Tweaks and House Rules

For the discussion of how we, personally, modify the game for balance and just fun.

One rule my group holds to is that Hero effects which "destroy" an Environment card instead do 5 Irreducible damage when used on an Environment target.  This is mostly out of mercy to Anubis and Char, who are supposed to be big threats, but just don't seem like it with the number of cards which can effortlessly wish them away.

Consternation over a powered armor character having merely average HP resulted in Bunker being played with 30 HP instead of 28.

We are among those who hold that Absolute Zero is probably the weakest SotM hero, and have had a rotating list of attempts to help with this - using proxies to alter his deck composition, ruling that Glacial Structure gives you card draw whenever it is destroyed (making it a beneficial shield against Ongoing-eating villains like La Capitan or Miss Information), and having Thermodynamics let you discard a card and draw a card in addition to the self-damage are the ones I recall at the moment.

We've deabted playing Tempest's Otherworldly Resiliences as something else, given the oddness one of the most fragile characters having armor for some reason, but never agreed on what.

We've tried a ton of things to make Gloomweaver a threat - who hasn't?

We also increase Advanced Blade's milling by one per turn, to keep it exciting.

Advanced Apostate doesn't get a free Tome Of The Unknowable - he gets a free Profane Summons!

We played a six-player game against Akash'Bhuta where H = 7 and Limbs only do half damage to Bhuta when they die.  It was epic but REALLY slow... I don't think anyone wants to try it again.

What have you done?

Ironic

We once played Ambuscade on Advanced with H Devices instead of H-1 and all Traps face up at the start of the game.

It was intense.

How exactly have you guys came to the conclusion that Tempest is fragile? Otherworldly Resilience gave me impression that he could keep himself up quite well.

Only if it gets on the table and stays.

Yeah, but does that mean that he's fragile without it?  26 HP is low, but he has one of the best HP recovery powers in the game and multiple sources of DR.

Only if they get on the table and stay. I've had games with Tempest where he couldn't get anything to stay on the table long enough to make use of.

That's pretty true of the hardier characters, though.  Any character, in fact.

When order of play across the table matters and we can't remember the exact order played, environment trumps heroes, heroes trumps villain.

Hmm, house rules, house rules. Dang it. Where is that list?

I use that Strike reads, "You may discard a card. If you do, Mr. Fixer deals one target 2 melee damage. If you don't, Mr. Fixer deals one target 1 melee damage." Spiff has a fun version as well.

I've tried a few things for Absolute Zero, but I've kind of moved toward a, "Only use the Freedom Six AZ," rule. If equipment is not getting broken I sometimes dust off the old one, but I love the new one so much. I am no longer an AZ hater.

Villains kind of have a built in house rule with their advanced modes. I try to play advanced with any level 1 or 2 and anytime I have 5 heroes.

I always set H-1 of Ambuscades traps at the beginning of the game. Spiff has a great version, also.

For Gloomweaver, I use the following tweaks. 1: Gloomweaver's familiar Ophilia the Defiler has the keyword "Relic" and has 25HP. 2: Gloomweaver flips if he has 3 relics in play at the END of his turn. Spiff has a good version, too.

Finally, if you want some fun story challenges, I have a thread going that gives a different spin on some battles. You'll find it here: https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/a-sentinels-of-the-multiverse-adventure-3765 . Spiff has an interesting version, in addition.

And also to nerf Team Leader Tachyon a little and to align her "leadership" to that of Legacy - Power: Until the start of your next turn, each player other than you may draw an additional card during their draw phase.

I like that one, ketigid.

Man, I've been pre-activating all of Ambuscade's traps so long, I forget that's not automatic - the only exception is when I play him with h=2 and himself and all his targets at half HP against a solo hero (you can do this with other villains, too - Ambuscade is pretty winnable, though, while someonelike Apostate is a real beatdown).  Sometimes, I think about bashing together variant traps which also torch Equipment/Ongoings, which might make him actually scary, a little.

Ironic

P.S. I call Tempest "fragile"because he's tied for lowest HP in the original set, and has this bad habit of getting his arm torn off.  He just doesn't feel right to me if he's tanking.

