The Book of Demogorgon Stalker

[LordVenoc]

A shot at it sans map:

THE UPSIDE DOWN
This Demogorgon starts the game on this card instead of on the battlefield. Before taking a turn with this Demogorgon, if this Demogorgon started its turn on this card, you may place it on any empty space on the battlefield. You cannot place it adjacent to any figures or glyphs. After attacking with this Demogorgon, you may choose an adjacent figure and roll 1 combat die. If you roll a skull, you may place the chosen figure and this Demogorgon on this card. Opponents figures moved by The Upside Down do not take leaving engagement attacks. At the end of the round, if this Demogorgon is unengaged you may place it on this card.

HUNTING GROUNDS
Instead of taking a turn with this Demogorgon, if it is on this card, you may roll an unblockable attack die against a figure on any Demogorgon card you control. At the end of the round, roll the 20-sided die for each figure on any Demogorgon card that has not been destroyed. If you roll a 6 or lower, place that figure in its start zone.

HORRIFYING PRESENCE
If a figure without the Fearless personality is engaged with only this Demogorgon and has less Life remaining than this Demogorgon, subtract 1 from that figure's Attack and Defense numbers.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Margloth

Hmmmm, something like this?:

THE UPSIDE DOWN
This Demogorgon starts the game on this card instead of on the battlefield. Before taking a turn with this Demogorgon, if this Demogorgon started its turn on this card, you may place it on any empty space on the battlefield. You cannot place it adjacent to any figures or glyphs. At the end of the round, if this Demogorgon is unengaged you may place it on this card.

INTERDIMENSIONAL HUNTING
[At the end of the round if the Demogorgon is on this card?] [At the end of your player turn if the Demogorgon is on this card?] [After placing this Demogorgon on this card?] you may choose one figure in play who is not occupying a space on the battlefield and roll 1 unblockable attack die against that figure.

That seems incredibly counterdraft-y, and counterdraft-y to a bunch of characters these monsters have never met or fought. We actually have an On Deck unit that throws unblockables at figures off the battlefield, and the problem we ran into there is that that unit's value was majorly affected by matchup, and felt overcosted otherwise.

It would be cool if these guys could actually snatch people off the battlefield and then roll unblockables against them, but the problem is that the mentioned On Deck unit becomes a near-auto draft with them, and it's not a particularly thematic choice. However, that On Deck card requires an X OM reveal, so maybe it could be worked around that?

THE UPSIDE DOWN
This Demogorgon starts the game on this card instead of on the battlefield. Any figure on this card that is not destroyed is considered to be in the Upside Down. Before taking a turn with this Demogorgon, if this Demogorgon started its turn on this card, you may place it on any empty space on the battlefield. You cannot place it adjacent to any figures or glyphs. At the end of the round, if this Demogorgon is unengaged you may place it on this card.

INTERDIMENSIONAL ABDUCTION
After taking a turn with this Demogorgon, you may choose a figure adjacent to this Demogorgon with 2 or fewer life remaining and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 14 or higher, place this Demogorgon and the chosen figure on this card. Figures moved with Interdimensional Abduction will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

HUNTING GROUNDS
At the end of the round, roll the 20-sided die for each figure in the Upside-Down that is not a Demogorgon. If you roll 6 or lower, place that figure in its Start Zone. If you roll 14 or higher, you may reveal an "X" Order Marker on this card to roll 3(?) unblockable attack dice against that figure. After rolling for the Hunting Grounds special power on this card, you may not roll for it on any other cards for the rest of the round.

Keep up the good work, Splash. I know this has gotten a bit muddled, but ultimately, it's your design, so take it in the direction you want to take it.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by LordVenoc

A shot at it sans map:

I like the basics of this, but I think in terms of gameplay it's probably way too powerful. You're taking a figure completely out of the game for a minimum of a round on a 50/50 shot and then they have no way to react except hoping you hit a 6 or lower (30% chance). I think we're moving into more disruptive than Frost Giants for less cost territory, which is probably competitively concerning.

I think the basic layout here is workable, but I'd try to tone down the power level of the snatching part.

Also, for you all, I'm pretty sure you can't be adjacent to a glyph, just within one space of it or not.

[Splash]

I'm gonna step back and think this out a bit; here's some compiled info from the wiki for anyone interested.

