What archetypes would you like to see?

Obviosly it is pointless to suggest heroes and villains, it might even bring up some legal ickyness (“You guys stole my character!”). That said the designers have done a spectacular job of taking the general hero archeotypes one expects and putting a good spin on them (Haka is a great “Warrior” and Legacy is a nice take on the “Americas Greatest Hero”… not to mention how Mr. Fixer is an extremely unconventional “Martial Artist”). So what other hero and villain archeotypes would you like to see? Any clue on how the game would support them mechanically?

Heroes

Adventuring Inventor: Basically your “smartest man on earth” type, with our without some sort of powers. Abilities would include equipment and power searching (power: “invent: discard a card, search for a card”) and lots of situational specific cards: shrink rays to get rid of envirmental and villain cards, time manipulators to recover cards from the trash and regain health, adaptable blasters that change damage types, etc. Inspiration: Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy.

Mystical Problem Solver: 99% likely to be in the next expansion, so nothing much to add. Just hope she has a little bit of that reality warping “If you let me concentrate I can fix this” style in her mechanics. Inspiration: Zatanna, Stephen Strange.

Villains

King of vampires: Each turn brings in more zombies, more werewolves and more neonate vampires. He controls and manipulates the heroes, and appears to be immortal. Conceptually I’m thinking somebody tough like Spite (lots of health stealing) but with a healthy supply of supernatural minions. Maybe the means to destroy the supernatural leader are at the bottom of his deck, so you want to get him to flip so the deck is shuffled and you get a chance of finding the artifacts sooner. Example: If Vampire Dude would be reduced to zero and his coffin is not in the villain trash, flip him. Flipped vampire dude: shuffle the villain deck. cannot take damage or have damage redirected to it, regains 5 hp per turn, play a card at the end. When he has 15 hp or more, flip him. Coffin: 10 hp, redirect all damage from coffin to the villain or villain card with the highest hp.

Endless Ninja cult: I would like to see a powerful cult leader with an endless supply of ninjas, kind of like The Matriarch. Many of these cards would have an effect when they come in, to represent them backstabbing, stealing, etc. Also you want to prevent them from pilling up, since cards like “rain of arrows” or “gang up” which deals damage based on the number of ninjas. Attacking the leader also causes damage to the attacker based on the number of ninjas in play, so it is smarter to fight your way through rather than charge him.

Reality Dude Maybe he has an artifact that controls reality, or he is a nightmare god, of a he is the manifestation of another dimension… all we know is that this dude warps reality. This would be a super tough individual who is able to redirect enviromental damage and also use cards against heroes. Stuff like having heroes take damage based on ongoing cards, revealing until they get a one-shot and having that effect happen against them, etc. Lastly the minions can be evil doplegangers of each hero… like “Evil Legacy deals 3 damage to the character with the most hitpoints, heroes named Legacy cannot regain hitpoints while Evil Legacy is in play”. “Evil Ra dels 3 fire damage to the hero with the highest hp, heroes named Ra must discard a card each time they use a power”. Etc.

I don’t think I quite understand the “Reality Dude” archetype. I don’t know what the inspiration for this guy is. I can tell you that I have (for)seen something like what you describe as Visionary’s nemesis, however. Visionary’s thing is that she excels at controlling the villain and environment, so it would make sense for her nemesis to use the heroes strengths against them in some way. Punishing them for making plays or using powers, perhaps, or making them discard a bunch of cards, or something like that.

Hero wise I am just waiting for someone with a Bow. I like pointy sticks that get shot from sticks with string on them.

Yeah, that is what I’m kind of thinking of… a villain that makes you think “do I really want to pull out this gun? He can shoot me with it…”. Examples (and I apologize, but I tend to think in terms of Marvel) would be Beyonder, Infinity Gauntlet Thanos, Cosmic Cube Red Skull, Nightmare, Legion, Shadow King (psychic plane), etc. Somebody who changes ALL THE RULES and therefore is really, really scary.

