The Book of Queen of Spades

[fret_gurglo]

So far that seems to be the consensus. I will give it some time for others to chime in, as it is a significant change to king as well

[MrNobody]

Yeah, the triangle system increases her generalist value in relation to her factional value. Definitely would suggest another generalist test either way, as she felt pretty strong in my game.

[fret_gurglo]

Here is my first re-attempt to address X OM problems and bring Deceptions down. I don't think these changes would cause any problems with Ace. This would not be my first choice, but I really want to see these designs proceed.


King of Spades

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = KING OF SPADES
SECRET IDENTITY = JOE CARNY

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIMINAL
PERSONALITY = ARISTOCRATIC

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 210240

ENHANCED CHARISMA 13
Before taking a turn with King of Spades, you may choose a figure within 2 (or 3?) clear sight spaces of King of Spades and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may remove an unrevealed order marker from their card. Enhanced Charisma may only be used once per round.

EXPLOSIVE CARDS SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 2. Attack 2 or 4
Start the attack with 4 attack dice and choose a figure to attack. You may attack with 2 or 4 attack dice until all 4 attack dice have been rolled. King of Spades may target the same or different figures with each attack.

KING’S COMMAND
After rolling the 20-sided die for any special power on a card with the Royal Flush special power you may reveal the X order marker on any card to add 3 to the result.

ROYAL FLUSH 13
After taking a turn with King of Spades you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may take an immediate turn with Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

Queen of Spades

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = QUEEN OF SPADES
SECRET IDENTITY = MONA TAYLOR

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIMINAL
PERSONALITY = ARISTOCRATIC

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 200 170

DECEPTIONS 12
If Queen of Spades or a friendly figure within 3 spaces of Queen of Spades is targeted for a non-adjacent attack, or any attack if the figure is Aristocratic, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may choose a figure other than the attacker within 3 clear sight spaces of Queen of Spades and switch the targeted figure with the chosen figure. The attacking figure must then target and attack the chosen figure, if possible. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks. Deceptions may only be used once per round.

RAZOR SPADES SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 2.
For each skull rolled when attacking with this special attack, the defending figure subtracts 1 from its defense.

ROYAL FLUSH 12
After taking a turn with Queen you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may take an immediate turn with King of Spades or Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

[SirGalahad]

Are they supposed to be this powerful?

Because as written, suppose I have
Q - OM 1 & 2
K - OM X
A - OM 3

Here's how my turns go, assuming no one gets destroyed.

Reveal OM1 on Q
Take turn with Q
Use ROYAL FLUSH 12 (rolled 12)
Take turn with K
Use ROYAL FLUSH 13 (rolled 12)
Use KING'S COMMAND - reveal OM X on K to add 3 to roll (now 15) -- some would argue that the X can be revealed even if you don't need it to make the roll
Take turn with A
Use ACE UP THE SLEEVE - Attack with K, return revealed OM X to K's card

Reveal OM2 on Q
Take turn with Q
Use ROYAL FLUSH 12 (rolled 9)
Use KING'S COMMAND - reveal OM X on K to add 3 to roll (now 12)
Take turn with K
Use ROYAL FLUSH 13 (rolled 18 )
Take turn with A
Use ACE UP THE SLEEVE - Attack with K, return revealed OM X to K's card

Reveal OM3 on A
Take turn with A

For the round, my army took 7 figure turns and 2 additional attacks.

If Q gets destroyed, A simply moves OMs to K.

Not sure what the plan is for Jack.

QUEEN OF SPADES

DECEPTIONS 12
If Queen of Spades or a friendly figure within 3 spaces of Queen of Spades is targeted for a non-adjacent attack, or any attack if the figure is Aristocratic, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may choose a figure other than the attacker within 3 clear sight spaces of Queen of Spades and switch the targeted figure with the chosen figure. The attacking figure must then target and attack the chosen figure, if possible. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks. Deceptions may only be used once per round.

RAZOR SPADES SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 2.
For each skull rolled when attacking with this special attack, the defending figure subtracts 1 from its defense.

ROYAL FLUSH 12
After taking a turn with Queen you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may take an immediate turn with King of Spades or Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.


KING OF SPADES

ENHANCED CHARISMA 13
Before taking a turn with King of Spades, you may choose a figure within 2 (or 3?) clear sight spaces of King of Spades and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may remove an unrevealed order marker from their card. Enhanced Charisma may only be used once per round.

EXPLOSIVE CARDS SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 2. Attack 2 or 4
Start the attack with 4 attack dice and choose a figure to attack. You may attack with 2 or 4 attack dice until all 4 attack dice have been rolled. King of Spades may target the same or different figures with each attack.

