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From Panel To Play: Black Cat

CP37 Black Cat

They say it is bad luck when a black cat crosses your path. Well, the subject of today’s From Panel to Play is living proof!

Felicia Hardy, daughter of an infamous cat burglar, initially used her athletic prowess to follow her father’s example in a life of crime as the Black Cat. When she wasn’t stealing priceless art or heisting a fortune in jewels, she enjoyed toying with Spider-Man. Despite standing on the opposite side of the law, Black Cat allied with Spider-Man against common foes, helping him to combat villains like the Kingpin and Doctor Octopus.

Never satisfied with her abilities, Black Cat was envious of those with great powers. She made a deal with Wilson Fisk in order to gain superpowers of her own, which let her inflict bad luck on those around her. Now, Black Cat struggles between her criminal and heroic natures, making her an unpredictable piece of New York’s superpowered scene and a bad cat to have cross your path.

A cat always lands on its feet. At least we hope so, otherwise Black Cat’s impressive mid-combat back flip is going to be a problem! Pushing a miniature’s ability to depict motion and agility, Black Cat is captured in the moment she’s leaping over a stupefied and unlucky mook’s head. Astute observers will notice the bit of webbing clinging to the girder she’s using as a springboard. It is a fun touch, because it is appropriate if Spider-Man is allied with Black Cat, but can also suggest she’s just dodged away from a web shot if she and Parker are on different sides of a crisis.

Felicia Hardy is a tricky cat to pin down. On the tabletop, she has numerous abilities to get her into—and out of—trouble. With an emphasis on evasion, a sprinkling of good old-fashioned robbery, and the ability to turn her foe’s luck bad, Black Cat is a troublemaker you’ll want to have on your side of a crisis.

Black Cat isn’t what you’d call a heavy hitter. She can ruin somebody’s day with a rake of her Cat’s Claws thanks to the Pierce special rule, but she isn’t on the team to dish out damage. This is proven by her Troublemaker attack, which lets her leave a target dazed and confused as she backflips away to safety. Though it hits at Strength 6, Troublemaker actually trades in the potential to deal damage for interesting special rules and effects. When it lands, Troublemaker is limited to a single point of damage, but leaves the target Staggered and lets Black Cat make a short advance thanks to the Elusive special rule. Bye, Felicia!

That’s not the only tricky way Black Cat can move around. No self-respecting cat burglar would be caught without a way to get to Wilson Fisk’s penthouse (that’s where he keeps all the good stuff), so Black Cat brings a nifty grappling hook. For 2 Power she can shoot a line to anywhere within Range 2 and reel herself in. It’s perfect for accessing open windows or getting clear of the path of a charging Venom.

Backflips and ziplines are fun and all, but Black Cat can also help immensely during a crisis by practicing the family business—larceny. Swooping in out of nowhere, she can steal whatever bit of world-threatening menace her opponents have conveniently collected for her. The Master Cat Burglar active superpower lets Black Cat pay 3 Power to pilfer an asset or civilian token from an enemy in Range 1.

The ability to steal assets (and victory points) is likely to paint a large target on her back. Fortunately for her, people that cross this Black Cat’s path tend to run a streak of bad luck: their bullets end up being duds, their punches miss the mark, and things just don’t go their way. The Bad Luck innate superpower reflects this, preventing attackers who target Black Cat from modifying their attack rolls.

That’s all for our look at Black Cat. Check back next time when we dive in with a closer look at yet another character for Marvel: Crisis Protocol!

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

From Panel To Play: Scarlet Witch

CP63 Scarlet Witch

What do you get when you take the daughter of a powerful sorceress, subject her to unethical genetic experiments, and mark her as the vessel of an elder god with one eye on stepping into the mortal world? You get Scarlet Witch, that’s what!

Along with her twin brother Pietro, Wanda Maximoff was abducted at a young age by the High Evolutionary and subjected to unrestricted experimentation. Wanda is the Scarlet Witch, possessing the power to alter reality and receptive to magical energy as a powerful sorceress. The mutant Magneto rescued the pair from a group of humans intent to do them harm and brought them into the fold of his Brotherhood of Mutants. After ending her time in the Brotherhood, Scarlet Witch has served with numerous teams of powered individuals.

