Survival Mode

[gameplan.exe]

I just had a crazy idea, so I thought I'd share it here for initial feedback...

You know in some fighting games there's a mode where you just fight wave after wave of challengers, but your life never fully heals (I saw it first in Tekken Tag, I think)? And then they made the cool head to head version where you and a friend each choose a 3-character line-up and fight eachother in the same way, where your life isn't completely restored between KO's...

Overpower Survival Mode!!!

I figure that can go 2 ways:

A) we line our characters up in single file, and the fronts go head to head untill all 4 of some one's characters are dead...

B) we each make 3 teams, play out the 1st game and the winner leaves his draw pile, hits, even missions alone and the Opponent pulls in his fresh, second team

I'm gonna be thinking all day about how to make one (or both) of these versions work. Feel free to supply ideas and/or take off on this version for yourself! I'll post more ideas or hiccups as I consider them 

[Kal-el]

I propose a modification of your second version. Rather than pulling in a second team, expand the reserve to have more than one character. Then as characters die you can replace them with anyone from the reserve.

Spinning off this, I think it would be cool if the front line and reserve could switch spots, so your current fighter could change like in Marvel vs Capcom. Maybe discard one card from hand to swap one front line withe reserve on your turn?

[drdeath25]

B) we each make 3 teams, play out the 1st game and the winner leaves his draw pile, hits, even missions alone and the Opponent pulls in his fresh, second team

What if he beats his opponents first deck by missions. Can he leave all 7 in the completed pile for game 2, and 3? Thats a Combo win...

[gameplan.exe]

I was actually just thinking of this perdicament. I think, similar to how beating your Opponent by KO would reset their front line, I think beating your Opponent by Venture would reset your Missions, but otherwise, leave them as-is...

So, with careful planning, if you have your Opponent on the ropes and can win through KO, venture conservatively so that you start your next match going 1 FTW! I mean, theoretically, you'll be pretty banged up (having just gone through a whole game), and may already be in the Power Pack, etc. So it's unlikely that you'll have a shoe-in victory, starting at 6-1-0. But hey, this would be a totally new element to the game, so why not?

Of course, the easy answer is to reset the Missions, but not the hits, placements, or other cards in play.

[Demacus]

I actually came up with a similar varian back in highschool.

   4 characters using normal Sum deck rule building

   Each character has his own deck of 15 - 20 cards.

   All specials are OPD for the purpose of the much smaller decks, but there is no "dead" pile.  All cards are power packed, but you are only allowed to flip your pack once per opponent.

   No venture, no events, no activators, no Any Character specials. Just one-on-one brawls.

   Last man with active heroes wins.

Those were the rules I came up with 17 years ago.

[gameplan.exe]

I actually came up with a similar varian back in highschool.

   4 characters using normal Sum deck rule building

   Each character has his own deck of 15 - 20 cards.

   All specials are OPD for the purpose of the much smaller decks, but there is no "dead" pile.  All cards are power packed, but you are only allowed to flip your pack once per opponent.

   No venture, no events, no activators, no Any Character specials. Just one-on-one brawls.

   Last man with active heroes wins.

Those were the rules I came up with 17 years ago.

Interesting! So, no Homebase either, then? or was that allowed so you could skirt the Sum Deck Rule, but you were still restricted some? I'm thinking specifically of Avalon, because the line up on that Homebase can be quite potent, indeed.

Anyway, this looks to be a brutal style of play and I think I like it 

[Demacus]

I didn't take locations into consideration, mostly cause when I came up with it, there were no aspect cards, so there really wasn't any real reason to use most homebases, since Teamworks, Venture, attack shifting, ect, ect, didn't apply.  But I see no reason why you couldn't use a homebase team if you really like a particular line up, that being the case, I would allow for the homebase's Aspect in ONE of the 4 decks, with the Any Homebase Aspect, being like the Any Character specials, not being allowed.  Could really change your strategy, based on knowing which of your characters has that 1 extra UMPH, that may, or may not make the difference of the Survival Mode.

