Kismet

So, where does the name come from?

Oh, it's from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kismet

So her name is "luck". It fits.

It means fate.... Sanskrit i think.

Does this mean a new reveal is up? Hurray!

I'm really interested in how her mechanics work. I'm guessing we're going to need to get rid of that talisman as fast as possible.

Every time I read the word Kismet, I think of the Magic the Gathering card. As I said in the other thread, congratulations on the win Alex! From the background alone, I look forward to playing against her.

Yes, many congratulations to Alex. We're all very proud of you.

But can we see Kismet's actual card layout, rather than just her art? Please?

ERASED: What's this from? 

Nevermind.... missed the update.... 

Obviously that's being left secret so we don't know who her nemesis is. Although I like the theory in the Kickstarter comments that she's basically the opposite of The Scholar in that they both have powerful objects (talisman vs. philospher's stone).

But why would they keep it a secret if we don't know who the nemesis is? I thought I remember hearing something along the lines of "Kismet's nemesis will be released down the road." So if we still saw the symbol now, we'd have no idea who the hero is.

It's a surprise! Like Christmas or a Birthday gift. You see the wrapped present, and want to open it, but ultimately have to wait a while… then when you do. BAM!

So are we expecting her nemesis symbol to say "This hero's name is ________"?

Looks pretty awesome. Really looking forward to playing this villain.

If people are curious, her family's last name "Adhin" is a corruption of "ádh," which is Irish Gaelic for luck/fortune. Her (original) first name is the female equivilant of a good friend of mine's name.

I'm guessing seeing who the nemesis is would reveal something that would cause a ton of speculation, such as a future (expansion) hero. That said I like the concept, I'm still looking for somebody who really messes with the heroes decks.

So you could say that with the competition… luck was by your side!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Couldn't help myself.

Sounds like the scholar's nemesis.

But then again, I thought unity would be omnitron's...

In and out of The Block more times than F.I.L.T.E.R. would dare to admit, Gabrielle now laughingly calls herself Kismet, and bends the power...

You know, if Kismet's power to bend probability comes from her rock charm thing, then her criminal career should have ended with her first trip to The Block.  She gets pinched by a hero, the prison takes away her personal effects, and that's that.  No more probability bending.  Should have been no "in and out of The Block".  Should have just been a very long "in".

Should have been! I agree! I mean, she'd have to be ridiculously lucky to manage to both get her talisman back AND get out of The Block once, never mind repeatedly...

Hmm.

But her history says she could vaguely feel stuff until she got the rock, then she could affect probability.  Take away the rock and she's back to vaguely feeling like there's probably a way out of The Block if only she had her rock back...

And then I laughed a lot.  But seriously Christopher, you gotta come clean.  Everyone already KNOWS Kismet's rival is Hippocalypse! :3

I wonder what this button on my keyboard does.


Oh geeze! Oh no! Now what?!

Great.  Now you've done it.

uymmmm....waitwhat?

ermagerd!

Nemesis icon looks oddly like some form of block. Nemesis is the much speculated FILTER agent?

It looks almost like a die.  Almost like the Greater Than Games die, just without the symbols.  And a one on top.  I always had this thought that, were they to ever release a character card without a nemesis, they'd use the Greater Than Games logo.  Either that, or use that to specify that every character is a nemesis.

I guess her nemesis is Snake Eye... who is only half as unlucky as Snake Eyes.

Maybe she doesn't really need that talisman... maybe that's not really Can Do Cream on her nose... it's just smurfberry jam...

Maybe he's the one?

I'm thinking maybe she planned on being sent to the Block so many times because it was a benefit to her.  She saw that, in one timeline where she allowed herself to be caught by F.I.L.T.E.R and sent to the Block, she would be able to get something she needed or wanted or whatever.

Here is my theory, there is a guy with a gambling problem, that was loaned money from loan sharks. Since his addiction is so bad though he never paid the loan sharks back and they did cruel experiments on him that turned him into a living loaded die. Production cost though only allowed them to have the one printed on it. One day the poor die got out of the loan sharks grasp and managed to dind its way to some kid off the streets. Now this kid lives a sheltered life and had never seen a die before, so he begun to pretend it was a plastic surgeon that would give surgery to all his toys. Suddenly during a face lift for Petey the Pizza Pie Face the die fell from the table and begun to roll on the ground. After the die landed on one there was a bright light blinding the boy indefinitely. Thus making the die realize that his duty is to go around blinding villians into submission, taking up the mantle The Die Roller.

Or (for Kismet) :

Hypothesis : she has no power without her talisman.

Testing the theory : take the talisman away, lock her in the block.

Result : she gets away everytime. And has he talisman back.

Conclusion : hypothesis rejected.

About her card : damn, and I was hoping Shattered Timelines would at last complete the list of Nemesis Pairings...

Brilliant point. I hope it's true. It'd make perfect sense, if she's busted out of The Block multiple times. FILTER would throw their top men at her.

