Look at the top Card of the Deck before Searching? Or 3 Health Boxes with Youth?

[Twilight_Sonata]

Hello! My friends and I actually decided to start trying original home-brewed Heroes at our next get-together, and I've had two big ideas that I'm trying to balance properly and decide between. Allow me to introduce Abigail and Isabella. Please let me know what you think!

ABIGAIL
Retired Librarian

Teacher - Strange - Female
"It's real... I can't believe it. It's all real."
START: Library
Special Rules
RESEARCH - May look at the top card of the Hero Deck before deciding if she wants to Search, if able. While in the Book Store or Library, may look at the top two cards.
(WOUNDED) (WOUNDED) (DEAD)

Abigail is a retired history professor that moved to Woodinvale from the city last year after finding some cryptic old files that her late husband had apparently been researching. Having secured a job as a librarian, she has been secretly working to uncover the town's mysterious past. Only her niece, a certain investigative reporter, suspects a thing.

Abigail's big thing game-wise is that, similar to how all Heroes get to roll their Movement Dice before deciding whether or not they want to Move, she gets to look at the top card of the Hero Deck before deciding whether or not she wants to Search. As useful as this sounds, it is worth remembering that she was probably going to Search anyway most times the ability is used (sort of like how Jake Cartwright only actually takes the second card half of the time or how Billy gets that +1 Movement all of the time even though it rarely actually makes any difference), especially considering that Event cards don't belong to any particular Hero. The real strength of the ability comes when she decides not to Search, meaning that all of the Heroes also know exactly what they'll get if they Search. This can be useful, for example, for getting a weapon or first aid item to a character across the board that desperately needs one.

As well as being thematically fitting, I added in the bit about getting to look at an extra card while in one of those two buildings because she seemed just a bit lacking when I did some preliminary testing. Despite the fact that those are only present on two of the existing fourteen boards, there is actually a slightly higher than 50% chance that at least one of them will appear on the board, even higher if playing with one of those non-standard board shapes using six corner pieces rather than 4.

ISABELLA
Army Brat

Military - Student - Female
"I don't go down that easy, puta!"
START: High School
Special Rules
YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.
(WOUNDED) (WOUNDED) (DEAD)

A former army brat, Isabella is well known as the toughest chick in school. It's rumored that she destroyed boot camp, and she puts even the football jocks on guard, but she's proven a fiercely loyal friend to those that have gotten to know her. She was excited when another army brat moved into town, but the new girl was a bit too rebellious even for her.

Isabella's main draw is, of course, that she has an extra health box over the other students (just as the Military adults have an extra health box over the other adults) while still retaining the Youth ability, allowing her to actually Fully Heal more than a single wound. Balance-wise, this character can best be compared to the other three "tough chicks": Sally, Amanda, and Jade. After all, think of how many wounds these three avoid taking in the first place because they made the Zombie re-roll or because they cancelled the Fight or because they rolled doubles even though they lost. If it helps, pretend that she has two health boxes, just like the others, and that her ability is actually that she starts with the Recovery card and regains it every time she uses Youth, except that she can only use the card on herself. In other words, what I'm saying is that the feature counts as being "used" only whenever she takes her first wound from full health.

I've actually tested this out a bit, and it really does come out about on part in usage and effect with those other three characters (less than Amanda but more than Jade), believe it or not. In fact, I really want to give her another feature, albeit a very minor one, just so that she has something more unique to call her own. I've considered letting her re-roll Fight Dice rolls of 1, but I'm afraid that may be too powerful (despite being statistically less useful than the ability to win on ties). I've also considered more narrowly applicable abilities, such as the ability to try to Fight in place of another Hero in her space (4+ before Fight Dice are rolled?). Or maybe the ability to take a Wound to try to prevent a Wound done to another Hero in her space (3+?). Or maybe she gains the ability to re-roll one of her own Fight Dice as long as she has another Hero in her space. Really, anything dealing with helping out or better defending other Heroes in her space would be great both for being narrowly applicable so as not to overpower her and for reflecting the character's loyalty.

