This whole Dice Masters game has me pretty hooked, but the only reason I was interested in it in the first place was because of Marvel. So, a year ago when I had first heard of this game, I had no intention of ever buying the Yu-Gi-Oh and Dungeons & Dragon sets. I just wanted Marvel, and maybe DC. That’s just how much fun this game is though. Yu-Gi-Oh came out last month (I purchased my starter set and a complete set of commons and uncommon off of ebay), D&D BFF comes out this month (I preordered my starter and gravity feed), and DC Justice League comes out next month (I plan on getting the starter and a common/uncommon lot like I did for Yu-Gi-Oh). For a game that started out with back-to-back Marvel sets, we are now having 3 non-Marvel sets released in a row. Maybe us Marvel fans feel like “our” game is being impeded upon. I get that. I disagree, since this was never meant to be a Marvel exclusive game, but I understand. So for those of you not buying YGO, D&D, or DC Dice Masters sets, we still have months to go before Age of Ultron. Maybe this can hold you over until then…
I know what many of you are thinking, “No, I’m not going to play some fan-made game.” Granted, I understand that initial response, but this is not the equivalent of some random fanfic. This was made by someone with knowledge of the Marvel universe, knowledge of Dice Masters, and has a voice in the online Dice Masters community. Yes, I’m talking about yours truly. I tried to make this as thematic as possible. So read it over and if it sounds interesting, try it out. This is designed to be a single player, or 2 player co-op campaign.
First, select your own team. This is essentially how you get to choose the difficulty of the game. You can bring you tried and true competitive constructed team, you can choose a team tailor made to deal with Galactus, or you could randomly select a group of characters who are thrown together as Earth’s last hope against the Devourer of Worlds. For your first game, I suggest bringing a team you are familiar with. This can be the typical constructed format with 8 characters and 2 basic actions. Once you get the hang of things you may want to try only bringing 4 characters and 1 basic action for the added challenge.
Galactus has a damage tracker that starts at 0. His countdown timer starts at 10. Choose a character to be his Herald, placing their character card next to Galactus’ play area, and a single die from that card on its level 1 side in Galactus’ Reserve Pool. Galactus wins when either the Countdown timer reaches 0 and Galactus devours Earth or your life is reduced to 0. You win when you have dealt 20 damage to Galactus, forcing him to leave Earth.
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| Galactus die template for you to save and print yourself! |
On Galactus’s turn, roll his die.
Galactus die:
Side 1 – Countdown 1
Side 2 – Countdown 2
Side 3 – Countdown 3
Side 4 – Herald
Side 5 – Herald
Side 6 – Galactus
If a “Countdown” face comes up, move the Countdown timer that many increments.
If the “Herald” face comes up, and there is not a Herald in play, field the chosen Herald character die on level 1. If the Herald is already in play, spin it up one level.
If the “Galactus” face comes up, Galactus knocks out all of the player’s characters.
Galactus:
-Is a “character”. So abilities that target a “player” or “opponent” have no effect on Galactus. He is a character with no definable attack or defense stats. (Note: he does not have life or health as players do. He has a damage tracker that counts up to 20. So abilities that force a player to gain or lose life have no effect on Galactus)
-While Galactus IS a character, he is invulnerable to effects that would instantly K.O. him, capture him, or remove him from play. (For instance, if Psylocke Kwannon the Assassin is fielded, and you pay 2 masks to KO a character, Galactus cannot be targeted. But actions or abilities that “damage all characters” would damage Galactus as well.)
-Galactus has no dice bag, used pile, or prep area.
-Galactus is the target of your attacking characters.
Herald:
-Only 1 Herald die may be in play.
-The Herald will attack every turn if able.
-The Herald will block every turn if able. If there are multiple attackers, it will block the attacker with the highest attack value when blockers are declared. (In case of ties, you may choose the character.)
-If the Herald has an ability that targets an opposing character, always target the character with the highest attack value. (In case of ties, you may choose the character.)
-If the Herald is knocked out or removed from the field, it simply returns to the reserve pool, on its level 1 character side.
-If the Herald is not in the field, it remains in Galactus’s reserve pool, on its level 1 character side.
-If the Herald successfully damages the player, instead of going to the used pile (since Galactus has no used pile) he simply returns to the field. He DOES NOT leave play after damaging the opponent.