I often play a variant with my friends when there are 6 of us. Simply put, I play the villain (insert evil laughter here). They each get an extra 10 HP, and we normally choose an easy environment. Surprisingly, it seems to work. Fun, really intense games.

Our group has made a number of house rules, and I've experimented with others. 

Heroes

Bunker: I made an alternate deck, since I never had a satisfying game as-is. Too many games preparing while everyone else was blasting away, too many wipes, and too many times wishing that I felt more like the tactical genius/second in command/supreme multitasker that his bio/backstory suggests.  In a nutshell, he's got a team friendly mode, an offensive mode, and a defensive mode. Each one has drawbacks (take extra damage, discard cards, give up either play or draw phase). Some of his equipment has additional effects while in specific modes, and he can search out equipment. Bunker's MK II armor, if you will.

Mr Fixer: Styles don't destroy each other (IE, you can have all the styles out, if you want).   The toolbox allows you to draw 2 cards, or search for a tool and put into hand.

Expat: I play her straight qite a bit, as she's a favorite character of mine. I decided to make an alternate deck based off of  afrustrating series of no-gun games. Expat has a new gun (Sniper rifle), more ammo, slightly changed pride/prejudice (pride does 1 less damage, but lets you draw a card, prejudice does 1 more damage- so theres a reason to pick one over the other, but the damage still nets out ot 4 when firing both), added a new ongoing that helps get out guns, and changed some of the guns so that they destroyed themselves after firing unless you destroyed an ammo card on them (so you could fire the shotgun once, or put ammo in each time to keep it out).

Villains

Ambuscade: When a trap card is played (and promptly shuffled back in), we then play the top card of the deck. It gives him more to do than just saying "HA! There is a trap...somewhere!"

Apostate: Its very, very important that you say all his dialogue in the whiniest, most angst-ridden teenage voice you can manage. 

We have recently started trying a number of house rules.  We try to keep them simple and easy to remember.

We always start Ambuscade with his traps face up in his deck.

We start with Gloomweaver's relics under his card and play one at the end of his villain turn (sometimes starting on turn two).  And also say that if he flips you can only win by actually killing him and not by destroying the relics.  That last part might be how it is anyway, I don't remember but thats what we do.

We like to say that Bunker's turret mode only prevents him from drawing cards during his draw phase so he can still benefit from other effects granting card draw and can use his base power to draw a card as one of his two powers if he wants.

We have tried Fixer with a base power of "do one target 0 damage and draw a card"  as well as "Discard a card, search your deck or trash for Meditation or Charge and put it in your hand" this one also changes overdrive to allow you to play two cards.

We've tried a couple different Expat powers.  We've tried "Destroy a gun, if you do draw 3 cards" and "do 1 target 1 damage and draw a card."  We haven't tried it yet but there is some interest in doing the "you get 1 DR for this turn and draw a card" power.  We've also considered changing the part of quick draw where you can take an ammo from your trash and put it on the top of the deck to say you can do that OR draw a card.  I once played Expat straight up but just gave her and extra card draw during her draw phase.

We haven't use it yet, but we also like the resurection idea that was thrown around in a different thread of the forums.

Sometimes if someone really wants one for some reason we do a mulligan rules where you put your opening hand on the bottom your deck and draw the next four cards.  This doesn't happen too often either.

That sounds really interesting - would you mind PMing me a few more details?

It's over on Boardgamegeek, if you want it.

I too, would greatly appreciate more details? Link? :P

Ah, here we go.  Interesting!

Thank you!!

I forgot to mention, but we do this with all his Modes - "cannot draw cards during Draw Phase," "cannot use powers during your Power Phase,"and "cannot play cards during your Play Phase." Bunker's already inflexible enough without ruling out so many interactions with other heroes and/or his own deck.

Bunker is one of my favs, and I usually don't have any problems with him. The restrictions on Turret Mode and Recharge Mode are usually worth the benefits. The only card of his I'm not very fond of is Upgrade Mode, and that's simply because you have to wait a whole round before you can benefit from it while losing use of your powers.

We use a few.

Akash starts with 1 primeval limb.

Gloomweaver zombies have H hitpoints.

All of Ambuscade's trap cards play the top card of the villain deck after you arm them.