KING’S COMMAND
After rolling the 20-sided die for any special power on a card with the Royal Flush special power you may reveal the X order marker on any card to add 3 to the result.[/FONT]

ROYAL FLUSH 13
After taking a turn with King of Spades you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may take an immediate turn with Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.


ACE OF SPADES

RESHUFFLE THE DECK
At the beginning of your turn, if there is at least one Order Marker on this card, you may move any unrevealed Order Markers on the card of a Criminal in your army to any other cards in your army. You may move Order Markers from Army Cards of your destroyed figures.

ACE UP THE SLEEVE
After taking a turn with Ace, if there is a revealed "X" Order Marker on the card of a Hero that has the Royal Flush special power, you may remove that Order Marker from that card. You may then attack with that Hero and place the "X" Order Marker, unrevealed, on that Hero's card.

DURABLE ARMOR
When Ace defends against an attack, if at least one blank is rolled, the most wounds Ace can take from that attack is one.

[tcglkn]

I’m not seeing that as too powerful. Certainly not as powerful as rolling 12 on the Fan 4 three times in a round. Just synergistic and if you lose Ace your armies really struggle.

[tcglkn]

I wanna comment on the faction building but haven’t had time to really focus on it. I‘ll try to comment more on it tomorrow.

[MrNobody]

So I've taken some time to look at the faction as a whole (assuming the ones in the Public Design Workshop are the most up-to-date ones) and I think the faction is really going to struggle offensively. Their attacks are all sitting around 3, leaving Ace and Deceptions as seemingly the main sources of damage. I'd definitely give Jack and Ten some way to be rolling 4 Attack dice, or maybe even 5.

Here's what I would personally do with the current designs.

NAME = ACE OF SPADES

PERSONALITY = ARISTOCRATIC

NAME = KING OF SPADES

ENHANCED CHARISMA 13
Before taking a turn with King of Spades, you may choose a figure within 2 clear sight spaces of King of Spades and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may remove an unrevealed order marker from their card.

EXPLOSIVE CARDS SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 2. Attack 2 or 4
Start the attack with 4 attack dice and choose a figure to attack. You may attack with 2 or 4 attack dice until all 4 attack dice have been rolled. King of Spades may target the same or different figures with each attack.

KING’S COMMAND
After rolling the 20-sided die for any special power on the card of an Aristocratic figure you control, you may reveal the X order marker on that card to add 3 to the result.

ROYAL FLUSH 13
After taking a turn with King of Spades you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may take an immediate turn with Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

NAME = QUEEN OF SPADES

DECEPTIONS 12
If Queen of Spades or a friendly Aristocratic figure within 3 spaces of Queen of Spades is targeted for an attack, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may choose a figure other than the attacker within 3 clear sight spaces of Queen of Spades and switch the targeted figure with the chosen figure. The attacking figure must then target and attack the chosen figure, if possible. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

RAZOR SPADES SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 2.
For each skull rolled when attacking with this special attack, the defending figure subtracts 1 from its defense.

ROYAL FLUSH 12
After taking a turn with Queen you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may take an immediate turn with King of Spades or Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

Biggest change I think is limiting Deceptions to RFG members only. I just think that's a smart move to ensure she plays best in her faction.

King's Command basically works like all the powers did before, but now it's just all centralized on King's card instead of being repeated in every power. That gives more reason to draft King, but I'm still not sure it really encourages taking a turn with him. If you're open to a more extensive change, what about something like this?

ENHANCED CHARISMA 13
Before taking a turn with King of Spades, you may choose a figure within 2 clear sight spaces of King of Spades and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher that figure rolls ? fewer defense dice for the rest of the player turn.

That introduces some risk/reward where you can reduce a figure's defense with King then really wail on them with Ace.

Idk, just some scattered thoughts. Main advice I can offer is to not move ahead until you, the LD, feel satisfied.

[tcglkn]

I think Ace's OM shuffle power will still be valuable if you don't have to shuffle the X OM around every turn too so I am in favor of giving King the X OM boost for all of them. That also has the added benefit of making you want to play them together even more since it doesn't make Queen's Deception roll 9 in generalist builds.

I'm also fine making Charisma work within 2 spaces, but rather than limit Deceptions and Charisma to once per round I would consider upping the roll on each to 15+. Still an achievable number and 12 is still easy to hit with the X OM boost in play.

I haven't played Queen yet but I did play the other two so this is just my

[IAmBatman]

I like making them more explicitly factional like that.

[fret_gurglo]

Thank you for your ideas Nobody. This is sort of what I had in mind from the beginning. It was suggested early on in the design of the team to expand them to work outside the RFG so we kind of went in that direction. I think it would be better to reel them back together though.

Here is my proposed changes

NAME = ACE OF SPADES

PERSONALITY = ARISTOCRATIC

I like having Ace protected by Queen, I'm just not sure if that makes him too defended. After we get something good that seems to work for King and Queen, I will propose the change in his thread.

