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The Book of Starro

A3n

A3n

"Let's Nut this Unit Out!"
Site Supporter
The Book of Starro

C3G DC SUPER SECRET EXCLUSIVE 42
STARRO THE CONQUEROR

C3G_Starro_comic.png

Comic PDF

C3G_Starro_mini.png

Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Justice League Starro Attacks World Event Pack set.
Its model number and name are #100 / Starro the Conqueror.​

_________________________________________________________________

Character Bio - Starro, an intelligent alien lifeform resembling a giant starfish with a central eye and prehensile extremities, comes from a race of parasites that conquer planets by releasing spores to take over a population. The "spores" attach to the faces of the victims and subsequently take control of the host's central nervous system, thereby controlling the host. Control of the host is lost once removed from the victim.

Its ability to dominate an entire populace with ease makes Starro an incredibly dangerous threat but Starro also has the abilities of energy projection; flight; changing colour and has a high degree of invulnerability.

_________________________________________________________________

-Rulings and Clarifications-
  • Base Clarification: Starro is a double-based figure.
_________________________________________________________________

-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:
  • N/A
Outgoing Synergy:_________________________________________________________________

-Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses-

Immunities
  • N/A
Benefits
  • N/A
Weaknesses
  • N/A
_________________________________________________________________

-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-
  • N/A
-Heroscapers Community Contributions-
 
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Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

NAME = STARRO


SPECIES = STARRO
UNIQUENESS = EVENT HERO
CLASS = CONQUEROR
PERSONALITY = MALEVOLENT

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 24

LIFE = 25

MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 1700

STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with 6 purple Spore Markers on this card. Instead of attacking, you may choose an enemy figure that is within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro. If the chosen figure is not a Unique Hero, remove a Spore Marker from this card and the chosen figure receives three automatic wounds. If the chosen figure is a Unique Hero, place a Spore Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, take control of the chosen figure and its card, and remove any Order Markers from that card. Instead of taking a turn with Starro, you may take a turn with any other figure you control with a Spore Marker on its card. If another figure with your Spore Marker on its card is attacked and two or more skulls are rolled, after rolling defense dice remove the marker from the game and control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession. Remove any Order Markers from the card.

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 4.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll 4 attack dice once for all affected figures. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. After using this special attack, the normal Attack and Defense numbers of all other figures you control with Spore Markers on their cards are reduced to 1 until your next turn.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING
 
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Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Ok this design is still in brainstorming. I have wrestled with it for a while now & I am probably trying to do too much but I believe that where it is in the SP now would be fun, thematic, challenging for all players, & at the same time fair for the opponents. So anyway I thought that since Hellboy is finished & Lobster is almost done I would get this out so you guys can help take him where he needs to be.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Well, before reading through the powers specifically, I do have to ask one thing - does the text even fit on a card? I usually estimate that about 15 lines is the max that will fit on a card, and this is at 18 easily. :) So I'm guessing some cuts are in order regardless!

Cool to see this out, though, and I'm definitely up for some brainstorming/time spent in the design phase.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

OK! I like it overall. Some of the mechanics are a bit muddy and will need clarification. The special attack is probably the first place I'd look to trim things down, because I think it's the least important thematically, and it's very text heavy right now. Also, I think the Possession power needs more clarity as is, which will probably mean more verbiage.

Just spitballing right now, no hard and fast suggestions yet:

STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with X purple Starro Markers on this card. After moving and before attacking you may choose an enemy Unique Hero that is either within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro or adjacent to a figure with a Starro Marker on its card, place a Starro Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, and take control of the chosen figure and its card. If a figure with a Starro Marker on its card receives a wound, remove the Starro Marker from its card and return it to this card. Control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession.

STARRO DEFENSE
Starro cannot be attacked by a normal or special attack if you control a figure other than Starro that has a Starro marker on its card.

STARRO CONTROL
Instead of attacking with Starro, you may take a turn with up to 2 figures you control with Starro Markers on their cards.

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately.

It loses a little theme, but I think you can take those last two lines out of the special attack to same room and keep things a bit more elegant.

Unfortunately, there still seems to be too much text, especially with the additions for clarity to Starro Possession.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

I suppose you would know better than anyone, but that's a lot of text, will that fit on a card?

I like the design and I think it will be a lot of fun, but Starro Defense is just waaay too strong right now. Honestly, I think you could drop the power entirely and still get him around 2000. Even with only 4 Defense, 30 Life is a lot to hack through and while you're doing that he's using your own figures against you. In fact, you'll have to hurt your own figures if you don't want him controlling all of them.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

With my suggestions that'd put us at:

STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with X purple Starro Markers on this card. After moving and before attacking you may choose an enemy Unique Hero that is either within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro or adjacent to a figure with a Starro Marker on its card, place a Starro Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, and take control of the chosen figure and its card. If a figure with a Starro Marker on its card receives a wound, remove the Starro Marker from its card and return it to this card. Control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession.

