Hypnotize

[Shiftrex]

Hypnotize



Card PDF

NAME = HYPNOTIZE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE ONE SHOT
TYPE = SPELL

POINTS = 15

Requires: Magical Affinity

HYPONOTIZE
Instead of this figure's attack phase, choose a Unique Hero within 3 clear spaces and change its Personality to Malleable for the rest of the round. Take control of the chosen figure and either make a move action or attack action, during which it can only use symbol abilities. Then, return control of the chosen figure.

PUBLISHER: C3G
REQUIREMENTS: MAGICAL AFFINITY
KEYWORDS: Mental

WINTER 2024: If someone hypnotizes you, they put you into a state in which you seem to be asleep but can still see, hear, or respond to things said to you. A Magician will hypnotize you and will stop you from recognizing those around you force attentiveness to their words, often resulting in erratic or destructive behavior.

Resources and Rulings

• One Shot: See the rules for playing with One Shots.

Credits

• Legacy design: Lazy Orang
• Playtesters:

• Shiftrex
• Ericth74
• IAmBatman

• Card art: japes
Updates
• n/a

[Shiftrex]

Getting to work on the spells. Big part of the game for me and they affect a lot of units even in the starter set by expanding their toolbox.

This version of Hypnotize we came up with has changed to be a once per round spell at the uncommon rarity. Instead of killing a placed Order Marker the effect is now to 'Hypnotize' just one unit so it can't be used as readily. This is most potent as an OM hub disrupter.

Currently it uses a d20 to get the effect to go off, not a super high roll to achieve it but enough so that it can fail because hypnotism doesn't always work. Also thought this might help with the idea of it being uncommon instead of unique, since it won't be such a throat chop.

Unsure if this needs to be at 25 points still, it's good effect but requires proximity and we are tying it to a roll now. Overall, this should be far less oppressive than the original while still being solid disruption. Telepath keyword made its way on here because it feels like a mental-muddle effect type of thing.

[MrNobody]

I’m definitely in favor of keeping the personality hook, although we did chat recently about changing it to something like Manipulated so it’s a bit broader in theme. Mordo is a really fin design who just needs a bit of a boost. I’m not sure how going Uncommon will affect his power levels, but I think he’ll be fine.

I’m not sure the effect fully sells “hypnotized?” I feel like maybe it should be the opposite, shutting down non-ordered activations. I also didn’t mind the original effect, so I was a bit surprised to see it change at all. I feel liek this one might sctually be more disruptive by the time the game is done?

If we’re reading it as a telepathic thing, it’s probably good to have a Mental Shield callout on there. I wouldn’t have ever thought of the TP keyword, but it’s an aesthetic we can work out together.

[japes]

Uncommon means you can draft more than one?

I feel like spending 50 points for 50-50 chance to shut down Reed for two rounds would be well worth it. Not sure how I feel about this one. What were the perceived issues with the original?

[IAmBatman]

Make sure to post a link to new designs in the main discussion thread so folks know they're here.

I feel like any time you have to specify that it only works if there are other active figures you've moved a bit too far into inelegance. I'd prefer if we could find a better angle that doesn't need to hardcode things like that. Largely I'm on the same page as Nobody in terms of response to this approach, though, which I feel is probably more of a "shutdown" mechanic than we want.

I almost feel like hypnosis should be less about stopping them from doing what they want and more about making them do what they don't want (like Moondragon does, for instance).

[Shiftrex]

No worries.

A lot of these ideas came from bouncing stuff around with Karat and Yodaking. I think we were looking for a way to make it an uncommon spell so you could draft a couple and we were wanting to get away from a straight up order Marker removal. In order to get to an uncommon status, we were looking for a way to limit it to onvlce per round hence the timing change.

Looks like we arrived at something a bit more damaging. No edits for now because breathing but the feedback has me leaning towards something like this if we liked the old effect better:

Before initiative, you may cast this spell to choose a Unique Hero within 3 clear sight spaces of this figure. If you do, remove 1 Order Marker at random from that figure's Army Card and that figure has the personality of Hypnotized for the remainder of the round.

It can be a d20 roll if it needs to, but I think this would preserve the spell more closely and get away from being unfun. But someone could still sink 50 points in if they want to slap an order Marker off 2 rounds in a row, provided they are at close range. Thoughts?

[MrNobody]

What's the overall goal in making it Uncommon?

[Shiftrex]

In 1.0 it was unique, uncommon let's you draft more than 1. That was my understanding of it.

[IAmBatman]

The Moondragon part gave me a thought. What if instead of messing with their Order Marker or their turn in general, since it's already an initiative thing, what if it let you just maneuver that figure? You hypnotize them and send them off in a different direction briefly. It could be paired with the personality thing to let you mess with them further later in the round if you have the appropriate ability.

[japes]

Have I been wrong?
Have I been wise?
To shut my eyes and play along?

[Karat]

I actually like the idea of having it shut off non-ordered activations. Means they have to intentionally move and become isolated from outside ally bonding.

Part of it for me is figuring out how hypnotism should look in combat as typically it's more of a silly party trick. The maneuver idea isn't bad but I think a move action would probably work better in general.

If we go back to the OM removal mechanic I feel like there needs to be something else as well. This is just one that never ended up drafted in 1.0 for me. There's just so many better ways to spend my points so personally I'd like to see this have a little more utility and theme both.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I'd cut the marker here. Pure memory aid markers are just a waste of text and mechanics IMO.