NAME = KING OF SPADES

ENHANCED CHARISMA 13
Before taking a turn with King of Spades, you may choose a figure within 2 clear sight spaces of King of Spades and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may remove an unrevealed order marker from their card.

EXPLOSIVE CARDS SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 2. Attack 2 or 4
Start the attack with 4 attack dice and choose a figure to attack. You may attack with 2 or 4 attack dice until all 4 attack dice have been rolled. King of Spades may target the same or different figures with each attack.

KING’S COMMAND
After rolling the 20-sided die for any special power on the card of an Aristocratic figure you control, you may reveal the X order marker on that any card to add 3 to the result.

ROYAL FLUSH 13
After taking a turn with King of Spades you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher you may take an immediate turn with Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

Perfect. I like nearly everything on King. The only change from you have is King's Command has to revealed from any card so that there is not the X order marker dilemma that people are having. With it this way, the only real choice is which figure do you want Ace to make a bonus attack with.

NAME = QUEEN OF SPADES

DECEPTIONS 12
If Queen of Spades or an adjacent friendly figure or a friendly Aristocratic figure within 3 spaces of Queen of Spades is targeted for an attack, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may choose a figure other than the attacker within 3 clear sight spaces of Queen of Spades and switch the targeted figure with the chosen figure. The attacking figure must then target and attack the chosen figure, if possible. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

RAZOR SPADES SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 2.
For each skull rolled when attacking with this special attack, the defending figure subtracts 1 from its defense.

ROYAL FLUSH 12
After taking a turn with Queen you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may take an immediate turn with King of Spades or Ace of Spades. Royal Flush can only be used if you revealed an Order Marker on a card with this special power at the beginning of your turn.

FLYING

For Deceptions I added a little extra to work with adjacent figures outside the RFG build. That way she can be used outside the build, but it is limited and she should be seen as clearly better within the RFG.

[MrNobody]

DECEPTIONS 12
If Queen of Spades or an adjacent friendly figure or a friendly Aristocratic figure within 3 spaces of Queen of Spades is targeted for an attack, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 12 or higher you may choose a figure other than the attacker within 3 clear sight spaces of Queen of Spades and switch the targeted figure with the chosen figure. The attacking figure must then target and attack the chosen figure, if possible. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

This bit will skyrocket her cost, I’m fairly certain.

Deceptions is just an incredibly powerful ability. Not only is it a near 50/50 chance to misdirect your enemy’s attack, you can even use it to force the enemy to hurt themself, either by making them attack their own guy or switching the targeted figure out with a counterstriker.

And while I definitely appreciate the thematics of the 12+ roll, it’s just an incredibly low threshold for that powerful of an effect. Like I said, even without King it’s a near 50/50 shot. Fantomex has a similar ability that only triggers on a 14+ and only when he is targeted, and he still is pretty costly for it.

Others may disagree, but my gut instict is telling me that leaving her open to non-RFG characters like that, especially in such an easy-to-set-up way as simple adjacency, is going to heavily push her towards other builds, especially when none of the other RFG members are really offering anything to capitalize on being switched out.

[fret_gurglo]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

This bit will skyrocket her cost, I’m fairly certain.

Deceptions is just an incredibly powerful ability. Not only is it a near 50/50 chance to misdirect your enemy’s attack, you can even use it to force the enemy to hurt themself, either by making them attack their own guy or switching the targeted figure out with a counterstriker.

And while I definitely appreciate the thematics of the 12+ roll, it’s just an incredibly low threshold for that powerful of an effect. Like I said, even without King it’s a near 50/50 shot. Fantomex has a similar ability that only triggers on a 14+ and only when he is targeted, and he still is pretty costly for it.

Others may disagree, but my gut instict is telling me that leaving her open to non-RFG characters like that, especially in such an easy-to-set-up way as simple adjacency, is going to heavily push her towards other builds, especially when none of the other RFG members are really offering anything to capitalize on being switched out.

But its not far off from Purple Man (165) with the exception that his only works on Purple Man. I think what will drive her cost up the most will be within the RFG itself and not so much outside the gang.

REACTIVE MIND CONTROL 10
If Purple Man is targeted and attacked by an opponent's figure that does not have the Mental Shield special power, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 10 or higher, Purple Man takes no damage and the opponent's turn immediately ends. Take temporary control of the attacking figure. Move the attacking figure up to 4 spaces then return control of the figure to the player who controlled it before the Reactive Mind Control. Figures moved with this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

I actually don't mind taking out the generic friendly figure clause however. I was just trying to keep her open for other builds and thought that forcing that player to keep all figures adjacent to her might be limiting enough. This is not something I feel strongly about at all and willing to drop quickly.