STARRO CONTROL
Instead of attacking with Starro, you may take a turn with up to 2 figures you control with Starro Markers on their cards.

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately.
Click to expand...

That looks much cleaner and still lots of fun. We might even bump his life/defense up slightly to account for the loss of the defensive power (Hulk and Thor can rip through 30 Life and 4 Defense pretty fast).
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

How many markers do you see him having, A3n? I imagine you'll want at least five to echo that famous cover:

Brave_bold_28.jpg
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Yes the text was too much for a card (hence my major concern here).

I was thinking about 8 markers, but that was going to be a variable that could change as testing was done.

I'm fine to cut the Defense power, but we will need to boost the defense.

The idea of the Absorbed Energy attack is that he absorbs the energy from those that he has enslaved leaving them weak. In this game that will also make it easier for the opponent to get a wound on the figure & thus get it back. So it would be nice to keep that part of the power if we could as it adds to his gameplay / fun / balance (for the opponent).
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

I'd also like to keep the "power drain" aspect of Absorbed Energy; I think it's important to keeping things fun on the battlefield.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

You can conserve a little more:
STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with X purple Starro Markers on this card. After moving and before attacking, you may choose an enemy Unique Hero that is either within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro or adjacent to a figure with a Starro Marker on its card, place a Starro Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, and take temporary control of the chosen figure and its card. If a figure with a Starro Marker on its card receives a wound, return that Starro Marker to this card. Control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession.

STARRO CONTROL
Instead of attacking with Starro, you may take a turn with up to 2 figures you control with Starro Markers on their cards.

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately.
Click to expand...

Other questions:

Seems incredibly overly powerful. There's no chance of failure to take control of the enemy figure.

Is the only way to release a figure from Starro Possession for it to receive a wound?

There's nothing in the power about OMs. If the player controlling Starro takes temporary control of an opponent's figure with unrevealed OMs on its card, what happens to the OMs? When the figure receives a wound and control is returned, what happens to the OMs that Starro's player may have placed on it?

If Starro places all of its markers, does it seem a little odd that Starro's SA is not rolling an attack die for itself?
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

SirGalahad said:
Other questions:

Seems incredibly overly powerful. There's no chance of failure to take control of the enemy figure.
Click to expand...
I didn't want to complicate the power any further by rolling for possession, it might be a little powerful but the fact that the opponent can get the figure back I am hoping will balance it out. We can make it so possession is also instead of attacking. That will take some of the sting out of it.

SirGalahad said:
Is the only way to release a figure from Starro Possession for it to receive a wound?
Click to expand...
Yep that's the intent. Starro isn't that powerful himself (although technically he is almost invulnerable) so the way he is going to win is by controlling your players against you & using them as his defense.

SirGalahad said:
There's nothing in the power about OMs. If the player controlling Starro takes temporary control of an opponent's figure with unrevealed OMs on its card, what happens to the OMs? When the figure receives a wound and control is returned, what happens to the OMs that Starro's player may have placed on it?
Click to expand...
Crap, forgot that part. Yes OMs should be removed.

SirGalahad said:
If Starro places all of its markers, does it seem a little odd that Starro's SA is not rolling an attack die for itself?
Click to expand...
This was one of the clarifications that I cut to try to keep the text down. I justified it as a way to cap the roll to the amount of Markers only. So yes while there is at least 1 marker on Starro he is added to the attack but if there isn't a marker on him he isn't counted for the attack.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with 8 purple Starro Markers on this card. Instead of attacking, you may choose an enemy Unique Hero that is either within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro or adjacent to a figure with a Starro Marker on its card. Place a Starro Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, take control of the chosen figure and its card, and remove any Order Markers from that card. If a figure with a Starro Marker on its card receives a wound, return that Starro Marker to this card. Control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession. Remove any Order Markers from the card.

STARRO CONTROL
Instead of attacking with Starro, you may take a turn with up to 2 figures you control with Starro Markers on their cards.

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. The normal Attack and Defense of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that is not Starro, is reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round.
Click to expand...

