{"id":14889,"date":"2021-01-26T13:33:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67272bb316.nxcli.io\/heroclix\/?p=14889"},"modified":"2021-01-26T13:38:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:38:02","slug":"heroclix-2021-rules-article-1-the-indomitable-knot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizkids.com\/heroclix\/2021\/01\/26\/heroclix-2021-rules-article-1-the-indomitable-knot\/","title":{"rendered":"HeroClix 2021 Rules Article 1: The Indomitable Knot"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you asked 100 HeroClix players what their favorite part of HeroClix is, we suspect you\u2019d get at least 50 different answers. Some love superhero combat, others love playing their favorite teams from comic books, many people love collecting the pre-painted miniatures, and others have an entrenched love of the gameplay.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to love within the gameplay \u2013 team construction, the Combat Dial, the Standard Powers. However, there\u2019s something that we knew wasn\u2019t as beloved, and it\u2019s time for it to go: Pushing Damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the changes we wanted to make to HeroClix with the 2021 Rules Update, it was obvious that the mechanics of HeroClix are an interwoven web. Adjusting one rule naturally impacts others. One of the changes the team felt most strongly about was removing pushing damage. Since pushing damage has always been a part of HeroClix, we wanted to discuss in detail not just why we wanted to remove it from the game but also the ripples of changes that we decided to implement as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why We Pushed Out Pushing Damage<\/b><\/p>\n

The original purpose of pushing damage was to implement a cost to acting frequently with your character. It meant that there were basically 2 costs in original HeroClix \u2013 the pre-game point cost to include a character on your force and mid-game clicks of damage to act consistently with them. Even though pushing damage is a cost, there are benefits to the game that it exists.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • There\u2019s a skill test to knowing when to push and when to pass.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • We\u2019re able to design figures that motivate you to deal them pushing damage in order to get to a click that\u2019s better than the click they\u2019re on \u2013 often called \u201cactivation clicks.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Being able to push as a way to switch from one set of powers to another.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Perhaps most rarely \u2013 it gives players a way to KO their own character to trigger a benefit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Originally, acting consistently with your biggest threat that you had advantageously positioned was seen as a huge benefit. We\u2019ve come to feel the benefits of pushing damage weren\u2019t worth the tradeoff.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    • The basic strategic decision to push your character just doesn\u2019t feel good. Worse still \u2013 if you push to miss with an attack, or push to fail a breakaway roll, you feel like you\u2019re digging your own grave.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • The deeper strategic decision to push your character in order to shift to a new power set <\/span>vastly<\/span><\/i> widens the gap between rookies and veterans. Even when rookies have learned this is sometimes a powerful tool, they\u2019re more likely to use the tactic incorrectly or forget it.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Willpower occupying the defense slot meant that characters couldn\u2019t have both a damage reducer and the ability to avoid pushing damage. This eventually caused the invention of Indomitable and the striped shield, foreshadowing the need to prevent pushing damage.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Pushing damage is a second drawback in the same dimension as action tokens. The result of taking the second consecutive action with a character wasn\u2019t just pushing damage \u2013 it was also being forced to pass with that character on your following turn (and that isn\u2019t fun either!).<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Sometimes many things happen between the decision to take pushing damage and actually taking the damage that make it easy to overlook. It isn\u2019t unheard of for a character to take an action where they do 2 things (like Charge), pick up an object along the way, and resolve a few die rolls. By the time a player should be taking the click of damage, it might be easy to forget.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Flash forward to today. Many figures that play a role that makes you want to take actions with them every turn have Indomitable, Power Cosmic, Quintessence, Cosmic Energy, or Willpower. Other characters are designed to operate with free actions like Sidestep and the utility suite (Outwit, Perplex, Probability Control). Of the characters that see competitive play, the overwhelming majority of them have some way to avoid pushing damage. Figures without that capability are immediately evaluated as \u201cless than.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

      If new players were going to learn a tactic, we\u2019d rather it be about utilizing the Standard Powers to their maximum effect instead of subverting an infrequent drawback. Also, for all of the design opportunities that pushing damage might present, it also balances itself with design obstacles. For example, it\u2019s challenging to design effects that have meaningful benefits for your character taking damage or getting KO\u2019d when its very easy for you to activate those effects yourself instead of using them as a catch-up mechanism as your opponent is damaging you.<\/span><\/p>\n

      After careful consideration, we knew that one of the changes we would make on the next rules update would be to remove pushing damage. What else was tied into this? Willpower, Indomitable, Colossal Stamina, and Team Abilities that referenced these. Internally we called the process of adjusting these game effects as The Indomitable Knot.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Willpower<\/b><\/p>\n

      If there wasn\u2019t pushing damage, it meant that Willpower wouldn\u2019t do anything as a Standard Power. This was the first thing we wanted to focus on when it came to the ripple effects of removing pushing damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The sentiment of Willpower was that your character got to act more frequently than characters without Willpower. The closest power to that on the PAC is Leadership. So we designed the new Willpower to feel familiar:<\/span><\/p>\n

      Willpower 2021 \u2013 At the beginning of your turn, you may roll a d6. [5]-[6]: Remove an action token from this character.<\/span><\/p>\n

      We like that it\u2019s automatic and has variance. We also like the timing \u2013 if a character with Willpower is KO\u2019d, there isn\u2019t usually a situation where they wasted time rolling to remove an action token that was meaningless.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Indomitable<\/b><\/p>\n

      Before we share the solution we settled on, we wanted to share three ideas; two that we didn\u2019t select and the one that we did.<\/span><\/p>\n