Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
    
 | |
Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 9:37 AM |
| From mdonais
I figure I should post my response to your mail here so that everyone can benefit from it.
A bit of background first. Rob and I have worked a lot on the Design and Development of D&D miniatures and we feel that the game itself is in really good shape with the release of the new rulebook. The design of new miniatures is fairly straightforward due to hundreds of examples in the system. A new team is now working on the new sets and they have just as many people as the old teams had, so D&D minis is still getting just as much support as it always had. It is not declining. Sales are great and I expect them to continue about where they are now for a long time. Pokemon did not hurt magic sales, VS did not hurt magic sales. They existed in addition to magic and as the pokemon players left pokemon, they moved on to magic.
I think D&D minis has the friendliest community of any game I have been involved in. Everyone is relaxed and having fun at the events and playing in a D&D minis event is like seeing old friends. This is awesome. I don't know if this would have been the case if the game was giving away thousands of dollars. Certainly it wouldn't be all the same people playing.
As far as painting goes, I am not sure exactly how HFE works but Dreamblade wasn't being painted until after the most current D&D miniatures were done (the sets are 6-7 months apart). I know that Shoe is looking into the painting issues and I am sure that it will be fixed before the next set is released.
Ian made sure that the D&D Minis Championships don't overlap with the Dreamblade Championships so that you guys can play in both. I am very interested in what the DDM players think about the actual gameplay of Dreamblade. DDM has a competitive and matured audience now and I expect that the top 8 of the GenCon Dreamblade tournament to have several DDM players. The 20k is not first prize btw. It is spread out so that lots of people will end up with money. I think it goes down as far as top 64. In fact the whole point of the Dreamblade OP system is to spread out the money. Every month the 22 1k events will move around so that most people will have one nearbye fairly often.
For a lot of people DDM is the game for them. For others Dreamblade will be the game for them. They have very different OP and gameplay and are based on different themes. The game play for Dreamblade is awesome. It is the best minis game I have ever played and I encourage you all to play it a few times to get a feel for the strategy that goes on. I was going for straight forward rules so that the complexity can be in the strategy and the pieces themselves. Rob Heinsoo did an awesome job on the design and it does things that no miniature game ever published has done. Games go faster because you never count or measure line of sight. Each game is more varied because you start with different pieces in play and your units come into the game in different orders. It is hard to explain everything going on but I suspect that you guys will try it and see for yourselves. And I also suspect that you will be surprised at how much you like it.
We are talking about putting everything that you need to play up on the web as some kind of printable download. I know that a lot of you have already seen the rulebook so I expect playing a game is the next step. (This probably won't happen until much closer to release)
Anyways I wanted to start answering specific questions...
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
]Email questions from ChristopherGroves
1) What is the rarity breakdown?
2) Are the miniatures the same size as DDM / SWM?
3) How many minis may have some cross-over RPG use?
4) Will the game world be uniquely distinct?
5) Square bases?
6) Better scan of the map?
I know a number of folks are looking into mocking up a version of the game to see how it works now. The OP support alone has the attention of the more searious OP players.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) The rarities work almost exactly like D&D minis.
1 Rare, 2 uncommon, 4 common in a booster.
2) The minis are like larges. Every mini is on the same size base which is almost exactly a large DDM base except that it is square.
3) About 2/3 of the minis could be used as D&D RPG minis. The others are too weird or sci-fi to be used most likely. In really weird compaigns or D20 modern/future you could use some of that remaining 1/3rd. They are not being marketed as D&D minis though and the stats printed on the base make it a little strange at first but are easily ignored after a day or two.
4) The game world (IP) is unique and distinct. Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo are responsible for the world. Rob wrote the fiction.
5) Square bases with rounded corners yes.
6) A better scan of the map will be put up eventually (could be much closer to release date, which is right before GenCon). The game is being shown off at Gama Trade Show today, not sure if someone will post pics from that.
