The Book of Upside-down Man

[Shiftrex]

COMPETITIVE REVIEW BOARD CHECKLIST

Spoiler Alert!

Efficiency- Check to see if your design is providing armies with turns/moves/etc. to a degree that would make it difficult or impossible for an opponent to keep up with your output.

-----He has synergy with Tormentors, can cast a spell in addition to attacking, but doesn't move other figures or provide extra turns.

1. Does your design allow itself or figures to move/attack/take a turn/etc. instead of/in addition to your normal turn for revealing an Order Marker? Is it granting these benefits to too broad a range of units? Does it combine with other powers to create overly long or powerful chains of actions?

-----No extra turns, moves, or attacks being provided.

2. Does your design allow you to take actions during an opponent's turn? Can it combine with other powers to create tediously long reactions to enemy actions or a restrictive environment?

-----No.

3. Does your design allow you to rearrange your Order Markers or otherwise bypass the costs of Order Marker requirements on the special powers of other figures?

-----No.

4. Is your design doing anything outside of a player's turn, at the start or end of the round? Is the effect too powerful by itself or when combined with other powers?

-----When Spell Cards would be removed from the game they will instead go to the Upside-down deck.

5. Does your design have any powers that trigger anytime it moves as opposed to only when it moves normally on its turn? Will it be too efficient when combined with figures that grant extra moves to figures?

-----While there are 5 or more cards in the Upside-down deck he can roll and unblockable attack die against a figure that he passes over. If a figure moves him while the conditions or met, this power will trigger.

6. Is your design adding or subtracting from initiative rolls? Will it pair too easily with other figures that alter initiative or have powers triggering on the results of initiative rolls?

-----No.


Potency- Check to see if your design is wounding/removing/etc. enemy figures, increasing the chances of other figures in your army doing so, or otherwise directly effecting the number of figures available to players to a degree that would make it difficult or impossible for an opponent to recover from.

1. Does your design have a chance to inflict wounds or destroy figures? Is it getting these chances too frequently or having to high a chance of success? Is the power balanced against expensive targets that can cause a massive swing in the game when destroyed?

-----It has has a chance to inflict 1 unblockable wound with a 50% chance, once every time that the UDM moves. This requires 5 spell cards to be in the UD deck

2. Is your design adding to the stats or 20-sided die rolls of other figures in your army? Is it a boosting a broad enough range of units effectively enough to become a 'mandatory' draft or inhibit future design space? Can it be combined with other boosts too easily?

-----No stats are being added to.

3. Will your design benefit from stat boosts or other enhancement to an overpowering degree? Will it restrict future growth within its faction or point cost by limiting available boosts to others?

-----Movement boost would make him slippery at 7 move with essentially stealth flying, his other stats are fairly normal for his point cost. His large life total means that a healer could benefit him.

4. Does your design take control of enemy figures permanently or temporarily? Is it too difficult to for your opponent to regain control of their figure or recover from the losing the figure? Does the method of taking control expose the enemy figure to the powers of other figures in your army that can easily destroy it?

-----No.

5. Can your design heal itself or others or revive itself or others? Is it doing so in a way that an opponent cannot hope to overcome in certain scenarios?

-----Yes, it can use the Spell Card "Healing Energy" to regain 1 life point. He can recycle it but needs to play 5 spells to recycle it, with it always at his disposal he would regain 1 life point per turn but only has 4 defense so it should be beatable.

6. Does your design place enemy figures on its card or otherwise have an unconventional method of temporarily removing enemy figures from play? Will it guarantee your victory against a single remaining enemy figure?

-----No.


Chicanery- Check to see if your design is preventing your opponent from taking actions with too much ease or is otherwise causing negative play experience through tactics that make your opponent feel you're 'not playing fair'

1. Does your design restrict the movement of enemy figures, or allow you to move enemy figures? Can it do so in a way that results in an unwinnable scenario for your opponent if they are down to one figure, posses only figures with a range of 1, etc.? Can your design easily combine with other figures to greatly impede enemy figures or otherwise gain an excessive advantage?

-----I don't think so. Everything is fueled by spell cards and already done by someone like Trigon.

