Home Brew Rules: Harder They Fall

Check it out, my first custom feat card:



This card will go great on any Batman Ally, really any martial artist character. It allows you to maneuver your opponents into more advantageous positions. Like, say your Superman is based next to your Robin who is being beat on by the Joker. Well, if Robin knows Judo, he can throw Joker right next to Supes, who can then pound the Clown Prince of Crime into oblivion.

You can also use it to hit one enemy with another. This helps when your martial artist gets surrounded and you need a little breathing room, and it even does a little damage to each enemy. Plus, it can lead to some great game moments.

OPPONENT: "Did Batman just hit the Joker with the Riddler?"

YOU: "That's right."

OPPONENT: "Sweet."

Edges! Crap, I forgot about throwing people off of Elevated Terrain. Ah well. It wouldn't have fit on the card anyway. Besides, I'm sure you guys know enough that non-flying characters take 2 clicks of damage when falling off of Elevated Terrain.

The question is whether you ignore abilities like Leap/Climb and Phasing/Teleport... They are being thrown, after all... But I can imagine characters teleporting to avoid damage when falling.

Hmm. I don't know. What do you think?

Home Brew Rules: Finders Keepers

Once again, Scipio knows best. He suggested I make some special objects for use on the Micro Map. I thought it best to have a full set of objects; four light objects and two heavy ones.

The Light Objects:


The matchstick, the dime, and the bottlecap were all suggested by Scipio. The washer was my idea. Not much to say; I don't want to give any special rules for this set. These are all things you'd find in your backyard or in the park.

The Heavy Objects:

It was hard trying to come up with a second "heavy" small object. Luckily, Scipio provided me with the pebble. The nail came to me after (no kidding) three hours of thought.

Okay! That should be it for the Micro Map. Time to get to work on some new maps.

Turn of the Century Slang

Whip your weight in wildcats - To soundly defeat an opponent much larger or stronger than you. Boxing term.
Ooooh....



Now I get it.
 

Not-So-Special Powers

What's the deal, WizKids?

#061 LE The Phantom Stranger
Team: Quintessence
Range: 8 //
Points: 171
Keywords: Justice League of America, Mystical, Quintessence

12 10 18 1

8 10 18 1

8 11 18 1

7 10 17 1

11 10 17 1

10 10 16 1

9 9 16 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

from HCRealms

You introduce Special Powers, announce the Justice League set's send-away figure is the Phantom Stranger, and then give us a dial of basic powers?

I can't really complain about how the powers were chosen - they all fit with the character as far as I know - but after all the fun we had speculating about Special Powers of ridiculously powerful characters, this is a little underwhelming.

I mean, look at Mr. Mxyzptlk:

#041 U Mr. Mxyzptlk
Team: Superman Enemy
Range: 6 /
Points: 107
Keywords: (No Keywords)

8 8 18 1

9 8 18 1

10 8 17 1

11 7 17 1

11 7 17 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Speed - KLTPZYXM! : Mr Mxyzptlk can use Phasing/Teleport. When he does, roll a d6 before moving him. On a result of 1, deal Mr. Mxyzptlk 1 unavoidable damage, place him in an unoccupied square in his starting area, and then move him normally.

Attack - Object Animation: Give Mr. Mxyzptlk a power action and roll a d6 for each opposing character that has zero or one action token, that is in a square 4 or fewer squares away to which Mr. Mxyzptlk has a clear line of fire, and that is carrying an object or adjacent to or occupies either a square of hindering terrain or a square that has an object. On a result of 3-6 give the character an action token.

His Speed Special Power is perfect. It fits the character, and it knocks him down a peg which is what you want for a character of nearly limitless power.

His Attack Special Power seems pretty useless to me. There's a lot of qualifications to use it, and even if you meet them, all you get is a glorified Incapacitate.

All things considered, I think Phantom Stranger came out okay. He just wasn't what I was expecting. Which, I suppose, is entirely in keeping with the character.

Booster Gold #1

That's how the cover of Booster Gold #1 should have looked like, because this whole comic was basically a love letter to yours truly.

It starts with the cover (click on the image above to see an enlarged version of the real cover). Those playing cards have a bunch of characters I can't wait to see in this series. Guy Gardner; Wonder Woman; if that Robin at the bottom is Tim, then double points; and take a look below the title and above Booster's head. Vic Frickin' Sage.