If people have more specific questions I am happy to answer them. I don't know exactly what I am allowed to say yet so it is probably the best time to ask me :)
--
Mike Donais
Game Developer
Wizards of the Coast | |
Triangle DDM Skirmish Group | My Email | 45-ish trades and counting | Stuff for Trade
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Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 9:51 AM |
| Mike / Rob / Jonathon / Ian / etc.
Do the figures come with stat cards?
Are the square colored bases removable?
Do the square colored bases function as stat cards?
Is there a starter set (ie, w/ the map and dice) or does each booster come with the same set of basic materials?
If there is a starter set, is the rarity / contents breakdown known at this point?
What function does the set of numbers on one side of the map serve? I'm not certain I picked that up from my read through of the rulebook.
We've already seen some miniatures with transparent / translucent pieces. What # or % of the first set will include that?
Any idea when an official message board will exist? (sniff sniff)
Do the pictures shown in the rulebook contain the entire statistics block, or are there other items / values that we're missing? (I think the answer is that the pictures show all the relevant stats)
Is there any chance some of the ... "locations" could be proxied for D&D RPG terrain? altars, thrones, portals, whatever?
Do you have any idea of the release schedule? Every four months? Every six?
Are there plans (actually in the works) to expand the existing world to other cross-branded product lines? Are you going to wait and see how it goes first, or is the current intent that this world will never become a d20 supplement, etc?
Can someone give us a glimpse as to the OP structure / format (not prize breakdown)? We know there will be constructed and limited / sealed events ... I assume there will be a draft format as well. How about other formats such as type 1/2, etc.?
Any criteria already known for seeding the local larger events? Wizard's premier stores, etc. etc.
FYI, there was a good-enough pic of the map w/ the scoring areas confirmed in the GAMA pics from GamingReport. I would expect someone to start up a Vassal mod in the very near future to start mock-playing the games. | |
Triangle DDM Skirmish Group | My Email | 45-ish trades and counting | Stuff for Trade
* * * Show your brother some love and click here * * * | |
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Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 2:42 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by ChristopherGroves
Mike / Rob / Jonathon / Ian / etc.
1) Do the figures come with stat cards?
2) Are the square colored bases removable?
3) Do the square colored bases function as stat cards?
4) Is there a starter set (ie, w/ the map and dice) or does each booster come with the same set of basic materials?
5) If there is a starter set, is the rarity / contents breakdown known at this point?
6) What function does the set of numbers on one side of the map serve? I'm not certain I picked that up from my read through of the rulebook.
7) We've already seen some miniatures with transparent / translucent pieces. What # or % of the first set will include that?
8) Any idea when an official message board will exist? (sniff sniff)
9) Do the pictures shown in the rulebook contain the entire statistics block, or are there other items / values that we're missing? (I think the answer is that the pictures show all the relevant stats)
10) Is there any chance some of the ... "locations" could be proxied for D&D RPG terrain? altars, thrones, portals, whatever?
11) Do you have any idea of the release schedule? Every four months? Every six?
12) Are there plans (actually in the works) to expand the existing world to other cross-branded product lines? Are you going to wait and see how it goes first, or is the current intent that this world will never become a d20 supplement, etc?
13) Can someone give us a glimpse as to the OP structure / format (not prize breakdown)? We know there will be constructed and limited / sealed events ... I assume there will be a draft format as well. How about other formats such as type 1/2, etc.?
14) Any criteria already known for seeding the local larger events? Wizard's premier stores, etc. etc.
15) FYI, there was a good-enough pic of the map w/ the scoring areas confirmed in the GAMA pics from GamingReport. I would expect someone to start up a Vassal mod in the very near future to start mock-playing the games.
Hi again Chris, lots of good questions...
I went through and numbered your questions so that I could reply to them easier.