Scarlet Witch’s miniature rises from the earth within a crackling storm of chaotic, magical energy. Wearing her iconic red costume and distinctive headpiece, she is a striking figure on the tabletop, and the intricate pattern of magic surrounding her gives her a dramatic punch that’s hard to beat.

Scarlet Witch brings a little bit of chaos to her opponents in a game of Marvel: Crisis Protocol. With multiple opportunities to impose special conditions on the opposing force, and powers that make it hard for an enemy to shake those conditions, Scarlet Witch can be a potent controller in your roster.

As you might expect, both of Scarlet Witch’s attacks are mystic. They have decent ranges and above-average Strength, but what makes them stand out is the special rules representing the forces of reality manipulation and chaos magic Scarlet Witch can command. Her basic Hex Bolt attack is a great example. Hitting at Strength 6, Wanda weaves a bit of debilitating chaos to hex her enemies with the Chaos Magic special rule. For each failure in her attack roll, her target suffers from a list of different special conditions. This ability to impose multiple special conditions is just one of the various tools in Scarlet Witch’s arcane arsenal.

Her attacks aren’t the only place where Scarlet Witch does new and exciting things with her dice. The Elder God Chthon selected the young Wanda Maximoff to be a vessel of his power on Earth, which bestows her with unique and potent capabilities. The Chosen of Chthon innate superpower allows Wanda to add failures to her rolls when attacking, defending, or dodging. She literally alters the probability of success in her favor (to the tune of about 12 percent per die)!

There’s a whole lot more in Wanda’s suite of superpowers, including an ability that prevents enemies from removing certain special conditions while they’re in proximity to her, the ability to soar above the battlefield, and more, but that’s all we have time for today.

Be sure to check back for yet another installment of From Panel to Play, the series where we give you your first look at how your favorite characters transition to the tabletop in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order your own copy of the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver Character Pack at your local game store or through our webstore here.

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

Team Tactics Talk: Cable & Domino

CP47 Cable & Domino

Cable and Domino bring all-new tactics to the battlefields of Marvel: Crisis Protocol with four Team Tactics cards. The tactics in this character expansion pack emphasize the X-Force as a fast and flexible team, able to respond to a crisis and opposing force with swift action.

The first tactic in the set, Cat and Mouse, demonstrates the unpredictability of fighting against the X-Force. They are a small and elite team strengthened by the combat experience of members like Deadpool and Cable, as well as the cunning and unpredictability of Domino and, well, Deadpool. This tactic allows you to choose one member of the X-Force after all the characters have been deployed and reposition the chosen character anywhere within Range 2 of its current position before the start of the game.

This tactic has numerous uses to give you an advantage before the first turn of the game. You can use it in a straightforward way, as a kind of advance-deployment to bring you closer to a valuable objective, but you can also use it to psych out your opponent, offering them a matchup that favors one of their characters before pulling your character back to a better position. It also lets you be reactive, bolstering your position after seeing who your opponent places where and countering with a strong character of your own.

The next tactic, Dirty Work, is another one for the X-Force affiliation and shows how the members of this particular team are willing to get their hands dirty in order to overcome a crisis and defeat their opponents—particularly opponents who represent the greatest threat. Any member of the X-Force can pay 3 Power to play this card and mark the enemy character with the highest Threat. If the team can daze or KO the marked target before the end of the round, every member of the X-Force gains 2 Power as a reward.

Dirty Work is a useful tactic as a Power booster. Since the number of attack dice usually outweighs a character’s potential defense dice, focusing fire on a single target is often going to take that target out. When combined with Power generating attacks, your whole crisis team can comfortably build up the resources you need for a massive follow-up round.

The third tactic in the Cable & Domino Character Pack, Warpath, is an Unaffiliated tactic that perfectly suits characters like Cable, who shrugs off enemy attacks on his unstoppable advance. When a character suffers damage from an enemy attack, it can pay 1 Power to play this tactic and make a Short advance toward the attacking character.

Warpath is a solid reactive tactic. With it, you can pull a character in close for a counterattack, close the distance on an enemy who is foolish enough to damage you. Even better, since the tactic is Unaffiliated you can pair it with characters who can shrug off a bit of damage like Wolverine or Sabretooth, whose Healing Factor can put their health back into a safe position as they come within striking range.

