The Book of The Octopus

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Ink Spew can actually be worded to work more-or-less as intended (on Heroes) with some effort, but yeah if it’s not something he actually does then it shouldn’t be here.

Not knowing the character personally I’d probably just have him at two powers but spice up Grip of the Octopus into something interesting enough for the cool name.

[tcglkn]

I kinda like Ridiculous Reach from Elongated Man if we wanted to do something like that.

[Ronin]

I had a power called Entangling Arms on an early draft of Human Robot - gist of it was that if a figure was engaged with Human Robot during its movement, you could roll the d20 after it ended its movement for a chance to yoink it back into the engagement. Could do a riff on that idea. I think that sort of mechanic feels a lot like an octopus arm.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Not every design needs 3 powers. Rather than grasping at straws just to have a 3rd, work on the 2 you have to make them as interesting as you can. Maybe a 3rd will come naturally then!

My suggestion: Get the core of the character down thematically first. Then decide mechanically what kind of unit you want him to play like (Offense, support, etc...). Then tweak the mechanics to fit the theme of the character.

I like the current third power -- really mysterious.

But, yeah, this is good advice. What is the core of the story you're trying to tell on the card? If you can summarize that, the mechanics will be easy to implement.

[tcglkn]

Also should he have Super Strength here? Sorry I haven’t been able to dive in and give a lot of feedback, I’ve been phone posting all day. General direction so far is good.

[MrNobody]

Okay, so one issue in, and the big thing that’s sticking out to me is his whole deal with Scientists. He has Hank Pym and Hank McCoy locked up and is using them to become nore powerful. What if we worked with that?

SCIENTIST EXTORTION
At the end of the round, if there is at least one revealed Order Marker on the Army Carf of a Scientist you control, you may remove a Wound Marker from this card.* Then, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 3 or lower, choose an opponent to take permanent control of a Scientist you control.

*he mainly took the Octopus serum because he had the plague and wanted the regenerative properties of an octopus, so I think healing makes sense.

I dunno if the story changes later on, but giving him a cool little tie like that seems like a fun third power.

The other thing is that it seems like in 1602, all the super characters are called Witchbreed. Should that be his species? It might be handy for synergy if we ever want to expand that universe down the line, even if they are technically Mutates or whatever in modern scientific terms.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

The other thing is that it seems like in 1602, all the super characters are called Witchbreed. Should that be his species? It might be handy for synergy if we ever want to expand that universe down the line, even if they are technically Mutates or whatever in modern scientific terms.

I'd be in favour of that. Feels more evocative, maybe?


~Lazy Orang, who's hoping to ask for 1602 for Yule.

[tcglkn]

I like the Scientist Extortion power, but the downside seems really steep for just healing one wound. Maybe just make it to where 1-3 means you can’t place OMs on the cards of scientists next round.

[MrNobody]

Well at the end of the story, his Scientist kills him. Maybe the upside could be higher ans the downside could only trigger on a 1?

[tcglkn]

Sure just saying that it doesn't seem remotely worth it to draft Scientists with him as you have the power written.

What if he offered Scientists bonding but they couldn't attack? There's still plenty of benefit to that (Beast's Negotiation for example). Then he just naturally had healing. That could be a fun direction to take.

[MrNobody]

Maybe with a Suicide Squad style 5% chance at betrayal at the end of the turn?

[AlexH12]

SLOWING THE PROCESS
After a round has ended roll the 20-sided die.

• On a 9-16 remove a wound marker from this card
• On a roll of 17+ remove a wound marker from this card and roll an unblockable attack die against all figures adjacent to The Octopus

How does this sound?