[GB] Champion Interactions

[Eliahad]

We're going to need some way to have the champions actually interact with each other. Since at some point, that's going to happen. My idea for this, for now, is as follows:

3 Stats

HP - How much abuse a Champion can take before they are knocked down (dropping the Godball, if they have it.)

Movement Points - A small pool of AP the Champion can use for moving through Barriers before they dip into their Gods pool.

Attack/Tackle/Whatever - How much HP damage they do if they tackle an opponent in an adjacent hex.

Maybe a champion has 7 or 8 points they can distribute among the 3 stats?

[Eliahad]

All of these are pools of tokens to be spent. They are stats in so much as you start with a certain number of those tokens.

[Eliahad]

I think this was Phoebe's idea originally, but I like it. Mayhaps, eventually, that Champions can add just as much flavor as the Gods. So maybe Hercules, Achilles, Jason (off the top of my head) can all get in on the action and have unique stats, and a unique power of their own.

[Phoebe]

You definitely need a Jason. Since you probably want lots of people to enjoy playing the card game who wouldn't get into the intricacies of role playing games, I would keep it simple and grant each hero a unique power that comes out of the person's story, along with a simple and easy to allocate pool of ... whatever it is. Action pts or hero points or whatever you spend to get the person moving your ball across the board.

[Eliahad]

That was the weakest part of the playtest game, in my opinion.

Things I liked:

Champions were fragile, their tokens were more important than the God Points, because you don't get them back as quickly.

I liked the feel of the Token pools, even if their use felt clunky to me.

The Movement Pool seemed to work. To me, it made the most sense out of the three.

Things I didn't like:

The names of the pools...at least Wrestle.
Spending Wrestle tokens and then having the opponent offset Stamina tokens didn't really seem to work.
Some of the rules were unclear. (That's on me.)

I need ideas for this mechanic. I'm trying to get a couple of ideas sorted out in my head right now, and my brain has already moved on to a different one. I'll come back to this and write up the rules as they stand. And we can iron them out.


Damn my brain: A thought occurs. Wrestle becomes "Action." And each champion has a set of actions that they can spend action tokens on that creates some effect. These are the Champion's God Points, but can only be used for limited things, and primarily for champion to champion interaction.

Like, 1 Action Token - Do 2 Stamina Damage.
2 Action Tokens - Shove target champion into hex of your choosing.
3 Action Tokens - Knock Champion Down, take Godball if Champion holds it.

[Eliahad]

...And then imbuements can have a champion 'action' activation cost for a special power...hrmmm

[Eliahad]

The more I think about it, this idea of each champion having an action pool and a 'menu' of actions is the the mechanic we should test out. That way you don't feel like you have to burn 6 tokens to no effect.

[Mike]

I'm with you on that.

I've been calling them Champions up until now, but I think Hero works better. "Gods and Heroes" has a good ring to it. Although Champions of the Gods is pretty good too and doesn't distinguish between good and evil. I can go either way, I guess.

Anyway:

Heroes should be unique and each one should have a special ability/power. Also, maybe a lesser ability like reduced cost for doing X or "may ignore this type of effect" or whatever.

6 God Points
6 Hero Points

God Points power God Cards.
Hero Points power standard actions and Hero abilities.

God Points refresh to full at the end of a Round.
Hero Points recover only partially at the end of a Round (like getting 2 back). But also a Hero may choose to use an action to recover as well.

There is some mechanism for converting GP to HP, maybe a 2-to-1 conversion. There is no mechanism for reversing that process.

[Eliahad]

But you can only convert GP if the Hero is out of points.

I'm torn on switching from Champion to Hero, I'm not sure what flavor is better. If we call them Champion and Champion points, then we have GP and CP, which is amusing to me (Golden gods, copper heroes.) Hero Points, or HP might be better in the long run, because it is a subconscious reminder that if you're out of HP, you get knocked down more easily. We can have Anti-heroes, so I'm not sure that's a concern.

I think the idea of Gods having these huge variable powers that they throw around like candy, and the champions/heroes having a set list of things, but less tokens to spend, appeals to me.

Champions would have movement be free for empty hexes and one other terrain type.
Moving into impediments or non-type terrain would cost CP for the number of tokens already in that hex.
All champions have access to general actions, 2 or 3 types of attacks with set CP costs.
One major Champion power (2 CP) (Hercules can push champions or throw the God Ball.
One lesser Champion Power (1 CP?)
One defensive/reaction power (1 CP)
Plus the imbuements from their Gods with their CP costs, if any.
Resting: to get CP back beyond the roundly refresh...but at the cost of no Champion movement that turn...

Is that too much? It gives a lot of options for sure!

[Mike]

That's exactly the sort of thing I was imagining.

[Mike]

I like the idea of using a cost for knockdown to just take the ball. There may be a massive cost to resist knockdown, but it would have to be more massive than the 3 it takes to pull it off in the first place. But maybe not. Also, a Hero WITHOUT points left only takes 1 or 2 to knock down (or something like that).

I'm thinking knockdown is the only "normal" way of stealing the ball.

[Mike]

Or strategically:

Wrestle:
1 HP does 2 damage to opponent
2 HP means a loose ball. Defender decides what hex to put it in.
3 HP means a steal and the attacker takes the ball.

It is possible that knockdown is something separate. You have to use a move to stand back up again, but you can still hold the ball unless otherwise specified.

[Eliahad]

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

I had another post just before yours with thoughts along the same lines. If we put all these together, I think we're starting to get a set of Hero interactions that aren't too complicated AND can provide a workable play experience. It feels like we're moving the right way.

Just keeping it fast... 1 God Card, 1 Hero Action, both are optional... NEXT.

[Eliahad]

1 God Card,
1 Hero Action,
1 Hex Movement (Hero Action "Rest" is at the cost of the movement hex.)

These things can all happen in any order during a turn.

[Eliahad]

A thing Mike and I chatted about:

Hero Interaction:

Each Hero has a series of 'levels' of action, that cost a certain number of Hero Points (tokens) to make happen:

For example:
Level 1: 1 HP - Grab an Ankle (Defender pays 1 GP, or the next time the Defender moves the attacking champion is moved to the hex the Defender vacated.)
Level 2: 2 HP - Force Fumble (Defender drops Godball, but to a hex of the Defender's Choosing)
Level 3: 3 HP - Knockdown (Knock the Defender down, the hero takes the Godball.)

The Defender can pay 2 HP to move the attack down one level. So if an attacker pays 3 GP for the level 3 action, the defender can pay 2 HP to move it to the Level 2 action. OR Pay 4 HP to move it down 2 levels. A God can help their Hero by paying 2 GP for each extra HP needed.