Very Magic-y?

[Tai-Pan]

I'm as excited as the next guy that AotP is getting the love it needs with another Master Set (and was honestly frustrated and surprised that I missed the release at the beginning of July. I could have had my parents bring it over next week, but I don't think it's doable without forking over a lot of shipping costs to get it to them quick).

As I was looking through the Innistrad stuff though, I kind of noticed that this release seems to be a lot more Magic-y and that kind of knocked the appeal down a bit for me. I like the stuff that's kind of more generic fantasy like the Goblins, the Elves, the Phoenixes and Firecats, the Zombies, etc.

The Inquisitors, Cultists, blue Ghostbusterguy, mad Mage, etc. kind of feel like very special, MtG-exclusive types that I find hard to get excited about. I'm also confused as to why there are now red and black vampires.

Is this just me?

[Lord Pyre]

Yep, just you. But I'm a Magic fan so I'm biased

(There are different families of vampires with different colors. Spring himself is black and white, so there you go. There are red werewolves and blue zombies in the card game too.)

[wriggz]

The inquisitors and Cultist don't feel out of place in the world of Heroscape Architypes. The Necro-Alchemist is a bit out there, but I could see him fitting into the C3V world of Atrocious like Rygan the Minotaur Temporal Mage.

The only one that kind of feels out of place is the Mad-Prophet. Doesn't really have that "battle of all time". Like if all the planes walkers were standing around doing a school yard pick You would think that the Mad-Prophet would be picket between Gimpy the three legged Centaur and Blink the blind Gnome.

[TREX]

@Tai-Pan , I've never played magic the gathering(Card Game), I picked up innistrad and it really adds to the previous sets. I'm not biased to being a magic fan, I judge on content alone. I find that it really adds quite a bit more deckbuilding and allows a bit of custom army building with the dual colored planeswalkers and extra units. I have all three boxes of AOTP, and its finally starting to excite me. Hope my un-magickie opinion helps. Not sure if you have amazon prime, but that may help with shipping

[Tai-Pan]

Originally Posted by TREX

@Tai-Pan , I've never played magic the gathering(Card Game), I picked up innistrad and it really adds to the previous sets. I'm not biased to being a magic fan, I judge on content alone. I find that it really adds quite a bit more deckbuilding and allows a bit of custom army building with the dual colored planeswalkers and extra units. I have all three boxes of AOTP, and its finally starting to excite me. Hope my un-magickie opinion helps. Not sure if you have amazon prime, but that may help with shipping

I am absolutely sure that what you say is true. I have AotP and hope my parents are bringing Zendikar with them. I was worried AotP would go the way of Battleship Galaxies (which I also, sadly, have with no expansions), but it looks like enough is already there to mix and match and more seems to be in the works. I don't doubt that Innistrad is a huge contribution and expansion for the game.

I was just thinking as a HeroScaper and along the lines that some people thought when DnDScape came out. HeroScape was originally the Battle of all (mainstream) Genres (Agents, Soldiers, Samurai, Robots) with iconic hero clones (Syvarris as Legolas, Carr as Morpheus), but also some original spin-offs (blue orcs riding dinosaurs). I just looked through the list of classic figures, and there's really not much there that isn't "mainstream" enough to make sense when Average Joe comes.

When DnD came out, it got more confusing for the casual observer. Why is there a half-elf? What are those black guys with white hair? What do you mean those guys aren't robots? Why aren't those orcs blue? And then a handful of fantasy human types that are mainstream fantasy gamer, but not mainstream fantasy.

I had a similar feeling with AotP. In the base set, you've got your ghosts, your four-armed monsters, your zombies, your beefy zombies, your rhino warriors, your mini-ents, your elves, your fire cats and phoenixes and then some weird white-haired people. Pretty cool, not too many questions from the casual observer. Move on to Zendikar with Goblins, more Elves, vampires, a merperson, a flying white-haired guy and then a really big attack-of-the-blob type monster. Still pretty mainstream. Innistrad makes the big jump away from mainstream, easily identifiable miniatures that even casual observers will be able to see from afar and say "I want to be Legolas!" Now there are vampires of another alignment, inquisitors, cultists, a mad prophet, and a ghostbuster. This is the part where the mainstream appeal tips and turns into nerd/gamer appeal. I can't excite my mother by offering to let her play cultists. Werewolves or the Angel or the Phantom Lanterns, possibly.

That's all I meant. I have Innistrad on my wish list, but I also wish it had a little more mainstream appeal for non-Magicers, HeroScapers and casual observers. I feel like the awesome game engine shouldn't be hindered by being too "nerdy" (and for some people, the boundary is exactly between playing with Lord of the Rings and Matrix figures and having to read up on what a cultist or necro-alchemist is).

[TREX]

@Tai-Pan , well said. I guess it appeals to me cause, well...I'm a nerd.

[chas]

I just think of it as the Horror set. After all, Heroscape cards also had back stories. Which many people ignored, and still enjoyed the game. (In not an MTG player either).

[The B.I.V.]

I agree with you that DnD kind of brought a weird feel to Heroscape, but I don't feel that way about Innistrad. I agree, the figures are a bit more Magic-specific, but I've felt from the start that this game is much more Heroscape than it is Magic, so I don't mind the slight shift towards Magic in Innistrad...

[Confred]

When I was a youth, there were limited release pewter magic figurines. I regret never getting them.
Thus I get all I can of AotP.

To me, it is very magic-y
Imagine magic turn phases, but combat phase is a board game

[HeroscapeMaster]

Love that Magic feel to it! You should see my customs!