That’s it for our look at the tactics in the Cable and Domino character expansion pack. Remember that you can preorder the expansion at your local gaming store, or through our webstore.

Until next time, this is Atomic Mass Games, signing off!

From Panel To Play: Domino

CP47 Domino

Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? The subject of today’s From Panel to Play is the only person who can always answer that question with, “Yes. Always.” We’re talking about Domino!

The outcome of a failed attempt by Project Armageddon to create a super-soldier, Neena Thurman makes her own luck as the sharpshooting soldier-for-hire named Domino. The only survivor of Project Armageddon, Domino has the innate ability to manipulate probability in her favor through subtle and unconscious kinetic phenomena. Her makers failed to comprehend the usefulness of her “good luck” and wrote her off as a failure.

Domino paved her own way forward as a mercenary, eventually joining groups like the Six Pack, the NSA, A.I.M, and X-Force. A skilled markswoman and her own lucky charm, Domino brings fortune to those who fight by her side—and chaos to all who confront her.

Domino rides onto the tabletop on a piece of flying debris. Representing her ability to turn luck to her side, the shockwave of an explosion propels the ground under her feet toward her next objective. And she is ready. Dual-wielding automatic pistols, she’s prepared to face down anything the opponent can throw at her. After all, things tend to go her way.

On the tabletop, Domino has multiple ways of swinging the odds in her favor. Her probability-manipulating powers are represented in numerous methods of messing with the dice and outcomes of her and her opponent’s attacks.

Of course, she needed some good old-fashioned firepower first and foremost. She is a world-class mercenary, after all. In addition to a pair of automatic pistols and a bunch of grenades—which always seem to bounce right where she needs them to be—Domino has an interesting attack, Lucky Shot. This attack is the golden bullet that strikes her target precisely where it’s weakest. In addition to being 2 Strength higher than her standard shots, Lucky Shot deals energy damage, her target can’t gain Power from the damage it takes, and if the attack produces at least one wild result, the target gains the Stun special condition.

To make sure that she’ll land her Lucky Shots and stick around long enough to use a whole bunch of them, Domino has two powers representing her unconscious manipulation of the world around her. Probability Manipulation is a reactive superpower Domino can use any time she rolls attack, defense, or dodge dice to spend any amount of Power to convert failures to criticals.

Her other power, an innate superpower called Things Tend to Go My Way, represents some of Domino’s wild good luck: explosions throwing her clear of attacks turning a sure shot into a near miss, a target tripping into the path of her oncoming bullets, that sort of thing. When she is attacking or defending, enemy characters do not roll additional dice for their critical results.

Though Domino’s luck might never run out, it seems like our time to talk about her has. Make sure you pre-order your copy of the Domino & Cable Character Pack from your local gaming store or our webstore today! And be sure to check back for the next installment of From Panel to Play when we look at another of your favorite characters.

Until then, this is Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

Team Tactics Talk: Crystal & Lockjaw

CP35 Crystal & Lockjaw

While Black Bolt and Medusa bring all the might and majesty of the Inhuman royal family to Marvel: Crisis Protocol, the Crystal and Lockjaw character expansion adds the power of the elements—as well as a chunky slobber monster who’s always on the lookout for his friends.

The character expansion includes two Team Tactics cards, both of which are Unaffiliated cards that specifically deal with the unusual powers of the princess and her oversized companion.

Elemental Infusion allows Crystal to add her mastery of the elements to her allies’ strikes. She wreathes their fists in flame, guides their projectiles to maximum effect by manipulating the winds, buffets them with torrents of water, or causes the ground to cling to their feet. When you play this Active tactic, Crystal can pay 2 Power to infuse her allies’ attacks. Until Crystal is dazed, or until the end of the round, whenever an enemy within Range 3 of Crystal suffers damage from an allied attack (be it a bundle of webbing, a thrown dumpster, or anything else) after the attack is resolved, Crystal’s elemental powers take effect, letting you choose a special condition to inflict from Incinerate, Stun, or Slow.

Elemental Infusion is a versatile tactic that allows you to tailor your response to the battlefield situation. If Crystal is front-and-center with your opponent’s force, she might be able to catch a whole enemy roster with a special condition!

Of course, being up in the front lines will make Crystal an attractive target for the enemy force. Fortunately, wherever she goes, 1,240 pounds of good boy goes with her. Lockjaw is a dedicated protector who wouldn’t let his mistress come to harm, and this dog has a few tricks he can use to bail her (or anyone else) out of the fire.

