May the Power Protect You: Lauren Shiba (SS Red, Part Two)

Lauren is the strangest character I've played so far. I didn't have much all that much experience with her, so after part one was complete I contacted the Heroes of the Grid facebook group and asked to show my post to people who had played Lauren more than I had. I was pretty confident I had a stellar post, even one that could have been definitive for the character. Hey, I get to have dreams and aspirations too!

The responses I got back really took me off guard.

Because most of the fine folks who looked at part one told me that they didn't play Lauren that way at all! They used Lauren as a leader to buff and then occasionally jump in to kick ass. That wasn't the part that floored me though. What floored me was that they confirmed that my experience with Lauren was completely and utterly valid, they just didn't want to play that way with her. And that they were grateful that the character was designed with such depth that they had the option to play it their way.

Lauren's character ability doesn't necessarily mean that she's using energy on herself, she could use it  to donate energy confidently, secure in the knowledge that you'll be getting that energy back at the end. Disciplines could not only be used for other's rolls but that was their preferred usage of the card! Every part of the Lauren buffalo could be used to give others the break they needed to shine.

I don't make this post because I disagree with them. I made this post because I was a bit gobsmacked by what was said. The whole time I've played Lauren I was unable to see the character any other way than what I wrote in Part One. That was just what I saw. When I showed what I had written I was wondering if I had seen everything, but I wasn't expecting the level of difference that I heard.

I am struck by just how freaking flexible this game can really be, to allow for that level of dialogue between players. This is such a good thing! The game is already developing enough depth to where such conversations can happen. As the game continues and as we talk about more characters (particularly Zeo) we'll find this becomes more and more pertinent. How I play Zeo Red may be very different than how you play Zeo Red, for instance. Or Phantom Ranger. Or whomever. For ten cards there's a lot of depth of these newer characters, and Lauren is the harbinger of that. And I'm so excited.

The point is that my original vision for this series, to provide subjective input for how I've used the characters and enjoy them, has become more relevant than ever. Because there isn't just one way to look the characters we have coming out now. And as time goes on that will become more and more true, and we may eventually start getting characters for whom there are almost as many ways to play them as there are people. We're approaching an era where true player diversity is not just an exception, as it was with the core box, but the norm.

And I welcome that with open arms.

Marvel Champions: Dr. Strange Review

So it's not been much of a secret that Dr. Strange is incredibly strong. Everyone outside the US has been raving about this character for awhile. So, being in the US and all, I finally got my copy! As always, this review is about whether or not I think the deck is viable out of the box and my initial impressions of the character. I'm certainly not good enough at this game to provide any real in-depth analysis. But I can certainly talk about playing the deck out of the box!

The actual character cards for Doctor Strange are... crazy. Just nuts. He covers practically every base, even allowing you to grab cards out of your discard pile, as well as covering a lot bases. Playing the deck I felt like I usually had an answer for anything that was coming at me. Strange's actual deck lacks any and all forms of damage dealing. In fact, his actual deck, while it's good, isn't anything earth-shattering.

It's that freaking Invocation deck that makes Strange just bonkers.

See, there's a side deck that Dr. Strange has with him, of five cards. You flip the top card over. It can be cast by paying the resource cost on it, effectively giving you an additional card in your hand that you can use while you're in Hero form. Most of the time you just discard the card and then flip over the next top one, but it's not terribly hard to figure out how to manipulate the spell deck. And they're all incredible. There's literally a card that lets you swap out a condition on a target for any condition you want. Any. The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak does -and I quote, keep in mind this costs you two resources to do it - "Stun an enemy and deal 7 damage to it. Place this card in the Invocation deck discard pile"

7 damage. With a Stun. For two resources.

And before anyone says "Yeah, but it circulates back to the Invocation Deck discard pile!" there are cards in Dr. Strange's deck which allow him to keep this deck on top of the Invocation deck and keep using it. Dr. Strange can hit with this sucker a good two or three times if he's lucky.

And that's exactly what I did.

Ultron never saw me coming.

So much scrap.

So if you know what you're doing Dr. Strange is probably the strongest hero we have right now. But how does the rest of the deck play? I'm really not a fan of pairing Dr. Strange with Protection, which is what the default deck does. I personally ground against it the whole way. Don't get me wrong, the cards in this deck are the absolute friggin' bomb, and I immediately cannibalized most of the Protection cards in here for my Spider-Man Protection (making it a thousand times better!). There are may be people who would enjoy Dr. Strange as an entry into the hobby, but I know I sure wouldn't.

