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Revisiting traits?
Topic Started: Jul 21 2011, 01:11 PM (378 Views)
bungo_underhill
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When UDE released MXM they introduced a new concept into Vs: Traits.

These were kept around for all the marvel mutant characters until MVL when UDE decided they were too complicated for new players. But no further exploration of traits was explored, even when they were still around.

I have been thinking for a while now about legend cards, and whilst I love them in constructed they can really suck in limited (or be randomly super powerful). Especially the hard stamped ones (play only if you control [cardname] etc.)

In some work on a fan set I was thinking about alleviating this hard stamping a little by allowing legend type cards that work for more than one character. So for example "Powerful Blow" might be a +2 ATK pump that gives an extra +2 to characters named Hulk or Thing. Or "Healing Factor (2)" might say recover target Wolverine or Sabretooth.

Thinking about this further & taking a leaf from Heroclix I thought, what if instead of Multi-Legend stamping these cards we could trait stamp them instead?

My thinking is that down the right hand side of the character art there could be a small number of icons representing character powers. Maybe a fist for Super strength (that would cover Hulk & Thing as above, but also Thor, Superman etc.); A running stick figure for super speed (quick silver, the flashes, XS etc.); And a new symbol for each of the mutant traits etc.

Like the existing mutant traits these symbols wouldn't do anything themselves but other cards could reference them.
"Healing Factor (2)" could say - "Recover target [healing factor icon] character."

"Powerful Blow" could say - "target [super strength icon] character gets +4 ATK this attack."

Traits wouldn't replace Team or Legend stamping but would allow for different set of limitations to be placed on effects based on the powers a character possesses. (Perhaps it could be a character ability for some like Mimic that he could be targeted as if they had all traits.)

Of course this isn't really something you can retroactively apply to Vs. and is probably the type of thing you'd need in from the start of a game for it to work properly. However how would you feel if UDE took this approach if they did re-launch Vs?

This has been a bit of a thought dump but I'd be interested to hear you opinions.
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captainspud
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I was very against the mutant traits in their original implementation for a few reasons... one of the larger ones was that it didn't make any sense to me for a card to care where a character's powers come from. Why does "Big Super Punch In Face" care if I was born with my super-beefiness or gained it in a fishing accident? Stripping the mutant part out and simply making the traits a game-wide mechanic would be a much nicer fit in my eyes.

I've been pondering a new card border with some extra icons... I liked the idea someone floated at one point of having Good Guy/Bad Guy icons (characters can light up one, both, or neither), and on a conceptual level I kinda like having mental/physical/energy there. I wouldn't extend it to a really long list of super powers, because then we're getting into L5R levels of keywording, which is something I really hate about that game.

I guess my only concern is that while I like the card frame icon idea, it might start to be a bit cluttered and confusing to have too many icon tracks. We've already got Flight/Range and Concealed/Visible; add in Hero/Villain and Mental/Physical/Energy and you're starting to have a lot of icons for new players to decipher.

I dunno... I can see both good and bad in this idea, and I'm honestly not sure which wins out. It's something that would take some mocking up and testing.
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Berabouman
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I think it would make things a bit too complicated for new players. It adds a lot of depth and complexity (not to mention realism) to the game, but IMHO it also detracts from VS's clean, simple rules and framework.

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jcw216
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I like the idea of a wider range of traits but, on top of being a new player deterrent, any cards made this way would be useless with every card made before. If we could somehow group traits to certain characters like all characters named superman, thing, hulk, etc. have super strength, then maybe it could be useful in an alter ego type format.
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username
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I hope they continued the mutant traits in Marvel Legends.
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BatHulk
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I do think that they were trying to make traits a wider characteristic to allow cross-team decks but it did add a level of complexity to the game.

They should have used MK-style of bonus effects for traits (ie You get X, if you are Mutant-[Trait] you get Y) so it doesn't hard stamp the cards to only trait characters.

I think it actually made limited more interesting as you could go team or trait stamped.

It's really no different than what people were suggesting in regards to limiting the color wheel... you could build a physical deck (beatdown), a mental deck (card manipulation) or energy deck (burn... my favorite) across multiple teams.

Where it really would have helped is cross brand limited or constructed play. You could do block format with both brands so they were draftable and you didn't make the set that came out 3 months ago obsolete.

You could build a Supes/Hulks physical deck or a Bats/ProfX mental deck.

UDE didn't really like the traits and that's why you never saw them again.
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carlosthedwarf
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What Spud said.
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