Limits: 2 markers used in round 2

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Nova (0/5 wounds), Shredder (2/5 wounds), a single Hand Ninja

Post-game thoughts: Shooting Nova in there right at the end for a massive 8 die+auto-skull roll did feel good, but I’m not sure that assassin role really feels accurate to the character.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I think I did catch onto how to play him in the back half of my playtests - he feels all about just supercharging him as much as possible and waiting for the perfect moment to send him out and snipe an enemy. When playing him as more of a frontline guy, he just feels a tad fragile. In that role, I dunno how often I’d pick him over Bulldozer, even in a generalist build

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I don’t feel like he’s unplayable or terrible or anything. It’s fun to launch him from halfway across the map to tear up a specific enemy. I think my main concern is just that playing him like Nova (a reckless brawler) feels like the least effective strategy.

[MrNobody]

I'm thinking about these changes;

NAME = NOVA
SECRET IDENTITY = RICHARD RIDER

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIME FIGHTER
PERSONALITY = RECKLESS

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 210

FORCED TO THE LIMITS
At the start of the game, place 2 gold Nova Markers in a Nova Force pool. Before taking a turn with Nova, you may move any number of Nova Markers from the Nova Force Pool to this card. Add 1 to Nova's Move and Attack numbers for each Nova Marker on this card, to a maximum of +2. If Nova would receive one or more wounds from a normal or special attack while there are Nova Markers on this card, remove all Nova Markers on this card from the game. You may ignore one wound for each Nova Marker removed.

HUMAN ROCKET
Nova may attack with his normal attack at any point before, during, or after his normal move as long as he is on a space where he could end his movement. If Nova attacks a figure that was at least 2 spaces away before Nova moved this turn with his normal attack, add 1 automatic skull to whatever is rolled. Human Rocket may only be used if Nova used his normal Flying move for all of his movement this turn.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Plaintext for readability.

NAME = NOVA
SECRET IDENTITY = RICHARD RIDER

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIME FIGHTER
PERSONALITY = RECKLESS

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 210

FORCED TO THE LIMITS
At the start of the game, place 2 gold Nova Markers in a Nova Force pool. Before taking a turn with Nova, you may move a Nova Marker from the Nova Force Pool to this card. Add 1 to Nova's Attack number for each Nova Marker on this card, to a maximum of +2. If Nova would receive one or more wounds from a normal or special attack while there are Nova Markers on this card, remove all Nova Markers on this card from the game. You may ignore one wound for each Nova Marker removed.

HUMAN ROCKET
Nova may attack with his normal attack at any point before, during, or after his normal move as long as he is on a space where he could end his movement. If Nova attacks a figure that was at least 2 spaces away before Nova moved this turn with his normal attack, add 1 automatic skull to whatever is rolled. Human Rocket may only be used if Nova used his normal Flying move for all of his movement this turn.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Completely ditched Gravimetric Pulse, it didn't come up in any of my games, and it felt like it was adding more complication than it was worth. We can always give him a range of 2 or 3 if we really want to rep the idea that he does blasts of energy on rare occasions.

Rest of the changes are just an attempt to push him more towards being a frontline brawler that will stick around for a minute instead of a glass cannon sniper. I also really like that dropping his defense brings him to the point where none of his stats are higher than those of Nova vI. That feels good to me.

[tcglkn]

Like the cleaner design here and the ability to remove markers to prevent wounds.

[IAmBatman]

Looks good. Pre-yea for public testing if you're happy with where he's at.

[Lord Pyre]

Getting caught up here. I liked the SP design, weird that it didn't play very well. I thought the pulse was very cool.

I know he's Marvel's GL, but does he have a power that gets used up with markers? Also what's the theme behind using them to shield? I honestly don't know, especially this era of the character.

Normally I'm good with 2 power cards, but just reading the two of them, I still like the SP better on paper. What if we just give him one more marker?

[MrNobody]

I think the main problem is that his durability isn't really matching his speed and attack, meaning the optimal strategy is just holding him back until the right moment then shooting him out to snipe a specific target, which just doesn't feel very Nova to me. I think adding another marker would just encourage the same gameplay, but just make him better at it.

I don't think he needs insane durability, but I think he'll feel and play better if he can stick around a bit longer. Right now, he's at the same level as Moon Knight or Ravage in terms of survivability.

The theme I'm trying to portray with Forced is basically a force of will thing. If we're comparing to GLs, Rich is definitely a Hal or Guy type, who uses his own stubborn persistence to overcome obstacles. So the ignoring wounds was less meant as a shield, and more meant as a Going the Distance type of effect. If that theme's not coming through, I'm totally fine with reworking the specifics, but I definitely feel a durability boost is good here.

I liked Gravimetric Pulse too, it just wasn't coming through correctly in gameplay, and it's not something that's majorly iconic to the character.

[Lord Pyre]

The problem with markers with a playstyle like you're trying to encourage is that markers inherently make you stop and think. They're a limited resource. If you want him in-your-face, drop the markers completely. Just add in go the distance from Daredevil.

Also for what it's worth, shooting forward fast and dying quick sounds just like a rocket to me.

[MrNobody]

I don't think the original version made you stop and think at all though. At the start of the round, you check and see if you want to snipe with Nova this round. If yes, you spend all your markers to make his attack and move go up. This new version has a lot of little quirks to make it more interesting to me.