That being said the Protection cards are just amazing.

Swords and Strongholds: Review

Do not be fooled. This game is evil.

Don't let the simple-ish components, which feel really good to touch and play with, fool you. This is a knock-down, drag-out brawl.

The board is too freaking small and it's on purpose. Magnificent bastards.


 So the set-up of the game is kinda like checkers or chess, but with cards. There are four pawns a side, black and grey, and they move on the intersections of the board, as opposed to the squares. You must move a pawn one intersection a turn. You may play a card. There are three types: swords (which let you move in an L shape and pushes other pawns, including your own), strongholds (you settle into a square and lock up all intersections adjacent) and diplomacies (either switch spots with the closest enemy pawn OR pull the nearest enemy stronghold out of said stronghold).

You are either trying to put a stronghold in one of the opponent's back corners or take all his pieces.

Both are a pain in the ass.

Play is deceptive. It looks like a simple game... until your opponent swaps positions with you and you realize you're very close to losing. Or until you've got half of your pieces in stronghold and realize that you've completely locked the board up, but you're afraid to come out of the stronghold, as that might allow your opponent to win... but you need those pieces. Damnit. There's a push and a pull and some unbearable tension you just have to accept if you're going to play this game. And if you don't want choices that are genuinely hard to endure then I really can't recommend the game. There are no real good answers, just a tight board, not enough pieces, and a game that goes on precisely as long as you're afraid of screwing up.

This is not a game for the feint of heart. If you don't like direct confrontation and want ways to weasel out of conflict I cannot recommend it. But if you're OK with charging head-forward, ready for a mousey brawl, then I think you'll have a great time. I like that style of play, and find that this game serves that taste quite well.

For everyone else I'd be snarky and recommend chess, but chess can be pretty cut-throat too!

The Undertow: Session Twenty-Four

The cult of The Lone Keep must fall! Mikansia and Nomi, determined to end the vile Keep's existence, have acquired a working star map so they can intercept the orbiting Keep. But first, they have to drop off some of their compatriots at the human city of Vigilance.

Vigilance was partially elven built, for the purpose of keeping the demonic The One in the Deep imprisoned. Mikansia had always been a bit skeptical that humans could keep the Elven Inimicai secured, but The One in the Deep wasn't running around and creating havoc anymore, so who was she to argue? And it was a beautiful city, with its red-roofed white-walled visage shining in the sun. It would probably look better with the dark black of the Void for a sky, not this ridiculous blue, but still, at least some humans had taste. Vigilance was atop a mountain, surrounded by mile upon mile of mountainous forest. Decima had asked that she and the girls be dropped off a little ways outside the city, as they didn't want to spook the population.

Fish was asleep before he landed. Everyone else fell off him, in a heap. Everyone else, except for Mikansia. The walls of Vigilance were before her; the vast forests of the northern Étranger Mountains behind her.

There was something up in the sky; its wings were too leathery to be a bird, Mikansia could tell from even that far up. As it came closer it brought a hurricane that dwarfed anything Fish could ever summon; an actual dragon, surrounded in flickering oranges and blues. Mikansia had to back away from the corona of flame and steady herself against Fish's unconscious bulk. On its back was the Creature from Dream, green scales shining in the early morning light. All its voices could be heard; various voices, various tones, as the real dragon landed in a miniature earthquake.

"Give me that!"

"So many generations! Wasted!"

"I've earned it!"

"How dare you!"

"DIE"

"You first!" Mikansia drew the rainbow blade that the Creature had made from Jabez's sword. She had lost it once; she would never lose it again. Dragon or no, Mikansia would not run.

Twelve orcs came running up from behind the dragon, using the flaming whirlwind as cover. So did a werewolf.

Mikansia sighed. And cut a hole into the realm of Dream. That was one of the sword's powers.

She was back in the impossibly bright fields. She knew she had less than a moment. So Mikansia focused on a memory: she had left Nomi, back when their compound had been invaded by pathetically insane Zaina. Mikansia had no way of knowing if Nomi and Fish were going to make it out at the time. Mikansia didn't want to admit she still felt guilty about it.

