[GB] God Themes

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

Agreed on Hades being a bonus "misfortune" deck. Hades refuses to play with the other gods but is happy to act as a spoiler.

I like the idea of gods having having personal nemeses, but I can't think of an implementation that wouldn't feel antiquated after a couple expansions. Maybe it's silly to think that far ahead, but I can't help it. Nemeses would be easy to balance in the original set of six, but after 20, I feel like they'd look out of place.

But I don't want to forget the idea, because there's an implementation out there that makes it work. And I like the feel of it.

[Eliahad]

Here are the current card-types!

Blessings
Curses
Terrain
Movement
Reaction
"Places" (until a better name is discovered, these are board elements, used to be Barriers.)
"Direct" (Usually attack cards, but can also be healing cards, for example, or removing curse cards or blessings)

There are sub-types for most of these cards, blessings and curses are divided among the Hero Actions, for example. But these are the largest categories.

So, Hermes, I think would be:

Blessings (Move, Sprint, Kick and Throw, Special(Sandals of Hermes, for example) )
Curses (Move, Sprint)
Movement
Terrain (Remove)

These are musings, mostly, but if you have ideas, let us know!

[Eliahad]

Zeus

Primary: Direct
Secondary: Strength


Poseidon

Primary: Terrain
Secondary: Kick/Throw

Athena

Primary: Blessings
Secondary: Direct/Defense

Aphrodite

Primary: Hero Manipulation
Secondary: Recovery/Reaction

Hermes

Primary: Movement
Secondary: Terrain Removal, Thievery, Trickery

Hera

Primary: Curses and Stealing Blessings
Secondary: Hand Manipulation and Reactions

[FlameBlade]

Mike, not sure you were around for this, but we seem to have developed a new dimension -- reassigning the blessings/curses. It was a way for Hera to get blessings on her hero while screwing others over.

[Mike]

I saw that. Great idea.

[Eliahad]

I was just coming back to elaborate some. I only jotted down basic notes in the post above.

It might seem like we didn't accomplish a lot, but getting Hermes done last night was a huge step, because as we look at his card deck now, as Andrew said, it looks like, and feels like Hermes. The blessings and curses that we added make a world of difference I think, and allow for some very interesting possibilities as we dive into the other Gods and Goddesses.

As Flame said, a new twist came up as we were finishing up Hermes' thievery aspect and it really loaned itself to making Hera a much more interesting Goddess even if she's still going to be a pain in the backside to everyone else. Rather than just load her up with curses, we can craft some of these cards as thievery cards that steal blessings from others to power up her own hero. So, while she might not have any blessings of her own, she can twist the powers and abilities of others to suit her needs. She's going to be very interesting to play, I think.

The idea of trading cards also comes to mind, and I think it will be a good way to craft Aphrodite's cards as well. For Aphrodite, however, instead of stealing, there will be trades between blessings and curses. I want a lot of her cards to manipulate things between Heroes, which will, I hope, provide mutual paths to success...until she pulls off the thing that pushes her into the lead.

Also to be explored: The idea of turning Hero Actions into something else. So when a blessing is played, it turns that Shove action, for example, into a completely different action.

[Eliahad]

Also, I want to see Hermes' Hero sprinting toward the goal and Poseidon to drop a mountain on his head. On his head, I say.

[Eliahad]

I have drafted Poseidon's list except for 3 Special abilities. Earthquake might get moved into the Special category. In fact, I'm going to do that now. In which case, he needs 2 Specials and 1 other Secondary.

[Eliahad]

Athena has a draft list now, too, but needs 2 more SPECIALS. I went with a slightly more Balanced approach on her Secondary powers but with a much larger emphasis on defense. Her primary focus is still blessings.

Oh right, a link:

[Mike]

Aphdrodite...

DEFEND (blessing) - 0HP to defend against Shove, 2HP to defend against Grab and Force Fumble. (Permanent).

MOVE (curse) - 0HP+movement cost (+special, see text) Hero moves 1 hex in any direction. Any move that is not part of the shortest route towards Aphrodite's hero costs an extra 1HP.

CHANGE ATTACK TARGET (reaction) - When a hero uses an attack maneuver (Shove, Grab, Force Fumble), after they have declared the action and paid for it, play this card to change the target to any other available hero within range. If there are no other valid targets, this card may not be played.

CHANGE THROW TARGET (reaction) - When a hero Throws the Godball, if Aphrodite's hero is within range, play this card to change the target hex of throw to be Aphrodite's hero. Other's within range may still intercept normally.

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

By within range, I meant anywhere the target hero could have thrown to. So if they had a 2 hex or 3 hex throw, then Aphrodite can change the target to her own hero IF said hero was a potential target to begin with.

If you throw and you could throw to my hero, then my card ensures that you do.

But yeah, these were just examples of the sort of stuff I think Aphrodite would be good at--influencing the behavior of others. The flavor is like Charm Person where she's forcing people to be nice to her hero.


Another reaction card: When another player plays a card that targets their own hero, Aphrodite may play this card to have it target her hero instead.

Aphrodite is big on reaction cards. Therefore she gets more cards into play and so maybe her cards, on average, don't have to be as powerful as another more direct deck.

[Eliahad]

I finished up Poseidon and Athena's card lists. I don't feel good about either of them, but I can't tell if that's just indigestion or not. So if anyone wants to take a look at them and make suggestions, please, please do!