2. Does your design effect/change the placement of an enemy's Order Markers, or remove their Order Markers entirely? Can it force Order Markers to go onto cards that have no figures on the battlefield? Can your design easily combine with other figures to completely dictate the placement of an enemy's Order Markers or remove all of their Order Markers?

-----No.

3. Does your design inhibit your opponent from attacking your figures or make attacking a losing proposition? Are there scenarios or combinations that make your opponent totally unable to harm your figures through attacking?

-----No.

4. Does your design directly negate the powers of enemy figures or otherwise ignore them in a way that can completely disrupt the opponent's strategy or leave them feeling like they are stuck playing figures without special powers?

-----No, only thing he can ignore is leaving engagement attacks.

5. Does your design become overly powerful in a podded group of figures, or provide significant benefit to your army without leaving your Start Zone?

-----No, maximum range is linked to spell cards.

6. You can attack your own figures in Heroscape, does your design have any powers that will trigger off of doing so or otherwise wounding/destroying your own figures? Is this intentional on your part? Will the design be too efficient or potent when doing so?

-----Changed this while doing checklist. Originally his second power would let him roll an unblockable against an ally unit and get a spell card back, now it specifies enemy.

CONSISTENCY CHECKLIST (SHORT FORM)

Spoiler Alert!

Consistency Concerns
Name and Identity
Verify character is named in a way that is clear, accurate and feels consistent with the way other characters are named.

-----Yes, character uses his name as it appears in his series.

Uniqueness and Type
Verify that the power text reflects the listed uniqueness and type, that the uniqueness fits the character, and that squad size is listed for squads.

-----Yes.

Left Box
If the character's species, class or personality is reused, verify that the character feels thematically consistent with other figures that have that species, class or personality. If they are not reused, verify that there is no pre-existing species, class or personality that would make more sense.

-----Species is new, he is a creature all to his own with the only other fit being entity. Class is reused and seems thematically consistent. Personality is re-used and he seems to fit in with peers using that class.

Size and Height
Verify that the listed size and height are accurate. Standing the mini up next to a stack of tiles, and a few other minis of various sizes, is encouraged.

-----Yes, even suspended upside-down on his flightstand the bottoms of his feet only just reach the top of the 5th tile.

Super Strength and Flying
Verify that these special powers are present if they make sense, and not if they don't.

-----Yes. He was shown to fly easily through the use of his powers, he walks around upside-down on panel normally. He brawled with an empowered wonder woman and strong enough to beat her head on just using physical strength.

New Powers - Names
Verify that any new powers are not using power names identical to, or very similar to, pre-existing powers. Verify that any new powers are actually new and not old powers with new names.

-----Everything looks good.

New Powers - Effects
Verify that the effect and timing of all new powers is clear. Verify that any logical immunities, benefits, or weaknesses (whether those be necessary for thematic or mechanical reasons) are implemented: consider whether defensive powers that work against normal attacks should also work against special attacks, whether or not a power has an elemental component that some figures should resist, and whether or not unliving figures (such as Undead and Androids) should be affected.

-----Nothing too crazy here. Timing looks clear for shuffling spell cards into the UD deck and for rolling an unblockable attack die, and for how you can attack with your normal attack after a spell. Theme seems fine because he can use all magic and bypass the requirement of sacrifice (normal rules) for magic in his universe, makes sense for him to lash out and ready more magic once he has blown 5 spell cards.

Reused Powers
Verify that the design is reusing special powers in place of creating new ones (and, where relevant, reusing power markers in the place of creating new ones), where reused special powers (or power markers) could implement the same theme and mechanics with no differences or only trivial differences. Verify that any reused special powers have the correct text.

-----No re-used powers because we are doing new things, nothing comes close currently.

Power Level
Verify that the character's movement, attack, range, and defense (in conjunction with any special powers that enhance those stats) feel consistent with the capabilities of characters with analogous powers and abilities. Verify that the character falls into a similar point range to characters with comparative powers and abilities.

-----As a top tier villian in DC he seems appropriate and should be able to hang with someone like Trigon who should be a close peer thematically. Trigon relies on demons, UDM relies on magic.

Caught one thing to update while I was doing the list, specified that he can only hit enemy figures with his unblockable attack die to retrieve spells so that he can't just farm off your own figures to gain his spell cards back. SP has been updated.