Last-Minute Save is an Unaffiliated Reactive tactic that lets Lockjaw pull one of his allies out of a bad situation. When an ally within Range 3 of Lockjaw would be KO’d, he can spend 3 power to teleport the ally away before the final blow can land. The target allied character removes 1 damage, isn’t KO’d, and is placed within Range 1 of Lockjaw; no doubt to be greeted with the sloppiest puppy kisses the big boy can muster.

Last-Minute Save is a reactive defensive measure, allowing you to pull a character back from the brink and potentially get another activation in before they get KO’d, or until you can figure out a way to get a Field Dressing or Medpack on their wounds. Lockjaw may look like an overstuffed bulldog, but with the kind of rescues he’s going to pull off, maybe he’s got a bit of Saint Bernard in him too?

That’s all for Crystal and Lockjaw’s Team Tactics. We’ll be back with even more discussion of Team Tactics cards in another Transmission.

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

From Panel To Play: Crystal

CP35 Crystal

Sure, princesses are great. But princesses who can manipulate the environment on a molecular level to produce raging infernos and maelstroms? They’re just better. This time in From Panel to Play, we’re taking a closer look at another member of the Inhuman Royal Family, Crystal.

Crystalia Amaquelin is the younger sister of the Inhuman Medusa and a part of the Inhuman Royal family. Her exposure to the Terrigen Mists as an infant allows Crystal to manipulate the four classical elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. She can summon the winds of a Category 3 hurricane, generate earthquake tremors of nearly 7 on the Richter scale, manipulate thousands of gallons of water, mold fire to burn, or protect, who she desires, among many other applications of her extraordinary abilities.

Of all the Inhumans, Crystal has the most sturdy bond with humanity. She spent much time among Earth’s people, partnering with terrestrial heroes on multiple occasions, like when she joined the Avengers to destroy Onslaught’s menace. Crystal’s rapport with humans led to Medusa appointing her as an ambassador of the Inhuman people. In this role, she helps with humanitarian efforts and oversight of regions threatened by the Terrigen Mists.

Crystal’s miniature is dramatic and full of intensity. She stands poised atop stones she has lifted from the earth, simultaneously sending out a wave of water to overwhelm her foes and holding a fist full of fire, just in case. She captures the sense of potential energy about to be unleashed in a torrent of elemental might.

Translating Crystal to the tabletop was a fun challenge. After all, she’s not just an Inhuman, but an Inhuman who can wield four distinct elemental powers as weapons. What is a humble developer to do? We couldn’t just give her four different attacks, each with their own unique special rules to reflect her incredible array of powers, right?

Nah, I was just kidding. That’s what happened.

Crystal has four unique attacks for her different elemental powers. All of them have a remarkable effect if the attack roll has any wilds, like pushing a target with a gust of hurricane-force wind or lighting it on fire with a bit of volcanic fire. Her attacks have a mix of different ranges, powers, and damage types, letting Crystal tailor her strikes to the current circumstances and her target.

Making things even better, Crystal’s mastery of her powers allows her to unleash a torrent of elemental fury. The Elemental Onslaught active power enables her to follow up one attack with another, though she can’t use one of the attacks she’s already used that turn. She’ll have to diversify her powers!

There’s more to say about how Crystal can make the lingering effects of her attacks stick around or use her innate Inhuman power to a better result, but that will be all for our first look at this particular inhuman.

Check back for our next installment, when we examine another of your favorite characters as they jump onto the table in Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

Until then, this is Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off.

Team Tactics Talk: Black Bolt & Medusa

CP34 Black Bolt & Medusa

The Inhumans are a tight-knit group of heroes. You could almost say they’re a family! With that closeness, they have developed some tactics to maximize their strengths in the face of a crisis.

As the king and queen of the Inhumans, Black Bolt and Medusa bring a considerable number of tactics into the field. The Black Bolt and Medusa character expansion includes four cards representing the Inhumans’ tremendous physical power and strategic might.

Attilan Rising calls back to the many times the Inhumans have suffered setbacks over the years. From its original home in the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayas, to the Blue Area of Earth’s moon, the inhuman city of Attilan has been forced to relocate time and again. But the Inhumans have always risen to the challenge, no matter how dire. This tactic can be played by any injured Inhuman, giving 1 Power to each Inhuman character for each allied injured Inhuman.