That would be really cool. When I think of what an archer usually brings (hawkeye, green arrow) to a team it is certainty (he does not miss) and gadgets (he has an arrow for each situation). I think a cool archer would be able to deal any kind of damage and then would have some cool effects (exploding removes a card from play) and some other stuff to flesh him/her out. Maybe an extra “discard a card, use a power” meaning you can empty your quiver but SHOOT A LOT on a turn that requires it.

I feel like this ground is covered by Expatriette.

I can tell you you’ll be happy, that’s about all I got for you.

This is the internet, nobody is ever happy. I’m joking of course, thrilled to see the next expansion, especially since each villain tends to work so different from each other.

My friend and I were talking about additional heroes and I suggested an archer. I also thought of a few cards that I would love to share but if >G makes an archer, I do not want any legal trouble for them. I will just wait until he (or she) comes out. Then I can state my ideas. I will say that I had a quiver and a bow card. And I liked the idea of firing different arrows.

As for Expatriette filling in for the archer role, I see her as more Punisher-like than Green Arrow. There is always room for an archer. I can’t wait to see the new heroes and defeat the new villains.

Shapeshifter – Beast Boy immediately comes to mind, but that’s because I just watched all five seasons of Teen Titans last week. Different ongoing cards represent different forms (s)he can take, possibly with a Mr. Fixer-style “return other tools (forms)” mechanic.

Teleporter – How much fun would a Nightcrawler-type charcter be in SotM, just in general? Wouldn’t be very powerful offensively, but would be a giant nuisance to damage.

Self-copier – Just a hero deck filled with copies of him/herself that are all like 3-HP targets. Maybe the default (only?) power is to do one damage to a target per copy in play (“Dogpile”). Obv. inspired by Jamie “Multiple Man” Madrox, although again Billy Numerous from the TT cartoon is fresh in my mind too.

Stretchy – Your basic Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man rubber body, maybe combined with out-right growth/shrinking just for completion. Might compete for idea space with the shapeshifter, as they’re different applications of the same general concept.

With Akash’Bhuta on the horizon (or “as the horizon,” as the case may be), I’m really looking forward to a nature-or-plant-based hero. Don’t ask me what I want it to do. That wasn’t the question.

Take a look at the cards in Legacy’s deck. Can’t remember which one it is (Lead from the Front?!), but Legacy is fighting someone like this.

Yeah, that’s LftF.

That character is also on Scum and Villainy (Rook City Environment), along with Tachyon’s not-my-nemesis

Actually, since you mention Multiple Man, I can see how this would work as a (not terribly difficult) villain. Now where’d that fonts-for-custom-cards thread go…

These all sound like great ideas. Now if someone would just do the Stange Eons thing we’d be set…

See this thread for details: http://greaterthangames.info/forum/index.php/topic,443.0.html

Hmm… Maybe that’s important… 8)

I love how these little clues are hidden all over the place. The guys at >G have done a wonderful job with the build-up, environment, etc.

Hmmm… Man maybe I should really go through and examine the cards and keep track of how many unnamed characters appear and maybe it’ll show some crazy stuff.

Once things go Cosmic, I’m hoping for a Temporal Hero - something that combines trash pickup with turn & timing manipulation.
Then I’d want a similar villain that messes with discard piles, plays villain cards out of turn and generaly breaks the rules

A Self Duplicator would be interesting, as he could have a deck of minions that give him ongoing abilities and powers. Would be cool managing that style of play.

A straight up, support, temporal hero would be awesome. Skip the villains turn (for a hefty price) would be great… stopping time when bombs are going to blow or the moon is going to get yanked into earth for one last push. Or maybe only temporal guy gets an extra turn, so he can focus on that annoying enviroment or minion that is making things difficult.

As for a duplicator that would be fun, especially if duplicates add something besides damage and able bodies. Maybe if they where like Slivers in Magic The Gathering. Either way redirecting and spreading damage across dupes would be a new resource for sure.

2 heroes: Twins, hero and sidekick, inventor and robot… what matters is that like a villain he comes into play with a powerful minion or has no problem summoning that minion.

Misunderstood Monster: Big brawny damage sponge that accelerates when damaged, either with ongoing abilities that allows it to draw cards or play cards or whatnot when hurt.