[IAmBatman]

Good call. Checklist win.

[Shiftrex]

I propose we move to initial playtesting

[IAmBatman]

yea

[fret_gurglo]

Yea

[Tornado]

Yea

[Lord Pyre]

Yea

[Shiftrex]

Looking for one more

[Arch-vile]

ɐǝʎ

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: UPSIDE-DOWN MAN
VERSION TESTED

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by Shiftrex

NAME = UPSIDE-DOWN MAN
SECRET IDENTITY = n/a

SPECIES = OTHERKIND
UNIQUENESS = EVENT HERO
CLASS = TORMENTOR
PERSONALITY = MALEVOLENT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 14

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 7
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 705

TRUE MAGIC
You may draft or cast Spell cards with Upside-down Man as though he has the Magical Defense Power and any Special Powers, Class, or Species listed on them. Upside-down Man never receives wounds from spells he casts. Whenever a Spell Card would be removed from the game, you may shuffle it face down into his Upside-down Deck.

UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY
Upside-down Man is never attacked when leaving an engagement. While there are five or more Spell Cards in his Upside-down Deck, whenever he passes over a wounded enemy figure you may roll an unblockable attack die against the chosen figure. If you roll a skull, draw the top Spell Card from the Upside-down Deck and add it to your army.

LIVING MAGIC
After Upside-down Man casts a spell instead of attacking normally, he may immediately attack with his normal attack.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Original Design

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = The Upsidedown Man
SECRET IDENTITY = n/a

SPECIES = Otherkind
UNIQUENESS = Event Hero
CLASS = Tormentor
PERSONALITY = Malevolent

SIZE/HEIGHT = Medium 5

LIFE = 13

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 7
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = ???

TRUE MAGIC
While drafting, The Upsidedown Man is considered to to have any Special Powers, Class, or Species listed on Spell Cards you draft. Upsidedown Man never receives wounds from spells he casts. While The Upsidedown Man is on the battlefield, whenever a Spell Card would be removed from the game, you may instead place it underneath this card.

UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY
The Upsidedown Man is never attacked when leaving an engagement. Whenever the Upsidedown Man passes over a wounded figure, you may roll an unblockable attack die against the chosen figure. If you roll a skull, take the top Spell Card from underneath this card and add it to your army.

LIVING MAGIC
If The Upsidedown Man casts a spell instead of attacking normally, he may immediately attack with his normal attack one time.

MAGICAL DEFENSE
When The Upsidedown Man is attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Magical Defense special power, the most wounds The Upsidedown Man can take for this attack is one.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Army Test
Map: DARK DIMENSION
Units: Upside-down Man (705), Judge Anderson (190), Lightning Bolt (5), Healing Energy (x5) (100) (1000) vs Godzilla (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Initiative Lawful Magic. Judge Anderson advances.
Godzilla advances.
Upside-down Man advances.
Godzilla advances.
Upside-down Man engages Godzilla, fails to hit him with a Lightning Bolt, then punches Godzilla for three wounds from height.
Godzilla punches Upside-down Man from height disadvantage for four wounds.

Round 2: Initiative Godzilla. He punches up on Upside-down Man for a fifth wound.
Upside-down Man uses Healing Energy and then punches down on Godzilla for one wound.
Godzilla stomps through Upside-down Man for a fifth wound, then uses Atomic Breath to score three more.
Judge Anderson advances and shoots Godzilla for a wound from height.
Godzilla stomps through Upside-down Man for a ninth wound, then has his attack blocked by Anderson.
Upside-down Man heals and then rolls terribly from height and fails to hit Godzilla.
Upside-down Man takes a lava field wound.

Round 3: Initiative Upside-down Man. He heals a wound, then punches down on Godzilla for two wounds.
Godzilla punches up for three wounds on Upside-down Man.
Upside-down Man finally uses his fifth spell and heals a wound, then punches down on Godzilla for four wounds.
Godzilla misses his unblockable and whiffs his Atomic Breath.
Upsdide-down Man passes over Godzilla, missing the unblockable, then heals a wound and punches down for four wounds.
Godzilla misses his unblockable and has his attack blocked by Judge Anderson.