Inhuman Royal Family is a useful card when you have the Power to spend and want to clinch victory, or if one or more of your valuable Inhuman characters is facing down a strike from a powerful opponent. When you use this tactic, any Inhuman character in your crisis team can spend 2 Power. Anyone who spent Power can reroll any number of dice in one attack or defense roll during the round. Best used early in a round, this tactic demonstrates the House of Agon’s pure might.

All Inhumans gain their unique powers from the Terrigen Mists through a process called Terrigenesis. Terrigenesis can awaken the abilities in normal humans, and in addition to empowering the House of Agon was responsible for creating heroes like Ms. Marvel. This unique tactic allows an Inhuman character to pay 3 Power and target an opponent within Range 3 holding a Civilian token. The civilian undergoes a sudden transformation, unleashing their newfound power against the character holding the token. You roll 4 dice, dealing 1 damage to the target character for each critical, wild, or hit in the roll. If this damage Dazes or KO’s the target, you also score 2 VP, a suitable reward for awakening a new Inhuman!

Lastly, Bitter Rivals is the sole Unaffiliated tactic in the character expansion. A hostile opposition isn’t the exclusive purview of the Inhuman royal family, after all! Bitter Rivals allows any character to call out an opponent, distracting them from supporting their teammates and weakening the whole team as a result. For 3 Power, any character who plays this tactic can choose an enemy character within Range 3. Until the end of the round, other enemies within Range 3 of the target roll 1 fewer die in both attack and defense rolls. On its own, this is a potent debuff, but when combined with some of the stronger attacks available to characters like Black Bolt, this can be devastating.

That’s all for the first batch of the excellent tactics the Inhumans bring to the battlefield. We’ll be back with even more discussion of Team Tactics cards in another Transmission.

Until then, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!

From Panel To Play: Medusa

CP34 Medusa

Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Terragenesis. Well, canonically, it’s Terragenesis. This time in From Panel to Play, we’re taking a look at the person whose ponytail has a kick like a mule, Medusa!

Like all Inhumans, Medusa gained her incredible powers through Terragenesis. Exposure to the Terragen mists enhanced her physical strength, stamina, and reflexes, giving her extraordinary ability to her hair. Every strand of Medusa’s hair is like an appendage that she can mentally control. Minute psionic forces across her hair give it the strength to lift tons of weight, bind captives of enhanced physical strength, or lash out like a whip faster than sound.

Among the Inhumans, Medusa is royalty. She is the wife of Black Bolt and acts as his interpreter, but is herself a master of statecraft. Like her husband, Medusa looks for a way to maintain peace between humans and the Inhumans but must also fight to protect her people. Medusa has joined forces with the Avengers of Earth and even Ronan the Accuser in her never-ending crusade to keep the Inhumans safe.

Medusa is a stand-out figure on the tabletop due to her superpowered hair’s dynamic nature and volume. It literally holds her off the ground with its complex and organic curves. Her hair has a fine texture sculpted in that painters can spend time blending and highlighting to make pop, but also looks great with a simple dry brush technique.

As you might expect, on the tabletop, Medusa uses her Inhuman physiology and unusual hair to significant effect. Her basic attack pummels a target with her mighty mane, battering her foe into submission with a whirlwind of luxurious locks. Braid Bash is a Strength 5 attack with the ability to knock a damaged target reeling. Like any good headbanger, Medusa can whip her hair in a veritable cyclone, so Braid Bash also has the potential to trigger Flurry, which allows her to make a followup Braid Bash attack.

Of course, Medusa’s hair isn’t limited to just whipping people in the face. She can also use it defensively, like thousands of super-strong tendrils that knock aside enemy strikes and impede her foes’ advance. The innate power Living Strands prevents an advancing or climbing enemy from overlapping Medusa with the movement tool, and enemies cannot change or reroll their attack dice when they target her with an attack.

Medusa is more than just her hair, though, and has other powers to reflect her inhuman physiology and the authority she wields as the queen of her people, but unfortunately, we are out of time for now. Be sure to check back for our next installment, when we examine another of your favorite characters as they jump onto the table in Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

Until then, this is Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off.