Welcome to Green Lantern season!

(You know, a season is like the period of time between when a given Vs. expansion premiers and when previews begin on the next Vs. expansion.)

This past weekend, Vs. fans across the globe got their first chance to try out the new Green Lantern Corps cards in action. Over the next few months, players will fall into the familiar routine of discussion and arguments about the new mechanics, the new teams, the legacy cards, the art, the flavor, the set’s effect on Golden Age, the new Modern Age format, and of course, the new Bizarro World.

I, too, have my routine. Usually there’s a particular rhythm to the articles I write each season. The first two or three focus on the new mechanics of the expansion. There are usually a few looking at the creation of the new teams. There’s one or two full of design and development anecdotes about individual cards. And of course, there are usually a few one-off articles where I answer emails or talk about robots or complain about Humpherys.

This season’s going to be a little different. You see, I was lucky enough to be the lead designer of the Green Lantern Corps expansion. This means that I was there for pretty much every aspect of set design from beginning to end. Before I go into what that means for the next few months’ worth of articles, I should probably explain a bit more about being a lead designer.

The concept of having a lead designer for a Vs. expansion is relatively new. This is because for the first several expansions, Mike Hummel was simply in charge of Vs. R&D. And I mean in charge of everything—each expansion’s design, development, art, Organized Play, and so on*. Don’t get me wrong—the rest of us helped, but Mike was in charge. Then, with the Marvel Knights expansion, it was decided that each Vs. expansion would have its own independent lead designer. Mike would still guide the overall direction of the Vs. System, but each lead designer would have an opportunity to try his or her hand running the show. Marvel Knights was Brian Hacker’s chance to take a crack as a Vs. lead. Green Lantern Corps was my turn.

And boy did I learn a lot. I mean, in some ways, when I was first working on Vs., I was mostly just designing and developing cards and working on the rules system. A lot of other important stuff (such as art direction or set collation) would just kind of happen. I never questioned how it all came together—I was just happy it did. It’s kind of like how a little kid might think that hamburgers come from McDonald’s as opposed to from cows.

But once I was chosen to be Green Lantern Corps lead, I knew I’d have to learn much more about the ins and outs of set design. Mike would still be there for guidance and support, but I’d be calling the shots on things like team creation, individual card selection, and overall set direction. I’d have my fingers in pretty much every pie from beginning to end. And happily, I get to share the entire experience with you.

This seems like a good time for an aside into Kill-Two-Birds-With-One-Stone Land. A while back, I was charged with creating a design bible for the Vs. System. The idea here is to take all of the unwritten rules we use to make Vs. sets and write them down. The official purpose of the design bible is so new hires can quickly get caught up to speed on our philosophies and methodologies, and so veterans have an efficient support tool. But I figured out that the unofficial purpose of the design bible is far more sinister:

The existence of a “How to Create a Vs. Expansion” manual would insure that even the untimely demise of the entire R&D team (an omnipresent possibility given the unpredictable nature of our evil Master, Jeff Donais) wouldn’t prevent the Alpha Flight expansion’s debut in ’08**, since UDE could simply hire a bunch of Humpherys-like simpletons to follow the manual’s instructions. 

Realizing that the completion of a Vs. Design Bible would not just undermine my job security but also shorten my life expectancy, I’ve thus far put off writing it the way Hansel might put off that second helping of dessert at dinner in the gingerbread house.

Unfortunately, I’ve run out of excuses, so here’s the plan. I’m going to put the design bible online. Week by week I’ll add a chapter. Then, when it’s all finished, if something dastardly happens to the R&D team, you’ll know why, and you can avenge us!

Here’s the basic way it’s going to shake down. The first part of each article will be a general entry in the design bible, usually full of questions we ask ourselves such as “What aspects of the Vs. engine will this expansion explore?” or “What is the current tier one metagame like and how does that affect this expansion?” The second part of each article will answer those questions with regard to the Green Lantern expansion. And the third part of each article is where I answer specific questions you guys come up with as we go.

So yeah, two weeks from now, look for the first installment of “How to Make a Vs. Expansion in Nine Easy Steps”. Waitaminute, did I say two weeks? Well of course, silly. Next week we have to preview some of the new cards from the Batman and Fantastic Four starters.

Send questions (especially ones about the design or development of an expansion) or comments to dmandel@metagame.com.

*This is not to say that Mike made all the decisions on everything, just that he was in charge of the R&D end of things. There are plenty of other important people making decisions, such as Dave Hewitt (Vs. Product Manager), Scott Elliot (Vs. Head of Organized Play), Mark Irwin (Vs. Art Director), and Jeff Donais (Dark Lord of the Sith). While other people might have made the decision, Mike was always involved.

**I’m not really sure when Marvel’s premier Canadian super-team will get locked onto the schedule. Really this uncertainty is based on Jeff Donais’s love of all things Canadian and Mike Hummel’s hatred of all things Jeff Donais.