Round 4: Initiative Godzilla. He rolls terribly and can’t hit Upside-down Man with an attack.
Upside-down Man misses another unblockable and punches Godzilla for two wounds.
Godzilla misses his unblockable and has his attack blocked.
Upside-down Man misses an unblockable and has his attack blocked.
Godzilla hits his unblockable but has his attack cancelled by Anderson.
Upside-down Man misses his unblockable, but KO’s Godzilla with an attack.

Unit Summary: He’s easy to wound, but has enough life to stick around and Judge Anderson and healing spells gave him the staying power to finish Godzilla mostly with his normal attack, even when his Upsidedown Cruelty and Living Magic weren’t doing much.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted [19] wounds on [Godzilla [19]]
• TRUE MAGIC: Shuffled back in [6] spells
• UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY: Rolled [4] unblockables to do [0] wounds and return [0] spells
• LIVING MAGIC: Used to get in extra normal attacks [6] times.
• Damage Taken: 15 wounds.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Judge Anderson with Full Life and Uside-down Man with 4/14 Life remaining win.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: CONFLICT CHERNOBYL
Units: Upside-down Man (705), Judge Anderson (190), Lightning Bolt (x5) (25)), Healing Energy (x4) (80) (1000) vs Fantastic Four (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Dropped one Healing Energy for four Lightning Bolts in hopes of getting his auto wounds going sooner. Mister Fantastic’s Rubber Wrap is a hard counter to what Upside-down Man wants to do as well, so the extra range and attack power is good to have.
Round 1: Initiative Fan Four. Invisible Woman, Thing, and Mister Fantastic advance.
Judge Anderson advances and misses a shot on Thing.
Human Torch and Invisible Woman both attack Judge Anderson from height and range. Invisible Woman scores one wound. Mister Fantastic moves into position in front of his allies.
UPSD Man burns a Lightning Bolt on Human Torch but can’t hit.
Thing advances. Human Torch avoids a swipe and misses his Flame On attempt on Judge Anderson. She blocks his attack from height with her X. Mister Fantastic Rubber Wraps her and hits her for one wound.
UPSD Man engages Invisible Woman and fails to hit her with a Lightning Bolt or an attack. Ouch.

Round 2: Initiative UPSD Man, who whiffs on a lightning bolt and then has an attack of 3 blocked by Invisible Woman. Just terrible.
Human Torch takes a swipe, then hits UPSD Man with a Flame On, then burns Judge Anderson’s X with an attack from height. Invisible Woman moves away from UPSD Man and blasts Anderson for a wound. Mister Fantastic punches UPSD Man for a third wound.
UPSD Man uses healing energy on himself, then punches Mister Fantastic for two wounds.
Human Torch avoids a swipe, Flames On UPSD Man for two wounds, then punches out Judge Anderson. Thing punches UPSD Man for three wounds. Mister Fantastic is blocked.
UPSD Man uses healing energy and punches Mister Fantastic for a third wound.
Mister Fantastic finally botches a leadership roll and his attack is blocked.

Round 3: Initiative Fantastic Four. Human Torch avoids the swipe, Flames On successfully, then catches UPSD Man whiffing against a big attack. Suddenly UPSD Man is down to two life. Thing rolls 8 skulls on 9 dice and finishes the job.

Unit Summary: Four attacks in a row against Invisible Woman resulting in no damage really hurt his chances here. The Fan Four consistently got three activations and the dice here seemed to favor them overall. With Rubber Wrap perfectly countering Upsidedown Cruelty, Upside-down Man never got his engine going and didn’t have enough offense to take down the Fan Four.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted [3] wounds on [Mister Fantastic [3]]
• TRUE MAGIC: Shuffled back in [5] spells
• UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY: Rolled [0] unblockables to do [0] wounds and return [0] spells
• LIVING MAGIC: Used to get in extra normal attacks [4] times.
• Damage Taken: 16 wounds.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Invisible Woman with Full Life, Thing with Full Life, Human Torch with 4/5 Life, and Mister Fantastic with 2/5 Life win.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: ASTEROID M
Units: Upside-down Man (705), Judge Anderson (190), Lightning Bolt (x5) (25), Healing Energy (x4) (80) (1000) vs Hawkwoman (260), Wonder Woman (JL) (310), Green Arrow (JL) (210), Black Canary (JL) (220) (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative UPSD Man. Judge Anderson moves forward into space.
Black Canary does the same.
Judge Anderson moves to the middle of the map and fails to hit Black Canary from range.
Hawkwoman advances.
UPSD Man fails to hit Hawkwoman with a Lightning Bolt, but she flies up.
Black Canary advances.

