C3G Modern Cosmic Marvel Workshop

[Karat]

Well, I currently have a write-up for Adam Warlock, though it requires something from the inner sanctum at this point , that I really like, and tickle has an old one I know.

[IAmBatman]

Any thoughts on this question, johnny? I trust johnny for all things Cosmic Marvel.

[johnny139]

Adam Warlock and Major Victory would likely be parts of larger factions, but Bug and Jack Flag would both help with my future development of the GotG.

And more Heralds would always be welcome, no plans at all for those. I have some ideas for all of them, though.

[Yodaking]

My knowledge and familiarity of the Bug character starts during the Annihilation war when he gets recruited out of a jail cell to join a suicide special ops squad. The mini I have for him has him wearing the GotG uniform as well. So most of my thoughts on the card will reflect the later years of his character. I did do some research into his prior history as part of the micronauts story arc though and will try to incorporate some of that where I can.

So here are my early thoughts on Bug, let me know what will or won't work with your greater GotG team ideas Johnny. Anyone else that knows the character please chime in as well.

Class: He is described in the Marvel Database as an adventurer and thief. He was trained under a Master Thief during the rein of a tyrant and eventually became the leader of some rebels. After victory is achieved, he leaves the micro-verse to go on other adventures and teams up the the F4. Much later on he ends up joining the GotG but was not a founding member. So the class options are Thief, Adventurer, Rebel, & Guardian. I prefer Adventurer as it would let him team up the the F4 and thus he would fit in with two different teams (GotG & F4). Thief is an interesting option as their are a ton of Thief cards already so it is only a matter of time before someone comes along with some thief synergy. I never saw him use his thief skills at all in the comics I read though. Rebel really only works if you are going for an early version and guardian is an option if all the GotG are tagged that way for some type of synergy. I think I'd rather see Gamora an Assassin & Drax a Destroyer though.

Personality: He is a big flirt and always hitting on any women that are close by so I thought we could do something with that here. What do you think of Casanova? Flirtatious?

Special Powers: I've come up with 3 powers that I think would work well for him.

1. Under his list of powers you find: Has exceptional agility, extraordinary sight, with enhanced peripheral vision gained by wearing his helmet. His antennae provide heightened sensory awareness with a limited degree of danger sense. All this adds up to Defensive Agility in my mind, which would make him a good melee fighter.

2. As part of the GotG he is not one of the heavy hitters. You usually see him taking on the swarms of foot soldiers while other members of the team go after the head bad guy. So I thought he should have some type of double attack for taking down swarms in C3G. I kind of want to only see him using the double attack in melee fights though, rather then having him a double ranged attacker as he seems to use the ranged component of his weapon sparingly.

3. As mentioned earlier he is a big flirt and always chasing women so I thought it would be cool to have a power that plays on that by having him fall to the power of pheromone seduction easier. Maybe add 2 or 3 to the role when it is used on him. Ivy has the power now and I saw in the Public Design thread a succubus that would also have the power so it would be a small negative power that gives him some theme goodness.

Combat Stats: Here I'm not sure exactly where he should fall in a few spots.

Life could be 4 or 5 depending on how durable you want him to be and where you want his final point total to come in at.
Move could be 5 or 6, it seemed like he was always hopping into action rather quickly but I don't know if that is enough to bump him up to 6 or not. With the Defensive Agility power, I know he would like to get into combat quicker.
Range will be more that one because his weapon is a rocket lance, which can fire varying intensities of energy, and can return to his hand if thrown, so I'm thinking 4 to match up with Daredevils thrown batons.
Attack I'm pretty sure it should be 4. When paired up the the double attack power he should be a threat to low to medium level figures & squads while keeping the more powerful units still relatively safe.
Defense I'm wavering between 4 & 5 here. The defensive agility paired up the at least 4 dice will make him difficult to hurt in melee combat, so most people will try to shoot him down. 5 would give him a better chance at surviving lots of bullets if we go with only 4 life but might make him too good in melee.