1) The figures do not have stat cards. They are easier to sort and take less space this way. The topside of the base has the combat stats, costs and keywords for every special ability. The underside of the base has a sticker with combat stats, costs, expansion symbol, and longform of every special ability, and flavor text. The sticker is approximately the size of the text box on a magic card.
Picking up minis during the game to read them was a problem for hero clicks style games because you needed to know exactly where they are on the battlefield. For this game it isn't a problem because you just need to know what cell they were in and there are not many cells.
I really like not having to find and track and sort stat cards for my minis anymore. I expect that the money we save not printing a card is probably similar to the cost of the sticker + base printing.
2) The square inner bases are all black (despite pictures of them not being black). The square outer bases are all colored to match the aspect (Fear - green, Valor - blue, Madness - grey, Passion - purple). I don't want to encourage people to remove the inner base from the out base but it certainly can be done. You can either pry it out with a butter knife type tool or you could pull the sticker off and push it up (there are 2 holes in the bottom of the larger base hidden under the sticker that you could push up through).
The inner base is 1 inch by 1 inch just like a D&D grid. The outer base is 40mm (about 1.7 inch) the same size as an Ogre in D&D.
3) Yes. They have all the information you need to play the mini.
4) The SKUs are just like D&D minis. Boosters and Starters for set 1 and then just boosters for set 2, 3, 4. Set 1 is 96 (32/32/32). 8 per aspect per rarity. Set 1 is just called Dreamblade. The other sets have names.
The starter has 1 rare, 3 unc, 12 commons and a map and 8 dreamblade dice and 1 initiative die (regular d6). It also includes the rulebook and set checklist. The back of the dreamblade map is the same dreamblade map annotated with some teaching text to make it easier to learn, including a phase chart.
5) See 4.
6) Hm. There are 2 different numbered thingys on the map so I will explain both....
There is a victory track on the edge of the map. It isn't shown clearly in the pictures I saw but it runs from zero to six for each player. Each time you win a turn you advance on the victory track. The first player to win six turns wins the game.
There are some other numbers on the key cells of the map (the center 9 cells of the 25 cells. These are the conquest points you get for having an uncontested creature in the cell when the turn ends.
So you get 5 conquest points if you have a creature in the cell marked 5 (the key cell furthest from you). You only get these points if you don't have an enemy present in the same cell. Whoever has the most conquest points wins the turn and advances by 1 their victory track.
You also get 1 conquest point for each kill you make that turn.
Conquest points and Turns won are 2 different things and can be confusing at first (especially if the terminology gets mixed up). Conquest points determine who wins the turn. Once a player wins 6 turns they win the game.
7) Transparents. We have figured out how to do transparent minis for a reasonable price. D&D minis will benefit from this first as Shoe has already stated elsewhere. The blackguard in War of the Dragon Queen is a good example. Dreamblade has a few transparents like the Noble Dragon seen in the Gama photos. It looks awesome and makes me glad we are doing transparent minis. There are not that many transparent minis in either game. It is easy to over do it with transparent minis. We are learning how to use it to add to a mini rather than over do it though.
8) I have emailed a few people asking about it. The response I have so far is, "in about a week". But I still have an email in to the person that knows the exact time so I will keep you updated on that.
9) The top of the base has all the stats but it only has keywords for special abilities while the sticker on the underside of the base has the long form of those special abilities. The glossary also has the long form of most or all special abilities that appear in set 1.
10) It really depends on your D&D game. Do you need a giant that is rolled up into a ball with a door implanted in his mouth and windows in his eyes and a roof built across his back? Do you need a door with tentacles striving to escape from it? Perhaps a castle with a dragon curling about it as a moat? In general the locations are too weird and fantastic for D&D which tends to be fairly mundane in its locations. Also the scale is pretty far off on some of them. The locations have no text on the top of the base. They are wall to wall miniature. Their costs and special abilities appear on the sticker and they have no combat stats.
11) The release schedule will be similar to D&D minis. 3 or 4 months apart.
