The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Overview

Champions has too much number-cruching, Marver Superheroes Role-Playing Game was too simple, DC Heroes Role-Playing used logarithms, and Marvel SAGA was too abstract. Added to this long list of superhero rpg's whose mechanics were off the mark is WizKid's HeroClix, a miniatures game. Its stripped down version of MageKnight prevents it from being a tactical miniatures game, and the occasional Special Ability (aka. superhero power) and added mechanics doesn't add the "feel" of a comic book.

In both HC and MK, each figure has four statistics: Speed, Attack, Defense, and Damage. Each player has two Actions per turn, depending on the size of his starting team or army. Each figure may take up to one Action per turn. Speed is the number of spaces (inches in MK) the character moves per Action. To make an attack, you roll two six-sided dice and add it to your character's Attack value. If this total is greater than your opposing character's Defense value, you hit, causing damage equal to the character's Damage value. As characters take damage, their statistics change, usually decreasing, and they may lose (or gain) Special Abilities (aka. superpowers); this is kept track of by the Combat Dial on which the figure is mounted upon.

That's it. Move or Attack (close combat or ranged). In MK, you had additional options (eg. Formations), and in superhero rpg's, your character would usually have different attack and defense options (your superhero powers were almost always available, for one thing). But in HC (and MK), as your character takes damage and the dial rotates, the Special Abilities tend to disappear, effectively removing your superhero powers. I've only played from two Starters, so can't comment on the strategy of selecting your superhero game. The game is clearly targetted towards younger player and collectors.

Combat Dial: http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/howtoplay.asp?cid=36388

Quick Start Rules http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/howtoplay.asp?cid=36547

****

Miniatures

HC is sold as pre-painted randomly assorted Starters (eight figures, play map, and "everything you need to play") and Boosters (four figures). The figures themselves look **very** nice. The white undercoat makes HC figures brighter than their murky MageKnight counterparts. Most faces don't look like blobs and some even have pupils -- crosseyed pupils, but pupils nonetheless. A black wash created a **good** job on the black-on-red web design of Spiderman's costume. I'm impressed. But because the figures are essentially human sculptures, and they're more fragile than their MK counterparts. Likewise, the flying figures are mounted on clear plastic stands that look like dining tables from Ikea. Whatever happened to counters? And, while the map looks better than RPG 25mm play aids I've seen, it does, as one player put it, look like it was drawn in crayon.

Because it's a collectable game, your first Starters and boosters will be a patchwork of heroes and villains. Oh, sure, in MageKnight, it's odd when you have an Orc and a Dwarf on the same side. But when you have Jean Grey, Blade, a Thug, and an agent of Hydra working together, it's just plain strange. HC does have Special Abilities for characters from the same team, but they don't encourage teams (factions) as well as the Formation rules in MK. We only played with the random figures from two Starter sets, so I don't know if characters typically found together in comic books work better together. And then, there are duplicate figures. For CCG'ers, this won't be a big deal, but I don't usually hear rpg'ers say, "Hey! I bought a 3rd Edition Dungeon Masters Guide! It's just like the one I bought last week!".

*****

Mechanics

One miniatures design HC took from MK are different power levels (Rookie, Experienced, and Veteran) with different point costs for each hero or villain. This allows a player flexibility in creating his superhero team. I say this tongue in cheek, but it also explains how Thor (I'm not sure if he's in the present HC set) kicks butt in his own comic, and becomes prettyboy milquetoast in the Avengers. For better or for worse, it seems that the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe have been scaled down to be playable. Firelord has a point value of 97 when it should be something like Avagadro's Number.

WizKid's combat dial (or as my friend Ian calls it, "the death spiral") allows a character's abilities to weaken as he takes damage. (In the case of the Hulk, he gets stronger as he takes damage. Sweet!) Conceptually, I find this far more "realistic" than most miniature games and rpg's, where you can swing a broadsword, chop off heads right and left, and have one hit point remaining. Still, as characters take damage, they lose their superpowers (ie. Special Abilities). Thus, in practice, the game dwindled down into tedious "to hit" dice-rolling, and it was somewhat depressing watching once mighty heroes being poked and prodded (a Thug beat Firelord to death) until they finally KO'ed.

