Welcome to web of webhead #12 - Boo Yah!



In this issue...we tackle what might be the single biggest question in HeroClix:

Why don't my games feel like comic book battles?

We'll divide the elements of the game into two camps, thematics and mechanics, and see why these two sides don't always play nice.

(please click on Comments below to continue...)

What's the difference between thematics and mechanics?

Every element of the HeroClix game can be divided in one way or another into two camps...thematics, or mechanics. So, what do we mean by that? Let's start by defining each term individually.

The mechanics of HeroClix are the underpinnings that make it work as a game...concepts like the 'Clix base, to track damage, numbered attack and damage values that can be used with dice to determine the outcome of encounters.

The thematics of HeroClix are the elements that relate to the source material...the sculptures and painting, the names of the powers.

The mechanics tell you "hey, you're playing a game here", and the thematics tell you "hey, you're playing a game about comic book super heroes here." To simplify this distinction, consider something like Lord of the Rings Monopoly. All of the mechanics are identical to that of Monopoly, but all of the original thematics (street names, hotels and houses) are replaced with new ones (realms of Middle Earth, towers and fortresses.)

It's fairly clear that when HeroClix was being designed, the mechanics of Mage Knight were used as a jumping off point. But then something happened...the thematics of comic book superheroes began to pull the mechanics in different directions...concepts like Knock Back were added, and powers like "Magical Confusion" evolved into the more comic book sensed "Mind Control". What point am I getting at here?

Sometimes mechanics drive the thematics, and sometimes the thematics drive the mechanics.

Let's look at some examples.

Let's take the Minions of Doom Team Ability. Thematically, Dr. Doom is the greatest foe of Fantastic Four, and without a doubt the top villain in the Marvel Universe. Doom is a leader of men, taking charge of the villains in Secret Wars for example. How does this translate into mechanics? In a couple of ways. As we all know, MoD is a wildcard team ability, which allows it's members to borrow other team members team abilities...showing how Doom can "control" the other villains. It's also a TA given to other foes of the Fantastic Four, regardless of the closeness they have to Doom himself, to represent the enemies of Dr. Doom portion. Up to this point, we see a very good thematics/mechanics balance.

But then something odd happens. You start having characters like Taskmaster and Spiral show up with MoD team abilities, even though the characters have never really worked with Doom, or even been explicitly Fantastic Four enemies. In this case...the mechanics of the game dictate the thematics. Taskmaster, thematically, has the ability to copy other characters powers and is also a mercenary by trade. In the game, this translates into a wildcard team ability...the ability to copy teammates abilities. Thematics step back in at this point, dictating that between the two wildcard team abilities, Taskmaster ought be a Minion of Doom, since he is a villain.

Then there are examples like Ultimates Hulk...the thematics side...the source material, dictates that he have the Ultimates TA, even though mechanically it does virtually nothing to help the character. Here the element is solely thematics driven. Of course, examples like this are somewhat rare...and there are some mechanical "side effect" uses for the element in game still (such as wildcarding).

In the end though, I think it is fair to say that at the figure design level, thematics and mechanics go hand in hand pretty well...generating game pieces that do a fair job of approximating the characters they represent.

So if the thematics and mechanics of the game pieces tend to "play well" together, why isn't that reflected more in game play?

This is the crux of the issue. The problem lies not with the individual figures, or even the figures taken as a whole, but rather with the default win condition for the game itself, and the lack of limiting factors in team construction.

Specifically, the default win condition of the game is "have the most victory points at the end". Now, heroes and villains battle in the comics all of the time, and never do they do so for "victory points". Now, given, this default win condition is very direct and to the point...battle your opponent, and come out on top. However, without any implicit purpose for battle...the "comic book feel" is sometimes missing. Heroes and Villains fight for a reason...whether it's the heroes trying to stop the villains from taking over the world, or robbing a jewelry store, or it's the villains trying to snatch away a young potential hero before the heroes can recruit them. The standard win condition does not lend itself easily to story or theme.