Round 2: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative UPSD Man. He engages Black Canary, fails to hit her with lightning, then smacks her for two wounds with his normal attack from height. She misses her cry.
Black Canary goes Into the Fray and forces Anderson to burn her X to save UPSD Man from a big attack. Green Arrow hits UPSD Man for two wounds from range and heigh disadvantage.
UPSD Man uses healing energy and then punches Black Canary for one wound.
Hawkwoman strikes Judge Anderson for three wounds, recharging Wonder Woman. Green Arrow sheds a JL Marker and fails a ranged attack on Judge Anderson.
UPSD Man uses healing energy, then KO’s Black Canary. She misses her cry again.
Hawkwoman KO’s Judge Anderson and recharges Green Arrow.

Round 3: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative Justice League. Hawkwoman hits UPSD Man for three wounds and recharges Wonder Woman. Green Arrow sheds a marker and snipes for two more wounds.
UPSD Man uses a healing energy, then punches Green Arrow for three wounds.
Hawkwoman hits UPSD Man for two wounds, recharging Green Arrow, who immediately uses the marker and attacks from height, for one wound.
UPSD Man flies over Green Arrow, inflicting the last wound on him and returning a Lightning Bolt, which he then uses on Hawkwoman but neither that nor his normal attack can hit her.
Hawkwoman puts UPSD Man up to 9 wounds.
UPSD Man hasn’t wounded Hawkwoman, so he can’t get auto wounds on her. His Lightning Bolt and normal attack are both blocked.

Round 4: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative UPSD Man. He can’t hit Hawkwoman with lightning, but does smack her for 4 wounds with his normal attack.
Hawkwoman hits hard, putting UPSD Man down to one life. She recharges Wonder Woman.
UPSD Man misses the unblockable that would’ve finished Hawkwoman, uses his last healing energy, then rolls terribly and gets taken out by Aerial Assault.

Unit Summary: The wounded restriction on Upsidedown Cruelty and the need to have five spells burned first really reduces how useful it is. Without it, Upside-down Man didn’t quite have the offensive output to take out the Justice League by himself.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted [11] wounds on [Black Canary [4], Green Arrow [3], Hawkwoman [4]]
• TRUE MAGIC: Shuffled back in [8] spells
• UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY: Rolled [2] unblockables to do [1] wounds to [Green Arrow [1]] and return [1] spells
• LIVING MAGIC: Used to get in extra normal attacks [7] times.
• Damage Taken: 18 wounds.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Wonder Woman with Full Life and Hawkwoman with 1/5 Life win.

___________________________________________________________

UNIT SUMMARY: He feels really close and the more spell diversity that gets added, the better he’ll get, so I don’t want to worry too much about tweaking him to make him better. That said, I do think he’s a tad underwhelming, largely because Upsidedown Cruelty takes a lot to get going. I would consider lowering the threshold to 4 spells in the deck just to get it going sooner and to give him more chances of paying things off. Either that or eliminate the “wounded” requirement on figures he rolls unblockables against to give him more of an answer against really hard to hit figures.

[Shiftrex]

That's a bit of a relief honestly to have him hit with a soft note. Reed Richards wrapping him up is just fantastic

It'd be dishonest to say this'll be my only foray into magic users and spell cards, I think taking away the wounded restriction would be a nice way to go since he can still be used in conjunction with or against magical defense users to get to fill his deck.

UPSIDEDOWN CRUELTY
Upside-down Man is never attacked when leaving an engagement. While there are five or more Spell Cards in his Upside-down Deck, whenever he passes over an enemy figure you may roll an unblockable attack die against the chosen figure. If you roll a skull, draw the top Spell Card from the Upside-down Deck and add it to your army.

Can I make a proposal to move to public playtesting with that change?

[IAmBatman]

Yes and yea