[friskers96]

I keep having an issue with the health on Isabella. If we're going with theme then being an army brat shouldn't make her hardier. I'd go with more skillful, greater knowledge of self defense, survivalist traits. Army brats don't endure the same training and physical conditioning as they're parents. Now you might go with Military School Dropout or something.. She got in trouble running with gangs on the mean streets, instead of prison she got sentenced to 4 years of military school. She's AWOL and on the run. Woodinvale, wrong place....right time.... *dun, dun, DUN!*

Also, you thread title is a little long, people are going to have trouble posting.

[StayPuft]

Other members can perhaps commenton the balancing of your ideas a little better. I am still relatively new to the game (about a year now), especially compared to some of the others here. So, I haven't necessarily gotten all the balancing stuff down mysel.

But, I just wanted to mention that I think the characters are really cool! They are really well thought out and would fit in perfectly with the other characters in the game.

I really like the idea of allowing the librarian to "research" by looking at the card before deciding. I mean, it does cause a minor concern when you figure, if she then decides not to search, the heroes all know what is next in the deck. But, I think you can easily explain around that thematically. Overall, I think they are really cool.

[Twilight_Sonata]

(05-01-2013 03:51 PM)friskers96 Wrote:  If we're going with theme then being an army brat shouldn't make her hardier. I'd go with more skillful, greater knowledge of self defense, survivalist traits. Army brats don't endure the same training and physical conditioning as they're parents. Now you might go with Military School Dropout or something...

I didn't want to write up their full back-stories because they're a bit more lengthy, but the intention is that she actually did used to go to a military school. That's why the boot camp rumors started in the first place. She's more than just an army brat (and she hasn't had to move around as frequently as typical for other military brats), but of the titles that I thought of for her, that's just the one that I liked the most. I'm open to alternative suggestions, though.

Quote:Also, you thread title is a little long, people are going to have trouble posting.

Huh? What are you talking about? Thread title length interferes with posting?
. . .
And now after previewing my post, I see what you mean because it tries to ad "RE:_" before the title, making it too long. Hm, I will try to edit to shorten it.

(05-01-2013 07:59 PM)StayPuft Wrote:  I just wanted to mention that I think the characters are really cool! They are really well thought out and would fit in perfectly with the other characters in the game.

Thanks, I'm glad you like them!

Quote:I really like the idea of allowing the librarian to "research" by looking at the card before deciding. I mean, it does cause a minor concern when you figure, if she then decides not to search, the heroes all know what is next in the deck. But, I think you can easily explain around that thematically.

Yeah, it does get a bit questionable, but a lot of the other Heroes also have thematically questionable features if you think about them too hard. For example, how does Sheriff Anderson always know exactly where to find a Revolver in every building of the town? How does Amanda consistently Hide in all of these completely open fields? What exactly is the nature of the Fire that Mr. Goddard always seems to have with him? And she may be a great rescue pilot, but how the heck does Nikki know how to use a Signal Flare to stop Heavy Rain? Probably the best thing to remember is that Last Night on Earth is supposed to be a game before it's supposed to be a simulation.

[friskers96]

The librarian is bad ass, gives me a reason now to peak ahead.. I always get in trouble for it

I'm defiantly making Isabella up and running her through, I'm thinking of seeing how she works with a starting weapon, then I'm going to run her with an unarmed combat bonus, need to check the hero upgrade deck for ideas.

Come to think of it, an unarmed bonus might make her too epic, no reason to look for weapons so she could post up in 1 spot and just box em up and heal every turn... Maybe a range bonus on firearms, a marksmen bonus...

---

I liked my back story...

[Twilight_Sonata]

(05-01-2013 10:57 PM)friskers96 Wrote:  I'm defiantly making Isabella up and running her through, I'm thinking of seeing how she works with a starting weapon, then I'm going to run her with an unarmed combat bonus, need to check the hero upgrade deck for ideas.