Next, we have the essential lack of limiting conditions on team construction. Again, much like the default win condition, this is a direct and to the point condition...build your team with any characters you want, within the point total of the game, obeying the arch-enemy rule and the format rules. This wide open team building prerogative is both a blessing and a curse to the game...in theory it allows for lots of creativity in team design. In practice it rewards shrewd players for determining the most effective figures for each role, and using only those when building their team. In the comics, heroes team up with other heroes and villains team up with other villains because of shared ideologies. This isn't taken into account in the game...heroes and villains can fight side by side, regardless of whether those team up's are "in character" or not.

Even game mechanics that would reward the approximation of thematically built teams fall short. The best example are the Team Abilities. Many of the team abilities work just as well if not better for an individual member than they do for a team as a whole. While the Avengers TA works great for the Wasp, Thor and Iron Man tend to gain little from it. Even TA's that specifically reward in game team up's such as the Titans TA are watered down by the prevalence of wildcards TA's that can copy them.

So, while the individual figures in the game tend to be very well realized abstractions of the characters they represent, the general framework of the game is not a good abstraction of the circumstances that tend to lead those characters to team up and battle one another.

What can be done to make gameplay feel more like comic book battles?

To make a game of HeroClix feel more like a comic book battle, I think you need to address both of the concepts discussed above...both the victory conditions or context of battle and the limiting factors on team building must be changed to some degree.

The first concept, victory conditions/context of battle, is addressed via Scenarios. Scenarios change the way the basic game plays in some way, either subtlely (like a Battlefield Condition might) or drastically (like a strict storyline might). By changing the victory conditions or the context, you begin to add flavor to the game...the straight forward nature of the battle gets the added tinge of purpose.

The second concept, unlimited team building, is addressed via Themes. Themes are essentially set rules that govern team building. Themes can range from fairly wide open (Heroes vs. Villains) to the more specific (Avengers vs. Masters of Evil) to the silly (girls vs. boys, bald vs. mullets, etc.). Themes typically reinforce a general consensus about which figures might work together. I have no idea if the Punisher and Blade have ever teamed up together, but I would have no problem placing them together on a theme team.

WizKids has provided Scenarios from the start...check the back of your Rulebooks and you'll find some basic scenarios that alter certain aspects of the game, or tweak the victory conditions slightly. Typically though, WizKids scenarios fail to address the question of limited team building at all, or minutely define the allowed figs (the Titans scenario comes to mind). Scenarios of various types have been included in the Rule Books, Adventure Packs, and Map Packs...but there hasn't been much new in terms of scenarios lately from WK. It's been made pretty clear that they want a very strict environment for their Premiere and Invitational level events, and I can support that. However, I'd like to see more in the way of official scenarios in place for some of the monthly events as well. Why couldn't we have a "JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice" event for this month?

I suspect the reason is licensing. If you look at what WizKids supports for the properties it owns...MechWarrior and Mage Knight, you'll see that they actually run storyline events that help determine the future of the sets themselves. Obviously, they feel that storyline is important to their games. Unfortunately, when it comes to 'Clix, we are largely left on our own. In the future, I have high hopes that Feats and Battlefield Conditions will begin to reward more thematic teams...Fastball Special is a start...but there is plenty of design space that can be covered by these new elements.

Far be it from me to illustrate a problem and not offer some form of solution.

If you feel that your HeroClix games lack the comic book battle feel, I encourage you to pursue playing scenarios and using themes. One of the biggest obstacles to themes in particular is coming to agreement on what constitutes an allowable theme. It's important that guidelines are established amongst players. HCRealms wants to help you with this part of the equation.

As of today, HCRealms is offering a new Forum section, The Theme Park. Inside this section, you'll find a new forum for posting and discussing your favorite Team Building Themes and Scenarios, including the official ones provided by WizKid, rules variants, and campaign style play. As many of you know, I've done a lot of work outside of HCRealms to develop themes and scenarios for the game...you can expect that I'll be bringing some of that work inside. I encourage you to do the same.

That's it for this week, check back next week where we'll cover all of the new Fantastic Forces goodness. See you in seven! - webhead817

Thanks for another great read Webhead.

I like to play themes myself. The few sanctioned MK events I've played in have all been the storyline battles. Playing such games adds a little bit more fun and challenge to the game. But that's just me.

I did like trying out the scenarios in the rule book and map sets, the later being a little confusing at times. But most of the time my group just wants to rumble. Nothing wrong with that either. Sometimes those make for interesting stories themselves.