Simplified rules which were odd in MageKnight become absurd in HeroClix. For example, if your figure is adjacent to an opponent figure, your figure has only a 50% of breaking away (successfully moving) and becomes unable to make ranged attacks. It's strange when an Imp can do this to a Storm Golem, but pathetic when a Thug does this to (hello again) Firelord. Figures block line of sight, so expendable figures can protect valuable ones. In MageKnight, we called this "The Imp Shield". In HeroClix, we'll end up with the "SHIELD shield". Critical hits cause an additional click of damage, and, in HC, if you roll doubles, your opponent suffers Knockback; if a figure is knocked back into a wall, he suffers an additional hit. So Firelord took three clicks of damage (one from the attacker, one from the Critical Hit, and one as he slammed into a wall) from a Hydra gun. Right. Unlike MK, you can make a Ranged Attack against an opposing figure adjacent to a friendly figure. Like MK, you cannot make a Ranged Attack if you are adjancent to an opposing figure. So while a Thug is dancing around Firelord, preventing Firelord from using his Ranged Attack Special Ability, the Hydra agent is picking him off with a stun gun. Bang!

Special Abilities also suffer simplicity syndrome. With Super Strength, you can pick up Objects, but not Terrain. Thus, you can pick up dumpsters, but you can't tear out trees. Telekinesis only affects objects **next** to the figure, not line of sight. Also with TK you can move adjacent friendly figures 10 spaces (farther than most figures can move). So you **can** do a Cannonball special. Except you're using Jean Grey. And she'll do it with anyone. What a tramp.

Rules added to the game didn't capture that comic book feel. Flying characters may carry **any** other characters. I suspect Rogue is zipping Xavier around the block by holding his hoverchair, **not** by holding his arms. The distance of Knockback is one square (inch) per click of damage. While this keeps figures from flying off the map, Firelord's cosmic power is the equivalent of five rolls of nickels held by a Thug. The chance of Knockback occuring is a result of hitting, not damage; knockback occurs if you successfully hit and roll doubles. If Hulk rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback. If Kitty Pryde rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback. If my dead cat that got rolled over by a steamroller rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback.

Yet while some rules were simplified, some rules seem burdensome. (Remember the Monster Master rules for MK:Dungeons?) "A hovering character may move through opposing characters and blocking terrain. A hovering character’s movement is not affected by hindering terrain. Hovering characters may change elevation and even hover on top of elevated terrain. For purposes of breaking away and close combat, consider a hovering character to be at the level of the elevation the figure base is on." "An attacker on elevated terrain can target a grounded character as long as the only blocking terrain the line of fire crosses is part of the square the attacker occupies. Line of sight from an elevated attacker is not blocked or hindered by other grounded figures or grounded hindering terrain unless the terrain occupies the same square as the target." "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Sheesh.

*****

Making HC into a comic book game

Though this is a subjective opinion, players will have to put some effort into giving these miniatures the personality found in the comics. (ie. "Blade! Taste the fury of Firelord!" rather than "I roll a ten and hit!" or "Annilihus smacks Kingpin! Who's your Daddy, now??") With non-team figures, it pretty much felt like we were moving miniatures around a board, rather than invoking comic book fights. Of course, adding personality to a bunch of stats isn't unique to HC and is a pretty common problem in miniature and rpg games. Hopefully, with actual teams, scenarios and (gasp) GM's, games will feel more like comic books than WWF Smackdowns.

Finally, it shouldn't be too difficult to tweak the mechanics to simulate comic book physics. For example, if a character has Super Strength and Knockbacks another figure, instead of moving 1 space back per click of damage, the figure moves 1d6 spaces per click. Telekinesis has a range of effect. A character may make a heroic attack and add 1d6 on his Attack roll if he takes two Actions, pushes, and all his teammates are knocked out. Each character has a Special Ability, which becomes optional, that is always available, but the figure requires two Actions (but doesn't push) to use it. And so on. Obviously, tweaking the mechanics like this upsets game balance, but rpg'ers are used to that sort of thing.

*****

Conclusion

HC is obviously targetted towards the younger player and the collector. The typical "serious" RPG.net player will find the mechanics lacking, but will invite the HC player to bring the miniatures. (Buy his duplicate commons!) More casual rpg players will tweak the rules, though rpg'ers **always** do that. Miniature gamers might as well stick to their own systems.

But, boy, do those miniatures look **nice**.