"Adult Demogorgons are bipedal and reach a height of approximately 6 - 10 ft. They possess immense strength, being able to knock a door off its hinges and pin down an adult human with ease. Their sense of smell is exceptionally potent, being able to detect a small amount of blood from the Upside Down. Their skin has grown durable enough to withstand gunfire and numerous attacks dealt with a spiked object. One of the few things shown to cause a Demogorgon any type of significant harm was being burned, but even then the creature was able to escape fairly easily and did not seem to be hindered by its injuries."

"Nancy also theorized that the Demogorgon was attracted to blood, comparing it to a shark. This ability to detect blood appeared incredibly potent; it could be lured by even small quantities, even when separated by dimension. However, the creature was not exclusively drawn by blood; for example, both Joyce and Will Byers were attacked by the beast despite the absence of blood. It is unknown whether the creature was attracted by other stimuli, though one distinct possibility is sound: when Nancy ventured into the Upside Down, the Demogorgon was unaware of her presence until she made noise. Since sound from the human dimension was faintly audible to human ears in the Upside Down, it is possible the Demogorgon could be attracted by sound. In any event, like many predators, the Demogorgon simply took any opportunity to hunt and acquire prey, and generally preferred solitary or isolated victims."

"The Demogorgon was able to create portals that it used to travel between dimensions. These portals were temporary, essentially being dimensional "wounds" that would eventually "heal." How the Demogorgon came to possess, and used, this ability is unclear. Considering that it would take a massive amount of energy for a dimensional rift to open, it can be assumed that the Demogorgon somehow possessed the amount of energy required to do so. Whenever the Demogorgon created a portal, lights would flicker, and occasionally other electronics would be affected. This indicates that some energy was involved in the creation of these portals. It's also possible that this was due to the fabric of reality in Hawkins being unstable from the Gate remaining open, which would require less energy to open smaller portals.

During creation, the surface of wherever the portal was located would bulge, distort, and occasionally even crumble before tearing in a manner similar to that of flesh. The inside of the portal would often be surrounded by oozing, toxic biological matter. Some portals eventually formed a visceral-like membrane over their entrance shortly before closing, occasionally resembling biological webbing of some sort. The amount of time it took for a portal to close seemed to vary, as it took quite some time for the portal in Joyce's wall to heal, while the portal that Nancy entered disappeared mere moments after she was pulled out of it. After closing, the surface of where the portal was located would appear normal with no traces of its existence remaining."

[Splash]

NAME = DEMOGORGON

SPECIES = DEMOGORGON
UNIQUENESS = UNCOMMON HERO
CLASS = TORMENTOR
PERSONALITY = TERRIFYING

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 3

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = ???

THE UPSIDE DOWN
Start the game with an Interdimensional Rift DO in your Starting Zone for all figures in your army with the Upside Down special power. At the end of the round, you may place this Demogorgon on any empty space in your Starting Zone as long as the Interdimensional Rift is also in your Starting Zone and it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

TERRIFYING PRESENCE
If a figure without the Fearless personality is engaged with only this Demogorgon and has less Life remaining than this Demogorgon, subtract 1 from that figure's Attack and Defense numbers.

DRAGGED INTO THE NETHER
Whenever this Demogorgon moves or is moved in any way, you may choose an adjacent figure affected by the Terrifying Presence special power. After placing this Demogorgon this way, you may place the chosen figure adjacent to this Demogorgon, on any empty space. Figures moved by this special power never take leaving engagement attacks.

SCENT OF BLOOD
This Demogorgon must end its movement next to a figure with one or more wounds if possible.

I thought I’d go big or go home with a hefty re-work; the wording is far from perfect, but gets the ideas across. Definitely needs a few edits and maybe two of the powers could be mushed together.
It might feel weird having them basically run back to the start zone, we could have it so basically as long as the Rift is open (not destroyed) they can essentially go (portal rip) anywhere between rounds. Also if their powers depend on the Rift you might not want to run too many, cause they’d be nerfed once it was destroyed.
Fun fact 1: In addition to them kidnapping victims to breed slug babies in The Upside Down, Dragged Into The Nether is also partially inspired by their Dead By Daylight DLC.
Fun Fact 2: “In the original script the Upside Down was referred to as the Nether (although Upside Down was still the name the characters used in dialogue). The popularity of the in-universe nickname on the set led to it being referred to almost exclusively by that name instead”

The Interdimensional Rift Idea

INTERDIMENSIONAL RIFT
DESTRUCTIBLE OBJECT

LIFE = 6
DEFENSE = 6

UNSTABLE GATEWAY 6
If a figure is adjacent to this DO, instead of moving normally that figure may be placed anywhere on the battlefield or anywhere “considered part of the battlefield” that is not within three spaces of a glyph or an opponent's Start Zone. Before placing that figure, roll the 20-sided die, if you roll a 6 or higher and that figure does not have The Upside Down or Environmental Suit special power, that figure receives a wound. Figures moved by this DO will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

I think the Rift would be really fun. It’s kind of a dangerous reverse Bifrost. One of the things I love about C3G is how cards designed to interplay with each other eventually see use with other stuff (like the Rat Swarms for Pied Piper eventually working for Vermin is a random example). I think this Rift could see some future use with other stuff; there are plenty of comics with something like this. I could imagine some Darkseid/Trigon/Dormammu types making use of it. It’s been awhile since I read Black Science, but maybe that.
Also the 6 roll is just a bit of fun and can be changed to whatever. The idea being that the wounds would deter most people from using it, I could also see just regular autowound no matter what and a bad roll causes more wounds if it has too much game-wrecking potential (I realize the punishment will have to be harsher if it is not draftable). Really I think the biggest boon it offers is to the AIM Agents, but I don’t know many reasons to send them out alone across the map, they’d normally get squashed.
It'd also be cool to throw in Margloth's idea for off-the-battlefield stuff if someone knows how to get that in there.
I'm open to ideas on this.

I could be way out of line on this Rift idea, but tell me it doesn’t sound awesome if it can be reeled into reality.
Also, I think it’s 7ish points for a DO, so if there is potential here, I think I’d need two more playtests.

[tcglkn]

That's pretty cool, I definitely like the idea of the DO but the way it is set up, the best use is to just send Human Torch through the portal and use his Supernova on turn one while the opponent is still all in their start zone.

You can design DOs with designs if they are not draftable I believe.

[Splash]

Oh okay cool I could exclude start zones.
edit: And also yeah, the wounding could forgo the die roll and just autowound OR autowound and then get another wound if 6 or less is rolled OR something else.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by Splash

Oh okay cool I could exclude start zones.

Problem is he can still fly into the start zone to do the damage. We had to change Heimdall for this reason.

[Splash]

Well if taking some wounds on Torch to Supernova is still gonna be worth it (I'm guessing so), we could also say only Upside Down and Enviro-suits can travel through.
edit: And any future dimension travel powers could say have a "Whenever a special power refers to the Upside Down/Environmental Suit special power, it refers to this special power as well."

[Splash]

With power restriction:

UNSTABLE GATEWAY 6
If a figure is adjacent to this DO, instead of moving normally, if that figure has The Upside Down or Environmental Suit special power, it may be placed anywhere on the battlefield or anywhere “considered part of the battlefield” that is not within three spaces of a glyph. Figures moved by this DO will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

As long as it can go to other dimensions and a possible future toxic Upside Down map, the wounding doesn't need to be there, but it would also need a name change, as it will no longer be Unstable. Also is the “considered part of the battlefield” neccesary for those areas if it says battlefield.

[Splash]

Or an autowound and then a 6 or lower/6 or higher would just destroy the figure, that might be enough to make it not worth the risk. Event Heroes would get through though.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I think anything that just wounds is barely a cost and anything that might auto-destroy is too high a cost to want to use. Very tricky needle to thread.

You could do something similar to Nightshade and have people get 'traveling sickness' if they go too far, that would prevent start zone bombing. Power for reference:

THROUGH THE LAND OF THE NIGHTSHADES
Instead of moving and attacking with Nightshade, if Nightshade is unengaged, you may choose up to 2 unengaged friendly figures adjacent to Nightshade. Place Nightshade on any unoccupied space on the battlefield. You may then place the chosen figures on any empty spaces adjacent to Nightshade, not adjacent to any enemy figures. Figures other than Nightshade moved by this special power cannot take a turn or attack during the rest of this:

• player turn, if they were moved more than 5 spaces; or
• round, if they were moved more than 10 spaces.

Nightshade can only use this special power once per round.


Interestingly, the Land of Nightshades is fairly similar to the Upside Down. Like if there was a DC / Stranger Things crossover they could totally be the same place.