But she had to.

And she sank into that guilt.

She'd never live up to the debt she owed Nomi.

"You rang?" Nomi stood beside her, with a bit of a mocking smile.

"You fell asleep"

"I did?"

Mikansia nodded. "Apparently extreme danger bores you."

"Oh please! That's just not-"

"I hate to interrupt and rush. But we're getting attacked by a dragon."

"A real dragon?? Fish isn't a real one. He hates being re-"

"Could you please pull Fish out of whatever dream he's in so we don't get roasted???"

"Oh, right. Real dragon. Got it."

The real dragon stuck its head through the hole. The furnace from hell opened. A hill popped up in front of the pillar of hellfire. Mikansia was startled. She had barely even seen the movement of the dragon before the fire had unleashed; how the hell had she reacted so fast, especially in someone else's defense? Fish rocketed from the sky of Dream, plowing into the real dragon's face. They rolled out of Dream and into the waking world. They rolled down the mountain, kicking up trees and hills and boulders and whatever else was unfortunate to get in their way.

The werewolf jumped through the hole in Dream. Mikansia diced him so quickly the werewolf was forgotten in the rough draft of this post, no I'm not kidding this wasn't even a freaking fight. 

Erhem. Sorry.

Three orcs ran into the hole, eager and ready to avenge their compatriot. Mikansia barely even looked at them as their heads went flying in a rainbow-blood flash of light. Nomi whistled, finally registering what had just happened. Mikansia was a bit smug. She wasn't at Krakeru's level. But still.

Fish went flying through the air like one would punt a ball.

KABOOM

A nearby mountain peak went up in a debris cloud. The real dragon's hurricane wasn't too far behind. "FISH!! NO! YOU BASTARD!!!" Nomi ran out the portal, screaming at the top of her lungs.

A blade entered Nomi's ribs. She fell over. The blade stayed. Blood exited. From around the corner of the hole stepped the Creature. He reached into Dream and a new sword appeared in his claw.

"So much time."

"Waited long enough."

"Please."

"DIE!" Mikansia lunged as The Creature swung down at Nomi's leaking form. Mikansia rushed through the hole in Dream, impossibly fast. Four orcs and their swords popped between Mikansia and The Creature's descending blade.

Mikansia hadn't moved as fast or as gracefully as Krakeru. She blocked five blades at once, so quickly there was only one loud ringing sound. No, Mikansia had not been as fast as Krakeru in that moment.

She had been faster.

The Creature and the four orcs stared at Mikansia. For just one second nobody moved. And then all five foes lunged at Mikansia. Spinning out of the way of The Creature's lunge, Mikansia swung once.

The four orcs fell in half, blood spraying over The Creature and Mikansia. There wasn't a mark on Mikansia's shining blade.

With a series of guttural screams and yells The Creature lunged at Mikansia, knocking her back into Dream, through the hole; the rainbow blade was sticking out through its back.

Nomi twitched. She wouldn't last much longer.

Mikansia could hear a buzzing as she got up. It was the giant insectoid keepers of Dream. And they wouldn't be merciful to whomever opened that portal.

May the Power Protect You: Lauren Shiba (SS Red) Part One

Forward. Forward. Foward. Lauren is the definition of a hard character. Almost everything she has is to either attack or to make attacking better. Looking at her stuff I'm reminded of people who say "We use every part of the buffalo",  'cause that seems to be the way she does stuff. She goes all out, all the time, and just goes all the way to empty, fills back up, and goes all the way back down again. I think her role is What??, not Frontman. She has some Frontman stuff, but Lauren's abilities seem much more centered around setting up huge freaking amounts of damage to a single target.. .right up until the second she's a Grenade. And then all of a sudden she can shift to Frontman?

Yeah, Lauren's weird.

Normally I would start with Lauren's character ability, True Focus. Normally how to interpret a character is pretty simple: look at the character's ability and view the deck through that lens. Normally everything falls into place looking at the character ability. Lauren's weird.Wanna know what Lauren's all about?

Look at Black Box.

