So I stumbled across this game recently.
I was looking at new deckbuilders as I do from time to time (to see if anyone ever develops anything nearly as interesting as Dominion). I heard about Marvel's Legendary. As I read about it I became less and less interested.
But through the process I heard SOFM discusses again and again. It has a lot I generally DON'T like in a game:
- Cooperative
- Lots of tokens
- "Set decks" that don't change from game to game
But there was enough positive feedback, combined with a few things I thought I would like:
- Plays different every game based on the interaction between different hero, villain and event decks
- Has card combos that you can get better at playing
- Supposedly the 'best' of the cooperatives (because each player plays separately with cards only they know about - so no one is 'directing' the game)
- Strong theme that apparently 'feels' like you are playing a superhero fighting a villain
So I picked up a copy. I played a single game last night solo (I played 3 heroes - normally there would be a seperate player playing each one - but since you aren't playing AGAINST someone, it plays very well solo)
I liked it a lot. Enough that I would love to discuss it with people here.
I searched the web for discussion about it (BGG and the company website both have some discussion). The best thing I found was an attempt to create stats for the game (which is hard to do since there is no electronic version yet [apparently coming next year], but people are collecting them manually). Here is there results:
http://x.gray.org/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-difficulty-scores.htmlFirst a quick description of how the game is played. Then some thoughts on how it could be made competitive.
How it's played:
(1) 3-5 heroes chosen (usually one per player unless you have 1-2 players)
(2) Villain and environment chosen
Each of the above gets a 'play mat' and a deck of cards
(3) Villain set up completed - they may get to start with a card in play for example
(4) Villain takes a turn: Start of turn effects, draws a card, plays that card, end of turn effects
(5) Each player takes a turn:
- Play a card (some cards have effects when played, some stay in play like Innovation)
- Activate a power (like Innovation - every hero also has an inate power that doesn't require a card)
- Draw a card
(6) Environment turn
- Start of turn effects
- Draw and play a card
- End of turn effects
And just repeat.
Since the cards have effects when played (like Dominion) and when 'activated' (Like Innovation) there are tons of possibilities.
Every hero and villain (and some of the played 'permanent' cards and environment effects) have Hit Points. The general goal is to reduce the villain to zero HP before all of the heroes are brought to zero HP (but obviously lots of variations. In the game I played with the 'basic' villain, we first had to reduce his floating platform to zero HP before we could even touch him. Then when he was reduced to zero HP, he regenerated into a more powerful villain and we had to do it again)
I played three of the more basic heroes (a Hulk clone, a Thor clone and a Captain America-type clone). In addition to normal combos you could expect within the hero decks, there are combos across decks. Which I imagine is even more fun if you are playing as a group and making them happen.
Three expansions (and lots of promo cards) out there (with apparently an extra large expansion coming soon) means for lots of re-play value.
Again: My only real critique is a fundamental part of the game: That it's cooperative so you can't go head-to-head with someone and get better at the game by seeing 'what's possible' (the way I learned Dominion).
So...
Idea for making it competitive:
There are a few half-hearted attempts to do this on the other boards (mixed with people getting mad that it is taking away something fundamental to the game. There was even a comment: "Trying to make this game competitive is like saying, "I would really like to play a first person shooter. Why don't I make Dominion into a first person shooter." - go and play a different game if you want to play competitive."
I doubt I will get that here.
So here was my thought:
What if each player took on multiple heroes (2? 3?)
Instead of attacking the villains they can attack the other player's heroes.
There may need to be some rules on targeting - just like the villain usually does damage to the hero with the higher HP, there likely needs to be a similar rule here (maybe. Or maybe the strategy is to take out your opponents strongest hero first - so you put all your effort into attacking one and leave the others alone?)
In addition, you definitely include the Environment deck - it's throwing things at the players the way it normally does.
The other idea is to also include the villain. That gets a little more nasty, since the villain will be dealing out damage, but no one will be attacking him (most of the time?). It will just make game go faster. And since he usually targets the hero with the most HP, it will counter the players attacking the ones that are weakest.
There have been related ideas listed on many of these boards. The common complaint seems to be:
- If each person takes one hero, then the heroes are very differently powered - and some are really only support roles
I think that's solved through
(1) More then one hero per team - which creates the same support needs as when fighting a villain
(2) Using the "Difficulty scoring system" to ensure that the two hero teams are roughly equal (or you could even use a handicap system to give newer players better odds against experienced players)
Anyway. I like the way the game is set up a lot. I think there is a ton of complexity that can be added to it (or may already have been added - I've only played a small % of the heroes and villains and environments in the basic set - let alone the expansions) and I think it could play really well in a competitive setting.
It's a nice combination of very simple mechanics (play, activate, draw) with a lot of potential layers.
Would love the thoughts of people on here.
Has anyone played it and been disappointed?
Has anyone played it enough to share thoughts on making it competitive player vs player?
(Obviously the combinations are not nearly as wide as Dominion. With 200-Choose-10 you will have more variations than 23 Choose 2-to-5 times 23 choose 1 times 14 choose 1. If my math is right... 2.2x10^16 vs ~500K [with 3 heroes]... But obviously many of those Dominion examples are identical, and the within-deck combos in SOTM can end up playing pretty differently within one 'version')
Ed