I can see it looking like a die, though. If that's what it's supposed to be, I could understand. If she's a luck-based villain, then her nemesis might be a hero who's all about manipulating luck and fate as well.

Both are excellent theories. If I had to pick one, I'd like to see a FILTER agent be a hero.

Nemesis icon spotted (?) : see Expatriette's Shock Rounds.

Edit : Could it be the FILTER agent everybody seems to expect, with the job to bring back fugitives to the Block ?

I know, man. They just made things wayyyyy worse. But that means much more Sentinels in the future.

Nice catch! Future hero spotted!

But wait, Kismet is a result of the villain contest, which occur after the release of Rook City. So there's no way GtG could have predicted the arrival of Kismet (or could they?). So, likely Kismet replaced the villain who was originally planned to be One-Pip Man's nemesis.

Any other theories?

And then there's the thing about the "hero" being hit by shock rounds, so Expatriette shot him for some reason.

But that guy does have the right symbol and the colors that fit the symbol, so something's up with that, he should have quite an interesting backstory.

I think I remember Christopher saying that they already had this hero in mind, and when they got Kismet as an entry, she fit perfectly alongside this hero to be her nemesis. So it's entirely possible they had this hero in mind since Rook City, and are planning on using him as her nemesis.

Wait, whoa! Sound of Trees is right! Nice catch, man! That was fast! New hero spotted! Woohoo! So why is Expatriette shooting him?

I'm sad there's still no sign of a FILTER agent being a hero, but I'm just glad we figured it out so fast.

I'm seeing a pattern here. Adam mentioned a while ago that he has brought back a lot of his old characters and put them into the game. Fright Train is one of these people; Adam posted a picture on here of an early sketch he made a while back, and this black & gold guy was in the picture too. So really, I think a lot of the heroes and villains in this game have been ideas for a very long time. So it's reasonable for them to have planned for this guy to be a hero.

That's why I suggest the possibility this hero is a FILTER "catch back the fugitive" hero : his nemesis concept could have been "a villain that escapes the block often", and Kismet could fit easily. I don't think Alex knew about the Block when writting Kismet concept - so it may have been added to fit this specific future hero backstory.

Of course, this is pure wild speculation

Edit : About expatriette shooting at him : still wild ideas

• he is trying to capture her for genetic studies - she's the daughter of a powerful villain...
• classic "hero thik another hero is not a hero" fight
• He can use electrical power, and as been shot on purpose, Ra-AZ style

After all, Tempest had to fight FILTER, and if UNity's incapacitated side shows a cell in the Block, maybe FILTER can turn on heroes. By the way, this cell looks a lot like the "dice" icon…

Though I'm doubting this guy...

Shall we call him "Twitchy" because that's what Expatriette seems to be calling him?

...is actually a FILTER agent. Come on, what kind of organization like that has what he's wearing as a uniform? This guy has to be working on his own.

Expatriette's sort of the Punisher of the Sentinels world, and Punisher's first appearnce was trying to shoot Spider-Man. Maybe she's more Chaotic Neutral than we thought...

Or maybe a reformed villain! I don't think we've had one of those yet. A great potential hero for an upcoming expansion focusing on villains... :3

I think there's a likely possibility of that. But that's assuming that our shared theory is correct; I think it's much more likely this guy is just a reformed villain. If so, he probably ran into Kismet in The Block, and that's where the conflict between them started.

And no, I don't think he's going to be able to be played as a hero or villain. He's just going to be a hero. If you could play him as a villain, then this wouldn't be a co-op game anymore.

I was thinking of characters that either could be played as a hero, by a player, or as villain, in the classic normal way. This is pure speculation/mad fan-designing, but :

If the Vengeful Five are a "team deck" of five villains, maybe it is possible in the future to see another ""villain team deck", but with each character of this team having also a hero deck.

Let's imagine the "agents of FILTER" team : 5 characters. Each one has a hero deck, for when they fight along side "normal" heroes against super menaces. But there is also a "FILTER : misguided super hero hunters" deck, with its own cards, where these five characters work as a villain team, trying to do something for the "government" or whatever, and finding themselves clashing with the "normal" heroes…

Maybe Twitchy has all sorts of bad luck, and thus was accidently hit by the shock rounds due to that?

I can see a ongoing card saying "Whenever damage is dealt to all non-hero targets, deal that damage to Twitchy as well" Of course it probably has a benefit to it aswell. Maybe increase of damage? By the amount of damage he took from it? Maybe a redirection/counter? I think it could be a interesting mechanic.

That'd be an interesting idea. It'd be like a deck full of Bloody Knuckle-like cards. If you want to succeed, you have to put yourself in danger. The more danger you're in, the more benefits you get.

Exactly, glad I am not the only one that thinks it'd be awesome. And if not with this "Twitchy" character, then at least some other character.

Also I call dibs on this mechanic if there is ever a Create-A-Hero contest if it hasn't appeared by that point yet.

I bear witness and confirm these dibs.