Oh also I wanted to do some new enviroments:

Dystopian Future: robots, mutants or something more sinister are rounding up heroes in this awful future that the heroes have been thrust into to battle a villain. A very hostile enviroment.

Zombie Apocalypse: Would not work with most villains but an enviroment deck that just spits out zombies by the handful that attack everyone would be a blast.

Astral Plane: some dimensional goodness with psychic constructs, shadowy mind parasites and “Arkham Horror” style events.

I have the feeling you may get something like this (or a place much like Arkham, MA in this next expansion.

With Unity and talk of The Vision in another thread, I realised that we don’t have our requisite Self-Aware Robot/Construct Hero. “I want to be human, but it’s my lack of humanity that makes me the most useful.” In MMO parlance, I see it as a main tank sort of character.

Perhaps Omnitron’s nemesis?

The fact that the nemesis symbol on Omnitron resembles a “power on” button icon would support this… At least that’s what I think of when I look at it.

Also, the picture they revealed the other day with Akash’bhuta wrecking a building while Young Legacy flies by has a shadowy figure on top of the building with a HAL-like glowing red spot. Since you can’t have more than one villain (so far) in a fight, that mystery guy, who looks pretty robot-ey to me, could be an as yet unannounced robot hero. In fact, now that I’ve said it, it seems like that’s what it must be and I’ll be disappointed if it turns out to be anything else.

You get your heart set on things so easily, Spiff. Really working that sense of entitlement, aren’t ya? Lol

I’ve flown to the future and have this to report:

With the rise of Cosmic Omnitron, its AI logic processing is so refined that it reviews all stored data on the world’s heroes and devises perfect strategies to counter and defeat them.
After suffering a handful of defeats to the rampaging Cosmic monster, Tachyon takes a copy of the core AI and tampers with it. Setting a strict set of protocols to control its behaviour, and with Unity helping craft a nigh indestructable shell to encase it, a new hero is born: Defender Omnitron.
With equaly advanced AI simulations, this new robotic hero rips apart Cosmic Omnitron’s carefully laid plans and gives the Freedom Five & Allies the opening they need to bring it down once and for all.

I’m calling it now, it’s a hero version of Omnitron and Omnitron is his own nemesis

Can I have a cookie yet?

Really like that theory Civi, I actually wouldn’t be too suprised if your guess of the origin is really close to what it may be.

Now that’s what I have my heart set on.

Anyone else getting a Legion (from Mass Effect) vibe from that concept? Legion’s one of my favorite characters, and benevolent AIs always appeal to me. I would love to see Omnitron be its own nemesis in that way.

>

I'm calling it now, it's a hero version of Omnitron and Omnitron is his own nemesis ;-)

Can I have a cookie yet? ;-)

Dude you have earned a box of cookies for that one. Also I'm bringing this thread back to life...

We have seen some wish list archeotypes come true, but also the Sentinels dudes are so creative that some villains (such as The Dreamer or Miss Information) dont fit any real existing archeotypes.

I don't know about that.  I mean The Dreamer could be compared to the Marvel Hero Sleepwalker  (basically a Conjurer/Summoner type in a special state(in this case the state being sleep))-  Green Lantern could be seen as something similar just not in a sleep state.  Miss Information could be compared to DC's Oracle - but only turned evil (know it all/genius with unlimited access to information yet one that works out of an office or room.)

I kind of want to see an Anti-Hero/Badass type.  You know the Wolverine's/Lobo/Ghost Riders of the comic universe

Speaking of Ghost Rider - beyond a motorcycle - I wouldn't mind seeing a hero that uses some sort of transportation as a part of their way of traveling - Silver Surfer included.

Power Pack  / Cloak and Dagger / Hawk and Dove stlyed heroes - I would like to see either a hero deck that is based off of a pair, or a group of heroes (In essence while it would still be "one" hero - they function as a group - like a reverse Ennead) OR just a "buddy" pair that synergizes really well and the art suggests they work together - but if players only one to play as one half or the other that option is there.


