Ronin's Public Workshopping Thread

[IAmBatman]

It seems like the meditation usually comes in the form of how to avoid danger or how to deal with a threat, so I'd focus any mechanics on that direction (pretty vague, I know, but it's a tough, typically plot-dependent thing to try to translate).

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

It seems like the meditation usually comes in the form of how to avoid danger or how to deal with a threat, so I'd focus any mechanics on that direction (pretty vague, I know, but it's a tough, typically plot-dependent thing to try to translate).

Yeah, that kinda squares with how I've seen the meditation.

LO's take is cool, but it might be slightly too big a deal.

What about dropping the acrobatics, upping his defense, and doing something like this?

SUPERSPEED

ZEN MASTER OF SPEED
Opponents may not use any special power to stop the movement of a figure you control that has the Superspeed or Speed Force special power and is within 6 clear sight spaces of Max Mercury.

???
The first time you take a turn with Max Mercury in each round, instead of moving and attacking with Max Mercury, you may move up to X figures you control that have the Superspeed or Speed Force special power, where X is the number on the Order Marker you revealed at the start of your turn.

So the intent for the last power is that it's meant to represent Max meditating and then showing up with the cavalry once he's worked out the threat, which is a pretty typical role for him in a story. It gives him and Jay a way to move up together, which is pretty handy in managing their aura powers.

There's a definite incentive to put it off (ie let him meditate longer) and get to move up 2-3 heroes, but there's probably still some utility in taking a turn with him early, if the flex at the beginning of the round could be key.

[IAmBatman]

It's interesting. Not sure how it'd play out as most of the time Speedsters aren't too tough to get into the thick of things, so giving up a turn of attacking might feel iffy strategically.

[Ronin]

Yeah, individually they're not too tricky to move up, but I think being able to move a few on one OM should definitely help with being able to run a few together.

Any other thoughts? Here's where we're at, as a refresher:

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Flash set.
Its model number and name are #002 / Max Mercury.
The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Flash Gravity Feed set.
Its model number and name are #203 / Max Mercury.

NAME = MAX MERCURY
SECRET IDENTITY =

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = MYSTERY MAN?
PERSONALITY = WISE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 10
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = ???

SUPERSPEED
Max Mercury may move through all figures, never takes leaving engagement attacks, and does not have to stop his movement when entering water spaces. After taking a turn with Max Mercury, if he did not use his Flash Family Cavalry special power this round, he may move up to an additional 4 spaces.

ZEN MASTER OF SPEED
Opponents may not use any special power to stop the movement of a figure you control that has the Superspeed or Speed Force special power and is within 6 clear sight spaces of Max Mercury.

FLASH FAMILY CAVALRY
The first time you take a turn with Max Mercury in each round, instead of moving and attacking with Max Mercury, you may move up to X figures you control that have the Superspeed or Speed Force special power, where X is the number on the Order Marker you revealed at the start of your turn.

______________________________________

Bio - The Zen Master of Speed, Max Mercury was born in the early 19th century, and granted a mystical connection to the Speed Force by a Blackfoot shaman. Since then, he has made his way to the present day by making small hops forward in time. Along the way, he's become a living legend, a hero under various names. He helped inspire Jay Garrick to become the first Flash, and in the modern day serves as a mentor to the younger speedsters, particularly Wally and Bart.

[IAmBatman]

Flash Family Cavalry will probably have a role on larger maps. Most of the time 10+ move gets me where I need to go in a battle all at once and having multiple speedsters in the mix just makes more of them vulnerable to area effect/auto wound powers since I can only really attack with one at a time. Decent if you want to use them as blockers to hold enemies down in engagements, I suppose.

[japes]

Do you want him to be a figure that needs lots of speedsters in the army or is he a someone that could show up and provide guidance to a lone speedster in a moment of crisis?

[Yodaking]

Yeah, I'm with Bats here as it relates to Speedster tactics. They all can move around so quickly that I don't see much value in moving and not attacking with multiples of them. It just puts them at risk needlessly. You'd be better off letting multiple speedsters make a normal attack with that power.

FLASH FAMILY CAVALRY
The first time you take a turn with Max Mercury in each round, instead of attacking with Max Mercury, you may make a normal attack with up to X figures you control that have the Superspeed or Speed Force special power, where X is the number on the Order Marker you revealed at the start of your turn. Max Mercury may be one of those figures.

Now you use OM1 on Barry where he zips into engagement and attacks, OM2 on Wally and he zips into engagement and attacks as well, then on OM3 Max zips into engagement and all 3 of them get to make a normal attack.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by japes

Do you want him to be a figure that needs lots of speedsters in the army or is he a someone that could show up and provide guidance to a lone speedster in a moment of crisis?

He does some 1-on-1 mentoring (especially with Impulse), but I tend to associate him with the full Flash family.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Yeah, I'm with Bats here as it relates to Speedster tactics. They all can move around so quickly that I don't see much value in moving and not attacking with multiples of them. It just puts them at risk needlessly. You'd be better off letting multiple speedsters make a normal attack with that power.

Attack bonding doesn't feel like the character to me. It doesn't feel super interesting for speedsters either, who are all more focused on SAs or other tricks.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Ronin

He does some 1-on-1 mentoring (especially with Impulse), but I tend to associate him with the full Flash family.

Just checking. As it he's more useful in a speedster army so I just wanted to check. I know who he is but I haven't read much on him. My son just likes Speedsters so we have a lot of Speedster Mini's

We also have XS which is cool since she appeared on this season of Flash...though a different version.

[MrNobody]

I vaguely remember XS. A Legion speedster could be a fun design.

[IAmBatman]

I'm not sure a big group leadership power makes sense for him in general, honestly. He's mostly a recluse or, as you put it, one-on-one mentor. Him leading any sort of cavalry charge feels thematically off, whether that's attack or movement-based.

I might just give him plain old Double Attack for a third power.

[Ronin]

Hmm. What about something like this?

SUPERSPEED

ZEN MASTER OF SPEED
Opponents may not use any special power to stop the movement of a figure you control that has the Superspeed or Speed Force special power and is within 6 clear sight spaces of Max Mercury.

SUPERSPEED ACROBATICS
When Max Mercury attacks, he may attack one additional time. After rolling attack or defense dice for Max Mercury, if you rolled at least one shield, you may immediately move him up to 2 spaces.

Zen Master of Speed is a bit niche to stand on its own, like I mentioned before, but it does provide insurance against a speedster hard counter strategy - Barry actually isn't that bothered by the likes of Blob thanks to his SA, but Wally can really suffer from lockdown and Wally is the one who spent way more time with Max.

I think it could maybe be tweaked to provide something a little extra, but it might be a good idea to know what Impulse looks like before we decide on that. Impulse was Max's full-time student for a while, so it would make sense for the two of them to be closely linked.

And if it ends up being a little niche, that's probably okay - it'll keep his cost down, at least, which is probably important. I think Jay's point level (220) is a ceiling for Max.