Justice League Dark Brainstorming

[Yodaking]

Just spit-balling here, but reading your discussion of the madness effect makes me think rearranging an opponents OM's would be a fair and fun representation. Not consistent targeted OM rearrangement like Mad Thinker was doing, but some random OM rearrangement could really disrupt your opponents plans while not denying them a turn (unless an OM is moved onto a card that then dies before they can use it). For some reason I feel it works better as a defensive effect but if the theme is more accurate for it to be an offensive effect just adjust the wording accordingly.

MADNESS VEST
After Shade is targeted for an opponent's attack and rolls defense dice, if Shade has more blanks than the opponent had on their dice, if possible you must choose an unrevealed Order Marker on an opponents card, your opponent must immediately move it to a new card they control.

or

MADNESS VEST
After Shade is targeted for an opponent's attack and rolls defense dice, when possible choose an unrevealed Order Marker on an opponents card, if there is exactly 1 blank, your opponent must immediately move it to a new card they control, if there are 2 or more blanks, you must choose a new card they control and they must move it to that card.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Arkham

A simplified and more useful version for what it currently is doing:

Other possibilities...

Defense subtraction:

Order Marker swapping in the same Army:

Unblockables:

Just stuff like that has a feeling of madness and reality manipulation.

Just my twopennoth, but I kind of feel as though giving him a choice between 1 or 4 would feel the most like the reality manipulating, 'causes weird **** to happen' vibe that's been described. Perhaps even add a figure moving option.

[LordVenoc]

Here's an idea I had for a Swamp Thing II

NAME = SWAMP THING (II)

SPECIES = AVATAR
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CREATURE
PERSONALITY = DETERMINED

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS =

AVATAR OF THE GREEN
When Swamp Thing is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, add one die to his Attack and Defense. While Swamp Thing is in his start zone, all other friendly figures on grass or swamp spaces rolling defense dice may count one blank rolled as a shield.

VINE DRAG
After moving and before attacking, if Swamp Thing was not engaged prior to moving, you may choose an opponent's non-adjacent small or medium figure within 4 clear sight spaces whose base is no more than 10 levels above Swamp Thing’s height or 10 levels below Swamp Thing's base. Place the chosen figure on an empty space adjacent to Swamp Thing. The chosen figure does not receive any leaving engagement attacks.

FROM THE GREEN
When Swamp Thing is destroyed, place him on his card with exactly 5 Wound Markers. At the start of each round after Swamp Thing is destroyed, you may roll 6 combat dice. If at least 2 blanks are rolled, remove X Wound Markers from Swamp Things card, where X equals the number of blanks rolled -1, and place Swamp Thing on an empty grass, swamp, or swamp water space or adjacent to an Evergreen or Jungle piece.

SUPER STRENGTH

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by LordVenoc

Here's an idea I had for a Swamp Thing II

My initial thoughts;
-Creature is usually a class, so maybe switch Avatar to the species? Or keep it consistent with the other Swamp Thing, who I believe was a Plant Elemental.
-I like Avatar of the Green and Vine Drag.
-From the Green seems overly complicated to me, and Zatanna won't be able to modify his results anyways. I do like the mechanics that a weaker Swamp Thing is just going to keep popping back up, instead of a full force revive like other figures.

[Yodaking]

Not sure if you need the -1 part in From the Green. Just 1 wound marker removed for each blank rolled would seem sufficient. Since he is not on the board, Zatanna wouldn't be changing his dice rolls so the odds are 1 in 6, or 1 wound marker removed per round and that would take 5 rounds for him to return on average. Most games will end within 5 rounds after the first time he falls. Especially is he's staying in the start zone for a while to provide the defense boost for his allies.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Not sure if you need the -1 part in From the Green. Just 1 wound marker removed for each blank rolled would seem sufficient. Since he is not on the board, Zatanna wouldn't be changing his dice rolls so the odds are 1 in 6, or 1 wound marker removed per round and that would take 5 rounds for him to return on average. Most games will end within 5 rounds after the first time he falls. Especially is he's staying in the start zone for a while to provide the defense boost for his allies.

