From Panel to Play: Squirrel Girl

CP137Squirrel Girl

For the topic of today’s From Panel to Play, it’s all about eating nuts and kicking butts. Tippy-Toe over here and listen in for a sneak peek at this unassuming Super Hero. She’s taken on a wide variety of enemies from the local muggers in the park to Doctor Doom and even Thanos himself; it’s Doreen Green, better known as Squirrel Girl!

Doreen Green started off with a relatively normal, average-joe type of life. In her early teens, however, she suddenly found herself developing squirrel-like features and powers. With a new set of buck teeth and a bushy tail, the first assumption might have been a latent mutant gene; but doctors claim that isn’t the source of her changes. Never one to let life get her down, she decided to make the best of the situation and dubbed herself the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! After stumbling into an early team-up with Iron Man himself, she took this early success as a springboard to start her crime-fighting career.

But before we lose ourselves in the forest of history, let’s take a look at how this character’s spunk has been translated to the tabletop!

We see one of the most formidable gifts from her transformation evident in the first attack this character has. The Knuckle Spike Strike is one of her most dangerous hand-to-hand weapons available and comes in at a respectable Range 3 and Strength 5. Not only will this attack allow her to gain Power equal to the Damage she deals, it also helps represent her extreme mobility and acrobatic gifts. When she rolls a Wild during the, she launches herself forward and Places within Range 1 of the target character, getting right up in their business.

When she is really in trouble though, she opts to literally bury her opponent in an Army of Squirrels. This Range 4 attack only costs a mere 2 Power and hits with a Strength of 6. Do I hear you scoffing at the idea of being attacked by squirrels? Don’t let their small size fool you; when they sink their teeth into you, they are sure to leave behind the Bleed and Stun special conditions. You may even find that when she manages to summon a true horde of them (by rolling a wild!), this avalanche of squirrels can Push up to size 3 characters Short.

Now that we’ve gotten the rough and tumble stuff out of the way, let’s talk about her ever-present companion: Tippy-Toe the squirrel! Squirrel Girl’s first superpower represents her connection to her companion squirrels, the irreplaceable sidekicks in her life. Tippy-Toe Takedown! allows Squirrel Girl to spend Power equal to an enemy character’s Threat Value in order to place the Tippy-Toe token on that character. The distracting presence of her faithful companion is going to complicate the enemy’s life in innumerable ways, ensuring that they don’t get to add Critical results to their successes in attack, defense, or dodge rolls AND they don’t get to add additional dice to those rolls as a result of those Criticals. Take that, evil-doers!

Her next superpower is a reactive superpower called Tippy Come Back! This superpower doesn’t cost her any power to use and it allows her to Move her Tippy-Toe token back to herself from anywhere. Why would you want to call Tippy-Toe back do you ask? Well…

Squirrelese is the answer! Squirrelese breaks down some of the nitty-gritty details of how the Tippy-Toe token works, which we’ll let you dig into yourself, but allow us to highlight the most interesting bit. When Squirrel Girl herself has her Tippy-Toe token, it allows her to reroll up to two of her dice when making attack, defense, or dodge rolls. Not only can he distract the opponent when up close and personal, he can distract them from afar as he dodges, ducks, dips, and dives around Doreen.

And if you’ve made it this far into a squirrel-tastic card reading, I’m sure you’re familiar with the beasts. You know how squirrels can get into just about anything, anywhere, right? This is represented on the tabletop by her Innate superpower Wallcrawler, which allows her to scamper along almost any piece of terrain. You can’t slow this superhero down!

It’s not always sunshine and roses for Doreen, no matter how high she keeps her chin up. Sometimes life comes at her fast, and she ends up on the Injured side of her card. When that happens, the friendships she’s made along the way start really paying off. Tippy takes it a little personal when Doreen isn’t feeling well, and seems a little less tame and fluffy than he once did! No longer responding to Tippy, Come Back!, Squirrel Girl’s faithful companion is ready to put his tiny body between Doreen and all that might wish her harm. Guardian Squirrel now comes into play, an Innate superpower that allows Tippy (if he isn’t away gnawing on foes) to valiantly deflect a critical blow. Rather than be KO’d, Squirrel Girl shifts Range 2 and loses the use of her heroic Tippy for the rest of the game. (Don’t worry, he’ll be back next game. Squirrels always find a way.)

Make sure to clean up any peanut shells you may have left behind, as this is the end of today’s look at Squirrel Girl. Be sure to check back later 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 copy of the Squirrel Girl & Gwenpool character pack at your local game store or through the webstore today.