Hey all!
I'm demoing Sentinels at a con this Memorial Day Weekend, and I've also signed up to demo the Villains/Vengeance play setup. I'm trying to figure out which villains you recommend for a starter game. (I'm doing the basic SOTM demo before the VOTM demo, so in theory people will already know how the base game works, but that's not a 100% guarantee and they will almost certainly never have fought a villain team.)
My instinct is to use La Capitan, The Operative, and Greazer, adding in Ambuscade and Proletariat if I get enough players. (I passed on Miss Information because despite the 1, she has the problem of preventing players from doing things, which can cause a sour taste with first-time players who think the game does that a lot; similarly, Ermine can cause such huge setbacks she might make it feel even rougher than it is.)
Thanks in advance!
“We've always known we'd eventually be called upon to open our shirts and save the day, and the superhero was a crude, hopeful attempt to talk about how we all might feel on that day of great power, and great responsibility.”
- Grant Morrison
I've forgotten what we had for the Villains setup (maybe it's here on the forums somewhere?), but I highly recommend Plague Rat. He speeds up the game (as he's damaging everyone!) and makes for some interesting decisions while not doing a lot to shut down player activity/choices.
EDIT: Found it. Here's dpt's post about what we used in the demos at Gen Con last year (and the thread has some discussion around that). It worked really well. Highly recommend an environment that is friendly to the heroes and/or accelerates the game (like Magmaria, Freedom Tower, or Insula Primalis).
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
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I'd highly recommend (basing off of running VotM demos at Gencon):
You: run all the villains. This lets the players focus on their heroes.
Villains:
Plague Rat (the indiscriminate damage makes for some very interesting choices)
Greazer (Unique mechanic, lots of style, puts the pressure on a hero... Also has some VERY funny interactions with Plague Rat if the rat touches the hair!)
The Operative (goes after lowest, very easy to run, lots of style)
for 4-5 player games, add in:
Miss Information (screws with heroes in fun ways, and everything she does tends to have some sort of positive tradeoff- she takes away stuff, but usually gives something else)
Citizen Hammer and Anvil (Super easy to run and keep track of- you might want to pull Bastion position from their deck if you don't want to use an attack-boosting hero like Legacy. Bastion position can slow down the game, but it also shows off how well the villains can sometimes work together.)
environment: I'd recommend Magmaria- it tends to be kind of neutral, and it's one of the new ones that lets the heroes do some cool things.