HeroClix Rules Update

Rev. 8.25.17

Hey HeroClix Fans!

Thank you for the tremendous support at GenCon! We heard from many of you that were very excited for the new rules launch and the future of HeroClix, and we are too!

As most of you know, the new rules were released online Monday, August 21^st and can be found here. While these rules are not in effect until Marvel HeroClix: The Mighty Thor releases next week, one reason we wanted to release them early online was to give the HeroClix public a chance to pour through them.

Though we and our playtesters have been over the rules many times, this was a full rewrite from the ground up, the first one HeroClix has ever had. Despite the best efforts of many, a few things slipped through that should have been addressed. In the past few days, we’ve found out what the most pressing questions are and what needs to be clarified or adjusted.

CORE Rulebook

A few issues arose in the Core rulebook. We’re posting the fixes here and in the Change Log document on the Main Rules Page, and will be updating the online Core rulebook and Comprehensive Rulebook Supplement immediately. The next printing of the Core rulebook will incorporate these changes.

1. What “effects” carried over when you replaced a character with another character was always very nebulous. We defined exactly what carries over: two effects, action tokens and being given a costed action. We missed a third effect that should, *ahem* “carry” over: whether or not a character has been “carried” that turn. Preserving the “carried” status of a character is important to make sure that replacement characters can’t be given a costed action if the replaced character was carried. As such, we are revising page 31 to say this (starting with a new 3^rd bullet point under Replacing Characters):
   • If the replaced character was carried this turn, the replacement character is considered to have been carried this turn.
   • Only the above three effects “carry over”. No other effects of any kind that applied to the replaced character start applying to the replacement character.
2. There’s a typo on page 26 under RANGE Object Action. The “minimum” was missing, though it is on the PAC and correct there. That’s important because you can now throw an object up to your range value, though you can always throw at least 6. It should say: RANGE Object Action – RANGE: Minimum range value 6. [Rest of text identical]
3. The Knockback sequence on page 17 (repeated a few other places) has a weird loophole if you are knocked off a ledge and that’s the exact number of squares that you were knocked back. A strict reading implies that you wouldn’t take any damage, as you would stop the sequence after step 1 was reached. As such, we are revising the 1^st bullet to say:
   • 1. The character has been knocked back equal to the amount of knock back, and hasn’t changed elevations (ie, fallen).
4. In “The Rule of Zeroes” on page 19, we made a late change that didn’t work out as intended. The intention was to give design some new tools to easily signal when a character couldn’t move and/or make an attack, and while that might be fine going forward, it’s just not backwards-compatible enough. Also, we already have a similar tool for movement in the Immobile keyphrase, and characters not being able to attack is a very uncommon design. As such, we are revising the rule significantly to remove all references to “speed” and “attack”. We are keeping it for range values, as allowing a close combat character who modifies his combat values by +2 to suddenly start making range attacks is not something we or playtesting felt should be allowed.
   • A character with a printed range value of 0 can’t make a range attack, unless an effect replaces their range value with a number or gives them a minimum range value. A character with :0 can’t carry.
5. We are reverting the timing of being given an action token for a costed action to what it was previously. This change was intended to help with effects that give action tokens during a character’s own action – mainly, these were tied to Probability Control. Themed Team PC and the CSA team ability both needed this rule in place to work as we originally had them when we began work on these rules. The change did affect 4 characters in Modern Age directly (those that had static effects that could apply during an action tied to their number of actions tokens), and those characters were going to be addressed. However, as a direct result of playtesting the initial new rules, we found a cleaner way to word TTPC that didn’t need this rule and we eventually decided to put the CSA team ability into the Past Rules supplement. So the reasons for this change were no longer relevant in Modern Age HeroClix, but we didn’t go back and re-evaluate this rule in light of that. Now we have, and we’ll instead be updating the CSA team ability in the future and keeping a watch that Modern Age doesn’t have similar effects. The result is replacing the 2^nd bullet under Costed Actions on page 7 with:
   • Just before the action resolves, give the character an action token. This signifies that you have resolved the action.
   • Also, replacing the 1st bullet under Double Power Actions on page 8 with:
   • Just before the double power action resolves, give the character two action tokens. This signifies that you have resolved the action.

COMPREHENSIVE Rulebook

We will soon be updating the online Comprehensive rulebook to include the adjustments below.

1. Under Vehicle Abilities/Advantages on page 12, we accidentally deleted Vehicles carrying characters with . The 4^th bullet is becoming:
   • Vehicles don’t modify their speed value due to the Carry ability, and when using they may carry characters with .
   • Additionally, we now can delete the 8^th bullet which contained reference to the “Rule of Zeroes”.
2. One upcoming figure brought a possible loophole to our attention. This is the kind of thing that may still crop up occasionally, and if it’s general enough, we may add the relevant rule to the rulebook as we’re doing here. We don’t want anyone to argue that any current or future characters can build up “infinite actions”, so the rule being added on page 3 under Actions is:
   • An action given “at no cost” or “as FREE” can never be used to activate the same action that allowed that character to be given that action “at no cost” or “as FREE”.

Clarifications

ID cards

ID cards, both past and future, all work exactly the same way as laid out by the Comprehensive Rulebook. They are now activated with POWER actions, rather than the somewhat complicated timing we had previously.

However, there is a difference in defining which additional characters that don’t have the exact character name printed on the ID card can qualify as ID characters. Previous ID cards matched real name. We are moving away from having real names be a gameplay element, as it was causing issues with certain characters. But we still wanted a way to expand ID cards beyond just the printed name. Future ID cards have a line for “Other Identities” and list other character names that qualify as ID characters. For example, a Jean Grey ID card may have Phoenix and Marvel Girl listed. However, it may not have Dark Phoenix listed, as playtesting felt that was a bit of a stretch to think that Dark Phoenix would happily stop by and help. No system here is going to be perfect and any system will occasionally lead to unintuitive results, but overall using character names has proven both more flavorful and easier to manage.

Bottom line: All ID cards function the same. Old and new ID cards both have ways to match additional characters, but do it a little differently. Old ID cards still use real names, new ID cards use other character names. Any ID cards that used keywords and/or point values to expand the qualifying ID characters work as well.

Missing rules

A few rules are intentionally missing, as they are no longer part of HeroClix. One is the Damage Depletion Modifier. It doesn’t exist anymore, and some characters have gotten more powerful as a result. The one place it still applies is to Team Bases, as you will see when the Past Rules supplement is posted. It was originally developed to reign in Team Bases, but it didn’t need to be a general rule and was interfering with character design.

Another minor rule that was removed was the fact that characters with didn’t take “falling” damage from knock back. Now, they do because no rule carves out a special exception that they don’t.

HeroClix can be a complicated game, and rules like these aren’t core to the experience. Every general rule is one that a new player needs to learn, so we trimmed and simplified where we could, and put the most important of these general rules directly on the PAC.

We apologize for these changes, and appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through these last few issues. Thank you again for all the kind words and support! Have fun at the Mighty Thor release events next week and keep on Clixin’!