12) We talked about it a lot. Perhaps fans will stat up the monsters for D&D. I don't know of anything we are printing that crosses our brands right now.
13) Constructed will be the format for the large events for the first year. With the one exception of the 20k opening event at gencon which will be limited to keep people on even ground to start off. There is no type 1 or anything like that. The game works for sealed and draft just fine but since the warbands require 16 figures it has a fairly high price point. I expect that when people have boosters that they purchased to open anyways then they might as well play sealed or draft with them. The collation is optimized for limited play. Which I will get into later when people understand warband building more.
14) I don't have the details on this but running our other minis games and probably running magic seems like it would be the criteria. Rotating the 1ks around is really important, they won't stay in one place.
15) Awesome. Vassal seems pretty good for this. Too bad you won't get the tactile benefits like the nice sculpts and art and the stats right there on the base for easy viewing. Actually now that I mention it, vassal can do this to some extent too.
Glad to answer peoples questions. As soon as I get more info on the message boards I will post it here.
| |
Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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striderlotr
Commander
3370 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 3:08 PM |
| Mike it is great to have you on the site so much today. It is nice to get feedback like this right away so that we who crave to play all games can see more about it.
THANKS!
PS: What is clear on the new blackguard??? | |
Sean Banks
Champion of Elementals
Official Organizer
Gen Con 05 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 06 maxminis Event | Gen Con 06 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 07 Community Event | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 7:29 PM |
| Thanks for answering questions Mike!
I posted this elsewhere, but you might miss it (9 pages and all).
How long down a "tournament" game last? word is 500 people will be at the GenCon Limited tourney, that is a LOT of rounds of swiss! Is play really quick? Is it 2 out of 3 like some card games for a "win"?
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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Dagni
Sergeant
870 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 7:38 PM |
| Time limit for OP games:
I assume there will be a time limit for tournament games. Do you know what it is? I assume the tiebreaker for an unfinished game will be who has won more turns, correct?
Once time has been called, if player #1 is ahead, 4 turns won to 3, and in the middle of another turn, which he is losing, which of the following will happen?
A) Game ends, player #1 wins.
B) The current turn is finished, and after player #1 loses the turn, the game ends in a tie. (or goes to other tiebreakers?)
C) The current turn is finished, and after player #1 loses the turn, one final tiebreaker turn is played (hmm, except I guess turns can end tied as well, leading to occassional ties even this way.)
-----
Oh, for the 20k event at GenCon, which you said was Limited: what will be the number of boosters? I would assume exactly 1 starter and X boosters?
- Dagni | |
Proud member of the GRUUMSH fan club! | |
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Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/15/2006 8:42 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by striderlotr
PS: What is clear on the new blackguard???
Wait a minute, that isn't a dreamblade question...
I would love to tell you but Steve would probably burn me up if I did. I will let him give the hints.
re: Tiebreakers
We have some tiebreakers that we are testing and they are based around who is winning on turns to start, after we playtest them some more and are happy with them I we will put up OP floor rules. In the mean time if time expires then play till someone is ahead by a turn.
Re: Sealed 20k
The details aren't final but if you want to play limited you could go with 1 starter and 1 booster (23 minis) then cut it down to 16 to play with.
Re: How long is a game?
We are still testing what we need to use for a time limit. If you want to play with self imposed time limits I would do something like 50 minutes for one game.
Take Care.
| |
Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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striderlotr
Commander
3370 Posts
| | 03/16/2006 11:45 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by mdonais
quote:
Originally posted by striderlotr
PS: What is clear on the new blackguard???
Wait a minute, that isn't a dreamblade question...
I would love to tell you but Steve would probably burn me up if I did. I will let him give the hints.
re: Tiebreakers
We have some tiebreakers that we are testing and they are based around who is winning on turns to start, after we playtest them some more and are happy with them I we will put up OP floor rules. In the mean time if time expires then play till someone is ahead by a turn.
