Friday, October 12, 2007
Eventually...Last night I had week 4 of the Starro sealed event. I won the first and third games by sweeping my opponent's team without taking any losses, but in the middle game it was 180 degrees from that. My improvised team of Chronos, Merlyn, Icicle and, luck of the draw forcing a break in theme, Wonder Woman.
So it was that I didn't see Seth's post on Event Dials until today.
These Event Dials are a new, optional, story-driven scenario dial that, when in play, take the place of Battlefield Conditions, much as I'd expected.
The dial is advanced via instructions for the individual dial, and color indicators on the dial key to instructions on the card, telling the players when to make special rolls and what happens depending upon the results of the roll.
Until we are either shown a dial in more detail or get to play one I don't have much else to say, so instead, here's a copy of Seth's piece if you didn't want to follow the link above:
Marvel HeroClix: Mutations and Monsters
Event Dial Preview
by Seth Johnson, HeroClix Lead Designer
At its heart, HeroClix is a game of superhuman combat. Two forces of heroes and villains meet on the battlefield and use their powers and abilities to fight it out until only one side is still standing. Character and map choice help set the stage for your battle, but what if there was something in the game that made the game change dynamically, making your battles reflective of some of the great (and sometimes just fun) battles of comic-book history?
Mutations and Monsters brings a new mechanic to HeroClix called event dials that does just that. Event dials are "scenarios in a box" that take the place of a feat or battlefield condition in a booster, a dial without a sculpt on it that comes with a corresponding event card somewhat similar in size to a character card.
Event dials aren't a mechanic you use to surprise your opponent in a tournament in fact, event dials cannot be played in a HeroClix game unless all players in the game agree to play with it and play out the scenario it creates. In addition, the effects of an event dial will likely be enough to keep track of during the battle, so battlefield conditions aren't allowed to be played at the same time as an event dial.
How do they work in play? The event dials in Mutations and Monsters help you recreate some of the big events of the Marvel Universe, from Planet Hulk and the Mutant Massacre to the Civil War, but for this article, why don't we concentrate on something more fun?
Like character cards, the back of event cards provide information on the event for players who might not have read or remember all the details of the event:
When an athlete he worked with was banned from wrestling for having superhuman strength, promoter Edward Garner set out to found a new sport in which the combatants were not only allowed but required to have superhuman abilities. For some, getting in meant making a deal with the mysterious Power Broker, who used stolen technology to grant the strength they sought, but at a terrible cost to their health.That's right, ladies and gentlemen, no longer are you merely fighting a HeroClix battle. When you use this event dial, your characters are entering a match in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation!
Some event dials have items on their event cards marked with a checkmark. These set the scene for the game by describing any prerequisites for using the dial, setup procedures, and any special rules pertaining to the event dial. The Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation event dial has some of these.
Every wrestling match takes place in a ring, and first we set that up and make sure it's clear of foreign objects and as many obstacles as possible:
* Before objects are placed on the map, place four SPECIAL markers on the map so that they mark the outside corners of a 6-square by 6-square area containing as much clear terrain as possible as close to the center of the map as possible; this area is the Ring. Objects can't be placed in the Ring.What's a wrestling match without star performers? Let's get some wrestlers into the Ring:
* Each player chooses one friendly character and places it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring; this character is his or her wrestler. A wrestler can't leave the Ring, and treats the edges of the Ring as if they are walls that can't be destroyed. When a player's wrestler is knocked out or eliminated, that player must choose a friendly character outside the Ring and place it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring as his or her new wrestler. If a character is carrying an object when it becomes a wrestler, it drops the object in the nearest unoccupied square before being placed in the Ring.Each player chooses one friendly character and places it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring; this character is his or her wrestler. Simple enough. Pick any one of your characters and put them in a corner of the Ring as your wrestler. Event dials may provide supplementary rules, but the game is still HeroClix so your other characters will be placed in their starting area of the map normally after setup is complete.
A wrestler can't leave the Ring, and treats the edges of the Ring as if they are walls that can't be destroyed. Once a character goes into the Ring, they stay there until they are knocked out or victorious. To add injury to insult, to wrestlers the sides of the ring are walls that deal knock back damage when they get knocked back into them.
When a player's wrestler is knocked out or eliminated, that player must choose a friendly character outside the Ring and place it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring as his or her new wrestler. If a character is carrying an object when it becomes a wrestler, it drops the object in the nearest unoccupied square before being placed in the Ring. You still have your entire force of characters (though perhaps you might be calling them a stable) to fall back on in the UCWF, and when your wrestler falls one of his friends will step up to take his place, even if the rules don't allow him to bring any foreign objects into the Ring with him.
There's one final rule in the UCWF, and it applies not just in the Ring but across the whole battlefield:
* No ranged attacks can be made by any character.The UCWF is all about strength and beatdowns, not about shooting people from the stands! Since all players agree to using an event dial, though, you'll be able to prepare appropriately and bring close combat beasts like the Rampaging Hulk to the Ring rather than someone more focused on ranged attacks like the Living Laser.