Secondly, take the writing. Everyone is wonderfully in-character. From the more serious Booster attempting (and succeeding) to join the Justice League, to the newly softened Batman sticking up for his former teammate and trying to do right by Blue Beetle, to the ever-consistent Skeets providing high-tech help in between subversive sarcasm. I could practically hear Billy West's voice when I read Skeets' dialogue.

Also, Mr. John's gives us some excellent meta-comedy throughout the book. "This isn't the greatest the League will ever be." "Punching history. Please." "If freaking Geo-Force is on the team, I definitely deserve a spot." I guffawed (I seriously did. It was weird) each time I read one of these.

Speaking of, this is the first comic I've ever read more than once. It may in fact be the greatest comic I've ever read.

It's on my pull-list, needless to say, and it should be on yours.

Oh, and Geoff?

Home Brew Rules: 5th Dimensional Chess Game

or Mxyzptlk, Tea, and Me

Got another one for yez.



Believe it or not, this isn't the screwiest map concept I've come up with. But this one got made. Let's all hope and pray The Other Map doesn't.

But let's talk about this one, shall we?

First thing you should notice is the chess board itself. It's three times the length of a standard chess board. In fact, the four columns on either side of the board are normal, the bit in the middle has raised platforms. So I like to imagine Mr. Mxyzptlk took a standard chess board and sort of "opened it up" into something more to his liking.

The platforms are simply raised out of the ground, so you'll need Leap/Climb, Phasing/Teleport, the ability to fly, or at least know somebody who does to get up there.

Another thing I want to point out is the Elevated/Water Terrain in the form of a cup of tea. I put that in there because I thought there ought to be a cup of tea. That's it, really. But afterwards I thought it was neat to have Water Terrain up high, where Aquatic characters can be brought up there and just snipe people on the ground. They do have to be Aquatic, otherwise you take 1 click of damage at the beginning of your turn. That stuff's hot!

The other thing at the top of the map is Mr. Mxyzptlk's hand. It's Blocking Terrain because Mr. Mxyzptlk isn't going to take any guff from a bunch of game pieces.

The last item of interest is the books on the bottom. The top book is Elevated Terrain which you can climb up via the red book on the bottom. The top book is The Book Nobody Read, which is really about Copernicus, but I just picked it because it sounded like a book Mr. Mxyzptlk would have in his library.

Special rule time. At the beginning of each player's turn, roll a die. If you roll a 1, your opponent chooses one of your figures that has one or more action tokens on it and moves it to any square adjacent to Mr. Mxyzptlk's hand.

This is Mxy getting upset with that figure's previous action and plucking it from play. Why? Because 5th dimension, that's why.

And that's it. I'm thinking of making a special set of chess pieces, possibly based on DC heroes and villains, to use with this map, but it's ready to play as is.

Enjoy!

To download:
Micro Map - PDF
Special Map Rules - DOC or TXT

Home Brew Rules: Insect Army

As per Scipio's advice, I have made some ant pogs (Bystander Tokens) to go with my Micro Map. Along with some others.

First up is the Red Ant. It's pretty standard, as far as its stats go. I wanted to keep it cheap so you could fill up your team with them.

I gave all the insects the JLA team ability. That will give them free movement, which is important if you plan on playing a lot of them at once. (I stole this idea from Scipio's fishclix. Thanks, Scip!)

Second, we have the harmless Pill Bug. This guy won't be doing any damage, but his high Defense Value and Toughness make him a great meat shield.

He's also pretty slow, though. Handily enough, the Pill Bug can roll itself into an easy-to-carry ball, so you can just carry him with you into battle!

Next up is the sleek agent of death, the Wasp.

The Wasp is a flying character with a 10 movement speed, so it can reach anyone quickly. It has a Damage of 2 when it gets there and can also Poison your enemies at the beginning of each turn.

She's a little more expensive than the first two, but she's worth it.

Finally, the common household jumping spider, also known as the Zebra Spider.

This guy is vicious. He's got Leap/Climb, so there's no place to hide from him on the map. I gave him Incapacitate and a range of 10 so it can shoot webs at your opponents. Is there anything more terrifying than being trapped in a spider web and watching as those jittering mandibles close in on you?

The Zebra Spider's damage is 0, but it does have Close Combat Expert. I didn't want it to be able to hurt people at long range just because it had Range, but I did want it to be able to do some damage close up.

This is the most expensive insect pog because of Incapacitate and the higher Attack Value. You might only be able to fit one of these puppies on your team, but it'll pull its weight.

And there you are. Your very own insect army. All you need to do is print them out and play. Have fun!