 

I just had a thought. While I haven't played her yet, as I'm expecting my package to arrive tomorrow or so, I think Miss Information does her utmost to dampen the heroes at every turn, right? I'm wondering if her nemesis would have a similar theme: a hero that does not deal much damage, but neuters the villain in certain ways as a specialty. Kinda like a computer hacker...Oracle style.

Oh, I like the idea of a  computer hacker.

I also like the idea of a Wonder Twins like team hero group, or an XMan kids group. 

Here's a list of Hero Archetypes taken from Mutants and Masterminds - one of the best Superhero RPGs.  I think that they're generic enough that no copyright concerns could exist.  There is also a equilivant charcter (DC or Marvel), and the SotM example if I can think of one:

• Agent - Nick Fury - nil
• Amphibian - Aquaman - Tempest
• Android - Vision -?
• Angel - ? - Fanatic
• Animal Power - Squirrel Girl - ?
• Archer - Hawkeye - ?
• Battlesuit – Ironman – Absolute Zero or Bunker
• Bulk – I should come up with someone other than Blob, but I’m not – Haka or Scholar vaguely
• Cyborg – Cyborg - Golem Unity
• Dark Avenger – Batman - Wraith
• Demon - Etrigan the Demon - ?
• Duplicator - ? – ?
• Elastic Hero – Mr. Fantastic - ?
• Fortunate Hero – Black Cat - ?
• Illusionist – Karma - ?
• Gadgeteer – Hank Pym - Unity
• Horde Maker – Ant Man - Unity
• Jungle Lord – Ka-Zar - ?
• Living Flame – Human Torch - Ra
• Living Weapon – Wolverine - ?
• Martial Artist – Robin – Mr. Fixer
• Mystic – Dr. Strange - Nightmist
• Mystic Warrior – Wonder Woman – Argent Adept
• Paragon – Superman – The Sentinel
• Plant Power  - Swamp Thing - ?
• Psychic – Prof X - Visionary
• Revenant  - The Crow - ?
• Ring Bearer  - Green Lantern - ?
• Robot – Robot Man – Omnitron X
• Size Changer – Hank Pym - ?
• Solid Hero – Colossus –
• Speedster – Flash – Tachyon
• Star Child - ? - ?
• Super Soldier – Captain America - ?
• Teleporter – Night Crawler - ?
• Weapon Master – Punisher - ExPat
• Weather Controller – Storm – Tempest or Absolute Zero
• Wealthy Thrillseeker – Booster Gold - ?

There’s a lot of room for SotM to build into.  I’d love to see an archer type, personally. 

Personally I think The Scholar would fit Solid Hero more so in the Bulk. Also I don't really see one for Chrono... Not sure where you would even fit.

Teleportation has always been my super power of choice, but I have little idea of how that would translate to a card-based game.

We've been speculating for a while that Miss Information's nemesis will be a hacker since his/her symbol is just two brackets, and those are common in coding. Though I'm also curious about how his/her mechanics will translate into battle--if he's a hacker/computer user, how will he be involved in a battle at all?

Miss Information's deck involves a lot of cards that imply things that aren't necessarily a direct attack, like Suspicious Malfunction. So it's likely this hero will have very little direct attack cards. He/she will probably have things along the lines of cards titled "Detailed Strategy" or something. Essentially, he'll be hiding away from the battle while communicating to the heroes about ways to neutralize the targets or give them updates on the environment. Another support-heavy hero. I like the idea.

I'd love a Spider-Man/Daredevil type - primarily melee w/ some enhanced abilities but fairly "street-level".  Love Fixer but he's a bit different to me than that

I can see that.  Also, he could be an elemental type.

Chrono would probably be another weapon master.

I tend to categorise Haka as a Martial Artist.

It's all good.  I put him in the "Bulk" section mostly because of his 34 hit points, and Mr. Fixer was a lock for Martial Artist.

I would like to see someone on the comic scale as a hero
(biased as my favourite hero is Green lantern)

going to make a hero for my own games based on this concept

That said these guys have been amazing and I wouldn't be surprised to see a cosmic expansion in the very near future
 

I'd love to see a werewolf or transforming character in general.  Since Chrono Ranger and The Scholar have steped into the realm of anime references, I wouldn't say no an impossibly large sword attached to someone. 