BTW - Baldies will beat Mullets

Theme Park? I like it!

Ironically, you introduced a pet peeve of mine (wild cards) but your spin is completely different than my own. I see the Wild Card (Spider-man, Minions of Doom, B.P.R.D., LoSH, Calculator) as representing the 'guest star' quality of the figures with that TA.

That's my thematic spin...however the game mechanic of allowing Wild Cards to swap willy-nilly during a turn has abolished this comic aspect for me.

I am a big supporter of themes and i'm glad to see someone has gone to the effort to articulate in such detail.
I think the best way heroclix could fix is with feat/battlefeild cards which can help themes without changeing the rules.

A very scholarly breakdown. Q-L.

This is how me and my friends always play, so I welcome this section. Well done.

Great article that touches many important points. Actually I'm glad that we are playing thematically most of the time in our privat games and sometimes also at organised events, because it makes for a much more enjoyable game (for me).

I'll be looking forward to this new forum section!

Wow, webhead. You just continue to impress.

I think your analysis is right. At first it seems as if limits on team-building is the solution. But without at least some changes to the victory objectives, the feeeling still isn't there.

I think that is why scenarios like in Kalel's articles are so good. It would really be great if Wizkids would sanction events like those. I guess there is a problem with licensing. Maybe at some of the bigger cons?

Great read.

I play some sort of theme about 90% of the time. Usually its simply an all Hero team or DC / Marvel Heroes.

'Round these parts (Orlando, FL) 75% of the tournies have some sort of build rules but 0 Scenarios. Now that I've become a Judge I plan on only running scenarios.

"The Theme Park" sounds like a forum I'll be visiting often.

On a side note, the scenarios WizKids have created are pretty good. Some require tweaks for tournament play, but I've located at least 4 great scenarios from the Map Packs alone.

Eh, some other things that make the game not a comic book simulation:

(1) Characters aren't given the stats & powers they deserve; they're given whatever the designers feel like. So, a newly made character will usually be better than a character from 4 expansions back, regardless of how appropriate that is. Plus, if a new power has just been created, sometimes a character will be saddled with that power, just so that characters in the expansion will have it.

And sometimes the designers just don't know the characters and don't research them, giving them lousy stats or inappropriate powers.

(2) The rules aren't, well, designed for action. The rules are designed for turtling since the default character can't move and attack, whereas all characters in the comics *can* (and so can characters in every other game system that I'm aware of, except other clicky games).

This means that automatically the vast majority of characters will never see play, because there's little incentive to use an attacker that can't charge or use running shot or hypersonic speed...unless you've got TK and even then, you might as well use the move-and-attack guys with TK.

So, characters that would see a lot of play in the comics never get used in the game.

Plus, some abilities that are awesome in the comics (Incapacitate, Mind Control) are rather lackluster in the game, while abilities of limited use in combat in the comics (like Stealth) are incredibly powerful in the game.

And, of course, in the comics, it might be sufficient to win by simply incapacitating your opponent with Spider-man's webbing or Wonder Woman's magic lasso. You can't win that way in the game.

Etc, etc, etc.

Great article and great idea for a new forum.

I think Wizkids needs to release something like Wizards did in the Star Wars miniatures game. Wizards released a book of scenarios called "Ultimate Missions" which basically contains scenarios taking you through the original Star Wars trilogy. I got into the minis game because of this book. Now the book has its problems, but I think a book like this for DC and Marvel would sell very well. I would buy one.

This is, by far, the strongest article I've seen written by you to date.

Excellent article.
I, too, am a huge fan of themes and making the game a more accurate reflection of the comics that inspired me to play. You hit every point perfectly. I believe the future of Heroclix may depend almost exclusively on Wizkids ability to implement some of these optional thematic driven features. Until then, we will have to take it upon ourselves! I think the Theme Park Forum will be my new home...

For anyone that is interested, DeckTech.net has a great Heroclix Themes section that I am sure many Realmsers are aware of:
http://decktech.net/heroclix/themes/index.php

Ahhh. Beat to the punch!

Surprised Webby did not mention it, considering he is one of the ones responsible for the theme section.