I read the power differently, in that once he gets a wound removed, he reappears on the battlefield. So if he's destroyed and next round he rolls 2 blanks, you remove 1 wound and he comes back with 4 life. I could be misreading LV's intent though.

[Yodaking]

No, I'm sure I just read it too quickly to really absorb the intent.

*edit* Yeah now that I'm reading it again I understand better. Returning to the game with only 1 or 2 life, then getting killed and returning again with 1 or 2 life left until you run out of units.

[LordVenoc]

I could see the blanks for From the Green being shifted to shields. As is, he will probably rarely come back with more than one wound removed. It's based in the fact that he can regrow from anything, at virtually any distance. Thought any easy regrowth might be more interesting than any straight up healing power.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by LordVenoc

I could see the blanks for From the Green being shifted to shields. As is, he will probably rarely come back with more than one wound removed. It's based in the fact that he can regrow from anything, at virtually any distance. Thought any easy regrowth might be more interesting than any straight up healing power.

I'd rather just keep the blanks and remove the -1. That's the part that really seems least interesting to me.

[MrNobody]

MADNESS VEST
Shade adds 2 to his attack when attacking an Insane, Unstable, or Troubled figure. After attacking with Shade, if you rolled at least 1 Blank, you may choose one of the following;

• Place the defending figure exactly X spaces away, where X is the number of Blanks rolled. Placed figures will not take Leaving Engagement Attacks.
• If you rolled 2 or more Blanks, you may remove an Order Marker at random from the defending figure’s card.

If no Blanks were rolled, remove an unrevealed Order Marker from this card, if possible.

Okay here's my new attempt at a power. Being able to do various things but having the possibility of a backfire seems pretty Shade to me. The 2 options are replaceable, but it's stuff that could work. The penalty for not rolling a Blank seems a bit harsh, but I couldn't think of anything better.

EDIT: Yeah, losing an OM for not rolling a blank seems way too harsh in retrospect. What about this?

MADNESS VEST
Shade adds 2 to his attack when attacking an Insane, Unstable, or Troubled figure. After rolling attack dice for Shade's normal attack, if you rolled at least 1 Blank, you may choose one of the following;

• For each Blank rolled, subtract 1 from the defending figure's defense number this turn.
• If you rolled 2 or more Blanks, you may remove an Order Marker at random from the defending figure’s card.

If no Skulls were rolled, remove an unrevealed Order Marker from this card, if possible.

[quozl]

Originally Posted by LordVenoc

AVATAR OF THE GREEN
When Swamp Thing is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, add one die to his Attack and Defense. While Swamp Thing is in his start zone, all other friendly figures on grass or swamp spaces rolling defense dice may count one blank rolled as a shield.

I'd change this so he doesn't just sit in your start zone, which sounds totally boring to me.

How's this?

AVATAR OF THE GREEN
While Swamp Thing is on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, add one die to his Attack and Defense, and all other friendly figures on grass or swamp spaces rolling defense dice may count one blank rolled as a shield.

[MrNobody]

Okay, I finished the first 8 issues of JLD. I wasn't exactly blown away, most of the characters seemed like really lame versions of themselves, which is a shame cause I like most of Peter Milligan's work that I've read. Like l_m said, Shade was basically just a taxi to bring the team together, then he freaks out and leaves. I'm not going to pretend that's some big assassination of his character, but I don't think it's the best material to base a card on either. It did give an idea for a spell though;

CIRCLE OF MYSTICAL PROTECTION
UNIQUE/COMMON SPELL
??? POINTS

Instead of moving with this figure, you may cast this spell. For the rest of the round, or until this figure moves, this figure and all friendly figures adjacent to this figure cannot be targeted or chosen for a Special Attack or Special Power by an opponent's figure with the Magical Defense Special Power.