(Note that by mistake or on purpose, the UCWF has left plenty of room for outside interference and interlopers in the Ring. A 300-point HeroClix UCWF match means that you still get three actions per turn, and you may only be giving one of those to a wrestler. What to do with the other two actions? You might send part of your stable to rough up your opponents while they wait for a chance to go into the Ring, or even send them into the Ring, and there's nothing saying that they can't bring objects with them, though they don't want to get caught by the referee. But we'll get back to that in a minute.)
That sets the stage for a UCWF match. But remember when I said that event dials changed the game dynamically? Let's turn away from the event card to look at the actual event dial. Before the beginning of a game when an event dial is being used, you turn it so that the green line appears at the left edge of its slot, same as you would for your characters. Through the slot, you'll see colored circles. When you see a color, the event described next to that color on the event card is currently in effect.
At the beginning of a game using the UCWF dial, only one effect is showing, and here's how it's described on the event card:
Fair Fight If any character that isn't a wrestler is given an action that would affect a wrestler, affect any square inside the Ring, or move the character into or through any square of the Ring, give the character an extra action token after the action resolves.When the ref is watching, it's hard for non-wrestlers to do anything inside the Ring without getting caught and forced to spend some time resting while they think about what they've done. (Of course, again, since the ref's attention is focused on the Ring, there's nothing stopping the outsiders from banging on each other while the fight goes on inside.)
Next to an hourglass symbol on every event card is an explanation of when the event card is turned. When you turn the dial, events currently in effect may end, and new events may come into effect. In the case of the UCWF event dial here's when you turn the dial:At the end of each turn, turn the dial once or a number of times equal to the number of wrestlers knocked out or eliminated during the turn, whichever is more.Knock out two or more wrestlers, and you can turn the event dial past multiple slots. But if you knocked out only one wrestler or none at all you turn the dial only once at the end of your turn. In a two-player game, your opponent would do the same at the end of their turn, which could bring you to the UCWF event dial's third slot, where the ref starts getting angry and throwing people out of the arena with a second effect:
Disqualified! At the beginning of each player's turn, he or she rolls a d6 for each character in the Ring who is not a wrestler and has two or more action tokens. On a result of 1 or 2, the character is immediately knocked out.Note that the Disqualified effect is on the dial at the same time as the Fair Fight effect if an outsider starts messing with the match, the ref will place an extra token on them. Then, during each player's turn, until the character gets a chance to clear the tokens, there's a 1 in 3 chance that the ref will throw that character out of the arena! In HeroClix game terms, that interfering character is knocked out, and your opponent will get full points for them at the end of the match. So choose your interference carefully!
Characters from outside who interfere with the fight in the Ring aren't wrestlers and won't speed up the turning of the event dial if they get knocked out. But when the event dial turns to its fourth slot, a new event kicks in that may help wrestlers start kicking butt:
Power Broker: A wrestler can use Exploit Weakness and Flurry if it does not already possess either or both of those powers. After the resolution of an action in which an wrestler uses a power from this effect, deal the wrestler 1 unavoidable damage.Thanks to the Power Broker, wrestlers in the Ring can now pound away on each other, and even punch right through their opponent's protection if they're willing to take the hit to their own health demanded by the Power Broker's powers.
A couple slots deeper into the event dial and suddenly Fair Fight and Disqualified fall away as the ref is distracted for four slots, and all the characters in your stables will suddenly get their chance to enter the fray. When the ref finally does return, he disqualifies interferers for a few more slots before you reach the twelfth slot of the event dial.What happens then? What if the battle has gone on long enough, or a lot of characters from large stables have been knocked out quickly enough that you've zoomed right through the dial? Don't all HeroClix dials end at the twelfth slot?
Not event dials!
Some event dials stop turning when a red line appears at the left edge of their slot, regardless of the conditions described by the hourglass that would otherwise cause it to turn. But the UCWF dial has no red line when you're on the twelfth slot and the end of a turn comes, you keep turning the dial past the green line to the first slot, and continue through the dial again.
The ref will keep watch for a bit, disqualify some interferers while wrestlers get knocked out and replaced, then the free-for-all will break out again, a cycle that continues until only the victor is left standing.
Some event dials have special changes or additions to the victory conditions of a game, described next to a trophy symbol on the event card. Since the UCWF card has none of these, when only the victor is left standing (or time expires, or any of the other normal HeroClix game-ending triggers occurs) victory points are totaled normally.
If that sounds like a wrestling match, and something that might be a fun change from your traditional HeroClix battle, you might want to give the UCWF event dial a try. If the UCWF and the world of pro wrestling doesn't excite you, remember that you don't have to play within the scenario defined by an event dial unless you and your friends decide that you want to! But keep your eyes open - there's a number of event dials coming in Mutations and Monsters, and you might just find your favorite Marvel storyline or event among them.
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