1) Splitlip would still be great even if his Free Action pick-up didn't work with the BotS. A ruling making a great figure even greater-er to the point of (arguable) near-broken-ness is scary. Now a greater-er character is making an effective Resource even more effective-er.

Since I'm not big on Resources to begin with, nothing about Splitlip's contribution to making a Resource better makes me happy. I liked Splitlip for Splitlip: the plucky little 20 point dwarf who was granting Enhancement and was giving an incentive to go Relic over Resource in team build. With this, he looks like he's just bumping the BotS cost up another 20 points, while simultaneously removing the last vestiges of any desire I have of playing in anything even resembling a "competetive" game.

Game design just seems to be taking the game in a direction that's making me enjoy playing less and less. It's bumming me out.

2) This makes mnl007b Penguin cry.

They need to make relics equitable without a roll maybe by paying extra points or something...

As is there's little reason (even with splitlip) to use a relic over a resource.

Okay, so, if I understand what you're saying, when a character is given a free action to pick up a hammer from the Book, that hammer counts as equipped for the purposes of the Book.

Are we also to assume that when a character is given a free action to pick up a hammer that they do not have to roll? Or do they still have to roll to pick up a hammer?

(I'm afraid that they won't have to roll, but I think they should have to roll.)

Hey gents! Hope you don't mind but I am gonna drop in. Please bear with me, I am gonna walk through this for my benefit as much as yours.

As seen above, you are still making a relic roll.

Again, you're taking a power action to make a relic roll. In this case, the roll is automatically successful, (yes you still have to roll).

Now, add Splitlip to the mix and the Power Action becomes a free action.


This is correct

The BoS says the roll is automatically successful. This does not mean you can skip the roll. There could be mechanics that activate off a die roll and that roll, in the future, could have more meaning than just to pick up a Relic.

Hope that helps

NM

So does the Book of the Skull still make the die roll for picking up the hammer an auto success when it has been changed from a power action to a free action by Split-Lip?

I'm so jazzed for this ruling!

My thought is to not limit how many relics can be on a player's force. Maybe simply allow them to take the place of a standard object of any weight. You want to run the Uru Forge, Eye of Agamotto, and Gamma Bomb? Even though the Gamma Bomb isn't a relic, sure, why not? The Forge and Eye take the place of your Light and Heavy in this scenario, with the Gamma Bomb occupying your "whatever" slot. If you want to pay for the relics, fine. I don't see that being unbalanced.

Yes

NM

That's what House Rules are for. We have House Ruled that you add +1 to your rolls when rolling to pick up a relic and all relics have a maximum point cost of 5 points. Suddenly, people are considering relics again instead of automatically going for resources.

So amped for next month now, 2 hammers on one fig. "Well I have Charge Running Shot Exploit Giant Size and +3 to attack..." Soon enough that sentence will end with, "And Power Cosmic."

I played a game tonight with Shuma Gorath, Mole Man, Splitlip, and a 3 point pog, using a 30 pt book of skull and just using blank stats for the hammers we don't have yet. Turn 1 due to poor placement a New Mutants team base took out Shuma immediately. Mole man then proceeded to go toe to toe with the New Mutants and came one click away from taking out the base by himself, and would have if not for gettin 3 4's when i needed a 5 to hit.

It was honestly some of the most fun I've had in ages. The book is a wacky resource but once you add Splitlip to the mix, yes its more powerful, but its also more chaotic and fun to use. Hold judgement on how "broken" it is until you actually play with it or against it. There will be teams BoS is good for, and teams belt / IG are good for, and that diversity is interesting. You can really do some crazy combinations with a few lucky rolls.

The way I see it is Splitlip makes the BoS the way it was meant to be. But, instead of rolling his cost into the resource, you have the option to pay more for a better Book. However, due to the fact he isn't part of the resource, and is a 3 click character, that resource functionality is tied to keeping him alive. I personally like the idea of making a resource a little less powerful but make you have to work to keep it at full strength. So, like I said, give it a try and then see what you think. I've been playing with it all night and its been an absolute blast for all involved

I dislike it. Especially with Splitlip. Keeping him alive is a non issue. Just don't move him. If your opponent wants to trek all the way across the map for a 20 pt figure, you're probably going to win that game. By the end of the 2nd turn, you have 3 hammers equipped. Next turn two more. And then another two.

All other benefits the hammers offer aside, its the +2 attack that I like the least in terms of balance. With it, most modern figures will need 5 or less to hit. That's bad. Over the last year not only have maps, positioning, and general movement become nearly pointless, but now you don't even need to really work to hit anyone.

At least before Splitlip, BoS was very slow and forced a real choice of going for a hammer and potentially getting attacked, or going for the opposition but having to work for the damage. Now that's all out window.

Why does WK insist on making just about everything in this game so trivial? We have to go out of our way to make games actually balanced with real back and forth. I'm glad our venue had much better balance control than WK. I would've stopped playing by now otherwise.

Alright. So a full BoS is effectively 50 points. I guess I can work with that.

A few more points than Gauntlet for spreading the love instead of tentoling seems good.

Well, plus the opportunity cost of having lost theme team bonuses (or playing one of three fairly restrictive themes).