Ed Baker; Opinions needed

[Cloaker]

Alright, so we are not using the Hero Upgrades, Grave Weapons. Survival Tactics etc... yet. The wifey, son, friends and I are only 5 games under our belt. But we are using Ed...who's special ability is free hero upgrade.

Thinking about substituting free Logging Ax? Does that make him too powerful from the onset?

Or are there other cards that apply better.... open to feedback.

[mqstout]

Even if you're not otherwise using upgrades, you can give him his starting one.

[Twilight_Sonata]

(04-29-2013 12:30 AM)mqstout Wrote:  Even if you're not otherwise using upgrades, you can give him his starting one.

Yeah, I agree with this. Just give him and Upgrade and have that be that. Specifically, I'd give him Combat Prowess, Killing Blow, or Knock-Back by default. The best of those three is probably Combat Prowess because its Boost requires Experience Tokens, so it's more clear that it will never be used. Other possible fitting Upgrade options are benefits that other Heroes already have by default, so it'd kind of be a shame to duplicate them (Brawling, Rush of Combat, Tough, etc.).

I'm assuming that you're just not using the Survivor versions of Jake Cartwright, Sally, or Sheriff Anderson?

[Cloaker]

Yes, no survivor versions yet. I don't really want to introduce any of the upgrade cards yet. I just want to find a decent substitution with the deck cards... and I don't want to duplicate abilities other heroes have. I think looking at other 4 health heroes may be the key....wait, are there any?

---

Plus, I prefer to find something that just fits with the lumberjack theme, you know?

[LabRat]

The Hero Upgrades aren't broken, you just have to think about it as if Ed Baker gets a random Ability that's in the Hero Upgrades. If you want it to be totally balanced, you can mix all of the Hero Upgrade cards and then draw one at random.

[Twilight_Sonata]

(04-29-2013 03:36 AM)Cloaker Wrote:  I don't really want to introduce any of the upgrade cards yet. I just want to find a decent substitution with the deck cards... and I don't want to duplicate abilities other heroes have. I think looking at other 4 health heroes may be the key....wait, are there any? Plus, I prefer to find something that just fits with the lumberjack theme, you know?

The only other 4-Hit Hero is Sam from the Growing Hunger expansion, who has the Brawling ability (identical to the Hero Upgrade of the same name, canceling a Zombie Fight card on the D6 roll of 4+).

You could, instead of dealing with the Upgrade cards, just say "Instead of getting that, we're just gonna give Ed an extra Fight Die, okay?". No Upgrade card necessary, very simple, but the effect is the same. My only concern with getting him a starting card is that you might get into a situation where they start expecting that of him rather than expecting what he actually gets when you do start using the Upgrade cards. As for the Logging Axe idea specifically? That's a pretty powerful card there, and I think it'd be pretty unbalanced to give it out as a starting card. Heck, the very reason it's two-handed is because it's about as powerful as having two weapons.

[Achtung Panzer]

So you can choose Ed's starting Hero Upgrade? D'oh - I've been taking one at random as per the gaining experience rules.

[Twilight_Sonata]

(04-29-2013 06:29 PM)Achtung Panzer Wrote:  So you can choose Ed's starting Hero Upgrade? D'oh - I've been taking one at random as per the gaining experience rules.

No, you've been doing it correctly. It is supposed to be random. What we're talking about here is just a special case where Upgrades aren't being used at all.

[friskers96]

Why are you leaving out the survivor versions of the original heros? Are you guys picking heros at random or is Ed a player favorite that's being chosen every time?

Honestly, if your fresh out the gates on the game and don't want to be overwhelmed with rules and add-ons, separate everything out and play just the base game for a while. Then add in another expansion slowly, so on and so forth... Save timber peak for last and play that as a stand alone for a bit before incorporating other expansions. That will save you the headache from a lot of gameplay issues. I tell the players on the games I run that this is the basic setup and everything you learn from this is fundamental in enjoying the advanced gameplay.. It's the whole crawl/walk/run...

It is soooo tempting to have all these element sitting right there begging for integration, but at the end of the day it will make the game less enjoyable for everyone having to stop every turn to look up a ruling or debate on how to handle a hiccup like using a character who relies on elements not in play. If the experiance system isn't in use then everything that ties to it should be omitted as well I would think. If you still want him in the roster, then you need to look through the experiance deck and pick a staple ability that will always be tied to him until you start utilizing that system for all heroes. Those powers are basically exactly what comes on other characters already, the system just give you the flexibility to upgrade your hero through the theme of learning from others or learning on the go from trial and error.

I have all the elements except the web stuff, I have it all tightly packed up together but every element is separated cause I'm still integrating a little at a time. I'm currently up to base game, SOTF, and GH. I play timber peak solo from time to time, just to have some late night brainstorming fun.

[Cloaker]

We jumped in head first. All the cards. From every set. Every promo. EXCEPT Survival Tactics/Upgrades/Unique Items. And especially grave weapons, because I just can't get behind that idea of zombies using handheld weapons.

We've done alright, it's worked out well and we've picked up on the rules pretty fast. And luckily all the cards are designed with a "or choose this" option. The survivor versions seem like redundancy right now.... but we like Ed and Nikki. Just would rather find a regular card to pull from the Hero deck that would do Big Ed justice....