Public Design Workshop

[Lazy Orang]

Ronin, would it be possible to see a version of your Kang with Force Field X, Close Combat Expert or another cool third power and a Secret Identity of Nathaniel Richards (Earth-6311)? That's the one I'd personally love to see.

[Yodaking]

I'd also like to see your current vision for a Kang 2.0 all in one post. I might even nominate it for the next round if you are eligible.

[Ronin]

I've got enough points, but I'd prefer to have some time to mull over the design before leaping into an LD. Thanks for the vote of confidence, though! I'll have the current version of Kang up in a bit, after I take care of a few things.

[Yodaking]

Even if it wins the vote, the thread would not start up for a quite a while. Beta Ray Bill just got started. But if you want to hold off for now, I won't nominate it.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Well in the current mechanics of the game, you're not allowed to have two Unique Heroes with the same name (the secret identity being considered the "name" if they have one, thus no Nightwing and Robin Dick Graysons together).

So an "evil clone" situation with a bunch of Unique Heroes with the same secret identity couldn't happen without a special power on the evil clone cards letting you draft them together (as would be the case with Invincible clones, as they'd thematically really need to be a series of Unique Heroes anyway, IMO).

In the case that the "evil clones" were all identical and Uncommon Heroes, then they could coexist with other Uncommons of the same name, as that's the rule behind Uncommons.

So the ruling would come to whether you could draft a Unique Hero with Uncommons of the same name or not. I posted already that I agree with your (Ronin's) analysis that under the rules you could not, because the Unique Hero couldn't be drafted with another figure of the same name, even if the Uncommons could. I'm not seeing another way to rule it without adding a special addendum to the rules, which I don't see good enough reason to.

Honestly, I think it's a niche enough situation to spell out as special powers on appropriate cards. If someone wants to make a big push and spearhead that specific rules change, though, I probably won't argue too hard against it.

So it's a no-go on the idea LO quoted? My thought was that alternate reality characters could just be denoted as such as part of the card name, making the names different without introducing any new rules, like so:

NAME = SPIDER-MAN
SECRET ID = PETER PARKER (EARTH-8351)
[so on and so forth...]

NAME = SPIDER-MAN
SECRET ID = PETER PARKER (EARTH-90214)
[so on and so forth...]

Kang's definitely designable either way, because it's thematic for him to have powers that work around other Kangs, but not every character's a reality-hopper. I wouldn't want to try to address an inter-dimensional Spidey team-up on Spider-Man Noir's card.

Sorry if I seem like I'm pushing this too hard, but I'd really like to get something ironed out. If public opinion falls in favor of just not differentiating between AU versions, I can deal with that. It does slightly affect how I would implement Kang, though.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Even if it wins the vote, the thread would not start up for a quite a while. Beta Ray Bill just got started. But if you want to hold off for now, I won't nominate it.

Huh. I was thinking the next one would be starting up closer to the start of the school year, but re-checking the date, it's going to be a good while after that, isn't it? I guess I'm okay with being nominated then, assuming I get these last few details ironed out here.

[laughing matter]

Spider verse, Nuff said.

[Yodaking]

You never can tell to be honest. Every public design is it's own animal. Some go pretty quick, others take quite a while. Beta Ray Bill could be wrapping up as soon as September or might not be done in November. Nominations won't be closed for a little while so you have time to polish up the design and think about what you want to do.

[Margloth]

Couldn't "Evil Clones" just not have a secret identity?

[IAmBatman]

I'd love to see some other Heroes chime in on the issue, Ronin. On it surface, I'm not against some distinction in the secret identity to show they're from another dimension, but I'm not sure what exactly would be the best way to go. We have a pretty substantial precedent of not putting the name of a character's dimension in their name thus far.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Margloth

Couldn't "Evil Clones" just not have a secret identity?

I almost think that's a better option.

[japes]

Alternate Universe versions and evil clones are not really the same thing as an clone of Peter Parker for instance isn't Peter Parker.

[IAmBatman]

Very true. And Alternate Universe versions typically are not all the same (they'd be Unique Heroes in Invincible's case, IMO). But we went that way with Kang.

I dunno. It's a complex issue.