The Book of Savage Dragon

[Yodaking]

So you could put all 6 markers on one card then?

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

So you could put all 6 markers on one card then?

It's not my intent. How would you word that?

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

Bats had this idea. It's a bit less powerful, but seems more mechanically interesting, and I think it'd open the faction up for more interesting synergies. Thoughts?

Good catch. That should do it.

[Lord Pyre]

Is that all it needs? Cool.

Originally Posted by tcglkn

Sounds reasonable to me. I'm not too invested in where this guy lands and you clearly have a specific vision in mind.

I know I'm being a bit confusing, I'm not great at putting my thoughts on paper (screen whatever). Basically it doesn't feel quite right, and I don't want to push through when something feels off. I know most of you don't care, but Savage Dragon is an Image icon. I want to get him right.

[tcglkn]

Of course, I know he's an icon and want to get him right too. Just not familiar with the character enough to have strong opinions so I trust you.

[Lord Pyre]

My concerns currently are more mechanical. If his additional to both Lawmen and generalist leadership looks fine to you, then great. But that's all I'm asking about right now.

[IAmBatman]

I don't know him at all, but I don't trust you! (j/k, but I do have a clue what you're aiming for here and hopefully have been able to help).

[Yodaking]

I actually like it better where you could put more than one marker on a card. I understand the concern about putting all 6 on someone like Hulk II though. What if you could put up to 2 makers on a card, total 6 markers in all? Then you could draft Dragon + 3 non-Lawman UH's + 2 UH's for a 6 figure army.

[Lord Pyre]

Definitely a possibility! Again I worry a bit that your army would be Dragon+Hulk+Sentry, but it might not be a huge deal. Maybe I'll run a game with just a single marker, then if he feels a bit lackluster up it to two?

Another thought is that I'm considering designing his partner in the book, and she could possibly re-add markers to cards to refresh the bonding. I'll try to write that up this week before I run Dragon to see if it's worth pursuing.

[Ronin]

Is how he leads non-lawmen different from how leads lawmen? What are the goals for how this card should work in the lawmen faction (such as it is)? What sorts of armies would you see as ideal and what would you see as cool, but maybe not the main goal?

(I'm sure you've talked through some of this before, but there's a lot to catch up on here!)

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Is how he leads non-lawmen different from how leads lawmen?

Thematically? Probably not really. He's kind of the guy that would rather put himself in harm's way over anyone else, so sometimes prefers working alone. But comics are comics and he always has teammates. His police partner Alex is his best friend and she tags along all the time (And at one point gets some Iron Man armor and is a superhero for a short time too). He's led the Freak Force which are concripted superheroes that work for the police (Wears uniforms and everything), but they eventually quit and becomes a normal super team with their own spin-off comic and everything. After leaving the police force (The first time, he always goes back to it!), he's asked to lead SOS (Special Operations Strikeforce), which is basically the Avengers that works with the government. After that he just retires to spend time with family. Chaos ensues, it's comics, you know the drill.

If you haven't guessed, this comic likes to shake up the status quo a LOT. At first he's a Chicago beat cop fighting organized crime. Next he's leading the Avengers in a cosmic battle. Next he's a family man.

His leadership style is kind of reluctant. He doesn't REALLY want to do it, but he's good at it and the best and strongest hero around, so he's guilted into it a lot. His other best friend, the police captain who was the first guy who found him with amnesia at the beginning of the series, actually kind of manipulated him into becoming an officer, knowing he'd be a huge help. (Yeah it was a problem, but they got over it and stayed best friends).

So he's a general leader who always goes back to being a cop, which is why I want to represent both to some extent. MECHANICALLY him leading Lawmen is fine, but everyone else could have some power level problems, and I don't want to shoot up his cost because he's too powerful with Sentry.

What are the goals for how this card should work in the lawmen faction (such as it is)?

I love the Lawmen faction, but it's not really a fully functional faction, and Dragon seemed like the best place to start with being a leader for them, since he should be thematically working with them. As a character he doesn't seem like a inspiring kind of guy for stat boosts, just a simple bonding power seemed like the way to go with him. He's definitely a lead-by-example guy, so I'd like for him to move first if at all possible.

What sorts of armies would you see as ideal and what would you see as cool, but maybe not the main goal?

Ideal? Mostly lawman (Definitely Beat Cops, some cheaper guys like Gordon or the other possible GCPD guys), and maybe 2 other non-lawmen? To represent his many teamups with the likes of Hellboy, Invincible, TMNT, etc...

It'd also be cool if he worked decently in a full superhero team also, like an Avengers army, since he's definitely done that, too.

With a leadership power, I'm not entirely sure all this is really feasible. And so we're clear, I'm not like a huge Dragon fanboy, I've read nearly the whole series sure, but it's far from perfect (I could talk for hours on how insane Larsen is ). He's just a pretty big deal as a comics icon, so I'd hate for him to be shoehorned, but I also want him to bring life to the lawmen. I think what Bats has does a decent job, but also it's pretty complex for what's really just not a complex guy.

Maybe we should focus on the generalist stuff, and just keep him a lawmen, and leave the big synergies to some other potential leaders, like a new Gordon, Commish Babs or such.

For reference this was the first power I had on him before doubling down on the lawman synergies:

Natural Leader 1
After revealing Order Marker "1" on this card and taking a turn with Savage Dragon, you may take a turn with any Unique Hero you control within 6 clear sight spaces of Savage Dragon. You may not take additional turns with figures you control.

[MrNobody]

What about opening up Natural Leader (or something like it) to all cards (so he can roll with Beat Cops) then giving him a small bonus for taking a turn with a Lawman card? +2 Move would help the Beat Cops a good bit I'd say.

(Sorry if something like that has been proposed already)