HeroScape is coming back!

[ThrasherDarkrai]

Originally Posted by SkyWhale

I believe this was only for Kyrie Warriors in classic, right? Which I didn't mind. Now, if they were to name someone "...the Kyrie Warrior" and make them something other than Kyrie (undead, for example). Then I would find it real odd.

Yes, they were only for Kyrie Warriors! Except for:

• Finn the Viking Champion
• Thorgrim the Viking Champion
• Eldgrim the Viking Champion
• Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider (noted in the post right above the one you're quoting)
• Khosumet the Darklord (SCARIEST FIGURE OF ALL TIME)
• Othkurik the Black Dragon
• ...Kurrok the Elementalist?

But other than those seven units, they're all Kyrie.

[IAmBatman]

I'm looking forward to Sgt. Alexander Drake, the Human Soldier.

[chas]

And Wave 1 includes an Undead Kyrie Warrior...

[Just_a_Bill]

Originally Posted by ThrasherDarkrai

Funnily enough, reversing the name would be in keeping with prior 'Scape naming conventions in another respect: Nerak (the Glacian Swog Rider) is Karen spelled backwards (a reference to someone who worked at Hasbro, IIRC).

Yeah, there was a lot of anagramming back in the day. Other known and suspected anagrams included some of these:

• Arkmer ~ Kramer
• Chardris ~ Richards
• Kyntela (Gwyn) ~ Katelyn
• Laglor is a "Gorilla that's missing an I" -- my favorite
• Saylind ~ Lindsay
• Sonlen ~ Nelson
• Sudema ~ Medusa
• Sujoah ~ Joshua
• Taelord (probably coincidentally) anagrams with Leotard

I'm sure there were more. I had thought that Acolarh anagrammed to something, but right now I can't figure it out. And I always wondered if Me-Burq-Sa maybe was built around somebody named Burke.

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Just seems to make the leftbox a bit pointless if you're going to subtitle someone "the Kyrie Warrior" and then give them the species of Kyrie and the class of Warrior. But, yeah, it's been that way from the beginning with Kyrie at least. It seems to have expanded in this offering.

It's been bugging me how the established naming conventions have been so disregarded. Every existing adult dragon has a one-word name, but for some reason now it can't just be Xenithrax, it has to be Xenithrax the Vineweaver. Tremble in fear at the vines I weave!!!

Digging into my little database (which took a little while, sorry; I see I was partially ninja'd), I can see that the incidence of "X the Y" (and its variants "X, Y" & "Y X") has generally increased over the years, doubling under WotC and then going absolutely hog-wild in AoA. Not counting all the "X the Kyrie Warrior" heroes since they're a special case that warrants the special honorific, and looking at just unique heroes, here's the math (if I didn't miss anything):

• Hasbro: 5 of 93 = 5% -- 3 Viking Champions, Darklord, Glacian Swog Rider
• WotC: 2 of 20 = 10% -- Black Dragon, Elemental
• VCs: 9 of 113 = 8% -- Smuggler, Tainted One, Pale, Hill Giant, Mouth of the Abyss, Dark, Blood Knight, Prince, Starlich
• AoA: 8 of 14 = 57% -- Vineweaver, Bulkhead Brawler, Knight, Steward of Death, Springrunner, Welkineye, Master of Tides, Void Siren

That number for AoA would be 86% if I wasn't excluding the Kyrie warriors. There are literally only two non-Kyrie unique heroes in the AoA offerings with the discipline to just have normal Heroscape-style names: Admiral EJ-1M and Killian Vane III. And even then, the suffix III and the two-part Soulborg designation are both pulling in the direction of decorative sprawl. So there's not a single hero with just a simple name like Ulginesh or Theracus or James Murphy.

It's like every design is screaming for attention from every pore. Now that I think about this, it actually feels a little desperate. I wonder if anybody ever looked at all this from a birds-eye view.