Points: Not sure where you see him falling in terms of the larger team dynamic. Since the F4 all end in a 5, might want to have him end with a 5 as well to be a better fit there. Then when you make the rest of the GotG, you could have a bunch of them (Groot & Rocket?) end in a 5 as well to keep those guys kind of easy to draft together.

[johnny139]

Personally, I'd give him Stealth Leap - I remember him hopping around a lot? - or at least Expert Climbing since he's a bug and all.

I think that, Defensive Agility, and Double Assault would fit him well, along with the stats you mentioned... I'd probably go low Life and Defense and keep him cheap. We could also go with Chitinous Armor off of Annihilus to make him REALLY obnoxious on Defense.

I like the womanizing weakness but I think advanced movement is more important to him mechanically.

[Yodaking]

The data base says he can stick to walls so I did consider some type of climbing power briefly but then moved on to other ideas. I could get on board with Expert Climbing & 5 movement, then he can hop over small stuff pretty easily and engage into melee combat quicker, where he should excel.

[Yodaking]

Here is what I have for Bug right now:

NAME = BUG
SECRET IDENTITY = NONE
SPECIES = INSECTIVORID
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ADVENTURER
PERSONALITY = CASANOVA
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 4
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5
POINTS = ?

EXPERT CLIMBING
When counting spaces for Bugs' movement, elevation changes of up to 2 levels count as one space. You may ignore Bugs' height of 5 when climbing.

TIRELESS ASSAULT
After Bug attacks an adjacent figure with a normal attack, you may move Bug one additional space and attack one additional time.

COMBAT REFLEXES
When Bug rolls defense dice against a normal attack from an adjacent figure, one shield will block all damage. After rolling defense dice against any attack, you may immediately move Bug one space up to 6 levels up or down.

I ended up bumping his defense up to 5 after thinking about all the ranged and special attacks out there that will bypass defensive agility. he is a survivor that has taken on some incredible odds as a GotG so he should have a little better survivability then just 4 def/4 life. The Double Assault power will only kick in if he starts out with a melee attack but then if he destroys that target he can take a step and attack another figure adj. figure or throw his weapon for the second attack. Makes him a free flowing attacker when in the midst of a horde.

[Karat]

For Defensive Agility, I feel like there should be some sort of movement involved there.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Karat

For Defensive Agility, I feel like there should be some sort of movement involved there.

It is a power first used in Classic, so I copied it from there. If we tweak it at all, then it also needs to be renamed.

[johnny139]

Double Assault is also a Classic power - it's essentially "melee Double Attack." Your approach is fine, though, it'll just need another name.

Not completely sold on the personality yet, I like the direction but it feels "off." Can't think of a good alternative now. There may be some light synergy associated with the "Guardian" class, so up to you if you think he should have it.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Double Assault is also a Classic power - it's essentially "melee Double Attack." Your approach is fine, though, it'll just need another name.

Not completely sold on the personality yet, I like the direction but it feels "off." Can't think of a good alternative now. There may be some light synergy associated with the "Guardian" class, so up to you if you think he should have it.

If that is not set in stone I'll once again advocate against putting too much if any stock in making all the GotG have the Guardian class. The GotG were always a bit of a rag tag group of established individuals, even Ronin the Accuser later joins up for a while. Gamora should remain an Assassin IMO and get all the synergy that already provides in the game. We already have a Destroyer class, so that is a great fit for Drax. Mantis, Moondragon, & Cosmos should all be Telepath's able to be worked into other Telepath army builds. Nova would be a great Lawman and if you go back far enough Rocket Raccoon started out as a Lawman on Halfworld. I know class is the easiest way to tie together a group dynamic, but for this group I think having each figure remain flexible in the greater C3G landscape would be more important IMO.

Anyways back on topic. I'll come up with a different name for the Double Assault power, I don't recall what card that was on in Classic I just thought they used Double Attack only (Iron Man & Purple Kyrie). On the Defensive Agility, I'm okay with having him move as well but I don't want to see it get as powerful as Acrobatic Maneuver.

[Karat]

Oh I agree. I was thinking maybe a static number like a space.