Re: Sealed 20k
The details aren't final but if you want to play limited you could go with 1 starter and 1 booster (23 minis) then cut it down to 16 to play with.
Re: How long is a game?
We are still testing what we need to use for a time limit. If you want to play with self imposed time limits I would do something like 50 minutes for one game.
Take Care.
Thanks Mike... We'll just have to wait for Shoe to drop a hint to your hint!
So the big event at Gen Con is going to be sealed? What other little bits like this can you drop us. The information so far has been great! | |
Sean Banks
Champion of Elementals
Official Organizer
Gen Con 05 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 06 maxminis Event | Gen Con 06 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 07 Community Event | |
|
Mindtrick
Warrior
234 Posts
| | 03/16/2006 1:06 PM |
| quote:
I would love to tell you but Steve would probably burn me up if I did. I will let him give the hints.
My guess? The clear part may be fire related.......
| |
**overlong signature deleted. Please see posting guidelines** | |
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Shivan Darkeyes
Warrior
266 Posts
| | 03/16/2006 3:49 PM |
| Thank you very much to take time out of your day and answer questions on the msg boards, I must admit I am excited about this new game it looks like several minis would be able to double as psuedo-natural creatures from D&D and after reading the rulebook through the competitive game looks like a blast, now on to my questions. :)
Questions:
1.) Besides tiebreaks for individual matches, has any thought been given to the tiebreaks used in the SWISS system used to determine who makes top X at the tournament? One of the major flaws of other minis games created by Wizards is that useage of MTG tiebreaks and DCI reporter software which is not designed to handle games that don't play best out of three matches. If no thought has been given to this or you are still up in the air on what system to use I might suggest using # of rounds won as the 2nd tiebreak (after opp match win record) and # of rounds opp wins as the 3rd tiebreak. This is an important question because of the sheer size of the tournments, if there are 500 people that play in the GenCon release event there will certainly be several people with the same record and the same opp win record so tiebreaks will be important especially when money is on the line.
2.) Along the same lines as the first question has thought been given to the "intentional draw" question? Creating an environment that either sanctions or prohibts the intentional draw at the very first tournament is important.
3.) In D&D miniatures games often come down to a few "key" rolls, usually on initiative, you have play-tested Dreamblade extensivly for 3 months; have you found that initiative is as critical as it is in D&D or do things like "deathstrike" and "spawn points" help to make initiative less of a factor?
4.) What can premier stores do to get 1K or even the monthly tournaments held at thier locations? (Besides have a healthy SWM, DDM, and Magic tournout) my store has 4-12 regular SWM players, 6-12 regular DDM players, and 10-24 regular magic players are these the kind of numbers that make it a good possibility for 1k tournaments?
5.) Are there any pieces that can move more than 1 space during the "shift" phase?
6.) Are there any pieces that have abilities that work against non-local enemies besides warpstrike?
7.) Are there a lot of pieces with warpstrike? I.E. is a "ranged band" possible?
8.) What did you find was the most difficult part about balancing the miniatures?
9.) Any strategy tips for us? What bands or if you can't give specifics, what "concepts" worked well during testing against other bands?
10.) I keep wanting to call your "army" a "warband" what is the technical term for your group of miniatures that you bring to the table?
Thanks in advance,
John Siadak (Shivan Darkeyes)
| |
13th Place at the 2005 DDM Championship in GenCon | |
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Mindtrick
Warrior
234 Posts
| | 03/17/2006 2:36 PM |
| I noticed in the GAMA pictures that the map/mat is made out of either rubber or plastic. Will the map provided in the DB Starter Set be this type of material or folded paper? I would assume folded paper but you know what assuming does.....
And as always, THANKS! | |
**overlong signature deleted. Please see posting guidelines** | |
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striderlotr
Commander
3370 Posts
| | 03/20/2006 8:57 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Mindtrick
I noticed in the GAMA pictures that the map/mat is made out of either rubber or plastic. Will the map provided in the DB Starter Set be this type of material or folded paper? I would assume folded paper but you know what assuming does.....
