by herojoe » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:36 pm
Well, this is old news, but Wizards was awarded the patent for constructable strategy games. In my opinion, this is a travesty of justice, not a severe one of course, but a travesty nonetheless. Wizards had made some strange CSG about the same time as Wizkids' Pirates CSG. The thing is, Wizards never released it! What's even more terrible, is that if Wizards had wanted to make a CSG, I'm sure that Wizkids would have no problem with it! It's just that Wizards wanted the patent for themselves. I wonder what idiot at the patent office let them have it. This will not effect current games, however. Wizkids can continue to make Pirates, but if they want to make any new games, they will have to pay a licensing fee, which isn't all bad, because there is not much left you could do with this genre of gaming.
What I find bad, is that instead of doing something good with the patent, they make a glorified version of rock-paper-scissors and slap the transformers onto it. Transformers had the potential to be an awesome game, but it looks like they grabbed some intern and told him to come up with a Transformers game in five days or something, only to sell a few packs to the kiddies instead of making an awesome game that lots of people buy. The design of the figures is not that good either. The figures look ok in vehicle mode, but look ridiculous in robot mode. Anyway, the reason I'm doing this crazy rant, is because I've made a huge variation to the game. It's not complete of course, and I would like to hear other opinions on this game. This is why I'm spreading the word in as many forums as possible, so if you are a member of another forum, you'll probably see this post!
Anyways, here's what I've come up with: You build an army of bots using an established point value. It will probably be beneficial to have both a robot and vehicle form for each character so you don't have to rebuild it whenever it transforms. Then you find a playing field of decent size. (yes, this stuff is common sense, but I want to cover everything. You may notice that the rules are very similar to many miniature games, but there is definitely some exclusive transformer stuff in the game.) Each figure starts the game in vehicle mode. Each figure has a speed, attack, and defense value(and maybe a range value, but to keep it simple we could just use a long range and a short range. It will be different in robot and vehicle mode. Vehicle mode will move faster and will have different attack and defense values. The movement system will probably be in inches, measured from the front in vehicle mode On each turn, you take one action with each figure, unless you transform it, then you can either atack or move then transform, or transform, then attack or move. One of the problems I have is that I don't really know how I'm going to establish the attack, defense, or range values. There are damage values on the card. Anyway, it looks like each figure has a ranged and a melee attack in both robot and vehicle mode. When you are close (I don't know exactly how close it should be) you can make a melee attack. When you are at long range (still don't know) you make a ranged attack. You roll two six-sided dice and add the roll to your attack value. It the result is above the defense of the figure you are attacking, then the attack succeeds and damage is dealt. If you roll doble sixes, then the attack automatically succeeds and the crit ability comes into play. The amount of HP you have stays the same whether you are in robot or vehicle mode. I'm thinking of adding other actions you can take besides move and attack. Maybe a repair or a ram action when you are in vehicle mode. I don't really know. Whole teams are supposed to make games, not one person like they did for the real game. (actually it was too, but who cares?) This is why I want to see your opinions!
What am I trying to gain from all this? I just want to see this game live up to it's full potential. If I spread the word enough, maybe Wizards will realize their mistake and print a transformers game like the one I have made. That would be cool, especially if they made new sets that contained figures from all across the Transformers shows that have been on throughout the years. They could even make a giant galactus style unicron figure that you have to send away for. The possibilities are many. BUT ENOUGH OF ME TALKING! Let's hear what you have to say!
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