What can we glean? First off, Black Box is expensive, at two energy. It's also extremely hard to recover, at three shields. There's only one in your deck so you need to be careful with it and not get rid of it. If it winds up in your discard pile prioritize getting it out, ASAP. With this one card Lauren's toolbox becomes the definition of an artillery: she doesn't care what she hits or why, because someone is going to suffer. Yes, the energy requirement is high. So that means you won't be able to play it all the time. But this is the card you should center your entire playstyle around, not to mention everyone else. Lauren is a tentpole, for better or worse.

True Focus, like I've said, is not the focus (ha!) of Lauren Shiba's deck. Oh not, not even close. It's an insurance policy. No matter how hard you push, you will always get an energy back. Always. So throw your energy to the wind! If someone's recovering energy don't take any unless you absolutely must. Drain it all, cause it's coming back. Forward forward FORWARD!

Yes, we're going to cover the zord now. I know, I usually do that last, but Lauren's weird! And it's necessary to understand how central the Bullzord is to Lauren's playstyle. This is not a zord for anyone else but Lauren, period. The Bullzord is not a group resource, people! Dump it onto Lauren ASAP, so that way she is able to deal large amounts of damage with less energy. You picked Lauren, that means everyone else needs to line up behind you and make sure your hits land.

Don't have Black Box? Get Hold the Line out as soon as you have a second so you can try and draw the Box. Hold the Line is one of the few cards in the game that lets everyone draw and you get an energy out of it. This also allows the group to eat a hit if they need to, by having a choice of what to put back atop the deck. It's the perfect card to compliment Lauren's otherwise straight-up offensive toolkit. It lets you get the card you want while making sure that defenses are high all around.

I know Discipline says that you can do a reroll on any ranger, but let's be honest with ourselves: you shouldn't. Use it on yourself for Strafe Burst and Burn Out. Notice how those two attacks are dependent upon specific results that you rolled? Want a specific result from either one, but can't seem to get it because the dice are evil? Why do you think Discipline is in Lauren's arsenal? It's for your own rolls! You can use this to cheat GUARD or possibly get some of the extra damage that would have been wasted on a KO elsewhere. Or, if you're willing to use Black Box on either of these attacks, you all of a sudden may be able to KO one target and still hit another one for pretty decent damage! The flexibility here is amazing!

But the piece de resistance is Spin Sword. Dump even two additional energy on it and you have a 5D attack... which isn't as good as the Power Bow, I know, or even the Bow of Darkness, but Lauren has enough tools to make this card the definitive tac nuke. First off, Black Box combined with practically anything in Lauren's toolbox is just ridiculous, and that goes double for even an unmodified Spin Sword. But the fact that you can throw in Discipline, which allows you to muck with the dice roll for even greater effect, means that you can, with just three dice, possibly get 12 damage out of the attack, 6 damage on average, which is the equal of Power Bow in terms of damage. However, if you put a bit more in... the results can be truly terrifying. Like all things post-core, it needs some set-up, but you get this whole combined with a Dragonzord or two? You're talking something of a power level that would make the Power Bow weep from the sheer amount of damage coming out. Yes, Power Bow allows you to ignore GUARD, and yes, MMPR Pink is a better single target tac nuke, but Lauren is not a tac nuke: her role is so flexible and so weird that, in a pinch, she can equal Kimberly's damage output to a single target, which is all that is required for this to be a legitimate part of Lauren's toolkit.

Lauren sits in the back, biding her time. When she strikes, she strikes once, wrecking all before her, whether it be one or many, with an accuracy that's as assured as it is deadly. With a single strike of her sword she either fells armies or the target nobody else seems to be able to get. And she walks away, perfectly balanced and replenished, ready for another round. Properly played, Lauren is deadly. Challenging. Exhilarating. 

For she is samurai. And samurais demand nothing less.

Yes, this is part one. I told you, Lauren's weird.

The True-Gold Forge: Review

So this is not the sorta thing I would normally want to use. Generally I view myself as pretty good at allowing for RP, and so I'd have skipped a mechanic like this. RP happens pretty regularly and it's generally pretty high caliber.

Yeah, I know that's bragging. Deal with it.

I mean, the sessions aren't perfect, particularly when trying to figure things out with Torchbearer. And honestly I found that a bit with the lighter Trophy Gold as well; doing deep and intensive role-playing is not something that most systems are designed to do, at least inherently. Others may disagree, but I find that Burning Wheel has spoiled me.

There's something to be said for just talking. y'know?

And that's what True-Gold Forge is. Talking.

