Characterisation

 You know what to expect with well-known franchise characters. I mean you expect Hellboy to be packing serious paranormal fire power with a righteous punch from the right hand of doom.  Imagine Conan going in as a hostage negotiator, you would want your money back, right. Themed board games live and die by characters having a rule set that allow them to function as they are portrayed in their respective movies, comics and books.

I was giving this some thought recently while learning to handle the attributes and skills of the multitude of characters available in Super Fantasy Brawl (SFB). With just a small hand of cards played per round a character comes to life. Ultimately you are responsible for creating a great character by the correct card combos for the correct situation whilst simultaneously pitting against an opposing hero's strength or weakness. From this a distinct personality emerges. I am trying to think of another game I have played that does this as well as SFB does. You would properly say well all Dungeon crawler type games do this. But I would argue they don't because although you become invested in a D&D character in a board game you are just part of a team and so you likely will tend to use and get called on to use your most distinct attribute. In the long run your D&D character just gets better at single known attributes. In SFB variety in attack and positioning are everything and risk and reward and failure is very personal. No other SFB team member is going to pull your chestnuts out of the fire while there is still an active enemy about. 

As I steadily paint and add the new characters to the game i am aware of just how much has gone into the making of this fine game.

New Hero to SFB, Mariusz aka The Jade Tiger.

Conan About To Open Negotiations Old School