And as always, THANKS!
I don't have an official answer, but if you look at the starter and booster boxes, I'd bet it is folded paper. | |
Sean Banks
Champion of Elementals
Official Organizer
Gen Con 05 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 06 maxminis Event | Gen Con 06 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 07 Community Event | |
|
Arnminster
Warrior
296 Posts
| | 03/20/2006 10:05 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Shivan Darkeyes
10.) I keep wanting to call your "army" a "warband" what is the technical term for your group of miniatures that you bring to the table?
John,
I noticed in the rulebook that the term warband is used when describing the force that is created. | |
Champion of the Rust Monster
Proud Member of Team Amish | |
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striderlotr
Commander
3370 Posts
| | 03/21/2006 3:12 PM |
| Mike,
We were just discussing this in another thread, so I thought I would post it here for your vast knowledge to answer.
When you disrupt a creature and have to move it to an unoccupied cell, can you use the players spawn row if they are empty? I was curious about this because, if I remember correctly, in the rules it said move the disrupted figure to an unoccupied cell, if there are non available then destroy the figure. In the other thread I mentioned being forced to move a mini into a scoring cell and someone had said something about moving them into their spawn row.
Please confirm, thanks! | |
Sean Banks
Champion of Elementals
Official Organizer
Gen Con 05 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 06 maxminis Event | Gen Con 06 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 07 Community Event | |
|
Shivan Darkeyes
Warrior
266 Posts
| | 03/27/2006 8:41 PM |
| After playing a few games I have some rules related questions:
1) How do Ambush and Reinforce (valor) interact? If I have an Inspired Samurai fighting a Fleshless Reaper and I want to Reinforce using the Eaglewarrior guy does the reaper get an attack or is spawning different from "entering" a square? My guess is NO because entering a square must be from another square on the Dreamscape.
2) I think I know the answer to this already, but just for clarification: Do you get any spawn points or conquest points EVER from killing a spellbound scissors (regenerate). I would think no, but regenerate is worded a little funny.
3) Can a piece with defender (Saint of Roses) be Advanced or Squirmished into a cell with enemies in it. I would think "yes" because Defender only says "when you shift" and using these abilities is different from shifting.
4) What does dissipate do?
5) When a miniature is "banished" do you get spawn points for it? Does the opponent get conquest points from it? I would think no, but I'm not sure.
6) Loner reads: "A creature with the Loner ability can't attack when other creatures (NOTE IT doesn't say ENEMY creatures) are attacking, not even with deathblow.
Does this mean that Loner creatures cannot make deathblows ever because enemy creatures will always have attacked it that same phase when it takes damage to kill it?
7) When a creature with Fortunate 2 and power 3 attacks with a creature with power 2. Can you reroll any 2 (or 1) of the 5 dice or only the three that the creature with Fortunate 2 "attacked" with? | |
13th Place at the 2005 DDM Championship in GenCon | |
|
Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 7:54 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Shivan Darkeyes
Questions:
1.) Besides tiebreaks for individual matches, has any thought been given to the tiebreaks used in the SWISS system used to determine who makes top X at the tournament? One of the major flaws of other minis games created by Wizards is that useage of MTG tiebreaks and DCI reporter software which is not designed to handle games that don't play best out of three matches. If no thought has been given to this or you are still up in the air on what system to use I might suggest using # of rounds won as the 2nd tiebreak (after opp match win record) and # of rounds opp wins as the 3rd tiebreak. This is an important question because of the sheer size of the tournments, if there are 500 people that play in the GenCon release event there will certainly be several people with the same record and the same opp win record so tiebreaks will be important especially when money is on the line.
2.) Along the same lines as the first question has thought been given to the "intentional draw" question? Creating an environment that either sanctions or prohibts the intentional draw at the very first tournament is important.
