TychesCoin
03/06/2003, 15:16
Just kind of a fun house rule we've been playing with a bit that I thought I'd share in case anybody was interested.
Every comic book team has a leader, some of them have two or three it seems like, but there's someone who takes charge on the battlefield. Do you're heroclix teams actually have leaders? Sure leadership is a useful ability and all, but do the characters really play like a leader? I've only had one game where I had what was obviously a leadership piece, brotherhood team where Magneto was never brought into combat but simply used telekinesis to rotate other character into and out of the fight. He won the battle for me without making an attack roll.
Anyway thats kinda the inspiration for the idea, here's the actual implementation:
First some generic stuff, we usually limit leaders to characters with the leadership ability with exceptions for characters like Cyclops who have a history of team leadership but missed out on the ability.
Tje first effect of choosing a leader is that that character gets an extra leadership roll whether the current click has leadership or not. So as long as you leader isn't KO'd you get atleast one leadership roll per turn (which can't be outwitted) could possibly get a second with the same character if the current click has naturally occuring leadership. Still can't gain more than 1 action per turn through leadership but you get an extra chance at it.
The second generic effect is that if your leader is KO'd your action pool the next turn is reduced by one. (in some of our harsher games you lose all your actions instead but that can lead to a onesided rout). You also lose the leader's special ability which is discussed below.
The third thing which is the fun part is that each leader brings some special ability to the team (kind of like team abilities but centered on a character). These vary from leader to leader and we pretty much just agree on them before the game and try our best to be balanced. Some of them we've kind of made standard for certain characters, here are some examples:
Magneto - Force Shield - All friendly characters within 5 squares (10 if the opposing leaders ability is pretty powerful) of magneto gain +2 to defense against ranged attacks (this stacks with energy shield so Magneto would get a +4).
Wasp - Scouting - Any opposing character within 5 (or 10) squares of Wasp loses any benefits of hindering terrain. No stealth, no +1 to defense etc.
White Queen - Cunning - The white queen can trade a successful leadership roll for an outwit. If she still has her leadership on her click she could potentially wind up with two outwits or an outwit and an action if she makes both rolls.
Cyclops - Teamwork - If two friendly characters are adjacent within 5 squares of Cyclops, one of them may take an action but give the action token to the other character. The character without the action token is eligible for a second action in the same turn. The character who receives the token is not. So for instance Wolvy and Colossus are adjacent near cyclops, wolvy moves x spaces towards Magneto and Colossus takes an action token. Then Wolverine attacks Magneto and receives an action token of his own. Fastball special, but pretty generic rule structure (often used to give jean two chances to heal someone).
Thanos - Awe - Not really a leadership thing. Mostly just to give Thanos something special. Opposing characters within 10 squares of Thanos may only move half their speed regardless of super powers or flight. Characters moving from outside 10 squares must stop as soon as they enter the 10 square area as though they were entering hindering terrain. Any ranged attacks are made against a defense +1 like firing through hindering terrain. If an enemy character is adjacent to Thanos the effect is canceled while Thanos deals with the annoyance.
Don't have things worked out for everyone yet, or have it particularly well balanced at the moment. But its fun and adds a little bit more team identity I think. thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated
Every comic book team has a leader, some of them have two or three it seems like, but there's someone who takes charge on the battlefield. Do you're heroclix teams actually have leaders? Sure leadership is a useful ability and all, but do the characters really play like a leader? I've only had one game where I had what was obviously a leadership piece, brotherhood team where Magneto was never brought into combat but simply used telekinesis to rotate other character into and out of the fight. He won the battle for me without making an attack roll.
Anyway thats kinda the inspiration for the idea, here's the actual implementation:
First some generic stuff, we usually limit leaders to characters with the leadership ability with exceptions for characters like Cyclops who have a history of team leadership but missed out on the ability.
Tje first effect of choosing a leader is that that character gets an extra leadership roll whether the current click has leadership or not. So as long as you leader isn't KO'd you get atleast one leadership roll per turn (which can't be outwitted) could possibly get a second with the same character if the current click has naturally occuring leadership. Still can't gain more than 1 action per turn through leadership but you get an extra chance at it.
The second generic effect is that if your leader is KO'd your action pool the next turn is reduced by one. (in some of our harsher games you lose all your actions instead but that can lead to a onesided rout). You also lose the leader's special ability which is discussed below.
The third thing which is the fun part is that each leader brings some special ability to the team (kind of like team abilities but centered on a character). These vary from leader to leader and we pretty much just agree on them before the game and try our best to be balanced. Some of them we've kind of made standard for certain characters, here are some examples:
Magneto - Force Shield - All friendly characters within 5 squares (10 if the opposing leaders ability is pretty powerful) of magneto gain +2 to defense against ranged attacks (this stacks with energy shield so Magneto would get a +4).
Wasp - Scouting - Any opposing character within 5 (or 10) squares of Wasp loses any benefits of hindering terrain. No stealth, no +1 to defense etc.
White Queen - Cunning - The white queen can trade a successful leadership roll for an outwit. If she still has her leadership on her click she could potentially wind up with two outwits or an outwit and an action if she makes both rolls.
Cyclops - Teamwork - If two friendly characters are adjacent within 5 squares of Cyclops, one of them may take an action but give the action token to the other character. The character without the action token is eligible for a second action in the same turn. The character who receives the token is not. So for instance Wolvy and Colossus are adjacent near cyclops, wolvy moves x spaces towards Magneto and Colossus takes an action token. Then Wolverine attacks Magneto and receives an action token of his own. Fastball special, but pretty generic rule structure (often used to give jean two chances to heal someone).
Thanos - Awe - Not really a leadership thing. Mostly just to give Thanos something special. Opposing characters within 10 squares of Thanos may only move half their speed regardless of super powers or flight. Characters moving from outside 10 squares must stop as soon as they enter the 10 square area as though they were entering hindering terrain. Any ranged attacks are made against a defense +1 like firing through hindering terrain. If an enemy character is adjacent to Thanos the effect is canceled while Thanos deals with the annoyance.
Don't have things worked out for everyone yet, or have it particularly well balanced at the moment. But its fun and adds a little bit more team identity I think. thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated