C3G Blackboard OR "Ideas for later development"

[Spidey'tilIDie]

So, I have been thinking that one thing we need is a place to store flashes of brilliant (or not so brilliant) ideas we may get while roaming through this site, helping others tweak their customs, or even what we come up with when we misinterpret a power or intended power. I was inspired to create this from my favorite show, The Big Bang Theory. In it, they are all scientist comic nerds and one thing they do is keep notes or equations they are working on, on a blackboard. I thought how could we do something like that? Hence the C3G Blackboard. The idea would be that we post the idea in this thread, while titling the post something that is easily searchable. Say perhaps Bats has an idea for a Healing Factor power, but no desire to create a character who needs one. He could just make a post here titled Healing Power and Bam, we can search for it in this thread. Now say Hahma really wants to do a Deadpool mini, but can't come up with a healing power he likes, so he searched here, finds Batsy's post and voila, he has a power. Maybe he tweaks it, maybe he uses it as is, maybe it inspires him with a way to fix his idea. Either way it makes our customs better, and isn't that what we want out of this? I think this along with compatibility are our goals. My following post will start it off.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Fantastic 4

I really like how MattHelm's Fantastic Four bond, but I am not crazy about the choice of Teammate as the key word. When we do FF, I would like them to similarly bond, possibly using Fantastic as the keyword. So Reed would be a Fantastic Scientist, Ben- a Fantastic Pilot, Johnny-a Fantastic Hot-head or Adventurer, etc.

[Griffin]

Skrull

I would like to have a Skrull infiltrator that is a common Hero and only costs about 15 points. I would like for it to not start on the board, but instead have the opportunity to be placed on the battlefield whenever an opponent's small or medium figure is destroyed.

INFILTRATE
Skrull Infiltrators do not start the game on the battlefield. Whenever an opponent's small or medium figure is destroyed, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 9 or higher, you may choose any Skrull Infiltrator that you control that has not successfully rolled for Infiltrate, and place it on the same space that the opponent's small or medium figure was on before it was removed from the battlefield.

[Griffin]

I like your direction for the Fan 4 synergy a lot Spidey!

[IAmBatman]

Fantastic 4

I think "Fantastic" wouldn't be the ideal personality choice for someone like Human Torch, because it doesn't really seem to sum up his personality to me.
That said, I think we could do it with class still, but with a dual class approach that opens them up to other figures working well with them but still allows them to have synergies that make them work best together. That way they're not crippled without each other, but they're at their best as a team (I don't want Thing or Invisible Woman to feel like Sonya Esenwein without Cyprien when the rest of the Fan Four isn't around).
I'm thinking we go with Reed Richards as a Scientist and Sue, Ben, and Johnny all as Adventurers and then have powers that work based on those synergies (I even have some ideas for some):

MISTER FANTASTIC

FANTASTIC LEADER 4
After revealing an Order Marker on this card, instead of taking a turn with Mister Fantastic, you may instead roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 4 or higher, you may take a turn with any two Unique Hero Adventurers you control within 4 clear sight spaces of Mr. Fantastic.

INVISIBLE WOMAN

FANTASTIC FORCE FIELD 4
All figures you control within 4 clear sight spaces of Invisible Woman add 2 dice to their defense. If the figures are Adventurers or Scientists, they add 4 to their defense. Fantastic Force Field 4 does not affect Invisible Woman unless no other figures you control are within 4 clear sight spaces of Invisible Woman.

THE THING

FANTASTIC FIGHTER 4
You may add one die to The Thing's normal attack for each Unique Hero Adventurer within 4 clear sight spaces of The Thing, up to a maximum of 4 extra attack dice for the Fantastic Fighter 4 Special Power.

[Matt Helm]

Fantastic 4

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

I really like how MattHelm's Fantastic Four bond, but I am not crazy about the choice of Teammate as the key word. When we do FF, I would like them to similarly bond, possibly using Fantastic as the keyword. So Reed would be a Fantastic Scientist, Ben- a Fantastic Pilot, Johnny-a Fantastic Hot-head or Adventurer, etc.

Thanks for the kind words Spidey. Maybe I explain why I settled on that specific synergy and maybe that will help with our C3G brainstorming.

As you know, I'm all about putting theme in the backseat when it comes to playability. I'm not fooling myself to think others feel that way as I'm probably in the minority. Being in the Marvel custom section means that most people think comic character first and translation to Heroscape second. That makes sense, we are specifically in the super hero section.

I tend to think Hersocape first and then hope that my custom has just enough unique flavor that when you couple it with the miniature, you get that fun feeling.

My point is, classes such as "scientist" and "pilot" add nothing to synergy or current Heroscape rules. It's almost a waste of potential just to have the perfect comic role-playing "theminess". To me, you already have that with comic art and border background choices. Visual choices are already there so I caution against visually enjoyable classes that just describe an accurate "occupation".

Personality on the other hand is very important to bond with current and future rules. "Valiant" or "Fearless" are perferct examples of great opporunities to distinguish figures and allow them to bond with each other. Therefore, even the FF should have accurately portayed personalities.

