HelmAverse Supers - Reinforcements Arrive

[Matt Helm]

Don't have much time the last few days but here's the first draft of Brainiac:

BRAINIAC

Image here ... but I'll have to take a photo.

ANDROID
UNIQUE HERO
GENIUS
CALCULATING
MEDIUM 6

LIFE: 6
MOVE: 6
RANGE: 4
ATTACK: 6
DEFENSE: 5

Points: 330

FORCE FIELD BELT
When Brainiac rolls defense dice against any attack, if there are no unrevealed Order Markers on this card, add one automatic shield to whatever is rolled.

TRANSFER OF CONSCIOUSNESS
At the start of each of your turns after Brainiac has been destroyed, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 19 or higher, choose a figure you control to destroy and immediately place Brainiac on the space previously occupied by that figure. Remove all Wound Markers on Brainiac’s card.

FLYING
When counting spaces for Brainiac’s movement, ignore elevations. Brainiac may fly over water without stopping, pass over figures without becoming engaged, and fly over obstacles such as ruins. When Brainiac starts to fly, if he is engaged he will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

SUPERSTRENGTH

[Confred]

Genius as a class?
I assume Mastermind was intentionally avoided?

uncomfortably close to Thanos

[A3n]

Brainiac

Cheers

[Sherman Davies]

Brainiac looks good, Matt. Just out of curiosity, what's the thematic reasoning behind Force Field Belt? In the comics, does it only work when Brainiac's inactive?

[davidlhsl]

Just to let you folks know that Sabretooth's link on the first page is broken. I was able to locate it via searching in Photobucket. The "copy" should be removed, and the "4" should be placed between the "h" and the underscore "_" instead of after the underscore.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by davidlhsl

Just to let you folks know that Sabretooth's link on the first page is broken. I was able to locate it via searching in Photobucket. The "copy" should be removed, and the "4" should be placed between the "h" and the underscore "_" instead of after the underscore.

Good pickup, Matt use this link:

Originally Posted by A3n

Sabretooth.

& Batman Beyond.

Cheers

Cheers

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

Brainiac looks good, Matt. Just out of curiosity, what's the thematic reasoning behind Force Field Belt? In the comics, does it only work when Brainiac's inactive?

I gotta agree. The only Force Field Belt I know of, is the one worn by his descendent, Brainiac 5, a member of the Legion of Superheroes. Matt, I know you like to do only one, generic version of characters who had many secret identities/people whom "played the part" so to speak, but Brainiac 5 and Brainiac 13 (et al.) are totally different. One is a villain from the 20th/21st century, the other a hero in the 30th/31st century.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

I gotta agree. The only Force Field Belt I know of, is the one worn by his descendent, Brainiac 5, a member of the Legion of Superheroes. Matt, I know you like to do only one, generic version of characters who had many secret identities/people whom "played the part" so to speak, but Brainiac 5 and Brainiac 13 (et al.) are totally different. One is a villain from the 20th/21st century, the other a hero in the 30th/31st century.

Spidey said what I was thinking but could think of the words to say it correctly for you to understand that they aren't different people in the same (or similar) suit.

Cheers

[Matt Helm]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

I gotta agree. The only Force Field Belt I know of, is the one worn by his descendent, Brainiac 5, a member of the Legion of Superheroes. Matt, I know you like to do only one, generic version of characters who had many secret identities/people whom "played the part" so to speak, but Brainiac 5 and Brainiac 13 (et al.) are totally different. One is a villain from the 20th/21st century, the other a hero in the 30th/31st century.

I started with this from Wiki...

Powers and abilities

Brainiac has a "12th level intellect", allowing calculation abilities, enhanced memory, and advanced understanding of mechanical engineering, bio-engineering, physics, and other theoretical and applied sciences, as well as extensive knowledge of various alien technologies. The character has created devices such as a force field belt[17] and a shrinking ray capable of reducing cities.[17] Brainiac's advanced mental powers have shown him capable of possessing others, transferring his consciousness,[18] creating and manipulating computer systems, and exerting some control over time and space. John Byrne's re-imagining of the character possessed telepathy and telekinesis that were further augmented by an implanted electrode head-piece. The most recent version of Brainiac possesses strength and durability to challenge Superman.[19]

Which the footnote says was in Action Comics #242 (July 1958 ).