[gameplan.exe]

I didn't take locations into consideration, mostly cause when I came up with it, there were no aspect cards, so there really wasn't any real reason to use most homebases, since Teamworks, Venture, attack shifting, ect, ect, didn't apply.  But I see no reason why you couldn't use a homebase team if you really like a particular line up, that being the case, I would allow for the homebase's Aspect in ONE of the 4 decks, with the Any Homebase Aspect, being like the Any Character specials, not being allowed.  Could really change your strategy, based on knowing which of your characters has that 1 extra UMPH, that may, or may not make the difference of the Survival Mode.

True. All in all, I like this idea a lot. A lot a lot. I think I'll see if my brother or Ranerdar will amuse me and give it a go. Thanks for the tip!

[Demacus]

Sure thing. 

[Jesse]

This sounds like it could be a ton of fun!

I had thought about something like this when I was in high school - the main difference was you had your team of 3 and a reserve line (sub in in order) - everone's specials were already mixed into the deck - the only positive stipulation was that if you drew a special for someone in the sub reserve spots you could skip there card with no penalty to be short cards in your hand.....but I never play tested with anyone other than my brother......and we both cheated back then  so I'm sure it failed miserably.....

[gameplan.exe]

This sounds like it could be a ton of fun!

I had thought about something like this when I was in high school - the main difference was you had your team of 3 and a reserve line (sub in in order) - everone's specials were already mixed into the deck - the only positive stipulation was that if you drew a special for someone in the sub reserve spots you could skip there card with no penalty to be short cards in your hand.....but I never play tested with anyone other than my brother......and we both cheated back then  so I'm sure it failed miserably.....

this sounds like it could be a lot of fun! I actually forgot all about this concept; I never got around to trying this out. I'll have to bring this up today with my brother and see if anyone wants to give it a shot 

[Jesse]

this sounds like it could be a lot of fun! I actually forgot all about this concept; I never got around to trying this out. I'll have to bring this up today with my brother and see if anyone wants to give it a shot 

Awesome - if you get around to doing it, let me know how it works out and possibly what format you guys used.

[Nostalgic]

I have a suggestion for the surviving team. If you won all 7 mission, you should be able to venture missions from the completed pile to remove damage from characters. This would only work if there were no missions in the defeated pile.  (Or perhaps a 2nd set of missions should be added to the reserve pile leaving the 7 in the completed pile to keep track.)

Also if placed cards and 'deck status' remain the same for the winning team when going up against the second new team then the power pack should only be reshuffled once and then after that is played through the whole deck gets reshuffled events and all. KO'ed character remain KO'ed so the deck still suffers from unusables, but resurrections specials potentially become cooler.

[gameplan.exe]

I have a suggestion for the surviving team. If you won all 7 mission, you should be able to venture missions from the completed pile to remove damage from characters. This would only work if there were no missions in the defeated pile.  (Or perhaps a 2nd set of missions should be added to the reserve pile leaving the 7 in the completed pile to keep track.)

Also if placed cards and 'deck status' remain the same for the winning team when going up against the second new team then the power pack should only be reshuffled once and then after that is played through the whole deck gets reshuffled events and all. KO'ed character remain KO'ed so the deck still suffers from unusables, but resurrections specials potentially become cooler.

I really like the idea of healing folks with a Mission advantage - I'll see if I can work out some details for that.

As for the deck reshuffling, I just don't know. Seems like that might make it too possible for a single deck to take down all 3 decks... I really like the idea of inviting a bit of a volley.

At this point, it's all untested, so I might go the simplest route possible, then look to add or subtract elements later.

[Jesse]

At this point, it's all untested, so I might go the simplest route possible, then look to add or subtract elements later.

That's how I would approach it.  Man, I am glad I stumbled upon this this morning. I am definitely going to give this a shot soon!