So back to class. I went with my original idea of Teammate specifically because it was never used before so I could contain it or expand it as desired. Bats' idea about Adventurer is good, but there are so many customs that use that term that I was afraid of the inability to keep the bonding contained. With "Teammate", I could start with the 4, allow in She-Hulk as needed and then consider adding some "Substitute Teammate" to others such as Crystal, Medusa, Luke Cage, etc if I felt they needed it. Also, I could eventually make a treasure glph called "Team Membership" and allow the carrier of that glyph to change their class to Teammate". Or a rule in a scenario where everyone in your army is considered a "Teammate".

Lastly, the word "Teammate" worked well when referencing it in the text. It is short enough and used as both a noun and an adjective without making a sentence awkward.

Sorry for filling up the blackboard with what seems like self promoting dribble. I just wanted to layout my thought process so that the C3G project can think about for our future options.

[IAmBatman]

Fantastic 4

So far, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong about this, only (official) Iron Man and (C3G) Iceman are Adventurers, so I don't think that one will be too big a deal - and I do like the idea of the Fantastic Four being able to work well with others (they do all the time) like Adventurers, but working the best within the group of themselves (due to each having at least one Adventurer or Scientist synergy on their cards). I don't like for synergies to be too closed to really limit options. I prefer them a little open ended to give you a bit more potential to build different armies. I'd love to be able to play Thing or Invisible Woman or Human Torch in an army without any of the other Fantastic Four and for them to still be able to shine. So that's why I went with a slightly more open synergy base that (with the way the powers are worded) would still make their synergies and powers work the best when they're together.
Also, I could totally see future Scientist synergies, for what it's worth, but I agree that personality is key for synergies as well.

[GreyOwl]

Fantastic 4

With my FF4, I went with "Adventurer" on all of them and used that as the bonding. It has the added benefit of allowing synergy with other figures, too, if you're so inclined. Besides, "Adventurer" wasn't being used for anything else useful...

[GreyOwl]

Bat-ninja'd!

[A3n]

Fantastic 4

For me the Fantastic Four synergy isn't about them shining when they are together it's about them being more of a family then just a thrown together team. I did debate with MH a bit, & after that I agreed that the best place for the team specific synergy was the class. I'm not fond of Teammate as the term but we couldn't come up with a better one that wasn't likely to be used in the future. And by still having the personalities true it meant they could still benefit from other synergies. So for me having them enhanced as the Fantastic Four is the most important thing, they should be able to go into other teams & although MH's versions may be overpriced if they do (although Johnny would probably work better outside the FF) I still think they certainly can be part of any team as they aren't crippled by not being in the team, & Sue still adds benefit to others - just more to the FF which I think would be reasonable as being family members they know what to expect from her so can work better with it. The only way for the thematic team thing to be better would be to have a Team Card. But I am not ready to open that worm of cans yet .

Spidey I was only thinking today that we needed a thread for ideas to be kept in. So you can imagine my surprise to find this. Well done great idea.

Cheers

[Matt Helm]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

So far, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong about this, only (official) Iron Man and (C3G) Iceman are Adventurers, so I don't think that one will be too big a deal - and I do like the idea of the Fantastic Four being able to work well with others (they do all the time) like Adventurers, but working the best within the group of themselves (due to each having at least one Adventurer or Scientist synergy on their cards). I don't like for synergies to be too closed to really limit options.

But I think you've contradicted yourself here a bit. You want it to be open, yet of the 10 official and 20 C3G, you've only opened up Iron Man, Ice Man and Beast to these synergies. So rather than the Four playing together better than with any othe rfigures, you've gone and just added 3 other figures... so you're still at 7 and yet the 3 you've added have no connection to the FF whatsoever?

In other words, why should Ice Man benefit more with the FF than Speider-Man? Why would Beast bond with them better than Doom? Why would Iron Man bond better than Namor?

By adding in these other figures, you've created a forced benefit with figures that don't necessarily deserve it. Wow... do I sound like the theme nerd?

actually, "Adventurer" was one of the ideas I tossed around in my head but for the reasons I list (and the enormous number of custom adventurers... I know I shouldn't care what others do on their table) I thought it best to creat a new class and build it from the bottom up. We
do it all the time with personalities so why not class.

[IAmBatman]

Fantastic 4

I'm definitely not knocking your approach, Mr. Helm. I'm just thinking, for my own personal tastes in the C3G arena, I'd prefer to allow the Fantastic Four to have some synergies with other figures besides just the four of them. It's still going to be a situation where each of them have additional synergies for a scientist/adventurer build on their individual cards, so you'll be maximizing your value when they're together. They just won't be losing full power value for these powers when they're not with each other, because there will be others they can be in an army with that have synergies.
It's kind of Romans with either Marcus or the Venoc Warlord situation for me ... only one makes complete thematic sense, but it's fun to do either, yet to get the full competitive benefit you want to go with Marcus. Does that make sense?
I definitely don't want to make it our task to eliminate quirky synergies though, so I don't mind Thing working especially well with another scientist like Beast or Mr. Fantastic being able to lead an Adventurer like Iron Man better than Spidey.