Future expansions and some math

Now that WotC is safely a thing, I'm sure the next question is how many more expansions will there be.  Villains seems to be another mega-expansion, which rocks.  I'm thinking more the regular expansions.

The math that I mention in the title comes from the Nemesis mechanic.  Four Heroes still lack a nemesis in the game (Absolute Zero, Bunker, Unity, and The Scholar), not counting Vengeance.  With two more regular expansions, we'd see four new heroes and eight new villains, bringing the total to eight each and seeing everyone get a nemesis.  Does that make sense?

Also, I joined the SotM bandwagon late.  Any chance there will be another design-a-baddie contest?

It is not at all clear that every hero will get a stand-alone nemesis. From the Challenge document, Absolute Zero and Bumker both appear to have members of the Vengeful Five as their primary nemesis, while the Scholar has the Biomancer who is brlieved to be on the cover of VotM.

Additionally, In response to a question about that, Christopher said that AZ, Bunker and Unity would not be getting stand-alone, non-V5 type nemeses. This does not preclude the possibility that one or more would, just that all three would not.

That being said, if Unity's primary nemesis is one of the ones in VotM, that would be all right too, I guess. I'm not sure which one would be hers, though...  maybe the Sabretooth wannabe? La Capitan is probably The Sentinels, Plague Rat is Chrono, Biomancer is The Scholar, Ambuscade is Haka, Hammer and Anvil are likely ExPatriette, the Duke Nukem FILTER guy is KNYFE, and the Operative is Fixer, which only leaves Sabretooth, Blue Dress Lady, and Blue Demon Guy.

Speculations ahoy!

Save that the challenge document appears to make Iron Legacy into Unity's primary nemesis. At least, her challenge in that spot features Champion Bot & Iron Legacy.

So the description of the forthcoming Oversized Villain Cards contains the following sentence:

 This set contains an oversized card for every villain which will ever be printed (other than those which come with their own oversized cards, such as the Vengeance villains).

This seems to indicate that the Villain mini-expansion coming with the VotM preorder (should it be a standard Villain deck) will be the last standard Villain deck we will see for Sentinels. Maybe a Hero only expansion to come but certainly no standard expansion (2H, 2E, 4V) as we have seen before. Perhaps only the final expansion is left.

Or it could mean that any villains released from now on will come with oversized cards for them. 

It could mean that.

Do you actually think that a future standard expansion will come with oversized villain cards for standard style villain decks?

Or are you just considering all possibilities?

I'm saying that we could get standard villains that come with oversized cards.  

Oversized villain cards was their original plan in the first place. It was an issue with the first printer they had contracted that they even have the small villain cards, the printer couldn't make the large cards so they settled on the small cards.

Ok then, I'm asking you, do you think this is likely, even though through the base game and 4 standard expansions they have not done this?

My speculation is that the next expansion may be the last and so it gets an oversized card for being special. 

Yup. This is the way I see it playing out as well.

Or a completely different play style that doesn't require villain character cards like we've seen before…

What?

Boo! It will be sad to not get any more content. I know that they have said that there will be an end to the card game, but it doesn't make me happy. I guess you always want to leave them wanting more. 

That is a very strong possibility. Remember that Arkham Horror style Sentinels map picture that floated around here a year or so ago? Not saying the final expansion will be that, but to your point, the final expansion could really throw us for a curveball format wise.

I was liking the idea of two fighting entities that the heroes are stuck in the middle. The heroes have to beat both.

…

I don't think I know what Sentinels map picture you're talking about. Any chance someone could find that, again? 

Sure! 

https://greaterthangames.com/sites/greaterthangames.com/files/forum/attachments/image_5.jpg

Ah...

That...

Thanks!

Isn't that you playing with Richard and Christopher Rabit? How could you not remember this?


Heh, yeah, it is.  (Seriously, hairless and huge nose - pretty much me. ) I just wasn't sure that was the image you meant.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say anything on that, specifically, but I don't think anyone would mind if I say that the game pictured isn't related to the final SotM set.

Not to say they won't do something off-the-wall with the last set, just that this has nothing to do with it.

I think this is probably the right track.

I don't have a reference, but I think GtG have announced that the last expansion will, like Vengeance, add a new playstyle.

We're being told that the next Oversized Villains pack will have a card for all villains, which means we might not get any new villain decks.

I believe that as of the WCos release, every hero has a nemesis in the Vengeance decks, so I think it's possible we simply won't get any more heroes.

If no new hero decks are coming, no new villain decks are coming, and the last expansion provides a new play style, it could be something very different from what we've seen before. 

In case anyone's wondering, I have no insider knowledge on this. I could be way off base.

Nice.

Not exactly, the oversized villains pack will have a card for all villains who do not come with an oversized card. Thus, there may be new villains, but they will have an oversized card by default (or possibly some arrangement that doesn't involve a character card at all, though I find that less likely).

The final expansion will be 10 new environments. Environmental Vengeance style games pit the heroes against 2 x (H) environments and you see how long they can survive.

Now I want to try that…

Environment destruction doesn't work, and if you make it to the end of every environment deck, you win?

If we got any unreleased villains in the oversized pack I would be surprised. Everything changes in playtesting. Even the villain’s subtitle on either side of their character card can go through one or two changes.

I think that it just means that if any new villain appears, the oversized card will be included.

As for the last expansion : the "cosmic menace" is so big that it can't be fought directly, mano a mano, like other villains. Heroes will have to accomplish "quests" to neutralize it, some of these could be fight against the Villains we already know and, hum, love. Maybe with some cube handling. SotM : the strategy game. I am allowed to dream, right ?

If I may allow myself to take a huge wild guess on what could make the final expansion, I'd say this:

Campaign Mode

I saw a lot of fan made campaign for SotM. I even started creating my own sorta storyline to go through all of the villain, but with an added flavor, just for fun. I had a lot of fun just imagining how villains show up and why they're there and how the heroes would respond... I can't imagine Christopher NOT doing this kind of exercise. Thinking about it, I know he did. Heck, he's got like 30 years worth of storyline written down in his head (and also inside a notebook if I'm not mistaken?)... I know I'd personnally be all the way into a big multi-session campaign of SotM, with each match influencing the outcome of the rest of the whole story. Perhaps, there could even be some special cards, not included in a particular deck, with a special power a hero would start every game with, ala "Pathfinder Adventure Card Game"? You've beaten Ambuscade? "Hey, look how sweet those custom handguns look like..." Expatriette tells herself. "Maybe I should bring those to my next fight, 'cause you know, you never have too much guns...". Even the Big Bad could be a multi-match battle. Kind of like "You think you've beat me... Now, witness my true form and despair!"

Anyone?

One year ago, I began taking note on how a "campaign game" using cards could work. Heroes had varying skills (recruit, patrol, investigate, science, etc), and you used your recruited heroes to solve "problem" cards (Crime wave ! 3 patrol point to solve. Framed Hero ! Ned investigate and charisma, etc) or gain ressources for upgrading your HQ / weakening villains. Some of the "problems" (and "tracks" reaching a given point) did activate a Villain Fight using SotM. But I never thought before to give this a "goal" like defeating a greater menace (maybe by building a big Doctor McGuffin's Neutralizer ?) or preventing FILTER or other organizations from doing something bad - a "scenario".

I certainly would like to see something like that published by >G someday :)