Having Ambuscade play a card after arming a trap works really well.  It makes him a touch harder, and gets the deck moving to make the trap more of a threat.

Bunker:

We redid Engine of War Bunker with house rules on some cards, to help him get cards into play a bit easier, and be better overall.

His base power also has you draw a card, so you ditch a mode card, draw a card, destroy one ongiong.

We alterred each mode, so it does something when you destroy it, the overall result is a much more mode focused Bunker.

Upgrade: When you destroy at start of turn, you may put one equipment card into play or search your deck for one equipment card and put it in your hand.

Recharge: When you destroy at start of turn, you may put a mode card into play from your hand or the trash

Turret:  Destroy one equipment card to gain an additional +1 to damage till the start of your next turn.

Maintenance Unit:  Recover two health or play an equipment card (even in turret mode)

Team Leader Tachyon:  Change base power to allow her and one other player to draw a card.  It's more balanced, but I'd like a better idea, I'll try the one about drawing an extra card.

AZWrath:  We allow his base power to target himself for 1 damage, so it gains the healing of the original.  It makes AZ pretty strong imo, but my one friend still prefers the original.

Expat:  Never had a trouble with her myself (she's my favorite damage based hero) but for one of our players we let her base power be draw or play a card, although a suggestion was to allow her to discard and draw again if she draws ammo without a gun in play (not her original four, just draw phase).

Argent Adept:  We have used this rule occasionally for my one friend, but I hate it.  We make all his songs relics, not ongoing.

Mr. Fixer:  We've tried an alteration where he only destroys or returns style/tool cards at the end of his turn, so you can have more than one of each out for your turn, then you lose all but one of each.  It makes AA-MF really fun.  I like it better than the discard to do 2 damage, it just makes MF really fun.

I have not tried any adjustments to villains, but I definitely will.

I've tried a few ideas with Gloomy.  The most recent is:

1. Put any zombies not put into play at startup into the trash ie no zombies in the deck.  

2.Seperate out all voodoo pins into a second pile.  Whenever a cultist enters play, play a voodoo pin from this pile if able (ie it isn't empty).  

Everything else stays the same.  With this setup he only has 14 cards in his deck and 3 of them are Vast Following which plays the next card anyway so he can get through it pretty quick.  Also a Vast following that gets out a couple cultists that each bring out a couple pins can be a handful.

I have an idea for Bunker that haven't been played, mostly because its too much to fit the way we like our rules (one simple change, not multiple ones).   It really has 3 parts:

1.The rule that restrictions on his modes are only for normal phases ie no draw DURING DRAW, no power DURING POWER etc.  

2.Make his base power the ability to play a card.  

3.Turn Upgrade mode into an ongoing destruction one-shot (since it is now pointless and in honor of EoW).  

With this setup he can go into turett mode early and still continue playing cards.  He can't draw normally in this case but if he plays the Aux Power Source, he can get 3 cards.  He can play Decommissioned Hardware to get it back.  Of course ammo drop still works, and he might draw one off of the Power Source if he didn't have it already in hand.  He could play Foam Grenades and External Combustion while staying in turret mode as well as contiue to build if you get more equipment later wether it grants a new power, armor, or a gatling gun even.

Sefirit wrote: "With this setup he can go into turett mode early and still continue playing cards."

This would be madly overpowered, especially if he has Ammo Drop in play in a target rich environment.

As written, Turret Mode is plenty powerful. With almost any two equipment cards in play, the ability to use two powers at +1 damage is awesome.

Playing a card would be one of the two powers so he wouldn't get two powers in addition.  It would basically make turret mode "+1 damage and don't draw a card" compared to normal play.

I understand that this would give him more flexibility and make him more powerful.  That is somewhat the point given his stats, though even more so I think it would make him more fun to play with more options each turn.  Would it make him OP?  I highly doubt it.

Edit:

What is trying to be accomplished here is allowing him to get into turret mode without having to be too set up before hand.  He can get into turret mode with just a flack cannon out for the bonus damage but contiue to set up after having entering turret mode.  

Honestly, if modes could be returned to hand  at the start of turn  instead of destroyed it might accomplish close to the same thing.  Not as strong surely, but it addresses the fexiblity issue.  That might be a doable home rule.