I know it may be reaching going back to the start of the Silver Age, but I also thought it went with that JLA cartoon episode where Darkseid recruits Superman to help him against Brainiac. When Superman goes up against Brainiac's ship, there is a force field around it.

I know the piece I chose to use is Brainiac 13, but I thought it was closest to the cartoon version and therefore closest to the public perception of Brainiac. A super android with all of the technology he can find in the universe would probably have picked up the force field somewhere.


As for SD's question, I think he wants to know my thematic thinking on the reason why it is only active when he has no OM's. Well aside from the playability fun of that little twist, I thought I remember a classic pose of the silver age Brainiac with hands on hips (and polo shirt) almost passive as he is battling Superman. I thought that maybe as a computer, he keeps his technology based force field (as opposed to Sue Storm's) up while he processes plans or other internal workings. But when he goes into attack mode, maybe the technology forces him to drop the shield? Maybe his power source just can't handle the strain of attacking? Maybe I need some help in creating a reason but bottom line is, the character has been changed through the years and doesn't seem to have a real definitive set of abilities that would translate well. I just thought the Force field mentioned in wiki would be a cool thing to play with... as long as an opponent can time it right an attack Brainiac when he has to let it down.

So anyway, if I'm wrong about Silver Age Brainiac having a Force Field Belt, than I'll work something else out. But if that goofy tennis pro looking dude had one in 1958... than I think I'm good to go.

We could change the name to Ultra-Force Shield based on this.

And yeah Confred, he is close to Thanos. I mean flying powerful guy with range that seems to resurrect himself... I don't think he could be anything but close to Thanos. It's just the way it happened... but if I had the points to spend, I'd draft Thanos over Brainiac.

[Sherman Davies]

The Force Field explanation works for me.

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

And yeah Confred, he is close to Thanos. I mean flying powerful guy with range that seems to resurrect himself... I don't think he could be anything but close to Thanos. It's just the way it happened... but if I had the points to spend, I'd draft Thanos over Brainiac.

I think it's perfectly fine to have custom characters that parallel other figures, official or otherwise. After all, so many of Marvel and DC's characters are ripoffs of each other that it's only natural that their Heroscape counterparts should play similarly.

~ Sherman, who can't wait to design his Hawkeye/Mockingbird team to match his Green Arrow/Black Canary customs.

[A3n]

Yeah the force field explanation works but for me it isn't an iconic depiction of "Brainiac" I think Transfer of Consciousness is a good capture of the iconic, but the shield belt is really only iconic for "Brainiac 5". "Brainiac" is almost as durable & strong as Superman, add to that his ability to override anything mechanical & control it or reprogram it to become an offensive weapon. These are his real iconic traits that I would prefer to see captured on a vanilla Brainiac card. But hey that's only my opinion & they are your cards for your table .

Cheers

[Matt Helm]

I hear the cry for thematic purity and despite the Silver Age Brainiac having his Ultra Force Field, I will concede and agree to change it. We can save the Force Field Belt for Brainiac 5.

But since I like the fun side of the varying Defense, I got an idea when my son said this weekend that he wishes that Black Adam's power worked with Defense dice as well as Attack Dice. My eyes opened and I think I solved my problem.

Let's cut out Force Field Belt on Brainiac and replace it with:

ADAPTIVE DEFENSE PROGRAM
When Brainiac rolls defense dice, he receives one extra die for each revealed Order Marker on the attacking figure's card.

-----------------------------

So now what do we think? Using Brainiac's advanced intelligence and analytical skills, he studies his opponent, and can adapt his defensive scheme based on his prediction of the attacker's next move. Much like the way the Helm/A3n Black Adam uses his opponent's "tells" to better his own attack method, Brainiac uses his genius calculations to better his chance of defense.

I think I really like it better that way and thank you all for prodding me to change.

And if I had a "Book of Brainiac", I could think of some great "themey" strategies to increase your odds of beating him:
- Spread your Order Markers around and attack him with multiple heroes. Don't load up with one hero and try to out slug him
- Use Hawkeye's CHOICE ARROW (Brainiac doesn't roll defense dice so he can't get the bonus) as if he was picking an "EMP" arrow to shoot.
- Use a genius like Mr. Fantastic or tactical mastermind like J'onn J'onnz to surprise Brainiac with attacks from figures that do not have any OMs on them.