Come to think of it, an unarmed bonus might make her too epic, no reason to look for weapons so she could post up in 1 spot and just box em up and heal every turn... Maybe a range bonus on firearms, a marksmen bonus...

Try running her with no unique abilities at all (just Youth and her 3 Health Boxes) alongside Amanda and/or Sally to see what I mean about maybe needing something a bit extra both balance-wise and to make her more unique. Right now, I'm leaning towards giving her:

BRING IT ON - When another Hero must Fight a Zombie in her space, may Fight in that Hero's stead on the D6 roll of 4+ (before Fight Dice are rolled).

I haven't tested it out yet, but I'm going to try running a couple of scenarios today with that to see how it feels. It's situational for sure, requiring that she be in a space with another, that she be willing and able to take a Fight in their place, and that she roll a 4+, but Amanda's Beautiful ability can be said to be similarly situational, almost never coming up but still being neat to have thematically. I'm almost concerned that Bring It On is too unreliable as-is and that I should either make it 3+ or make her take a Wound to transfer the Fight rather than rolling at all.

What I cam certain of right now, though, is that I'd like for whatever her other ability is to involve other Heroes in her space. That makes it more properly situational and thematically fitting, I think. Even if it's a combat bonus to herself, like getting to re-roll Fight Dice rolls of 1 like I had originally though of, it should be something only activated when she's with somebody else.

Quote:I liked my back story...

I like it too, and I think it'd make for a great character! It'd just not exactly how I pictured her specifically is all. She could be said to be a troublemaker, sure, but only in the sense that she's gotten with a couple of fights with other students when they've disrespected her or her friends, like the time that she gave T-Bone a black eye for grabbing her butt. Plus, I have reservations about introducing what would be the sole Latina character in the story and giving her gang affiliations. Yeah, LNOE is very stereotype-driven in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, but I don't quite want to go that far.

[friskers96]

Yeah I see what you mean on the backstory. Ill give those a shot and let you know how they play out on another table. I have some oddball scenarios I need to run through and see how she does with different paced games..

[friskers96]

I'm getting way too fast at making these characters up.. Had it designed, printed, and mounted with a custom "note taking" back in 20 min. Ready for play test and a spot to keep track of stats on the back.

Will report my findings soon, Sir! *salutes*

[Mr. Migi]

hmm military brats tend to be pretty worldly and know how cope with stressful situations....maybe a skill that automatically cancels a zombie card like teen angst? or a +1to her weapon rolls? I tend to make my custom characters a little broken...

[Twilight_Sonata]

(05-04-2013 07:16 PM)Mr. Migi Wrote:  hmm military brats tend to be pretty worldly and know how cope with stressful situations....maybe a skill that automatically cancels a zombie card like teen angst?

That's sort of one of the ideas that I'm working with right now, actually:

FORTITUDE - Any Heroic Event may be played to cancel a [Remains in Play] Zombie Card on her, rather than for its normal effect.

I've run the character through some scenarios with this feature, but it's just so unlikely to come up because most [Remains in Play] Zombie Cards aren't as detrimental as most Heroic Events are useful. Plus, just because she has this feature, such Zombie Cards are less likely to be played on her to begin with (Sort of like how nobody plays Locked Door on Victor, saving it for another character). Still, that it rarely comes up as very useful is actually a good thing, because like I said before, this is just supposed to be a minor benefit for uniqueness and flavor rather than to really greatly affect her potency. I know I said before that I wanted to try for something related to her being in the same space as other Heroes, but nothing that I've tried for that has worked out very well, mostly just because it ends up too useful. This, though, I'm actually liking, and it was actually originally born from an experimental immunity to Loner, Teen Angst, and "This Can't Be Happening!", all Zombie Cards that have effects relating to her being with other Heroes.