HeroClix
HeroClix Capsule Review by Washu! ^O^ on 03/06/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 2 (Sparse) Targetted towards a young audience, HeroClix doesn't offer the tactical variety miniatures players want, or capture the comic book feel rpg'ers desire. But, boy, do those miniatures look nice. Product: HeroClix Author: WizKids Category: Miniature Company/Publisher: WizKids Line: HeroClix Cost: $20 Page count: n/a Year published: 2002 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Washu! ^O^ on 03/06/02 Genre tags: Superhero	Overview Champions has too much number-cruching, Marver Superheroes Role-Playing Game was too simple, DC Heroes Role-Playing used logarithms, and Marvel SAGA was too abstract. Added to this long list of superhero rpg's whose mechanics were off the mark is WizKid's HeroClix, a miniatures game. Its stripped down version of MageKnight prevents it from being a tactical miniatures game, and the occasional Special Ability (aka. superhero power) and added mechanics doesn't add the "feel" of a comic book. In both HC and MK, each figure has four statistics: Speed, Attack, Defense, and Damage. Each player has two Actions per turn, depending on the size of his starting team or army. Each figure may take up to one Action per turn. Speed is the number of spaces (inches in MK) the character moves per Action. To make an attack, you roll two six-sided dice and add it to your character's Attack value. If this total is greater than your opposing character's Defense value, you hit, causing damage equal to the character's Damage value. As characters take damage, their statistics change, usually decreasing, and they may lose (or gain) Special Abilities (aka. superpowers); this is kept track of by the Combat Dial on which the figure is mounted upon. That's it. Move or Attack (close combat or ranged). In MK, you had additional options (eg. Formations), and in superhero rpg's, your character would usually have different attack and defense options (your superhero powers were almost always available, for one thing). But in HC (and MK), as your character takes damage and the dial rotates, the Special Abilities tend to disappear, effectively removing your superhero powers. I've only played from two Starters, so can't comment on the strategy of selecting your superhero game. The game is clearly targetted towards younger player and collectors. Combat Dial: http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/howtoplay.asp?cid=36388 Quick Start Rules http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/howtoplay.asp?cid=36547 ** Miniatures HC is sold as pre-painted randomly assorted Starters (eight figures, play map, and "everything you need to play") and Boosters (four figures). The figures themselves look very nice. The white undercoat makes HC figures brighter than their murky MageKnight counterparts. Most faces don't look like blobs and some even have pupils -- crosseyed pupils, but pupils nonetheless. A black wash created a good job on the black-on-red web design of Spiderman's costume. I'm impressed. But because the figures are essentially human sculptures, and they're more fragile than their MK counterparts. Likewise, the flying figures are mounted on clear plastic stands that look like dining tables from Ikea. Whatever happened to counters? And, while the map looks better than RPG 25mm play aids I've seen, it does, as one player put it, look like it was drawn in crayon. Because it's a collectable game, your first Starters and boosters will be a patchwork of heroes and villains. Oh, sure, in MageKnight, it's odd when you have an Orc and a Dwarf on the same side. But when you have Jean Grey, Blade, a Thug, and an agent of Hydra working together, it's just plain strange. HC does have Special Abilities for characters from the same team, but they don't encourage teams (factions) as well as the Formation rules in MK. We only played with the random figures from two Starter sets, so I don't know if characters typically found together in comic books work better together. And then, there are duplicate figures. For CCG'ers, this won't be a big deal, but I don't usually hear rpg'ers say, "Hey! I bought a 3rd Edition Dungeon Masters Guide! It's just like the one I bought last week!". * Mechanics One miniatures design HC took from MK are different power levels (Rookie, Experienced, and Veteran) with different point costs for each hero or villain. This allows a player flexibility in creating his superhero team. I say this tongue in cheek, but it also explains how Thor (I'm not sure if he's in the present HC set) kicks butt in his own comic, and becomes prettyboy milquetoast in the Avengers. For better or for worse, it seems that the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe have been scaled down to be playable. Firelord has a point value of 97 when it should be something like Avagadro's Number. WizKid's combat dial (or as my friend Ian calls it, "the death spiral") allows a character's abilities to weaken as he takes damage. (In the case of the Hulk, he gets stronger as he takes damage. Sweet!) Conceptually, I find this far more "realistic" than most miniature games and rpg's, where you can swing a broadsword, chop off heads right and left, and have one hit point remaining. Still, as characters take damage, they lose their superpowers (ie. Special Abilities). Thus, in