As you all well know by now, the release of the Fantastic Four and Gotham Knights starter decks is right around the corner. These starters are unique from many perspectives, but from a player’s point of view, they mark the first time that starters will provide exclusive content. While this content does aim to teach new players the game, veterans of Vs. System will find that simpler doesn’t mean worse. Justin’s article discussed much of the motivation behind creating starter decks and the constraints imposed by the need for simpler cards. Today, I will focus these thoughts again and examine a second card from a design perspective: Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four starter deck.
As the Fantastic Four’s headline character, Mr. Fantastic not only tops off their starter deck curve, he also fulfills several other, more subtle design objectives.
Simplicity versus Complexity
Speaking to points made in Justin’s article, there exists a tenuous balance between the rule of simplicity and the rule of keeping the game interesting. In Vs. System, this conflict can arise in many ways. The natural increase in complexity from turn to turn often overwhelms new players, making formations and attacks in the mid- and late game extremely difficult. To counter this paralysis in later turns, it is sometimes better to present cards that are clearly useful only in a limited fashion. Mr. Fantastic provides this by guiding the player’s attacks much the same way that cards such as Black Magic and Mist Form did in Marvel Knights, as he grants his bonus only to his teammates. By doing so, Mr. Fantastic subtly teaches players how to prioritize their attacks relative to the abilities of their characters.
Team Identity
From a designer’s perspective, one of the most enjoyable parts of the Vs. System is the creation and development of each team’s identity. Slicing each new team a piece of the thematic pie presents an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, it’s good to give a team depth in flavor and playability. On the other hand, each team needs to distinguish itself from those that have come before. As a player, it is always exciting to experience a new set and find the cards that make each team click. Whether they are plot twists or characters, these marquee cards create a focal point for discussion and establish a player’s connection to a particular team. People love or loathe Bastion, but none would disagree that he is a lynchpin of Sentinel decks and drives the vision of the mutant hunters. For Mr. Fantastic, his bonus is simple enough to portray several characteristics. Not only is he a selfless team player, his elastic nature increases his ability to offer a helping hand. As you’ll see once the starters are released, Mr. Fantastic’s ability contrasts with Dr. Doom’s, which further highlights the differences between the teams.
Truly one of the best features of simple abilities is the freedom of interpretation. With card design in particular, the breadth of vocabulary you can use to describe a simple card greatly outnumbers the words you can use to describe a more complex one. Put another way, more text on a card leaves less room for imagination. Open interpretation of simple abilities also grants the designer greater flexibility in stretching themes for a team and flavor for an individual character to fill design needs. Because of this, simple abilities like Mr. Fantastic’s are actually a very valuable commodity for design.
Design Space
Marquee cards do not need to be extremely powerful to help flesh out a team’s identity. In many instances, legacy content for older teams in new sets offers a new spin on existing cards in that team. Providing new spins on old themes helps to complete the design space and transition players from set to set. Nothing can frustrate a player more than jumping back into a game that he or she had left or playing a new set and feeling as if he or she were playing a different game. Each game has specific features and fundamental play patterns that players associate specifically with that game. In many cases, diluting those features with new mechanics that create too different a play pattern only serves to introduce incompatibilities between sets and alienates players. Vs. System is no exception. Towards this point, Mr. Fantastic echoes one of the Fantastic Four’s better known equipment cards, the Fantasticar. While players may ultimately choose not to play both in the same deck, this reuse of effects helps transition players who learn the game with these starter decks into the full game and preserve the team nature of the Fantastic Four. In many cases, abilities or effects that are used in future sets as keywords, such as loyalty, are fully spelled out in earlier sets to ease transition.
Ultimately, Mr. Fantastic is but a small example of many underlying principles of card design. The Fantastic Four and Batman starter decks gave the designers an opportunity to plug holes in the fundamentals of both teams and develop their identities. At the same time, the restrictions placed on the task make it one of the most difficult to accomplish correctly.