Re: The Book of Jungle Predator (Design Phase)
Here's some of my thoughts about the design...
Name - Despite some attempts to invent some, the films and most literature do not give individual names to Predators. I really wanted to design the original Predator from the first movie (also a legitimate comic character), which is why I chose his common alias of Jungle Predator. This is only to differenciate him from any future Predator designs. If the heroes are keen for him to be the only one, I'd prefer him just to be called The Predator.
Species - most material uses Yautja as their official species. There is another less used (contradictory) term which has been retconned out for all intents and purposes. Yautja is better than Unkknown, which would suck and could cause odd problems later.
Uniquness - I could easily see this changing to Uncommon Hero. As stated, he has no name as such, and without any bonding power, I can't see why people could draft more than 1 if they like, and use whichever minis they have.
Stats - feel thematically right compared with other C3G cards, but the points are probably too high. That'll probably be addressed right at the end of designing though.
Yautja Cloaking Device - fairly straight-forward. I like the water weakness. As in the film, landing in water messed it up. I can see a good counter-strategy of someone pushing him into water ready for a ranged attack and/or power.
Plasma Caster - if he doesn't move, the sighting locks in (hence the auto-skull). Not being used on adjacent figures is because he'd much rather fight a melee battle than just shoot. Swamp water = "He couldn't see me". It may seem trivial, but the theme is spot on and swamp water tiles usually make no difference, so it's good that they can be relevant. Ice Resistant immunity was because the Predator's vision is based on heat. I know the second film introduced alternative vision modes, but let's save that for another Predator. If the original Predator could have done that, Arnie would have been killed for sure! All characters with Ice Resistance are actually cold (Iceman, Icicle, Mr. Freeze etc.), so he'd be able to see Captain Cold, which it makes sense to me.
Self-Destruct Wrist Gauntlet - the theme is obvious, but I think playtesting may alter timing or range etc. As it stands at the moment, I can imagine some fun setups: a) your opponent kills him before it can explode - b) can be used to send opponents' figures running and/or destroy DOs - c) either side could push figures into his range - d) you could torment your opponent by using the X order marker so they always think he might explode - e) your opponent could take control of him and start the bomb, rendering him useless - f) figures who move order markers could set him off early etc. - sounds great fun!
