Before I share with you what everyone who came to the Owensboro regional has already seen, I want to talk about the concept behind the stat card for the unique character that was shown off today. When we started working on V-set 4, one of the things I knew needed to be done was to bring Rebels back into the game. With the advent of Bastila Shan and some other pieces, the faction as WotC designed it was pretty much done. That was even demonstrated at the tournament today, as out of 14 players, there were exactly ZERO Rebel squads. There were a handful of Republic and Old Republic squads, a Mando squad, a New Republic squad, and an Imperial squad. The final round was OR vs. Empire, but more on that in a different thread.
What matters here is the preview. In considering what could be done for the Rebel faction, I posed the question to the rest of the design team - what would the Rebels do if Darth Vader had had Advanced Battle Meditation? David Weeks summed it up best when he wrote back, "They'd go blow up the Death Star anyway because they're the Rebels." That was it, in a nutshell. In the face of overwhelming certainty of defeat, the Rebels could band together and go do what needed to be done. And that became the focus of where I wanted to take the Rebels. I started pouring over different ways to do that before settling on the concept of making the OT-centric characters the heart of the faction again. I knew that I also wanted to do it in a way that didn't simultaneously alienate existing concepts like Rieekan and Elite Rebel Commandos. Rather, I wanted to create something that encouraged Rebel play again, breathed life into the existing uniques of the faction, and didn't just supplant what was already out there.
Then the idea struck me: what if we could do something to make the old Rebel versions of certain characters more appealing? And thus began what I am not ashamed to admit was the single most heated and often times anger-filled debate of the entire V-set process. It wasn't easy convincing others about the direction, but with enough prodding and encouragement to at least test the idea - and with several compromises and revisions of the concept throughout the process - we finally settled on what became a very appealing idea to everyone involved (including me, because I was almost ready to scrap the idea completely at one point). I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope most if not all of you are as well.
So, without further adieu, I present to you:
Princess Leia, Rebel CommandoQuote:
Princess Leia, Rebel Commando
Cost 19
HP 60
DEF 15
ATK +8
DAM 10
Special Abilities
Unique
Accurate Shot [Can attack an enemy with cover even if it's not the nearest enemy]
Cunning Attack [+4 Attack and +10 Damage against an enemy who has not activated this round]
Stealth [If this character has cover, she does not count as the nearest enemy for an attacker farther than 6 squares when choosing targets]
Versatility [At the start of the skirmish, after set-up, you may replace this character with another character of an equal or lesser cost who counts as Leia. The chosen replacement gains one of this character's other special abilities. If the replacement's cost is at least 5 less than this character's cost, she also gains this character's commander effect.]
Force Powers
Force 2
Surprise Attack [Force 2; Once per round, after initiative is determined, this character can make an immediate attack]
Commander Effect
Unique Rebel allies within 6 squares get +10 Damage while this character is wounded.
The other preview was the SpecForce Technician.
Quote:
SpecForce Technician
Cost 15 Points
HP 30
DEF 14
ATK 1
DAM 10
Special Abilities
Melee Attack [Can attack only adjacent enemies]
Blaster Upgrade [Allies within 6 squares with nonmelee attacks that deal exactly 10 damage gain Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, it makes 1 extra attack against the same target)]
Munitions Supplies [Replaces turn: Choose 1 adjacent ally to gain Grenades 10 (Replaces attacks: range 6; 10 damage to target and to each character adjacent to that target; save 11) for the rest of the skirmish]
Rig Blaster [Allies within 6 squares with nonmelee attacks that deal exactly 10 damage gain Jolt (An enemy hit by this character's attack is considered activated this round; save 11. Huge and larger characters ignore this effect.)]
Stealth [If this character has cover, it does not count as the nearest enemy for an attacker farther than 6 squares when choosing targets]
"Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder."