Project Pokemon Design Thread: VENUSAUR!

[mac122]

Welcome to the Design Thread for Project Pokémon!

(General discussion about Project Pokémon occurs here.)
(Visit the Playtesting Thread here.)

Current card in the design phase:

VENUSAUR!

Discussion for Venusaur starts here.

Goals of the Design thread

1) To create Pokémon cards, within the Heroscape game system, that accurately represent the original Pokemon's theme and abilities.
2) To create Pokémon cards that are 100% compatible with classic Heroscape and can also be used in a Pokéscape variant.
3) To allow the entire Heroscapers.com community to comment and provide suggestions.

Rules of the Design Thread

1) Only "Trainers" from Project Pokémon can create the first drafts of Pokémon cards.
2) Any community member may post comments, suggestions, and ideas about the card currently in development.
3) Once the card's original creator feels that the card is ready, he or she may call for a vote to pass the card into the playtest phase. Trainers and Junior Trainers have 24 hours to vote. The card will pass into playtesting with a simple majority. Exception: if after 24 hours, less than 10 votes have been cast and the majority is less than 3 votes, an additional 24 hours will be allowed for voting.
4) Only one card at a time will be in design and only one card will be in playtesting at any one time. Exception: if a card fails the playtest phase, it is returned to the design phase for revision.
5) Everyone must repect their fellow community members and refrain from posting rude or disparagring comments. Individuals who are consistently rude or try to start flame wars are not tolerated and will be reported to forum moderators

Draft Format

Spoiler Alert!

Use this template to post the drafts of a card:

Pokémon's Name:


Left Box Information:

Class: (based on Pokédex. For example, Pikachu is an "Electric Mouse" Pokémon, so here you would put "Electric Mouse" if you were doing Pikachu)
Personality: (Just like in Classic Heroscape)
Size: (Small, Medium, Large or Huge with size of 2-12)


Stat Box Information:

Life:
Move:
Range:
Attack:
Defense:
Point Cost:


Special Abilities/Attacks:


Pokémon's Role: (What role do you envision this Pokémon playing in an army? Does it take hits or distract, does it deal damage, does it support other Pokémon? How does the Pokémon do what it is supposed to?)

Project Pokémon Art Department

Spoiler Alert!

Gotta card 'em all!

Meet the Art Department:

White Knight, Artist
mac122, Art Director (those who don't have Photoshop, direct)

Project Pokémon Art Department Guidelines

Spoiler Alert!

• The Project Pokémon Art Department will be responsible for creation of all cards, symbols, rule books, status markers, paper figure proxies, and any other graphics or materials needed for Project Pokémon.
• Art Department Artists will need working knowledge of and access to Photoshop software (or a compatible and equivalent software package).
• Art Department members must be willing and able to work collaboratively with the other members of the Art Department team. Constructive comments and criticism are welcome and necessary to create the best product possible. Destructive or denigrating comments are not.
• Card creation duties will rotate through the ranks of the artists. Design order will be randomly set at the beginning of the project. Artists may mutually agree to trade positions if desired. On their turn, an artist may choose to pass and allow the next artist in line to complete the card.
• The finalized template, in Photoshop format, will be provided to all members of the Art Department. In order to maintain consistency throughout the project, no deviations from the template will be allowed without unanimous consent of the members of the Art Department.
• Each artist will choose the image to be used on the cards they create. Artists must be willing to discuss their choice and be open to changes if a majority of the Art Department disagrees with the selection.

The Design Cycle

• Discussion on a card is completed and the card is turned over to the Art Department and assigned to an artist.
• A rough draft is created and posted for the entire group to use for playtest purposes.
• The artist chooses the image to be used and prepares a draft of the card and presents it to the other members of the Art Department for discussion.
• The members of the Art Department will discuss the design and suggest changes.
• Any revisions are made and the card is presented to the Art Department for approval.
• The card is then presented to the entire Project Pokémon team for discussion and approval.
• Upon final approval, the card is posted to the first page of the display thread.

________________________________________

Project Pokemon Card Blanks and MSE Update Files (and Digimon, too).

MSE Update Files
Card Blanks 1
Card Blanks 2
Card Blanks 3
Card Blanks 4
Card Blanks 5
Digimon Card Blanks

[jwindjackal]

Great Work Mac! Can't wait to for the first sample to come out, good luck to everyone, we've made it this far, let's not crash and burn now! (:

[wulfhunter667]

Charmander

Pokemon
Uncommon Hero
Flame Lizard
Loyal
Small 2

Life 3
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 2
70 Points

Smokescreen 15
When this Charmander is targeted for an attack from a non-adjacent opponent, you may roll a 20-sided die. If you roll a 15 or higher, this Charmander no longer has any visible hit zones for the duration of the targeting figure's turn.
Ember Special Attack
Fire. Range 4. Attack 2.
If this Charmander inflicts one or more wounds with Ember Special Attack, roll a 20-sided die. If you roll 19 or higher, place a Burn marker on that figure's army card and remove any other status markers from that figure's Army Card. At the end of each round, each player must roll a 20-sided die in turn for each figure they control with a Burn marker on it.
-If you roll 1-10, add one additional wound to that figure.
-If you roll 11-17, nothing happens.
-If you roll 18-20, remove the Burn marker.

Charmander is a very straightforward unit with decent offensive and defensive abilities. Ember is designed to give him that something extra, even if it is only a 10% chance. Note also that the system for Burn in the Ember SA is designed to be the standard for that Status Effect as well as the standard for the Poison Status Effect, since, realistically, they are the same thing. I did go back and forth about whether or not to allow an opportunity for the Burn to self-heal on a 20, but since it does not seem thematic, I opted against it.

[NecroBlade]

wulf, I can't tell you how almost EXACT that is to my own custom version of Charmander.

[minimoose38]

Very close to what I had thought up as well. My only problem is 100 points seems a little high for a 2 defense 3 life figure. I also don't think a starting pokemon like charamander would be close in point value to Agent Carr or the Krav. I would think the starters would be around 50 points each with the idea that, in the game, you only have your starter for like 14-18 levels or so before it evolves. Also putting Charmander at 100 points ramps up the scale for how many points Charmeleon and Charizard would be. Charizard would probably end up being like 300 points which is a little ridiculous

My suggestion on how to fix this would be lower attack by one, raise the smokescreen roll by one or two (keeping in mind that smokescreen really only makes a difference in the game after its been used 2 or 3 times.) and then cut the cost by at least 40 points. As he is right now he is way over cost. Theres not really any reason I would draft him over Agent Carr, Major X17 or even Ne-gok-sa who is 90 pts.

Because the starters are starters they are all very balanced with each other, so I tihnk when making Charmander and the other two we should keep this in mind and keep them on par with each other as much as possible. Make life the same, range the same, attack and defense roughly the same, like one a 3/2, two a 2/3 etc, and keep one short range special attack and maybe one other minor power. Other than that I am good with the moves chosen, and leftbox stats. Points need work though, which are always the hardest part of any custom.

EDIT: Also I think ember added burn counters is a little unnecessary for little Charmander to be doing. Assuming we are going to try and lower his cost to a more reasonable level, I would say just make it a d20 roll for one extra wound. Save the Burn counters for the truly vicious fire moves, like Will O' Wisp or Lava Plume.

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by minimoose38

Points need work though, which are always the hardest part of any custom.

I agree we should try to keep Charmander around 50 points.

My son can't wait to playtest the figures, and playtesting should tell us if we costed figures right.

[mac122]

I think that's a good way to handle Burn without it being too overpowering.
I agree with minimoose that 100 points is too high. As Charmander is right now, I'd think we could set him at 80 and not be too far off. IMO, we shouldn't lower his normal attack. If it goes to 2, the same as Ember, why would you ever use it? I could see raising the Smokescreen roll by 1 to 16. If we do then I think Charmander is 60-70.

Nice job, wulf!

[NightSwipe]

I agree that the point values need to be lowered, just a bit. I also agree that we should probably ease off on the burn until Charizard/Magmortar/etc. (more powerful Fire-Types). Maybe also raising smokescreen by one. Other than that, great first card, wulf!

[tcglkn]

This is a good start. I also worry about the high cost. Maybe make Ember something like "if you inflict a wound with ember SA, roll one attack die. If you roll a blank roll again, if you roll a sheild add one additional wound"

[mac122]

Originally Posted by NightSwipe

I also agree that we should probably ease off on the burn until Charizard/Magmortar/etc. (more powerful Fire-Types).

I don't think we need to change Burn for Charmander. IMO, with the more powerful fire-types, the die roll gets lowered to make it more likely to be burned, but leaving the Burn marker mechanics as they are written. This way, Charmeleon's needs say 17 or 18 to 20 to cause a burn and Charizard maybe 15 or 16 to 20.

[jwindjackal]

Okay quikc question, is burn already a decided upon set effect?Or does burn and other effects still need to be discussed and universalized.

To start of Wulf nice job, this is a great start to the design thread and process. Your Charmander is a little to high cost, but rather than better its stats I would say just lower the cost, you want to be able to have future evolutions of this card, so that is the time to make the powers better. IMHO the basic pokemon still should be weaker in comparison to their evolutions. If you had Charmander at 100 then Charmeleon would be like 160 and Charizard might be like 220. That would mean these pokemon could easily take up tons of space in your army, and I don't like giving up space.

As for smokescreen, well thought out decent ability, my problems with this or minimal if not non-existant.

Ember seems like a fair ability it makes sense that ember would give something a burn, but our status effect situation needs to be sorted out and fast, so we know what exactly the set rules for burn and other effects are.

[mac122]

Originally Posted by jwindjackal

Ember seems like a fair ability it makes sense that ember would give something a burn, but our status effect situation needs to be sorted out and fast, so we know what exactly the set rules for burn and other effects are.

In the Design Thread, as the status effects come up, we'll hash them out. So, now is the time to make suggestions about Burn.