I've been thinking more about event dials after analysing Time Bomb, and this time I'm looking at Unlimited Class Wrestling.

As a reminder of what's on the event dial:

#E003 UNLIMITED CLASS WRESTLING

• Before objects are placed on the map, place four SPECIAL markers on the map so that they mark the outside corners of a 6-square by 6-square area containing as much clear terrain as possible as close to the center of the map as possible; this area is the Ring. Objects can’t be placed in the Ring.
• Each player chooses one friendly character and places it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring; this character is his or her wrestler. A wrestler can’t leave the Ring, and treats the edges of the Ring as if they are walls that can’t be destroyed. When a player’s wrestler is knocked out or eliminated, that player must choose a friendly character outside the Ring and place it in an unoccupied corner inside the Ring as his or her new wrestler. If a character is carrying an object when it becomes a wrestler, it drops the object in the nearest unoccupied square before being placed in the Ring.
• No ranged attacks can be made by any character.

Hourglass: At the end of each turn, turn the dial once or a number of times equal to the number of wrestlers knocked out or eliminated during the turn, whichever is more.

A X . .

B X . .

C X . X

D X X X

E X X X

F . X .

G . X .

H . X .

I . X .

J X X X

K X X X

L X . X

Fair Fight If any character that isn’t a wrestler is given an action that would affect a wrestler, affect any square inside the Ring, or move the character into or through any square of the Ring, give the character an extra action token after the action resolves.

Power Broker A wrestler can use Exploit Weakness and Flurry if it does not already possess either or both of those powers. After the resolution of an action in which an wrestler uses a power from this effect, deal the wrestler 1 unavoidable damage.

Disqualified! At the beginning of each player’s turn, he or she rolls a d6 for each character in the Ring who is not a wrestler and has two or more action tokens. On a result of 1 or 2, the character is immediately knocked out.

So! The sexy exciting questions!

The Walls of the Ring

#1. It's pretty clear that wrestlers can't leave the ring, and they may be dealt damage if knocked back into the edge of the ring. But does the edge of the ring act as a wall for any other character in any way?
If not, you could have a character outside the ring making attacks or using Poison on a wrestler just inside the ring, because the character is adjacent to the character - but the wrestler can't attack back, because there is a wall in the way.

#2. Does a wrestler need to break away from an opposing character on the other side of this "wall"? I'm guessing no. Does a character need to break away from an opposing wrestler on the other side of the "wall"? I'm guessing yes.

No ranged attacks can be made by any character.

#3. But a Laser Turret can still make ranged attacks, right? It's not a character.

Fair Fight and Disqualified

#4. Does a free action like Poison or Outwit trigger the effects of Fair Fight? Normally characters don't get an action token at all for free actions, but "an extra action token" would leave them with one.

Further comments:

If a character takes an action to move into or through the ring he gets an extra action token. However, taking an action that moves another character into the ring doesn't do so. It seems that you could have some fun "throwing" opposing characters into the ring when Disqualified! is in effect. Mind Control, Force Blast, TK, and Drag could all be used to do so.

Your flyer could taxi a friendly character into the ring as long as you're careful not to move her into or through the ring herself.

Incapacitate also looks very nasty when Disqualified! is in effect. Give an opposing character a second action token and there's a 1-in-3 chance that it will be KOd at the beginning of your opponent's next turn.

Certain powers are either useless or much reduced in effectiveness in an UCW game. Useless powers include Energy Explosion, Energy Shield/Deflection, Psychic Blast, Pulse Wave, Ranged Combat Expert, and Running Shot.
Reduced powers include Mind Control, Stealth (which basically only protects you aganst Outwit and Probability Control), and Telekinesis (no throwing objects).

Just about any character with Charge makes a good wrestler, because he won't need to Charge very far. Hypersonic speed is not so useful (where are you going to run and hide?). Super Strength is also not so useful (it's harder for a wrestler to grab an object). Fortitude is an even better feat than usual because any wrestler could have Exploit Weakness; and for a similar reason, Exploit Weakness is not necessarily worth spending the points on. Shapechange n a wrestler could be very annoying (hello Clayface!) because the opposing wrestler won't have many other options for his attacks.