Chrono Ranger is based on an anime? I thought he was based off of the gunslinger from the Dark Tower series by Steven King (one armed gunslinger who is used to time tampering).

Just my thought anyway.

I saw Chrono Ranger as more of an homage to DC Comics' Jonah Hex, who has been known to deal with both mystic mojo and temporal shenanigans from time to time.

In addition to the awful movie, he was also featured in an episode of Justice League Unlimited, in which Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman chased down a time-thief to Hex's era.  Bat Lash, El Diablo, and several others also made appearances.

I'd really like to see a detective-type hero. I know Wraith and Nightmist are detectives, but I mean a detective in the tradition sense. Like if a Tony Taurus-esque character. Then we could actually have a game of three detective characters going up against Miss Information... It'd be the ultimate mystery!

I'm totally on the wagon for a rogue FILTER agent being a hero.

I hate to ask, but do our discussions here limit with >G can do for new characters?  This is perhaps a question for the moderators.  If some came up with a brilliant idea here - or even a mediocre one that resembles the brilliant idea that >G has in their new character - do their lawyers become - as they say in their FAQ - twitchy?

I have this interesting idea for this equipment that I'm not posting here for how to do an archetype - just in case it would prevent >G from doing something similar in the future.

Am I being paranoid?

My room mate wants a John McLain character.  I said "Isn't that Expat"  He said "No, she more punisher, McLain doesn't have access to guns until he kills some bad guy and takes it.  He doesn't start with guns, he starts with... bare feet."

I really want a spy/thief character like Black Widow or Catwoman.  I had a decent idea for one but I'll not post anything here about it cause from my experience (not with >G but just in general) legal gets touchy.

I also enjoy archer heroes. Chrono Ranger has a bow so I'm good.

@Amnachaidh

Don't worry, all of the characters for the rest of SotM are already planned out, so things you guys speculate about here have no impact whatsoever on the nature of future characters in the game :)

You know, with all this talk about Hero Archtypes...I wonder if we'll see another contest spring up.  I mean we got Kismet (and while i hear great things about her as a villain) I wonder what the community would cook up if >G would do one for Heroes.

Paul beat me to the punch--I was about to say the same. They finished hammering out every future character and event last year. And that's pretty rad. And think about it: that's everything including things that won't even ever become apparent through the game. All that extra story that we spend hours speculating about? It all exists.

I wouldn't say based off of, since many of the SotM characters will reference a lot of characters similar to that archetype.  But trying to avoid spoilers, Chrono has the three guns of trigun. Also The Scholar feels very Uncle Iroh and Hoenhiem-y.

For some reason Agent Ardent always gave me the Green Lantern feeling.

Especially on that card that allows him to use a power to destroy an ongoing or environment. 

I've been told Wraith's design is based off of Vin from Mistborn.

I always see The Scholar as a superheroic version of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski, complete with bowling ball.

I think everyone does too. I'm pretty sure that was the very first reactions to surface when they announced him. I'm glad we're all in agreement.

I use the Hercules, Ares or Wonder Woman category of "mythological warrior" for Hakka. What is great is that (for once) he is not part of a western pantheon, but instead a sort of Maori demigod.

As for the claims of these ideas potentially influencing the designers, yeah, they have it planned out but we are also keeping it as vague as possible. I'm not about to say "I have a great idea for a hero, his name, his background" so much as "A dynamic duo of heroes in one deck would be cool" or "a hero that grows and shrinks would be cool"

I saw this idea and thought it sounded cool. But then I thought about instead having a hero that automatically starts with two hero cards both with innate powers. They'd kind of be like the Ennead but in hero form. I have no idea how you'd balance it or make it work. But the concept in general sounds amazing! Who else wants a hero deck like this?

Funny you should say that.

Based on a few things that I've explained before in the past, and small hints by Christopher about the number of characters that are going to be in Vengeance, I think we'll be getting La Capitan's nemesis, or more specifically, nemeses in Vengeance. I strongly believe that La Capitan's nemesis will be a hero deck consisting of four distinct heroes that use one deck. Whether they share a hero character card or not, I don't know.