During natural rest periods of the session everyone rolls two dice: a light and a dark. The GM has a table of topics, which he then references. Each player then has a prompt to expound upon.

And that's it.

Yeah, it's that simple. And it works! Players have to get a bit creative, but I've found that the prompts lead to any range of RP moments, with all sorts of tones. The openness of the system allows creative players to really shine. Players who may need some more meat may suffer for it, but I've found that a good strong helping GM hand can make the difference in setting up who goes when.

This was a very pleasant surprise. I'll definitely be open to more stuff like this in the future.

You can get True-Gold Forge in the Codex Gold magazine, which is part of the Codex Magazine, published by the ever-fine folks at the Gauntlet.

Marvel Champions: Green Goblin Review

The best Goblin story in Spider-Man history. Yup. I said it.

I grew up with the Green Goblin as the primary boogeyman of childhood. Norman Osborn is the flip side of everything that is Peter: ambitious, business-savvy, ruthless, petty, and almost careless with his time under the mask. Norman is Peter's nemesis precisely because everything Peter, by being himself, loses to Norman. He has to step it up, everytime. He has to lose his happy-go-lucky attitude and resolve to beat Norman right to the brink of death in order to stop the nightmare.

So yeah, you could say I have a bit of a personal interest in this pack.

The Green Goblin pack released months ago, I know. But there is a lot in the pack. And I've not played the game as much I've wanted to. Obviously that's going to change. But here's what we got: The Green Goblin pack has two major scenarios- Green Goblin proper and Norman Osborn - along with four side scenarios - Scorpion, Tombstone, Electro and Green Goblin. All six scenarios are excellent, covering a wide selection of situations. Each of them are challenging in their own right.

Mutagen Formula is the Green Goblin scenario proper, where our villain tries to infect the city with his goblin formula. Ole Gobby's gone full Goblin Nation, posing a proper Avenger's level threat. Green Goblin as a villain is always scheming: when he deals damage to the players his threat goes up. Mutagen Formula isn't as minion-happy as, say, Ultron, but it still has a fair number of little folks running out to screw up your day. All in all, Mutagen Formula has been one of the toughest scenarios released for the game so far. It's the Goblin at the top of his game.

Risky Business is my favorite scenario in the tin. Norman Osborn is trying to take over a section of Stark Industries and you have to stop him! I've heard people complain this one is too easy. I mean, it isn't the hardest scenario I've played, but there's some interesting levers to pull here. The villain here is a cross between Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn can't attack, but cannot take damage, building a resource that lets him shrug off hits. If you do eat through his shield fast enough Norman switches to his Green Goblin half, who immediately deals everyone on the board unavoidable damage. The Green Goblin has a ticking time clock until he switches back to Norman (and thus stops taking damage). The clock ticks down whenever he would normally scheme, although there are other triggers that his deck contains. The thing is that Green Goblin's attack is higher than normal, so he can bruise you up so badly that you have to flip back to alter-ego... which is when the clock ticks. It doesn't take much. This particular scenario feels like the Norman Osborn from the comics: unstable, smart, and usually destroying himself in the end. Given my love for Norman Osborn this is the scenario I usually find myself defaulting to.

The four side scenarios are really cool. Goblin Gimmicks allows you to port the Goblin madness over to other villains (or maybe just beef up your Goblin!): regen, gliders, pumpkin bombs, the whole scheBANG is in here. Goblin Gimmicks makes your villain just that much more annoying. A Mess of Things introduces the villain Scorpion into the game. He likes to stun folks and then take advantage of stunning you, turning into a whirlwind of death. Running Interference features Tombstone, who mucks around with your alter-ego, sometimes making it impossible to change between the personas. Electro discards cards out of the encounter deck, sending out random bad things based upon what's discarded. And yeah, that gets you closer to the dreaded +1 Encounter Card a player situation. Sometimes those discards take out a huge chunk of the Encounter Deck. Playing against Electro with Thor in the mix would be terrifying...

Anyway.

I think this is a really good scenario pack. The Goblin schemes are extremely flavorful and a good mix of challenges. The side schemes add some interesting stuff to the mix, creating sub-plots that are memorable and challenging. It's not an excellent buy for 20 bucks. I still don't feel like I've gotten to the bottom of the pack.

And that's after six months. So let that speak for itself.