practice, the game dwindled down into tedious "to hit" dice-rolling, and it was somewhat depressing watching once mighty heroes being poked and prodded (a Thug beat Firelord to death) until they finally KO'ed. Simplified rules which were odd in MageKnight become absurd in HeroClix. For example, if your figure is adjacent to an opponent figure, your figure has only a 50% of breaking away (successfully moving) and becomes unable to make ranged attacks. It's strange when an Imp can do this to a Storm Golem, but pathetic when a Thug does this to (hello again) Firelord. Figures block line of sight, so expendable figures can protect valuable ones. In MageKnight, we called this "The Imp Shield". In HeroClix, we'll end up with the "SHIELD shield". Critical hits cause an additional click of damage, and, in HC, if you roll doubles, your opponent suffers Knockback; if a figure is knocked back into a wall, he suffers an additional hit. So Firelord took three clicks of damage (one from the attacker, one from the Critical Hit, and one as he slammed into a wall) from a Hydra gun. Right. Unlike MK, you can make a Ranged Attack against an opposing figure adjacent to a friendly figure. Like MK, you cannot make a Ranged Attack if you are adjancent to an opposing figure. So while a Thug is dancing around Firelord, preventing Firelord from using his Ranged Attack Special Ability, the Hydra agent is picking him off with a stun gun. Bang! Special Abilities also suffer simplicity syndrome. With Super Strength, you can pick up Objects, but not Terrain. Thus, you can pick up dumpsters, but you can't tear out trees. Telekinesis only affects objects next to the figure, not line of sight. Also with TK you can move adjacent friendly figures 10 spaces (farther than most figures can move). So you can do a Cannonball special. Except you're using Jean Grey. And she'll do it with anyone. What a tramp. Rules added to the game didn't capture that comic book feel. Flying characters may carry any other characters. I suspect Rogue is zipping Xavier around the block by holding his hoverchair, not by holding his arms. The distance of Knockback is one square (inch) per click of damage. While this keeps figures from flying off the map, Firelord's cosmic power is the equivalent of five rolls of nickels held by a Thug. The chance of Knockback occuring is a result of hitting, not damage; knockback occurs if you successfully hit and roll doubles. If Hulk rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback. If Kitty Pryde rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback. If my dead cat that got rolled over by a steamroller rolls doubles, Firelord has knockback. Yet while some rules were simplified, some rules seem burdensome. (Remember the Monster Master rules for MK:Dungeons?) "A hovering character may move through opposing characters and blocking terrain. A hovering character’s movement is not affected by hindering terrain. Hovering characters may change elevation and even hover on top of elevated terrain. For purposes of breaking away and close combat, consider a hovering character to be at the level of the elevation the figure base is on." "An attacker on elevated terrain can target a grounded character as long as the only blocking terrain the line of fire crosses is part of the square the attacker occupies. Line of sight from an elevated attacker is not blocked or hindered by other grounded figures or grounded hindering terrain unless the terrain occupies the same square as the target." "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Sheesh. * Making HC into a comic book game Though this is a subjective opinion, players will have to put some effort into giving these miniatures the personality found in the comics. (ie. "Blade! Taste the fury of Firelord!" rather than "I roll a ten and hit!" or "Annilihus smacks Kingpin! Who's your Daddy, now??") With non-team figures, it pretty much felt like we were moving miniatures around a board, rather than invoking comic book fights. Of course, adding personality to a bunch of stats isn't unique to HC and is a pretty common problem in miniature and rpg games. Hopefully, with actual teams, scenarios and (gasp) GM's, games will feel more like comic books than WWF Smackdowns. Finally, it shouldn't be too difficult to tweak the mechanics to simulate comic book physics. For example, if a character has Super Strength and Knockbacks another figure, instead of moving 1 space back per click of damage, the figure moves 1d6 spaces per click. Telekinesis has a range of effect. A character may make a heroic attack and add 1d6 on his Attack roll if he takes two Actions, pushes, and all his teammates are knocked out. Each character has a Special Ability, which becomes optional, that is always available, but the figure requires two Actions (but doesn't push) to use it. And so on. Obviously, tweaking the mechanics like this upsets game balance, but rpg'ers are used to that sort of thing. * Conclusion HC is obviously targetted towards the younger player and the collector. The typical "serious" RPG.net player will find the mechanics lacking, but will invite the HC player to bring the miniatures. (Buy his duplicate commons!) More casual rpg players will tweak the rules, though rpg'ers always do that. Miniature gamers might as well stick to their own systems. But, boy, do those miniatures look nice**.