I got this theory from the fact that La Capitan's nemesis's icon has four distinct parts. Then, Christopher mentioned that the idea of 5 villain decks and 5 hero decks meaning there would be 10 characters in Vengeance was not the case. Since it wouldn't make sense for there to be less than 10 characters in 10 decks (excluding environments), this has to mean one of the decks has more than one character.

And since we know who the five villain decks will be, that only leaves at least one of the hero decks to contain more than one character. But I doubt they'd have more than one hero deck take the "multiple hero" approach, so I say one.

Just my theory. I'm open to further evidence or counter-arguments.

Well, I'd be all for it if that's that case. I'm always open to new mechanics for heroes.

I mentioned this in another thread, but judging from the art on Hollow Point bullets and Shock Rounds in Expats deck, It looks like we will see a villain whos a cross between Silver Surfer/Terminator II. Thats one that I am pretty excited to see

Those are actually two different characters.

Mind. Blown. No more guessing for me. My anticipation for more stuff just skyrocketed, and I dont even have ST in my hands yet…what have you done to me Chris. Your game is awesome

Hmm… see, I was also tossing around the theory that the Vengful Five will be one deck with multiple character chards, so we might not actually know who all the villain decks are. I admit, I love the idea of multiple heroes with the same deck, such as a small team of lesser heroes or something to that effect, but I don't think that's a garauntee yet.

I'm hoping for a Spiderman-type...

 Teenager that has just acquired powers and is not in total control of them.

Haven't we been told that each of the Vengful Five have their own deck? I'd be thoroughly disappointed if they didn't. But the whole gimmick of Vengeance is that you can fight these five villains at the same time and they've all got their own decks. At least I'm positive that's what we were told.

I'm not sure what to expect with Vengeance, and everytime I am very impressed with what comes out. However, I do feel that the Freedom...Number will be very different under the leadership of our Newest Legacy. By the time Vengeance takes place, Baron Blade (and the remaining members of the Freedom Gala) has been working the super-landscape for quite a while. A few have probably retired from full duty, the roster is changing, etc. Tachyon body cannot possibly hold up perfectly forever with the strain it goes through with her abilities. I would imagine that Tempest, being an alien, would probably stick around, and Wraith could pull a Dark Knight Returns thing. I've tossed the thought around of Visionary joining forces, but her story has finally met with some level of resolution. The timeline that she needed to stop has been stopped, and I'm unsure if she will retire to live it, or if we will meet the real Visionary now that she isn't completely focused on her necessary mission. I feel we are entering a new era of comics in the game. Issue numbers for a few of the newest villains are pretty high up there in the hundreds and I think the newest form of the Freedom W'ever will be the newer, younger generation with newer, younger nemeses. Kismet is a fine example of this, actually.

But then...time never works properly in the comic-verse, even for characters in the same universe. Tachyon may age only a few years while Newest Legacy gains a decade. Who's to say?

I see Vengeance continuing the tale of Legacy vs. Blade. Blade can finally finish the entire Parsons line and vindicating his family, and Pauline can put a stop to the Baron's schemes and put down the man that took away her father.

Wouldn't it make sense if they started focusing more on the Prime Wardens after Vengeance?

I love Legacy and the Freedom #, but what do we know about the Prime Wardens so far?

Just curious then, how many expansions will there be?  I know Vengence was going to be a mega expansion, I figured there would be more after that.  Its probably good that it just doesn't go on forever, that would end up being too many hero/villian combos to think about mechanically.

There will be a total of six.

There will be six? 

So we have RC, IR, and ST. Vengeance is coming. Only two more after that? Will they be the same size as the current expansions?

I don't remember if the sizes have been specified. I don't think they have.

I'm guessing #5 will be standard size, but hopefully #6 will be a monster :D

I'm hoping the last expansion will be a mega-expansion. It would make sense for the last expansion to be a huge deal.

Two more unknown expansions, huh? It's gonna be a very emotional day for me when I get that last expansion in the mail. It'll be incredibly exciting but also sad to see the final chapter. All good things must end, though.

