Talk:Rumble Print and Play

General feedback

Some feedback based on powers included here:-

• We should look at each power and consider natural questions that would arise from novice players, and reword the power to head them off. eg:
  • Air Strike's "Spend X: Deal X damage to each player." suggests two obvious questions - "is that damage blockable?" and "why wouldn't you use this all the time instead of attacking normally?"
  • Charged Lazer: "Do I get double attacks in Round 1?"
  • Technical Training: "The cost I pay for winning the power?"
  • Pseudonite: "Including itself? That's weird."
• We should maybe decide what a regular attack is, thematically, in the game, and apply that consistently. (Not explaining that in the rules, but using it as a style guide for the example powers.) "Charged Lazer" feels a little bit off to me, for modifying regular attacks, yet being a projectile: on some level I think of a regular attack as being a straightforward punch - and I think other powers back that up: it makes sense for Flight, Reflex Training and Plastic Ooze to affect someone trying to punch me, but should they affect someone firing a Lazer at me?
• Should maybe avoid randomness, to emphasise that Rumble is primarily a game of pure decision and bluffing. (It only comes up as a tiebreaker in Lightning Strike, but could be avoided there.)
• Maybe drop Flaws? There's only one here, and they need a lot of explanation. (I suppose two if you count Blood Rage, which is also confusing for presenting two different ways to make a negative power.)
• Similarly, Sidekick only comes up once, and needs a lot of supporting explanation.
• Would also be fine for Cloned Sidekick to just be a vanilla 50-Energy Sidekick, though, if we want one in there.
• Power Strength could be MtG-style reminder text that wouldn't even need to be mentioned in the rules: "Any attack against you that is less than Ninja Training's power strength is negated. (A Power's Power Strength is the amount its owner paid for it.)"
• Should avoid or simplify complex powers, particularly those that have an aspect whose purpose isn't immediately obvious. (eg. Combat Roll's "discard if")
• Elastic Limbs needs to say when you do the reassigning.
• Should avoid having cards which talk about keywords which may not be in any given game (eg. Hyper Immune System, which could be worded to avoid having to namecheck Burn).
• Plague is slightly unsuited to tabletop play since you'd have to track a "copy" existing.
• Should avoid wording the same thing twice in different ways, implying there's a difference when there isn't (eg. Orange Brick Skin and Reflex Training).
• Should maybe avoid pairs of powers where one is just a better version of the other (Orange Brick Skin vs Ice Shield), as that looks like sloppy game design. Although I guess the whole point of Rumble is that that's fine when it happens.
• Specific superhero references ("Orange Brick Skin") might be better if made more generic ("Tough Skin"), so that players can make different pre-existing superheroes out of them. Part of the fun of Rumble is deciding who you are based on what you won (or what funny combos you spot on the table during bidding, even if they never happen), and very specific power names reduce those options.

And a question:

• Is "Aspect" something you'd put on the card, or just for our design reference? It does make the game sound a lot more complicated and keyworded than it actually is. --Kevan (talk) 12:57, 20 November 2020 (UTC)