Characters that are broken strong against Galactus:
Punisher McRook – Punisher chooses a character to KO when he attacks. The opposing player can prevent this by taking 2 damage. Since Galactus is not a player, he cannot “choose” to take 2 damage to keep his Herald in play. The Herald will be knocked out by an attacking Punisher McRook every time.
Cyclops If Looks Could Kill – When he attacks he damages all opposing characters (which Galactus is). Then he deals his combat damage. In this case Galactus is both a character that is damage by Cyclops’s ability and the target of the attack. An unblocked level 3 Cyclops ILCK would do 12 total damage to Galactus in 1 turn.
Characters that are broken weak against Galactus:
Black Widow Tsarina – When she attacks, she deals 2 damage to the opposing player. The player may prevent this by spinning down a character 1 level. Since Galactus is not an opposing player, he cannot be targeted by this ability. He does not take damage, nor does he have to spin a character down.
Spider-Man Wallcrawler – If Spider-Man is unblocked and you pay 2 fists, then your opponent’s life total becomes 10. First, Galactus is not an opponent; he’s a character. Second, he has a damage tracker; not a life total. This doesn’t work on multiple levels.
I’m sure there are others. It doesn’t bother me knowing some characters are overpowered or underpowered while facing Galactus. It adds a new wrinkle to the game.
To make this multiplayer co-op, let’s use the official Wizkids multiplayer format, where 2 players share a life total and prep area. It would look like this:
If you feel the game goes too fast, you can adjust your starting life total, Galactus’ damage threshold, and even the starting value of the Countdown timer.
Alright Marvel fans, hopefully this can hold us over while we sit through the next couple months of non-Marvel discussion. Take on Galactus in this single or multiplayer campaign, and be sure to let me know what you think. Better yet, if you like it let Wizkids know! And maybe we could get some official expansions and add-ons like this in the future. I had a lot of fun designing this, testing it, tweaking it, and rolling the gigantic Galactus die next to my regular sized dice. Please give feedback, positive and negative alike. That’s all for this week. Keep tuned in for D&D Battle for Faerun coverage this week, all the latest news on DC Justice League for next month, and Marvel Age of Ultron this Summer. As always, .
That sounds very exciting but I think the Herald needs to be more specific. For example, it should not have very high or very low attack and defense so as to be balanced. Something along the lines of a sturdy 4-cost?
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on how difficult you want the game. Kitty Pryde Ariel would be a pretty easy herald to face. Wolverine Canucklehead on the other hand.... yikes. But I think that 4 cost is a nice middle ground.
DeleteQuestion for you, why not use Galactus as a player instead of character? I had been working on something similar that used him as a player at 20 life for one player and 40 for multiple players with the heralds as well. Also I really like the dice and system you've created. In my version I also had a boss battle element which I think might still work well here. Upon the arrival of Galactus instead of game over you had a chance to fight him directly. You would roll four galactus dice( I was using sentinels) to represent the four limbs or attacks he would take each turn. The more limbs you beat the less attack he had and you could still kill him by either dealing directly 20 prior to his arrival or by defeating him when he arrived. I like the herald mechanic you've made as well with the die. Really appreciate you coming up with and posting why looks like what this game has needed for a while with the limited amount of people playing, a singles player mode. Thanks Randy!
ReplyDeleteMy main reason for wanting to consider Galactus a character and not a player is because of decissions. Too many times a player has to make a choice, like with Tsarina or McRook like I mentioned above. I think making Galactus a character takes away all of those potential decissions that could cause a hiccup during gameplay.
DeleteAnd thanks for the kind words! Glad you appreciate it.
Also for the herald why not just use silver surfer to keep the theme strong?
ReplyDeleteYou could, but I think letting any character be the Herald opens up a broader range of difficulties. For instance, Wolverine Canucklehead. He will always be attacking alone as the herald, so he will always be unblockable. Plus, story wise, I think it could be cool to see a team of X-Men vs Galactus and Wolverine
DeleteWow...love it. Great work!
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea. I'll have to try it out. Silver Surfer for Herald :)
ReplyDeleteI'm working on vassal right now and planning to add this as tab option if people want to try it on there. Im also adding the boss mode dice. Thanks for the images randy.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's great. Let me know when it's up.
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