4 Player Side by Side Game

[BigBadHarve]

Hello all,

The Partners play (2 vs 2) 'Spades' topic inspired me to hammer out a 4 player 'side by side' option.

These are all early brainstorming ideas, so your feedback would be awesome. I have yet to actually find 3 other people to test them out. These are by no means complete yet, just the beginning.


-BBH


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4 player rules (side by side) (In development)

Both players set up beside each other, as normal. Each with a front line of 3 and 1 reserve. Neither player may have duplicate characters, or Battlesites. However, a team may use two sites that both have the same character appearing. IE: Danger Room and X-world may be used by a team, even though Angel appears on both.

Likewise two homebases with similar characters may be used, so long as no duplicate characters appear on the actual teams. IE: Avengers and Stark Enterprises both have Captain America, only one player may use Captain America.

Each player draws 5 cards.

When counting duplicates, consider the hands of BOTH players when considering what is a duplicate. With regards to special card duplicates, any special with the same playing code is considered a duplicate, unless both cards are being held by the same player. IE: Player A has Spawn's protector of the innocent (AD), and Player B has Invisible Woman's Protect teammate(AD), then they are considered duplicates. If Player A has both of these cards, then they are not duplicates from the same hand, but any AD coded specials in player B's hand are duplicates.

Anyhero versions of the specials with the same code only count as duplicates of other any heroes. So Player A may have a character Specific 'AR' special and character B may have the Any Hero 'AR' special without discarding.

Specials may be used to protect either player on a team, where appropriate. IE: Negates, and teammate avoids. Character specific defenses must still be used by the listed character, though Activators and Any Heroes may be used to protect your partner.

Any card that requires a teammate contribution (Teamwork, Double shots, specials cards, Ally cards etc.) may be followed up/contributed by a character on your partner's team if they have the requisite card. Likewise, either player may play a power card from hand to defend a partner's character provided that character is able to use the power card.

Players may target either opponent with their attacks.

Any card that affects the 'opponent' will only affect one of the opposing players, not both. Attacking player's choice.

Both players stack their missions together, making 14 venture cards. The usual rules for venturing apply. Each player may have different mission sets and different events, however only ONE event may be played each round by each team. Extra events are discarded as duplicates. If two players on the same team draw events in the same hand, they must decide which one is played and which is discarded. The player with the unplayed event may still re-draw for the event. Excess events beyond that are discarded as per normal rules regarding events.

Conceding must be a unanimous decision by both players. If one wishes to concede but the other does not, then the battle continues.

Venture is totaled as normal, applying all damage done by both players for a single count.
Post Merge: July 22, 2011, 04:38:52 PM
On more thought, forget the 'duplicate' code discard rule. I was thinking of something to spice up hands and increase variety - but this would be more hassle than it's worth. Standard discard rules across both players hands apply, though.

Additional points:

A player may play a special card that allows a concession without his partner's consent. (IE: New Universe)

Any card that would normally affect both players counts for all players. IE: Absorb sound - BOTH teammates must now discard all energy icons from hand, and BOTH opponents must discard all energy icons.

Drawing cards based on high venture - The players on the venturing team decide who gets to draw the card(s) from a high venture.

If one player passes, the other player may still play normally until the round is done.

If one player's team is completely KO'd, he is not completely out. He may still play and draw 5 each round from his draw pile for his partner to use. There may be cards playable by the remaining player (Power cards, universe cards, Any heroes etc.)

-BBH

[a_noble_kaz]

Interesting. Have you tried playing this yet?

[BigBadHarve]

Interesting. Have you tried playing this yet?

I have not. This is all brainstorming. Lately, I haven't even had much opportunity to connect with my one regular OP partner, let alone getting two more... Alas.

But I'll let you know how it goes when we get to try it out.

-BBH

[BigBadHarve]

Okay, I have managed to try this out once, and it works reasonably well.

Alterations -

Only 7 Venture cards between the team. We tried 14, and while interesting, it was a bit much.

When a team ventures 3 or more, the team that draws gets to decide who makes the draw (Which player's draw pile.), not the venturing players. All cards may be drawn from one draw pile or a mixture of both.

If a player has a character on a team, he MAY appear in his partner's battlesite. (IE: One player has Wolverine on his team, his partner may still use Outback as a site. However, the player using Wolverine must still adhere to the deckbuilding rules for his own site.)

We'll playtest some more, but the system seems pretty solid so far.


-BBH