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Hey everyone! So, after a long time of thinking about doing something of the sort, I have begun to start the base line for a new rule set to use with Heroclix. The goal of the game is to take Heroclix and work it into a more traditional 'war game' of sorts, complete with reworking of characters and mechanics of the game. Now, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Heroclix. I have since it was first released and been playing it since Infinity Challenge. As the game grew, they began to finally get a little closer to more comic accurate figures. But I believe that the scope of Heroclix is a bit too narrow to allow characters to really be as good or even as 'bad' as they should be.

Let's look at Hulk for example. It has been a long journey for Hulk to get some playable pieces. But even now, we have Hulks that are VERY good, but are still able to be smitten with the utmost of ease. Most of this is due to the meta, where damage reducers are near worthless it seems. Hell, a 300 point Hulk can be taken down with little effort most of the time by Hawkeye, something that really isn't even imaginable. Hawkeye, one on one, should be crapping his pants if Hulk came rushing at him.

You look at their dials. The Hulk is an incredible behemoth, who's power is so massive, other heros and villains have to go out of their way to find ways to beat him. Hulk rarely pushes past a 12 attack on many of his Clix variants, and averages around 4 damage without objects to enhance his damage further. Hawkeye on the other hand, averages around 11 attack on almost every Clix he has ever been made on, and sits usually around 2-3 damage base before you factor in things like Ranged Combat Expert to further boost either his attack OR his damage (Or both). Add that he can often bypass damage reducers and is coupled with excellent mobility, Hulk figures will generally struggle to get in and actually do damage. Not to mention Hawkeyes tend to average 80-130 pts at most. Hawkeye will tend to win through kiting. It takes a bit of the immersion out of the game. (And don't even get me started on why characters often become STRONGER as they take damage...so weird...)

When someone puts a Hulk on the table, the first thing they should think is "S#!T. How am I going to deal with this?"

I'm not advocating making the Hulk an impossible to deal with threat by any means. I guess I desire to make a system that gives characters more justice brought to them, with the game play I enjoy when it comes to games like 40k and Relic Knights.

Anyway, enough rambling.

Some ideas I had rolling around in my head was to sort of pick and pull things from various games that seemed to work well, and go from there. For starters, I like a little more player interaction in games. Games like Clix and 40K though often force one person to sit by and wait with the occasional roll in between before they can do anything. The biggest thing I'd like to implement is an Activation System. Characters will each have an Initiative Score (similar to D&D minis back in the day) that will decide which characters will get to act first. For example: Player A could have a single high Initiative character, so that one goes first, then Player B has 2 characters that have the next highest Initiative, so he gets to use those, Player A then gets top activate the next lowest...etc. (In hindsight, I guess I didn't need to explain that...)

While this part would be the roughest and longest part, each character would have a profile sheet/card made up, including their point cost as well as all their Initiative Score, Movement Speed, Health, as well as all their attacks and abilities. This would take the longest to play test and balance out, as currently there are LOADS of characters. But starting small and working up would be best. Doing major teams first would be best, start with 'factions' so to speak. Like, do 10 Avengers figures, 10 X-Men figures, add some Fantastic Four and some solo heros/villains for 'mercenary' heros and villains, Masters of Evil, Hydra, etc.

Game play in general would break down to typical war game format. Distance is all in inches. Characters each have varying movement values and some have unique abilities to traverse the landscape. Any non clear terrain will give a reduction to your movement, unless an ability bypasses this modifier. Line of Sight is more akin to Heroclix and other wargames where you determine LOS by using something like string or a measuring tape to draw a line from character to character. Blocking Terrain and other characters, of course, will obstruct LOS (Unless a character ability ignores either of those). Cover will act as a modifier, with there being soft and hard cover.

The game will use a D20 as opposed to D6. I plan on players only needing one D20 to play the game, without the need to tote loads of dice. I also feel that the D20 should also help with a more possibilities than a D6 system would allow.

I was thinking for combat that instead of relying on stats like in most games, attacks have profiles to determine range, power, accuracy and other game effects. Of course, this is where modifiers would come in.
- -For example: Cyclops has for one of his attacks: Optic Blast - 24" ; Single Target; 10 Energy Damage ; Accuracy 8 (Note, this is just a mock example, this could easily be worked on better) So, with this attack Cyc can fire up to 24 inches away, at a single target. If he hits, he'll deal 10 Energy Damage and he needs a roll of 8+ on a D20 to hit before any modifiers.

Let's say his target was Colossus. Colossus happens to be behind Soft Cover (A bush for example) which gives a +1 mod to Cyclops attack, making him need a 9+ on his roll to hit. But Colossus also has his Metallic Hide ability, which gives a +1 mod to attacks made against him, as well as reducing all non magical, non mental damage taken by 5. Now Cyc needs a 10+ to hit, and even if he does, he'll only deal 5 damage with this attack.

(Again, just an example, things will change as I get feed back and play testing as I finish a prototype)

Characters can be given various actions once they have been activated. For example, characters can move up to their movement value and make an attack. Or they can move up to double their movement, but not make any attacks. All Out Attack, meaning the character can't move, but may make two attacks. Take Cover, which allows the character to move up to their movement value and make no attacks, but grant a +1 mod to any ranged attacks made against them in addition to any other mods (Such as Cover). Or they can Combat Stance, allowing them to up to their movement and make no attacks. But in doing so, they gain a +1 mod against any melee attacks made against them (in addition to any other mods they may have).

Uhhh, that's all I can think of at the moment. it's late. I've mostly been spitting stuff on a document and seeing what things I come up with before starting to really shape it all together.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ah, another thing I was thinking of was how getting to close to people worked in D&D minis. In that game, if you went into a square adjacent to an enemy, you could keep moving but the opponent got an attack of opportunity.

I was thinking maybe if you move within an inch of an opposing figure and don't engage them (By going base to base), they have the option to make an attack against you before you continue moving. That, or they could attempt to 'intercept' you, and stop you from continuing on and forcing you into base contact, thus locking you into combat...

Sorry this whole thing is a huge mess and a bit unorganized. Again, this is all ideas swarming my brain and i need to put them down on 'paper' so to speak, and get feedback!

The more I think on it, I begin to lean on changing the attack system to something more akin to D&D minis, where attacks give a + to hit, and you need a minimum of 20 to succeed. Cover and other abilities instead of doing a + accuracy check, they instead be negative modifiers, which may be less confusing.