[AotV] "Weird" Terrain Rules Discussion

[Astroking112]

The reverse side of the Shadows Over Innistrad cardboard terrain mats include darkened terrain that we can use for scenario-specific rules. Given that all of the other cardboard mats predominantly feature sand and the only 3D hexes are "Sandstone," these tiles represent a primary opportunity for making more interesting maps.

The original Arena of the Planeswalkers game called these even darker spaces (the flat ones with additional texturing in the picture above), which are in fixed positions on each board, "Weird Terrain." I'm not overly fond of this name myself, but I'd prefer for whatever we use to be representative of the actual rules used.

It's worth noting that the initial plan seems to be that these spaces will be home to some alternate dimension within the story of Arena of the Valkyrie, probably where Ozuul emerges from in the climax of our Master Set's story.

Thus far, discussion across the project has leaned towards having these spaces use special rules defined by each scenario. We could also consider a global rule similar to traditional HeroScape terrain, but it's worth noting that we're aiming to have 5+ scenario maps using just our core set of three boxes. That target is much easier to hit if we let the scenarios tweak the rules a bit as needed.

To open up the floor, what ideas do people have for rules for these "Weird" spaces? I think that brainstorming some options for interesting rules could be a big help in giving the scenarios an initial shape.