Sentinels at Gen Con

I know y’all mentioned how your booth space at Gen Con 2012 will be much bigger than 2011 - enough for multiple demo games to be run at once. There has also been talk about working out rules for tournament play (either heroes vs villains…or perhaps heroes vs heroes [a.k.a. ‘Secret Battles’ or ‘Infinity Armwear’]?). I was wondering where the Terrific Trio is with that.

My friends and I are excited at the possibility of there being tournament-style play at Gen Con, but some rules adjustments will obviously need to be made. Is anyone heading up the charge? A volunteer, perhaps? One of your playtesters? Or the ‘Trio’ themselves?

Also, Event Registration for Gen Con opens this weekend…

We are definitely going to have a larger booth (10 x 20 instead of 10 x 10), which will allow us to run more demos at a time (and if you want to play the game and introduce it to new people, come on down! We’ll be posting our booth number and location in a few months once we know).

We are not sure yet about tournament play, since it is rather difficult to adopt a cooperative game to that sort of environment, but we will let you know what happens!

Yeah, thinking through a tournament, we’d really need (at least) a judge for each game. Since there’s no competitor to keep players “in line”, it’s too easy to take advantage of the situation without someone there to keep an eye on things. :-\

There’s also all the issues of what constitutes a “round” in a tournament like that, as you want to ensure everyone has as fair of a chance as possible (allowing for the randomness of games that involve cards)…

Yeah, it’s a tough one.

Rabit

What about a numbered villain deck. In other words everyone plays against the same villian and his villain deck is in the same order every time to start the game. Players are allowed to attempt the deck with any combination of heroes of their choosing. Final score is based upon:

Total current damage taken(aka max HPs - current HPs) + # of villian turns started.

The lower score the better.

This looks to reward quicker play, but also balances out by damage taken.

Keep running total for each of the villains. Maybe add additional story rewards to reduce your score as well. Have an advanced tourney and a regular one.

Just some ideas.

I think more people would lean towards characters with healing abilities more than anything else, so lots of teams that consist of Tempest, Haka, Wraith, Legacy, or Bunker.

Considering the complications with the tournament at the convention itself, maybe someone who knows the area quite well could find an area where more experienced players can get together and try the it out, since you know Chris, Paul, and Adam will probably be super busy making sure the demo runs smoothly.

I’m hoping to go this year, not sure if I will make it or not considering have to figure out travel plans, how days I would want to be there, and so on. Would be a fun experience since I have never been outside of Kansas/Missouri.

But if you go heavy on healing, you may not have the damage potential of the other heroes. That would be the strategic decision beforehand. And maybe your team has to play each villain and cannot swap out heroes between. Just random ideas here of course.

True, didn’t think about that part, but who knows, still got awhile to go so plenty of time for rules to be made, so we’ll see how things play out.

And to try to deter the “Let’s wait longer and heal more strategy” maybe you weight the # of Villain turns to (# of Villain turns x #) This way every turn you delay it is adding #. Where # is equal to some amount determined ahead of time.

This # could be relatively high to really put the emphasis on quickly defeating, but also taking the damage into account as well.

Ex.(using x=10)

10 rounds
4 characters who have taken a total of 80 damage

180 Total Score.

These are good ideas, except for one fact. One of the primary design principles of Sentinels of the Multiverse has always been that there is no “incorrect” team of heroes. You can group together and play as anyone. In this sort of setup, it is WRONG to play as Tachyon or as Fanatic, if they are going to be doing their best stuff. And if they can’t do their best stuff, then why use them? I do not like restricting heroes in that manner.

And thus lies the issue with Sentinels of the Multiverse Tournament play. It’s a cooperative game in which collaboration and thematic gameplay are more important than the nitty gritty. Oh, there’s plenty of nitty-gritty there, to be certain. But the theme and the story is more important. So, how to make a tournament setup that reflects that? That’s what we’re dealing with now. Do we have the perfect answer? Absolutely not. So, fire away!

So, the primary goal is the defeat of the Villian.

So the major bonus has to be based upon that fact.

The only thing better is to do it quicker.

You could take away the point system for the damage taken and just base it on that? But you will need some type of tiebreaker. That’s the only reason I added the damage taken thing. I have to go with the fact that Tachyon make up for the damage they take by the damage they output, which would still make them not wrong to play.

What about instead of a tournament as we normally see it, to something which encourages the actual gameplay itself. Something like the Story Challenges. This way you earn “Achievement Points” or “Sentinel Points”. And then maybe make prizes available(while supplies last) which can be purchased by using these points.

Ex.

Play as Fanatic - 25Pts
Play as Legacy - 25Pts.
Etc, Etc

Beat Plague Rat - 50 Pts
Beat Plague Rat on Advanced - 100 Pts
Etc, Etc

And have others like in the Story Challenges.

Then at the booth have things that can be bought:

Wraith Promo Card - 150 Pts
Signed Print - 500 Pts
Saturday Night Game Session with the Designers - 1,000 Pts (Limit 4)
You as a Hero in the next expansion - 1,000,000 Pts
Etc, Etc

As the heroes why are we fighting against each other as much as we should be sharing our stories and enjoying our victories.

Ah, and THIS starts being something I like more, which isn’t “Tournament play” but rather “Organized Play with Rewards!” That I can get behind. It would still need some method of moderation, but this way, there wouldn’t be a winner or a loser after a day of gaming - every game played would result in SOME Sentinels Points, even those that ended in loss! But everyone would get a pile of points, and at the end of the convention, or whenever, could turn them in for all sorts of things.

And there’s lots we could do with that.

One thing came to mind is that you could have an exclusive Villain and Deck for the event and the “winning” team of players at the end of the day gets a copy of that Villain and their Deck.

That idea is certainly within reach. While having a volunteer ‘GM’ for each table would make for a volunteer-heavy event, if the number of players in a round are kept to a minimum, that can be spread out over the convention (say, no more than 6 groups at a time running).

You could even mix the idea of a tournament with building points. For example:

Each team fights a pre-determined villain in a pre-determined environment. Each villain has 3 ‘goals’ that can be earned, but they don’t HAVE to be earned. Also, each ‘tournament’ can be set up like a story. For example…

The tournament starts, each group of 4 players has their super hero team, but they don’t know who they’re going to fight, and where it might take them. They only know there will be potentially 3 villain combats. Every group fights the same series of fights.

At the start of every fight, the players are told what objectives they can chose to accomplish when battling the villain.

Battle #1 - Fight Baron Blade in Megalopolis (20pt)

• Have a Hero at full hit points at the end of combat (15pts)
• Defeat him after 20 rounds have passed (10pts) “Wait for it…”
• Defeat him in rooftop combat (5pts)

…on to battle #2, without the heroes being healed (surprise!)

Battle #2 - Fight the Matriarch in Atlantis (20 pts)

• Defeat the Matriarch while Pillars of Hercules is in play (15pts)
• One Hero is defeated, but the group carries on (10pts) “The Heroes Lose One of Their Own”
• Each Hero, at some point in the game, decides to discard his entire hand at the start of the round (not the last round of the game) (5pts) “Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle”

…on to battle #3 (after a quick round of healing)

Battle #3 - Fight advanced Omnitron in Rook City

• Each round, when one player has the opportunity to play a card, he choses to play the card randomly from his hand (15pts) “Corruption at the Highest Levels”
• Something Environment-related (not a playtester, so I can only guess) (10pts)
• At least 4 drones are left when Omnitron is defeated (5pts) “His Plans were Downloaded into a Drone…”

Did all of the groups get to the end? Then perhaps you could come up with rules for super hero group vs super hero group. Is there a tie? Perhaps everyone who gets through the last villain qualifies for the ‘finale’, but how many points you earned dictates your start - perhaps you are down hit points at the finale? Less cards in your hands (or more)?

I threw some “names” out as examples, but you see where I’m going with it.

The other option is to come up with just group vs group play - easier from an organizing standpoint (no where near as many volunteers needed, people police themselves), but a definite change in the philosophy of the game. I like the idea of leaving a PvP as a possible ending battle…have the finale run at a late slot of the con, perhaps? All of the qualifying groups who come. Of course, that would require a creation of a different set of rules (rules modifications, actually).

Just some thoughts.

Oooh! I like Gnipp’s idea! Not a tournament, but still lots of fun. You could even make each game be staffed by a judge and people could get points for judging too (so it’s not all fall on your sword volunteering).

Agreed - love Gnipp’s idea!

Looking forward to helping out in some capacity at GenCon. Living here in Indy certainly has its advantages. 8)

One of the reasons I really enjoy SotM is exactly this. Playing with folks the other night, a friend playing Absolute Zero wanted to do something and we suggested something else that would be more tactically useful, but I followed that up with, “But seriously, you’re playing Absolute Zero. It’s not like he’s a team player - do whatever you want!”

Rabit

Following up on Gnipp’s suggestions – SotM is about winning or not winning, it is not about winning quickly, doing lots of damage, or winning with lots of HPs left … until you start thinking about story points, at which point what you’re doing is noting that something fun from a story perspective has occurred.

We already have story points, perhaps what we could do is use the same posted story points and give people bragging rights for having achieved story points in tournament/organized play.

I also like the idea of crafting a series of games that are based on an overarching story arc (The Freedom Five have a series of encounters, for instance, or Rook City needs to be cleaned up).

A series of games that are increasingly difficult – (Omnitron on standard in Megalopolis up to Voss on advanced on Mars) would possibly give bragging rights for how far teams made it in the tournament/organized play.

[quote=““The Conscience””]

One thing came to mind is that you could have an exclusive Villain and Deck for the event and the “winning” team of players at the end of the day gets a copy of that Villain and their Deck.
[/quote]

Oh, please don’t do exclusive game content. For it’ll make only the winners (probably 4 guys) happy and the remaining 26,317,386 SoTM fans grumpy.

Agreed. The only reason I mentioned those is if you are looking for a #1 winner you need a tiebreaker of some point. And really what other options do you have?

I’m actually more for the participation type rewards. Now maybe what you need is prereqs.

I love the idea for a storyline:

And maybe you make it so that you can’t advance past Omnitron until you beat him. Or you have some type of tree where depending on whether you win or lose it determines who you can play next?

Ex.

Beating Omniton in Megalopolis moves you on to stopping Baron Blade in the Ruins of Atlantis

Losing to Omnitron you find your heroes awaken in the Pike Industrial Complex being hunted by Plague Rat

and so on…

The other option is to give it away to each team that defeated the Villain so that it gets out to the masses and after the convention season has ended make it available for purchase on the website to those that were unable to attend/participate.

I am all for not excluding a huge audience, I was merely pointing out that it would be a cool idea for Organized Play. Also the Villain should be super hard to defeat making players choose Heroes that they would not normally choose.

I like that idea: defeat the Villain, take him home.

With the structure like a comic storyline, you could also do a ‘continuing’ storyline, such as a major plot arc over, say, 2 years (with a couple of cons, like Pax and Gen Con, that’d be 4 cons that this could run). That might delve into the comic storylines that are ‘already written’ by the SotM folks.

I do like seeing some sort of rewards for making it ‘to the end’ as it were - even if it’s not set up like a traditional tournament, but a series of special battles. It can be an alternate card, or it could be something less costly, such as the artist signing a card…or perhaps just seeing something about future developments that have yet to be released (such as an opportunity to fight a villain that is still in the ‘planning’ stages of a future release).

Another thought - I’m assuming the Story Challenges will have an addendum at some point (with expansions being added, more goals can be acheived). These epic series of ‘con’ battles can be installed as a challenge to be reached. However, you may want to come up with something that makes it unique to conventions, not just something you can do at home with your own set of cards. Whether it be unique cards for a future release, variant rules…

There are some really awesome ideas floating around this thread.

Let me just start by saying that I’d love to be a part of all this if it goes down at Gen Con this year. Hopefully we can all pick a day, because if I go, I’d prefer to go a maximum of two days, assuming that’s probably how long it’ll take for all of this organized play to really go down. And I mean two full days, from doors open to doors close. That seems like enough time.

Now, I really like the idea of multiple groups playing through the same story, so we’d have group of a set number of players that play against the villains in a certain order, and even possibly with a set team of heroes. I’m seeing the story play out in a way similar to the stories of many modern fighting games, like Soul Calibur or Mortal Kombat. By that, I mean that the story occurs in between the fights. So he’s what I’m seeing (I’m making this story up on the spot, but I’m sure the creators have the really events written down somewhere):

—STORY: Legacy, Bunker, and Tachyon have been recruited as the first three members of the Freedom Five. Before the other two members have officially joined, a giant robot from Aldred Ind. begins attacking the city of Megaopolis. (Throw in some more story/dialogue from the creators who actually know the whole story)
—BATTLE: A wild giant robot appears! Omnitron! The three heroes fight and save the city!
—STORY: The heroes think they’ve defeated the monstrous robot, but in the throes of death, Omnitron activates the detonator to a huge bomb inside of itself, attempting to take the whole city down. There’s hardly seconds left before the city is destroyed, and the heroes don’t know how to deactivate the bomb, and Legacy doesn’t have time to get it far away enough to keep the city safe. They punch their way to the explosives in the robot, and watch as the timer hits 10 seconds left. Suddenly, a blast of ice engulfs and freezes the very molecules of the explosive compounds, stopping the detonation for just a bit longer. Just enough time for a young girl to jump in and use her astounding knowledge of technology to deactivate the bomb. The strangers introduce themselves as The Wraith and Absolute Zero, and days later, the Freedom Five is officially formed. Weeks later, they receive their first mission: stop a dangerous mad scientist who holds a deep grudge against Legacy!
—BATTLE: (At this point, the players decide what heroes they want, maximum of five heroes are being controlled. The other heroes are assumed to be there, but this way the players don’t overpower the villains) Baron Blade is trying to pull the moon into earth from his base in the Ruins of Atlantis! Bearing a deep grudge against Legacy, the Baron Blade eventually dons a robot suit to match Legacy’s strength. As the two fight a vicious battle, Legacy is almost killed, but he is aided by the sudden appearance of his daughter, Pauline Felicia Parsons! With her help, the heroes win!
—STORY: After Baron Blade is stopped, months pass without incident. But one day, a bald woman approaches them, calling most of them by name and seeming to know them, when none of them seem to know her. She claims to be from the future, and asks if someone they call Mack Dalton has arrived. When they tell her they don’t know anyone named Mack Dalton, she tells them of an alien warlord coming to conquer earth in the near future, and they need to enlist the help of another alien. Soon, an alien recently escaped from F.I.L.T.E.R. agents meets the heroes, and they all travel to the Wagner Mars Base to stop the warlord, as that is where he attacks first.
—BATTLE: Warlord Voss sends his army against the heroes, and eventually joins the battle himself. The heroes do their best to win, but there’s a scenario where something goes very wrong…
—TIMELINE SPLIT: In the midst of the battle, Felicia Parsons is killed. Now also fueled by wrathful vengeance, Legacy and Tempest mercilessly kill Voss. (Insert that timeline’s story here)
—STORY: After meeting with more metahumans, the Freedom Five fight alongside five other heroes, now including Ra, Haka, and Fanatic. The ten only join to fight the greatest threat they’ve ever faced – a woman named Citizen Dawn, and her select team of metahumans dubbed the Citizens of the Sun. A battle for the ages begins.
—BATTLE: The ten heroes fight against Dawn and her thirteen followers on the secluded island of Insula Primalus, hoping to stop the Citizens before they reach civilization. The heroes win, but they are not without loss…
—TIMELINE SPLIT: Multiple potential deaths could occur, including Legacy, Wraith, Absolute Zero, Fanatic, and Haka.

So yeah, that’s the general idea of what I’m getting from the storyline suggestions. Of course, the real story is up the creators. But I’d love for them to start giving us details of the real events, and give us a definite timeline(s).

Oh, and I also agree with the idea of us playing and getting points based on the story achievements and turning in the points for rewards. That’s good. Pretty please let it happen?