3.) In D&D miniatures games often come down to a few "key" rolls, usually on initiative, you have play-tested Dreamblade extensivly for 3 months; have you found that initiative is as critical as it is in D&D or do things like "deathstrike" and "spawn points" help to make initiative less of a factor?
4.) What can premier stores do to get 1K or even the monthly tournaments held at thier locations? (Besides have a healthy SWM, DDM, and Magic tournout) my store has 4-12 regular SWM players, 6-12 regular DDM players, and 10-24 regular magic players are these the kind of numbers that make it a good possibility for 1k tournaments?
5.) Are there any pieces that can move more than 1 space during the "shift" phase?
6.) Are there any pieces that have abilities that work against non-local enemies besides warpstrike?
7.) Are there a lot of pieces with warpstrike? I.E. is a "ranged band" possible?
8.) What did you find was the most difficult part about balancing the miniatures?
9.) Any strategy tips for us? What bands or if you can't give specifics, what "concepts" worked well during testing against other bands?
10.) I keep wanting to call your "army" a "warband" what is the technical term for your group of miniatures that you bring to the table?
1&2) We have talked a lot about these OP questions and added some functionality to DCI reporter for our solutions. I don't want to answer these OP questions until I am sure that I know the final ones. We are currently testing what we think will be final.
3) Deathstrike reduces the importance of initiative. Bonus spawn points for losing creatures reduces the cost of losing fights. Also the fact that going second gives you the maneuvering advantage changes the importance of initiative, especially when one player is close to winning. There is still some luck in all of our games, like top decking Wrath of God in magic just before you die to creatures. Games need some to keep it fun and interesting, I suspect that dreamblade has the right amount for a lot of players.
4) This is not really my department, I will ask OP to make that information more readily avaialable. Obviously running events is important but I am not sure which ones and if there is more to it.
5) Not in the first set. But there are a lot of movement abilities in the game like advance, skirmish, lure, etc.
6) Yes, like scare for example.
7) A fair number of the warpstrikes are blade abilities which implies non-ranged combat. So I think they are more of a supplement.
8) The wacky abilities that change how the game is played are always the hardest to balance. I am seeing more and more of these each set since the basics are made available in the early sets.
9) I don't want to give any tips this early on. I suspect that these boards will have tips though.
10) Your 16 miniatures are called your warband.
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Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 7:55 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Mindtrick
I noticed in the GAMA pictures that the map/mat is made out of either rubber or plastic. Will the map provided in the DB Starter Set be this type of material or folded paper? I would assume folded paper but you know what assuming does.....
And as always, THANKS!
The real map is paper, a bit like our fantastic locations maps. | |
Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/29/2006 7:58 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by striderlotr
Mike,
We were just discussing this in another thread, so I thought I would post it here for your vast knowledge to answer.
When you disrupt a creature and have to move it to an unoccupied cell, can you use the players spawn row if they are empty? I was curious about this because, if I remember correctly, in the rules it said move the disrupted figure to an unoccupied cell, if there are non available then destroy the figure. In the other thread I mentioned being forced to move a mini into a scoring cell and someone had said something about moving them into their spawn row.
Please confirm, thanks!
This is covered in the glossary under disrupt.
You can put the creature anywhere except your own portal or an occupied cell. | |
Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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Wrackspawn
ChristopherGroves
Warlord
6093 Posts
| |
Balduran I
Sergeant
404 Posts
| | 03/30/2006 10:38 AM |
| Does a creature that is disrupted, forced to move to another cell, then destroyed because there is no legal empty cell for it to move to, get a deathblow? (Assuming everything else about the situation – proper phase, player, etc - allows a deathblow, of course.)
Thanks! | |
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Shining Knight
mdonais
Skirmisher
46 Posts
| | 03/30/2006 6:22 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Shivan Darkeyes
After playing a few games I have some rules related questions:
1) How do Ambush and Reinforce (valor) interact? If I have an Inspired Samurai fighting a Fleshless Reaper and I want to Reinforce using the Eaglewarrior guy does the reaper get an attack or is spawning different from "entering" a square? My guess is NO because entering a square must be from another square on the Dreamscape.