Honestly, I don't know if I'll even want to playtest that last expansion. I'm taking a page from Spiff on this one: since the last expansion of Sentinels is kind of a big deal in my mind, I don't want to know anything about it until the day I get it in the mail and say "well, it's time to end this story."

Then again, I like the fact that Christopher said in a podcast "We've got six planned expansions... but we're just gonna go until we can't think of anything new." That gives me hope.

As comic fans, I would hope that when it's time for the "last expansion" that months down the road they decide..."You know what it's time for a "one shot special""  Something with promos for characters who don't have promos, villains with new promo character cards. maybe a special promo environement, villain or hero deck. Yeah all good things must end, but this is a game about comic books - and even great comic book characters (even some of the tier B characters) always get a second chance at things.  Heck I wouldn't mind a promo deck that changes game play a little - like some of the scenarios listed around but in random card form.  I also think it would be cool if we saw crossovers from their other future games like Galactic Strike Force and anything else down the line.

Only 2 more expansions to go? That makes me sad.

I was hoping for at least 2 more large Vengence-style expansions and perhaps 4 more RC-IF-ST-type expansions.

We are probably two years away from the last planned expansion. No need to panic yet. 

Yeah, for sure. This doesn't mean that Sentinels will be done in 2014 or anything. They've got other projects like GSF they're bringing out. Sentinels will still be ongoing for a while.

I'm not going to go searching for a link for this, but I believe what we were told about decks (not necessarily characters) in Vengeance was that there would be either 7 or 11, depending on how you wanted to look at it.  I think we were given the impression of 5 villains, 5 heroes, and 1 (now 2?) environments.  We were also told the identity of the villains, with some confusion over whether Baron Blade would have an entirely new deck, or what.  This gave some level of confirmation to the rumors that there would be 5 villain decks, with an option to play them together.  

Going back to templates... I would really love a good outdoorsy Enviroment. A relatively big and neutral area with woods where you do get the occasional rockslide, forest fire or wolf pack but overal it does not affect the battle too much. It would be an ideal place to battle characters like Bhuta or Matriarch who have a nice nature related angle.

wait, where did 2 come from? I calculated 3, after vengeance. If every hero gets a (unique) nemesis and all the expansions are the normal 2-2-4 format, that leaves 3. Which means that, if the above is true, the last expansion or 2 should be in a different format.

If it was stated that there are 6 expansions planned. Rook City, Infernal Relics, and Shattered Timelines are all currently released. So that would be 1+1+1=3, also to count Vengeance in there that would be 3+1=4. So currently 4 expansions are currently known about. So 6-4=2, basic math shows that there are only 2 planned expansions following Vengeance.

I never saw that statement.

If that's the case, then there are 3 possible outcomes:

1.) Vengeance doesn't count as an expansion, leading to 3 more "normal" ones, thus fitting my calculations

2.) one of the remaining 2 expansions is bigger than the 2-2-4 format, so as to accomodate the 2 missing heroes without nemeses (or, alternatively, doesn't have any heroes in it. Or both expansions only have 1 hero.)

3.) Bunker and Absolute Zero don't get unique nemeses. Obviously they have Proletariat and FrightTrain, but since Friction, Ermine, and Captain Blade aren't considered "real" nemeses it stands to reason that they wouldn't either.

There is also the possibility of a villain being the nemesis to more then one hero as well as a hero have multiple nemeses(?). Iron Legacy and Tachyon being an example of each. Tho I would consider Friction more of her real nemesis then matriarch (double entendre!). 

There I'd also the possibility of more promo heroes and villians 

Vengeance will be bigger than normal.

yeah, I KNOW that. 5 heroes, 5 villains. I was taking that into consideration. It still leaves Unity, AZ, Bunker, the Scholar, and 2 of the vengeance heroes without (unique, mutual) nemeses. Thus, 3 more expansions of the normal size would be necessary to accomodate all of them.

I'm guessing that the final expansion is going to be big...

Two mini-expansion villains would also balance things out.

I wonder if we're going to get a swamp, based off of Nightmist's "calling relics" card… I'm bad at remembering names. But the swampy-viney creature didn't look like a villian, so I figured it would be a creature in the environment.

