May the Power Protect You: The Reality of Post-Core

We need to take a minute, OK?

Please, sit down!

Grab some mulled wine. Make some if it's "out of season" (if there's such a thing!).

Yeah yeah yeah, he's eating in the GIF. The facial expression though? SO TRUE TO LIFE

So, we're about to go out into different waters on this column. We've finally left the core decks. "But Nathan," some of you will say "But you've been covering the Kickstarter exclusives for about two months now. You haven't covered core in a long time". That's not strictly true. Ranger Slayer is a simple evolution on MMPR Pink, and the other Gen 2 rangers use the same decks as their Gen 1 counterparts. While they do play very differently from their Gen 1 counterparts they share the space of being core characters in design philosophy. The core characters are meant to be easier to play. That's not a criticism, but considering how difficult the actual game can be to play it makes sense to package the simplest and most effective characters you can into that core.

But from here on out? Strap into something kids! Cause this is about to get interesting. Characters from here on out are going to be a lot more niche. The core characters don't have a lot of weaknesses and they build up momentum pretty easily. You don't have to work to get everything up and working. And that's fine!  But more complicated characters take a bit of work to get everything up and running, but for much higher returns. For all the community talks about being fans of the show, the simple fact of the matter is that this is a game, first and foremost. And so knowing a bit of game theory in the nuts and bolts of HotG will be a pretty good idea.

Like I'd said before, HotG takes a lot of concepts from 4e DnD. The one concept from that game that we really need to unpack for this game is that of characters fitting into roles. Like I've said before, gaming is a guided conversation, with the rules providing a framework. Character roles allow people to take particular approaches in that conversation. They also make it easier for everyone at the table to figure out how to talk with you. These roles are not straightjackets. Mr. Ying may make more roles in the future, but for the moment these roles are what we have.

There are six basic roles in HotG (wacky names of my own making): Front Man (Leader), Back Line (Support), Single Target Tac Nuke (DPS) , Grenade (Sweeper), Diehard (Tank), and What??? (Miscellaneous)

Front Man: This is the dude who is always talking, always telling people what to do, trying to maintain group cohesion. Characters these guys usually play are any variety of non-dragonshield MMPR Red, MMPR White, HF Red, SS Red, and TF Pink. 

Back Line: These people don't talk all that much, by and large, and are usually working on some engine in the back, trying to help everyone out, but not in a very loud way. MMPR Blue and Green (Gift of the Dragon), MMPR Yellow (Trinit Kwan), Alpha-5 and HF Blue.

Single Target Tac Nuke: The single target destroyers of the game. You need a target to just die?? These are your folks. MMPR Pink, Ranger Slayer, MMPR Yellow (Aisha Campbel) and HF Pink.

Grenade: These guys hit multiple folks at a time, sometimes to spectacular results, like a real-life grenade (which are more like a force of nature than anything else). They need a little support to get really spectacular, but these are the flashiest characters in the game. MMPR Black (Zack Taylor), SS Red, and MMPR Yellow (Trini Kwan)


Diehard: These are the folks who are meant to take beatings. The deck is just tuned to taking damage. HF Yellow, DS MMPR Red, MMPR Blue.

What??: These are the folks who are intentionally designed to have a shtick that is so unique that it really doesn't fit into the previous categories. They do something that's so different that to play them requires a lot of talking with others to make sure the team is built to handle their different style of play. MMPR Green (Loner), MMPR Black (Adam Park) and HF Black

Now, you probably took a look at the above and said "Hey, wait a minute! That's not quite right!" and probably generated your own list. That is the point. My system is not broken, it is functioning as intended. I just gave you examples of how those roles break down on my table. You could easily take DS Red and put him into Front Man, depending on how he's played. Heck, MMPR Blue could easily be a Diehard, but that's not how he seems to be used during my games. I also probably missed a few rangers, and by the time this post actually publishes we'll be on the cusp of getting the Zeo Rangers. I did not include them, because I do not write about characters I have not played. As of the writing of this post I've also not played with Bulk and Skull, and have no idea where they fit, and pride myself on telling you that I've no idea. Like I said before, the roles are a tool for your table. They are not meant to be definitive canon. If you start using MMPR Green (Loner) as a Grenade (which it's possible to!) you're not doing it wrong, you've just found a way to use him that I haven't, by and large.

So if the list is not definitive why use the system? Because it gives you a good short-hand to talk to people. People need shorthand. Whole concepts can be wrapped up in a few words and people can move on, quickly. These roles are used to figure out team composition in a more time-efficient manner. If someone wants to play HF Red you know you've got a Front Man, which means the rest of the team might consider other roles. Again, this is not a hard and fast rule. You can cover gaps with creative uses of other characters from the same role. But it is simplest to cover each of the five basic roles on purpose.

The other question you will have to cover, post-core, is how you're going to handle momentum. Momentum is how the flow of abilities progress on the table. Either you're taking control of that flow, denying the actions of the enemy (hard approach), or you're taking control of their momentum to create openings (soft approach). The terms hard and soft are taken from martial arts, which show how offensive or defensive an art generally is.

Muay Thai is one of the hardest martial arts in existence. Straight up offense, all the time.

Most of us understand the concept of the hard arts instinctively. Someone's going to punch you? Hit them first, harder than what they had planned. You create openings by battering at defenses until someone makes a mistake, and then you pummel the crap out of them. We know this as canceling out cards before they go off. It's the default view from the core set. I mean, Billy is definitely a soft style character, but the other characters are very clearly hard style. Hard style is very satisfying and intuitive. There's theory to it, but it's generally a variation on "HIT THEM HARDER. MAOR HITS".

Aikido is THE soft martial art. All damage is dealt by turning the aggressor on himself.

Ah, now we come to the one that most people will have a hard time getting their heads wrapped around. Soft martial arts are generally more technical and cerebral. The small bits of aikido training I've done centered around lengthy discussions of why I was stepping in the place I was, so that way the opponent would just collapse under their momentum and weight. MMPR and HF Blue are the soft characters par excellence, as is most of the Hyperforce team. But that requires turning off the offensive portion of your brain and learning to see gaps in offense as opportunities for powerful defense. And yes, that means having to build around those gaps.

A good example of this is HY Blue's Python Grab. It reduces damage from the card it attaches to by 2, for the cost of one energy. HF Blue in general is looked down upon for having glaring gaps in offensive momentum, but what if you used this as an opportunity for soft momentum? By way of example, you've got one energy in the pool, so you burn that to throw Python Grab onto a high damage enemy card. With Rallying Light (MMPR White) you then get an energy back, and then the enemy card activates. If someone is playing MMPR Black they then further reduce the damage by 2 and we get another energy from it. With the damage reduced to 2 you then pass it along to HF Yellow, who can not only tank the shot but then get a bonus die for his next attack.  It's much more technical, but man is it fun. You are messing with the mechanics to produce a result where you outlast the cards and take them down, one plink at a time, all the while taking the opponent's turn to build you up for your own attack. You turn the momentum of the game on its head.

Everything after this point is going to be different. Characters are going to be less flexible, but their individual bits are going to be more powerful. In order to properly take advantage of these changes players will need to be more cognizant of the roles their characters can play, as well as how they want to muck with momentum as a group. Going beyond core requires a bit more thought, but the results can be incredibly satisfying. All posts after this assume that you have read this one. Welcome to the game post-core. It's a wild ride.

A kind thanks to Joshua Trope and Tom Chorn, who provided their feedback on this article. I know I forgot some of what they said, but their looking over the post and helping me sort a few things out is incredibly appreciated.