This now fits on a card & is ever-so slightly bigger text than Dr Doom so I think that's a win. Are we happy with this now?
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Looks cool to me! Is he really more powerful than Anti-Monitor and Galactus, though, to be shooting for 2000 points?
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

I think he could still be pretty strong, but I like the write-up and I'm happy to make adjustments during testing. If he's ready to go by the weekend, I just might have enough time to get a couple games in.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Suggested tweaks for readability:

STARRO POSSESSION
Start the game with 8 purple Starro Markers on this card. Instead of attacking, you may choose an enemy Unique Hero that is either within 5 clear sight spaces of Starro or adjacent to a figure with a Starro Marker on its card. Place a Starro Marker from this card on the chosen figure's card, take control of the chosen figure and its card, and remove any Order Markers from that card. If a figure with a Starro Marker on its card receives a wound, return that Starro Marker to this card. Control of the figure and its card returns to the player that controlled it before Starro Possession. Remove any Order Markers from the card.

A3n said:
ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. The normal Attack and Defense of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that is not Starro, is reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round.
Click to expand...

The bolded is not usually a restriction in these types of powers where spaces are chosen and affected, is it? Could we drop the "who are in line of sight" clause?

The timing on the last sentence is not clear. When are the normal Attack and Defense (should probably say "Attack and Defense numbers") of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that are not Starro reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round? During the attack? After the attack? Needs to be specified here.

Lord Pyre said:
Looks cool to me! Is he really more powerful than Anti-Monitor and Galactus, though, to be shooting for 2000 points?
Click to expand...

I think we'll end up under 2,000. And for the reasons you're noting here, I think that'll be just fine. Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 is fine by me, but I probably prefer closer to 1,500.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Starro is definitely in the same range as Galactus - they're both "world eater" types of characters. But honestly, I feel like we play fast and loose with the big guys - Anti-Monitor being a "wipes out universes" type while Galactus, on par, is "kills worlds maybe." It's more mechanical once you get past 1000 honestly.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

IAmBatman said:
A3n said:
ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. The normal Attack and Defense of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that is not Starro, is reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round.
Click to expand...

The bolded is not usually a restriction in these types of powers where spaces are chosen and affected, is it? Could we drop the "who are in line of sight" clause?
Click to expand...
That I took directly from Cyclops' card. :shrug:
IAmBatman said:
The timing on the last sentence is not clear. When are the normal Attack and Defense (should probably say "Attack and Defense numbers") of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that are not Starro reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round? During the attack? After the attack? Needs to be specified here.
Click to expand...
Really?? It's part of the special attack text wouldn't that be assumed when you do it :confused:? I think you are thinking of it as a special power not an attack.
IAmBatman said:
Lord Pyre said:
Looks cool to me! Is he really more powerful than Anti-Monitor and Galactus, though, to be shooting for 2000 points?
Click to expand...

I think we'll end up under 2,000. And for the reasons you're noting here, I think that'll be just fine. Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 is fine by me, but I probably prefer closer to 1,500.
Click to expand...
Agreed. 2000 would be my ceiling.
johnny139 said:
Starro is definitely in the same range as Galactus - they're both "world eater" types of characters. But honestly, I feel like we play fast and loose with the big guys - Anti-Monitor being a "wipes out universes" type while Galactus, on par, is "kills worlds maybe." It's more mechanical once you get past 1000 honestly.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I would put him in the Galactus range except that Starro is more aggressive than Galactus.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

All I'm looking for is something like this for clarity:

ABSORBED ENERGY SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Choose 8 spaces in a straight line from Starro. All figures on those spaces who are in line of sight are affected by this special attack. Roll X attack dice once for all affected figures, where X is the number of figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. After using this special attack, the normal Attack and Defense of all figures you control with a Starro Marker on their card that is not Starro, is reduced to 1 for the remainder of the round.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

I don't have an issue adding it if you think it's necessary, I just didn't want to add it just for the sake of adding it. To me a special attack is a specific trigger in itself & therefore any text in the special attack happens then. :shrug:
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

It just seems like something that could be easily misread. :shrug:
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

First ERB from Margloth:

Margloth said:
I don't see any issues other than that squad-heavy armies could really tear him apart....
Click to expand...

I actually had roll an unblockable die for squad figures in my first Possession write-up but dropped it for space issues.

This does concern me now though. Some more thoughts may be required here.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's an unfortunate side-effect of the way Heroscape was designed, but squads will always dominate large heroes like this. The good news is that many of C3G's squads are weak and/or rely heavily on their synergy with the heroes in their faction (e.g. the Hydra Agents, Hawkmen, Cops, even the Shield Agents to some extent). 5 Defense will be tough for many of these squads to crack, and he does have the special attack that can affect multiple figures.
 
Re: The Book of Starro - Brainstorming

I'd bump his defense to 6 to help slow down how quickly squads could kill him. At his cost point, it'll be tough in a standard start zone to go against him without bringing at least a few unique heroes along, which lets Starro use his area attack, which lets him at least take out squaddies a few at a time.
 
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