It doesn't say she has been jailed in The Block.  What if the Block itself is made from the same substance her talisman is?  Maybe she just breaks in and out of the Block to try to gather more of it.  That could explain the reports of disturbances lately…

Or maybe she IS an undercover F.I.L.T.E.R. agent posing as a villain... 

Or, more likely, she has trouble jinxing others and consciously controlling things without the talisman but her family's natural luck still exists so things narturally tend to work out for her and that probably doesn't include a spell in an extra-temporal prison.

Of course "In and out of the block" may just mean she keeps breaking in to help other villains break out, rather than Filter managing to capture her at any point.

I was thinking how happy the designers would be with threads like this. Half their job is already done for the next expansion XD What a huge amount of ideas, with some great ones.

Maybe she used her talism before she was caught, and had a fake talisman taken instead. She caused the alarms and detection devices not to notice her talisman and she left. It bends luck. What better way to fix this than to have the FILTER agents unlucky when detaining her?

@Tarao

We've actually had much of the arc planned out for years, and in fact have finished writing all of the characters for all of the rest of Sentinels of the Multiverse through to the end. Not to say that we don't love threads like this though! We do! It is exciting to see who gets what right ahead of time :D

And this is why I give them all of my money.  Proper planning is how you avoid stupid crap in comic books.

Exactly! I love that the background art characters from the original are getting stories now and making sense. One of the things I love about this game is the world that >G has created. So cool.

It's very excellent to see references oft forgotten from previous sets of Sentinels suddenly step out into the light. I mean, the Toymaker guy from The Dreamer deck was on Demoralization the entire time, and I never suspected a thing. It's the little things that make me happiest with the Multiverse.

am i the only one who thinks that her Talisman should be a different color?

in the current art, it's flesh-colored and it looks like she has a mutated hand or something. it doesn't look like a powerful talisman.

I'll admit, I was a little thrown off by the coloring as well. But I think it'll be fine. It doesn't have to look powerful to be powerful.

ESPECIALLY if it's just smurfberry jam...

I have no internet connection for ONE DAY and suddenly everything happens!

Ooh, and I guess I can talk about most things now that everyone has seen her for real?

I definitely agree with the twitchy guy on Shock Rounds being her nemesis. Not only do the symbols match, but look at their outfits: both have silvery belt buckles and bandit masks. It's worth mentioning that her character design was entirely Adam's work( I didn't really spend much time on her appearence; just a brief concept sketch of her in a Carmen Sandiego-esque costume), so these similarities probably aren't coincidence.

And I've been told that the unveiling of Kismet's nemesis is about a year away, which I think is about how long Vengence will take? Maybe this guy's a former partner in crime. Maybe a younger brother who used to follow along in his big sister's schemes, but always had terrible luck. Like, she'd always take advantage of him if she needed someone to take the fall, and he grew to resent her. He should've been the one to inherit that talisman; it's not like she even needs it anymore! Finally fed up with Gabrielle, he became her archenemy. The die with nothing but a 1 on it is a symbol of his commitment-- he's decided to wear his bad luck with pride, to show "Kismet" he doesn't fear her any longer. He doesn't need luck to be strong. He'll prove it.

Oh, and about Kismet's luck-stealing powers... The talisman is not the source of her powers, it just amplifies them and lets her picture the possible futures more clearly. In the beginning it did allow her to hone her psychic abilities, but she has progressed beyond that point by now. Mostly, she just can't bear the thought of anyone else having that kind of power. She isn't dependant on her charm so much as addicted to it.

Kismet is totally convinced her power has made her invincible. I wouldn't be surprised if she were letting herself get caught just to mock the agents when she escapes later. Maybe she sets the prisoners loose for fun, or if she needs a recruit for a future machination( "luckily," she always manages to find one gullible enough to betray later if things go awry). That autobiography was basically posted word-for-word from the initial submission, except for the last paragraph which they added in to expand on what she does as a villain. So these are just my best guesses.

I like the idea of the unlucky brother : why does Expatriette shoot at him ? Well, she didn't, but he is so unlucky that stray shots tend to aim him...

Power : next time a hero target would be dealt damage, Unlucky Boy is dealt the damage instead.

Can play cards on villain targets that make all damage to that target irreducible, AND does damage to him : when you make your allies lucky, you pay the price with bad luck !

Would be fun.

I go away for a few days, and someone removed the "put >G logo at 50% transparancy" portion of the "post random picture from the hard drive" button on Chris's Computer...

Perhaps this was their tribute to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? 

Perhaps the Talisman is like that One Ring thing, that manipulates people who are not a part of Kismet's family into giving the talisman to her. perhaps the talisman is rotting her very soul.... that could be an interesting mechanic. Much like how Spite gets a little bit Akira, Kismet gets a bit Gollum on her other side... Or something.

That'd be cool.  We did get a hint that she has some way to reclaim it, so maybe whenever we destroy the talisman she flips, and when ever she gets it back, she flips back. Kind of a pick your poision battle.