So when playing with copycat for the first time, I thought I basically understood how he worked.

Before the game begins he swaps with an opposing character (afterall, he is the "copy" cat).

There are a bunch of ramifications from this, but the only one I would like to point out is the following situation.

Player A has copycat on their build. Player B has Old Woman.

Before placement in starting areas Copycat's trait activates with Old Woman as the choice.

So far so good.

Now, here is where I might have gotten messed up.

How I thought this works

Player A will now place Old Woman in their starting area, and Player B will place Copycat in their starting area.

Seems straightforward, right? Copycat is "changing places" with old woman, so that means she starts near the opposing team's force as a spy.

Except that isn't what the rules say.

It doesn't mention friendliness of characters at all, it only talks about being a part of the force. While some powers/abilities DO actually add figures to other players' forces, copycat's doesn't.

That's it, just friendly and nothing more.

No adding to the force or anything else.

This means that Player A, who brought copycat, will be placing copycat in their starting area no matter who it is friendly to.

Similarly Player B will be placing Old woman in her starting area, regardless of who it is friendly to.

Barring arguments regarding Intent from game design, I really don't see a way around this reading of how her power works.

Am I just crazy for thinking it was "supposed" to work the way I first described? Or was everyone else under the same impression?

Initially that's what I thought too. You wouldn't have to break away or stop movement when you got next to them and you could use TA's and powers like enhancement and empower when you were next to your "friendly" figure.

God I hope they just errata her so this is the case.