“Becoming a Jedi requires the DEEPEST commitment … the most serious mind.”
— Yoda to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strike Back
Substitute “HeroClix player” for “Jedi” in the above and it mostly fits. I have not seen many new players who stuck with the game without a dogged determination to do so. (The existence of this website shows that “the most serious mind” isn’t totally necessary, though.)
Heroclix has a steeeeeeep learning curve.
It also doesn’t help that TPTB haven’t always aided in that climb. So here are 5 things that new players need and WizKids MUST provide to improve the beginner experience.
1. Include quick start versions of the core rules in every Fast Forces.
I get that starters are a bigger investment for both the company and the consumer. So meet the latter halfway. Possibly also include a simplified Powers And Abilities card (PAC).
2. Include team ability rules on character cards.
It is terrible that for so many years — YEARS! — a new player could buy a starter, read the core rulebook cover to cover and memorize the PAC and still not know what that Avengers “A” symbol on their favorite Thor figure means other than looking cute. I understand that licensing rules/costs probably prevent making a single printed/printable document. But it shouldn’t prevent this step.
Thankfully, it appears that putting team ability rules on cards will be a standard feature starting with the Fantastic Four set this month.
3. Scale back the gimmicks.
Overpowered SPs/traits and Additional Game Elements add a huge extra obstacle for new players in an already overwhelming game. Game Design should remember that any high-reward ability should also have high risk. (Popular meta tactics of Colossal Retaliation and ID cards do not.)
4. Focus on the core game.
So this is a criticism of the WWE line of figures. It’s a nice idea. It opens a new market. But why add a whole other PAC and a whole other rulebook? It’s confusing to established players and will only confuse the newbies further when they either move to the core game or are being taught by the still-confused veterans.
But if nothing else gets changed, this one thing absolutely MUST.
5. QUALITY. CONTROL.
A while back, I wrote this in my 10 Worst Clix of 2019 post about one of the pieces in the Orville starter set:
Aside from the Enhancement, [Commander Kelly Grayson’s] SP is supposed to function sort of as a Probability Control of normally unProbable rolls.
But
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You can’t use Shape Change or Super Senses on your turn
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You can’t use Leadership in the action phase, when you can activate FREE actions like this SP
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Which makes this power 98% USELESS and UNWORKABLE (there’s a corner case where you might get caught in a friendly Energy Explosion and need to reroll Super Senses. WAYYYYY OVER INNA CORNER case). But even if it were usable…
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…You could put the game into infinite rerolls because there’s no limit to the rerolls.
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This is in a starter set for new fans
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They had to issue errata for A STARTER SET
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HOW IS A NEW FAN GONNA FIGURE WHERE ERRATA IS????
A starter set piece had a power that didn’t work at all and was clearly not playtested one whit.
But then it happened again. In the Justice League Unlimited starter set, one of the included maps’ special rules required errata.
And then it happened again with Human Torch in the Fantastic Four Cosmic Clash starter set, where his Flame Trail trait needed rewording to not harm friend as well as foe. Also, many of the included bystanders in the set required errata for their powers and team abilities to work. AND a map needed a rules rewrite.
And now it’s happening AGAIN with WizKids’ upcoming Battlegrounds starter set! An Iron Man piece has a special defense power that DOES NOT APPEAR on the actual dial, according to the visible dial on the card. (I’ve gotten word that they’re working on a solution, but it’s wild that it’s still necessary.)
It’s absolutely intolerable for even one starter set to require errata.
But here we have FOUR STRAIGHT RELEASES of them.
DO BETTER, WIZKIDS!!