Giants could make excellent wrestlers due to their extra adjacency, and being safe from ranged attacks. Kingdom Come/Hypertime is also plenty handy.


Your thoughts?

well esd wouldnt be completly useless if the turret can make ranged attacks

Nope. Hence the inclusion of 'Fair Fight' and 'Disqualified' portions of the dial.

Correct.

The wrestlers in the ring treat the edges of the ring as walls. So if the wrestler is trying to move, there is no adajcency to a character outside the ring (wall in the way) and no breakaway needed. Characters outside the ring are adjacent (they have no wall), so they would need to roll breakaway from a wrestler.

That's a strict interepretation of the wording. I am not sure if any forum ruling based on 'intent' have said otherwise.

[quote]#3. But a Laser Turret can still make ranged attacks, right? It's not a character.[quote]

Right. LT is not a character, so it can't be subject to PC, Enhancement, or any other character specific rule... including this one.

That's the way I read it, yes.


Well, MC gives the controlled character a free action but, yeah, nothing stops you from doing all that to your opponent.

Yes again.

Yet another reason to pack Stunning Blow

Not necessarily 'useless', since some of those (like ES/D) are prerequisites for feats... but the acutal game usage of those powers is pretty much gone, yup.

HSS could still allow a wrestler to hit the opposing wrestler and then run back to the other side of the ring. If the opposing wrestler doesn't have Charge or HSS, that's going to be a pretty frustrating match up with no range

Obviously, Combat Reflexes will be huge, too.

True, and with no range, you'll have to get up close and personal even with Sentinels... and get captured

What is the possibility of a TKer sending a phaser into the ring and removing the wrestler from inside? Does the wrestler have to be replaced then, or is that action even allowed? Can you TK objects into the wring for those with superstrength or nanobots and force blast? Forceblast seems like it would be a great power. There is so much left unwritten.

As I understand, there is no range anywhere in this senario, inside or outside the ring. Correct?

Devil Dinno and Moonboy are the ultimate players in this game! A giant fig with charge and double attack already! WOW real deathdealers!

When is this senario allowed? Is it played for all three rounds? How is it put into play? Brought in by the players or put in by the judge?

More... more... more...
Please

A wrestler cant leave the ring REGARDLESS even with a phaser it says so in the rules for the dial. Objects can be tked into the ring for a hardcore twist.

Ouch!

How will the Sentinel release captured wrestlers for extra points? Do they just need to get back to their original starting position in the ring?

That does take extra actions to do so, of course.

If I was playing a non-Super Strength character and it looked like my opponent planned to TK objects into the ring for Magog to grab, I think I'd put down a Seperation Field Generator on my side of the ring.

It's an event dial from Mutations and Monsters. You can play it in any game as long as both players agree (and there are no battlefield conditions).

Some judges might also decide to run it as a tournament scenario (as mine is doing).

UCW is a fun event dial and if you build the right team for it it is just awesome

You can also use Arcade and he can move the objects in the ring and start blowing them up on the wrestlers.

Good question about a Sentinel inside the ring... personally, I would guess not, since the capture rules specify 'starting area' (the purple zone) and not 'character's starting position' (which does satisfy the first turn immunity requirements). It could still be pretty useful, even without the release; a Sentinel can capture (and hold) up to two characters before releasing them and, depending on your opponent's build, two characters off the map can really, really hurt. Especially since the captured characters can only be rescued in close, too.


However, even with all that, I was still thinking of using it with the Sentinel outside the ring. Even outside, no range is allowed, so the Sentinel can still capture pretty easily and then get back to the starting area. I'm definitely going to try it at least once

Hmmm. I only have the new Sentinel - and the 150 point version is too expensive to try capturing characters with only a 9 AV.

Although I am reconsidering a rookie Sinestro!

You can use the new Colossus to throw stable-members into the ring :D

Oh that's awesome!! I gotta try that!

Last time we played the UCW event we were a bit uncertain on this too. The third section on the card reads: "No ranged attacks can be made by any character". The two sections before this one both clarify how to set up the ring. We read the third section as something inside the ring with ranged attacks being possible outside the ring. However we discussed this third section should be clarified "... any character inside the ring" or "... any character inside or outside the ring" making it very clear. As it reads now it probably should be read as no ranged attacks at all.

Kindly,
JR Jr.