2) I think I know the answer to this already, but just for clarification: Do you get any spawn points or conquest points EVER from killing a spellbound scissors (regenerate). I would think no, but regenerate is worded a little funny.
3) Can a piece with defender (Saint of Roses) be Advanced or Squirmished into a cell with enemies in it. I would think "yes" because Defender only says "when you shift" and using these abilities is different from shifting.
4) What does dissipate do?
5) When a miniature is "banished" do you get spawn points for it? Does the opponent get conquest points from it? I would think no, but I'm not sure.
6) Loner reads: "A creature with the Loner ability can't attack when other creatures (NOTE IT doesn't say ENEMY creatures) are attacking, not even with deathblow.
Does this mean that Loner creatures cannot make deathblows ever because enemy creatures will always have attacked it that same phase when it takes damage to kill it?
7) When a creature with Fortunate 2 and power 3 attacks with a creature with power 2. Can you reroll any 2 (or 1) of the 5 dice or only the three that the creature with Fortunate 2 "attacked" with?
1) Your guess is correct. This is covered in the glossary under 'enter'.
2) No points for regeneraters.
3) Yes.
4) Well sure, B: Dissipate — Target opponent disrupts this creature.
5) You receive no spawn points and no conquest points for banished creatures.
6) Loner's can still make death blows. If a loner and another creature die from the same attack, only one of those two can make a deathblow.
7) Attacks always combine dice together so you can reroll any of the dice used in the combined attack. | |
Mike Donais
WotC R&D | |
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striderlotr
Commander
3370 Posts
| | 03/31/2006 9:21 AM |
| Mike, thanks for all the clarifications. It is really nice having you here to answer so many of our questions. I would guess that we will be the most prepared once this game hits the shelves.
Thanks! | |
Sean Banks
Champion of Elementals
Official Organizer
Gen Con 05 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 06 maxminis Event | Gen Con 06 maxminis Event | Winterfantasy 07 Community Event | |
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Shivan Darkeyes
Warrior
266 Posts
| | 05/19/2006 2:35 PM |
| TCGPlayer is doing another question and answer session with the designers where the readers can submit questions, for those of you that are interested you can go here: http://dreamblade.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=783
to submit a question. | |
13th Place at the 2005 DDM Championship in GenCon | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 06/23/2006 9:40 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Shivan Darkeyes
TCGPlayer is doing another question and answer session with the designers where the readers can submit questions, for those of you that are interested you can go here: http://dreamblade.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=783
to submit a question.
Heh... Lets keep the questions here! I can't keep track of 10 sites to get this squared up...
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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XAos
Underboss
2395 Posts
London
| | 07/25/2006 10:55 AM |
| A couple of questions on Greenlife Dryad.
Both are about when the "scoreing cell" condition is evaluated.
1) Is it evaluated at the start of the spawn phase, for both players ? Or at the start of each players spawn phase seperatly ?
i.e. If my dryad starts the turn on a scoreing cell. And I win initiative. I clearly gain the 3 spawn points. But can I prevent my opponent gaining 3 by moveing it out of the scoreing cell (e.g. with pearlthorn castle) before the start of my opponents spawn phase.
2) Does it matter which players scoreing cell it's in ? Most abilities which require being in a scoreing cell only affect one player. So it's obvious who's scoreing cells it's refering to. The Dryad gives 3 spawn points to each player. So if it's in one of my far row scoreingcells (e.g. the 4vp one) does my opponent stil gain spawn points ? Or would they only gain spawn points if it was in one of their scoreing cells ? | |
Don't worry about the current metagame. It doesn't matter if it's ugly, bad, or the best ever. In 2 years time, set rotation will ban everything. | |
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