With the expansions for Tactics drawing (relatively) closer, I've personally gone into a lot of speculation on what characters can do. This is the curse of years of wargaming and being teased with sneak peeks. However that's not the purpose of this thread, it's purpose is for us all to talk about things we want to see for the future of the game. Be aware that most of what I'm talking about is for the tournament scene, although anything you guys want to add for scenarios and core games feel free!
Expatriette
What we know for Tactics: Relatively nothing, just that she's coming in Broken City. She should still shoot lots of guns, however.
What I Want: The ability to ignore dodge tokens. Now I'm not saying it should be an innate power (although I think it'd be fine as one), but maybe even so just her first attack each round does so. I feel like this would fit her character as she's the resident gun kata markswoman and it'd be a new thing to this game as well.
So something similar to that, for characters we know are coming. That being said, there are certain things I want for the game that I don't know are coming. So from here, we'll go to...
The Argument for Kismet
Listen, I know, Kismet isn't exactly number one on anyone's decks to play against. And I know, this isn't because she's difficult, but rather the opposite. So why her? Is it because I'm a huge fan of Setback? No, although I can see how that's a factor. Is it because I want all the villains before any heroes? No, although we did mostly play villains at the innaugural tournament. The real reason is because of what she can bring to the game that we haven't really seen so far. So let's look at her, shall we?
- Probability Control: We've seen a bit of this from Visionary, but not really that much on a purely offensive scale. With her jinxes, we can really see how this could work.
- So how would jinxes work?: Jinxes would be the focus of Kismet and I imagine they'd work identically to the Operative's poisons. The real problem with Operative is she's such a melee monster and has so many great cards that her poisons don't typically see play. Kismet can really thrive off of throwing her jinxes around and causing havoc with them.
- Token Control: So far we've only really seen this from Baron Blade, and while that's not the reason I think he's number one in the current meta, Devious Disruptor is one hell of a power. Kismet seems to thrive off of turning people's luck against them. This would help free up the meta as there wouldn't be nonstop Baron bans and Legacy grabs (although the reverse can be true) since the token game still wouldn't be able to spiral out of control.
So there are my thoughts (for now) on what should be brought to the game. What do you guys think?
Captain of the good ship/Sentinel Tactics team Mighty Morphin Chrono Rangers.
I think ignoring dodge tokens on a character that is supposed to be about dealing damage would be WAY too overpowered. Right now Dodge is a counter to Aim (which is VERY powerful, btw) and it is easier to collect +attack tokens than +defense, making Aim much stronger. Ignoring Dodge would increase the gap between the two.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Right, which is why I suggested it being only on her first attack. This wouldn't be an always active ability nor do you see dodges performed that often. In the current tournament format anyone with two actions has to think long and hard about using half of their actions on dodging. Perhaps one of her power cards is a sniper rifle and part of that attack is ignoring dodge.
Captain of the good ship/Sentinel Tactics team Mighty Morphin Chrono Rangers.
Most of the time, characters only get one attack off. That means the ignore dodge effect would occur all the time.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Instead of her first attack ignoring dodge, an effect that I could see being viable is that if your target uses a dodge you gain an extra die on the attack.
I could see Setback possibly ignoring dodge tokens if he gets "lucky". There are cool thematic things you could do like that. Of course his attacks would need to be balanced accordingly
sentinel tactics the video game is on my wish list
My wife thinks Sentinels is ruining our marriage. I think she doesnt know what shes talking about because she wont sit down to play it
I think this would be more appropriate for a character like Parse than Expatriette, but one way to "balance the budget" on an ability like this is to make it cost an Aim token to activate, just like bunker's Omnicannon takes Attack+1 tokens to activate.
For instance, I could see a power card like this:
Impossible Shot
[Cost: Aim token] Dicex5
If the defender has a dodge token, remove it and resolve Defense dice normally. Otherwise, turn all Defense dice to the value of the lowest die before assigning to block damage.
Mine too.
Mine too :D
“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” ~Obi-Wan Kenobi
That!
Donner's Wishlist:
1. Sentinels Tactics video game
2. World Peace
3. A cure for cancer
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
In that order?
"Your goodness must have some edge to it — else it is none."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
For Setback:
Have him roll D8s instead of D6's, but give him a higher than normal amount of auto-misses, and no ability to aim or dodge.
That way he can have attacks that can't be blocked, or defense that can't be overcome...but only if he rolls well.
You could have some sort of "silver lining" innate where turns where he does nothing but automiss give him a defensive bonus.
For comedic purposes, yes. In reality....no. :D
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
For Setback:
I'd do a rotating automiss for him.
give him attacks, and then he rolls an automiss after declaring the target.
If the attack has an automiss already on it and you roll that number, it doesn't add anything, or maybe even negates that automiss.
Then you roll your attack.
Also whenever a +/- token would activate roll a dice and on say a 5-6 it acts as the opposite sign.
What about if Setback's attacks had you role something like 10 dice but only hits on 5's or something? And he can't aim.
Oh, come on now. Does that even sound like fun at all? That just sounds frustrating to me.
:p
Some view Setback that way. :D
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Thoughts for Setback:
You could make any 6's he rolled count double. But the cost would be a larger automiss range.
Every successful attack (at least 1 wound incurred) gives him a -1 defense token. Every successful defense (no wounds taken) gives him a -1 attack token.
vice versa- turns where he does nothing give him attack +1 or defense +1 bonuses the next time.
You could have an attack (exceeds expectations?) where he could roll any number of dice, one at a time- but if he rolled any automisses, they would all miss.
You could have a power where he sacrifices life to set his dice to a specific number, preferably something conventionally impossible like a 7.
IF you ever swing by the BGG tactics forums, go look in the variant section, I made up a bunch of SotM characters based on their playstyle in the card game, Setback is in there and he turned out lots of fun.