As for archetypes I'd like to see…

I think most of the ones mentioned in the thread, but also, I suddenly want a swordsman (or woman, which would be cooler)

Villain wise, we need someone or something that thinks it is God (or god-like), I'd love smacking around someone who thinks they have unlimited power

Things I'd like to see...

Heroes:

An archer-type, with varying effects based on arrows (glue/putty to remove environment effects, frost to prevent villain damage, etc.). Primary focus would be debuffs, with a secondary focus on single target damage.  Ongoings would focus on changing the number of plays per round vs. single target damage--I.e. you could forfeit your play phase to increase your power damage or forfeit your power phase to play additional one shots.

A "reformed" demon, a la Etrigan or Ghost Rider.  Lots of fire and infernal damage, with a base power similar to Penance Stare, allowing him to destroy Ongoings.  Each power would have optional riders allowing you to "sell your soul/hp" for greater effect:  something like "Deal 2 fire damage.  If you take 2 infernal damage, deal a second target 2 fire damage."  HP reclamation would be non-existent for this character.

An "unstoppable force" similar to the Juggernaut.  He'd deal primarily melee damage, but could "chain" attacks together, provided he dropped the target to 0 hp each time, gaining bonus damage for each foe destroyed.  He could potentially chain together a series of attacks, going from lowest to highest hp, taking out each along the way and ending with a huge smash against the main villain.

Environments:

A "city in the clouds" like Zeal from Chrono Trigger or Columbia from Bioshock Infinite.

The Freedom 5's headquarters.

A lost city, like Attilan or Lemuria.  Ruins of Atlantis touches on this but doesn't go far enough into the weirdness.

A pseudo-Japanese temple full of Ninjas!

Villains:

A villain with several, varied attacks which depend on the amount of hero cards in play.   The more cards in play, the more lethal/more targets he attacks.  Villain Ongoings could adjust this number dramatically.  I'm thinking of someone like The Mandarin, with his 10 Rings, to replicate this effect.

An honest-to-zombie-Jeebus melee smashing Hulk.  He should hit like a Mack truck and have a bit of damage reduction, but with limited Ongoings and no minions.

A mind-controller, like Gorilla Grodd or The Purple Man.  He'd have throngs of relatively low hp minions, as well as abilities to force heroes to damage one another.  Devices would include a "mind control helmet" or such, which would make a hero flip the top card of the villain deck during their play phase.  Very heavy on the psychic damage, too.

I think a teleporter Hero, like Kuroko Shirai from A Certain Scientific Railgun would be cool.

I think the Hulk-smashing villain has already been covered in the shape of Iron Legacy ;).

I would LOVE to see a super hero organization that's way-out crazy, much like the the Brotherhood of Dada from the doom patrol (if you don't know who those are, go look them up; they have some crazy stuff) I would think they would play similarly to those minion heavy foes like La Capitan and Dawn (so perhaps focusing on the mastermind, like a crazy Professor X) but each of the "members would do something interesting, like reverse the play order, or just allow everybody to play cards at once, or make the enviorment targets only target the heroes or something.

Also if there was an environment that was a sentient street. That would be cool.

A shapeshifter villain would be cool, with a lot of different "forms" requiring the heros to adapt their strategies: one might require a lot of damage to get through, another might redirect the first attack each turn so you want a lot of little attacks, one might hit a single hero target for a lot of damage whereas another hits all of them for a little, etc. You could even have a "mimic" form where they count as a hero target while it's in play, or if that's too game-breaking then a form which copies all attacks against it to the hero with the highest hp ("It's the only way to be sure!")

A mentalist/telepath villain. A lot of hand/board control (like maybe an ongoing card that makes you either discard a card or take 2 psychic damage whenever you draw a card?), and some mind-controlled minions: weak attackers but if they're brought to zero hit points all heroes deal themselves psychic damage (because beating up innocent civilians is stressful).

A villain that flips when it first incapacitates a hero? Some sort of death spirit? Special abilities which trigger when incapacitated hero abilities are used?