In the days of Hasbro (and even WotC), we basically knew what all those things meant. After that, they started becoming pretty esoteric for a general audience. In AoA the goofiest ones don't even seem to be referenced in their bios. I guess Dorim likes to trade punches with bulkheads because ... he's drunk all the time or something? Actually, I don't really wanna know; there's not much here for me to grab onto and get excited about like there was with the classic Scape releases. Some of this just seems like a bunch of random sound and fury trying to flash around quickly and loudly enough to grab our attention. Or something. I don't know. DESTRÜCTIMÄXX THE IMPLODER, HARBINGER OF DEVASTATION!!! omgpeedmypants!

Or maybe... watching so many designers procrastinate and avoid writing bios over the years, maybe this is all a result of wanting to just cram a nugget of backstory into the character's name and move on to the next fun design challenge.

[Manatee]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'm looking forward to Sgt. Alexander Drake, the Human Soldier.

I thought that he was a solider.

[SkyWhale]

Originally Posted by chas

And Wave 1 includes an Undead Kyrie Warrior...

Classic discount Iskra. Let's just hope they release the rest of the War Council designs, so we can see what they were thinking with that.

[Robotech Master]

Again reminder that this is designs inherited from old HS people, just traded Soulweaver for Vineweaver.

I don't know, titles and similar things being in name of the figure is such a common thing for me that I just find this conversation odd. I played in Vegas tournaments a few months ago with Barnabas, Lord of Blood, Jaga-Jaga the Death Charmer, Tyrus, Nis-Arsyr of Spiders, and Scyrafael, Nis-Issyr of Desolation.

[Just_a_Bill]

Originally Posted by chas

And Wave 1 includes an Undead Kyrie Warrior...

What the crap!? I just now went to figure out what you were talking about. Hadn't even looked at Miserawhatever's card until now, but that is just plain wrong. This is literally a Kyrie for story that is NOT a Kyrie for gameplay. This has to be the worst abuse of the keywords yet. Now I know for sure that whoever is approving this stuff for release does not know what they are doing.

It's laughably bad.

Now, having said that, it would be entirely possible for a card to have two species. I have a couple of homebrew designs that do just that. They work fine. But you have to WRITE IT ON THE CARD. If you're not willing to do that, then you have to pick one story or the other. Kyrie or Undead; you can't be both unless you're willing to put two words in the species box.

How is this not obvious to the people making the decisions?

[AStickInTheMud]

Titles in the names of units us absolutely a common thing, and while the specific format of "[Name], the [Adjective] [Noun]" may be a bit overused, it's not without good reason. It allows for a bit more backstory to be presented to someone who only looks at the card and nothing else. While it may make sense for beings such as Mimring or Charos who seem to be one-of-a-kind, the characters' personalities seem to get lost if the sculpt/art isn't resonant enough in combination with the game mechanics to grasp who the character is supposed to be.

For example, "Agent" Carr would be way more boring without his title. It brings some questions to the imagination such as, "What organization is he an agent of? Are there other members? Does him being an agent tie him into a backstory with other units?" Now obviously these are very silly questions, and naming him "John Carr" would probably do just fine.

Another reason to include titles in characters that you want the audience to resonate with is that it allows for reuse of the character without feeling like the same stagnant personality. It allows for a future use of the same character to show character growth, or a different facet of their skillsets. "Agent Carr" becomes "Carr, Renegade Enforcer" and it shows that Carr maybe betrayed the organization, or Vydar themselves.

It could work in either case, but having a strong creative vision for consistency (if nothing else) goes a long way.

[Hogg]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

What is the deal with Heroscape's obsession with X the Y naming conventions anyway? Just call them X. The "Y" is what their class is there for, imo.

That's how everything is now, you can't pickup a comic without reading about Somebody the Somethingwhatever.

Originally Posted by chas

And Wave 1 includes an Undead Kyrie Warrior...

Taelord or Kelda? Oohhhh, the other Wave 1.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Hogg

That's how everything is now, you can't pickup a comic without reading about Somebody the Somethingwhatever.

Taelord or Kelda? Oohhhh, the other Wave 1.

And yet, somehow, C3G cards manage to just say Superman under the name, and not Superman: the Man of Steel, Last Son of Krypton. Even Hasbro's Captain America isn't Captain America: Super Soldier.

I guess it's branding, but you can put all that flavor in ability titles just fine.

[stay_golden_PONYBOY]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'm looking forward to Sgt. Alexander Drake, the Human Soldier.

He's been around since 2004.