I would like to see a kobolds, yuan-ti or an adventurers set.
But there's another factor to consider--maintaining the balance of the game. Throwing in new creatures and order cards willy-nilly could very easily lead to power-creep, where you have to keep buying to stay competitive, like MTG. IIRC they did state specifically that they didn't want to have that happen with DC.
Unfortunately there's basically no way to avoid that if you keep printing more stuff for the game. MTG's power creep is sort of intentional at this point because most people just play with recent cards and the environment constantly being in flux is part of the appeal of the game, but even if you are studiously avoiding increasing raw power on individual components, a customizable game always increases in power as you can combine more stuff. Sure, Beast Mastery making creatures from Sting of Lolth better is probably intentional, but the more components you have, the more of that stuff goes on and the less predictable it is.
Ultimately I think you probably already need every set (or at least most of them) in duplicates if you want to make the "best" currently available DC deck(s). The saving grace here is that there's enough skill in the gameplay that having a good deck doesn't trump it, but there's literally no way to avoid some kind of combination-based power inflation. Having out-of-the-box Sting of Lolth be as good as a super tuned Bugbear Combo or Priestess/Beast deck or whatever is just not possible, and the gap can only grow as more stuff comes out.
I still want them to make more, but "customizable gameplay without Magic's grind" is a great marketing phrase, while only really being possible insofar as removing collectibility lets you limit your buy-in more effectively.
Me and a friend just tried this game last night with 2 warbands he bought and we both like it alot. What disappoints me however is that for now, there isn't much to use to create or tweak your own warband. There are currently 5 faction packs available and I know you can mix them to create your own, but does anyone know if Wizards plans on selling product expansions that aren't full faction packs?
Each faction pack can be built in about 2-3 different, unique ways if you buy double (or triple) copies of the faction packs. There are also a lot of nice choice for mixing and matching, if you're not too hung up on factions (my 3x Dwarf Cleric + Skeletal Undead + Orc Cleric warband is pretty cool to play for instance).
... even if you are studiously avoiding increasing raw power on individual components, a customizable game always increases in power as you can combine more stuff. Sure, Beast Mastery making creatures from Sting of Lolth better is probably intentional, but the more components you have, the more of that stuff goes on and the less predictable it is.
... Having out-of-the-box Sting of Lolth be as good as a super tuned Bugbear Combo or Priestess/Beast deck or whatever is just not possible, and the gap can only grow as more stuff comes out.
+1 to this.
In any kind of customizable game, those with more parts to pick from will always be able to build better teams.
To think that those box sets will remain competitive over the long term is unrealistic. It is important, however, to have pre-made sets available so that a casual player can have a reasonable entry point to the game. Two friends want to play? Each picks up a box set and now they can start right away and experience all parts of the game. The problem with the old blind booster packs was that two friends could buy a couple of boosters and end up with a terrible play experience.
MtG makes those dueling pre-made decks which are really fun to play head to head but using them in competition would be pointless. While scoffed at by tournament players, they do serve an important purpose in the overall health of the game. I see the DC boxed sets in exactly the same role.
What I'm hoping is that somewhere down the road once enough boxed sets are available we'll get some randomized minis + cards booster packs. They could help flesh out everyone's options and I do love a good draft party
But the boxed sets should always be available to keep bringing in new blood.Worth noting is that you can draft Dungeon Command just fine even without randomized packs - just shuffle up some cards in the right ratio of creatures:orders and do it yourself.
What I'm hoping is that somewhere down the road once enough boxed sets are available we'll get some randomized minis + cards booster packs. They could help flesh out everyone's options and I do love a good draft party But the boxed sets should always be available to keep bringing in new blood.
No, no, no, no, no.
If they start releasing randomised boosters I know plenty of people who will basically stop buying. I personally despise not knowing what I am paying for. It's one of the main reasons I stopped playing MTG and other TCGs.
Randomised boosters just mean you have to spend an exorbitant amount to get what you want (unless you are very lucky), end up with piles of useless items that everyone has too many of and are just a way of creating a culture of "I must buy either many boosters or off ebay in order to get a competetive deck."
As it stands, even someone with only one deck can be competitive if played well. I personally only have one of each deck and frequently play someone who has four of each, and we are evenly matched.
As for drafting: we have done that. You open a box, one player picks one creature and one order, then passes it round. Ok that was for a prize rather than a competition, but you could do the same with half-as-many boxes as players, fighting with half an army (as per the two-players, one-box rules). Entry would be more expensive obviously but would avoid the problems of random boosters. (Besides a higher entry is justified if you are getting models, cards and tiles.)
If I'm playing with one other person, we each pick two boxes and build armies from those, then play a could games, then switch which boxes we're using. This is quite fun because you try a lot of different strategies.
If we have 4 people, we take turns picking creatures until we each have 12, then take turns picking orders until we each have 30 (from all five boxes). Then we each play each other once and then the top two and bottom two play to determine first second third fourth. This is quite fun too but takes a bit longer and you have to think about drafting strategy a bit more.
In the future I want one of them to get a second copy of each set so we can do the same thing but be able to have objecitvely better warbands aka it's twice as good when you have twice as many goblins in a goblin deck etc.
Randomized boosters would take away from this style of play and plus its hard to justify buying when you don't know what you're getting.
Limited form of customizability, multiple asymmetric factions.
Each faction must be well-balanced against the other factions with stock decks. This creates a very fun, thematic, and tactical skirmish game for 2+ players that will outlast the test of time.
Also, I had a chance to listen to the podcast. What I hear sounds very promising for the future. If we can get something like 12 boxes, I will be quite happy. Then we can build on top of those 12 boxes with more units along the same faction line.
How about instead of randomzed boosters, WotC released fixed booster packs? I'm thinking something like the "Living Card Game" series that FFG uses in games like "Lord of the Rings: The Card Game" and "The Game of Thrones". Every few months FFG releases a booster pack of 60 fixed cards that are very thematic.
In the case of Dungeon Command, WotC could release three minis with their creature cards, a new leader card, and 15 to 20 order cards. In a two months the next booster would come out. This would keep the price manageable and still give people something new every few months.
I really like the living card game system that FFG uses and I think DC would really benefit from this format.
I have one of each of the five boxes.
If we have 4 people, we take turns picking creatures until we each have 12, then take turns picking orders until we each have 30 (from all five boxes). Then we each play each other once and then the top two and bottom two play to determine first second third fourth. This is quite fun too but takes a bit longer and you have to think about drafting strategy a bit more.
I really like this idea because you get the fun of a draft but without randomized boosters. I absolutely love drafting so this would be an acceptable substitute. Okay, you've won me over
Death to randomized boosters. The problem I have with box sets is that we're paying extra every time for more terrain tiles and tracking tokens. I already have way more than I need.
How about instead of randomzed boosters, WotC released fixed booster packs? I'm thinking something like the "Living Card Game" series that FFG uses in games like "Lord of the Rings: The Card Game" and "The Game of Thrones". Every few months FFG releases a booster pack of 60 fixed cards that are very thematic.
In the case of Dungeon Command, WotC could release three minis with their creature cards, a new leader card, and 15 to 20 order cards. In a two months the next booster would come out. This would keep the price manageable and still give people something new every few months.
I really like the living card game system that FFG uses and I think DC would really benefit from this format.
I like this idea a lot. I don't mind spending $40 every 2 or 3 months if it's all stuff that I don't have yet...but I won't need more tiles and tokens.
Maybe one hybrid alternative to this is to alternate every 2 or 3 months: one release will be a full box (as the 5 we already have) and the next release will be a themed booster that boosts one of the factions/themes that already exist. Have a rotation like that 2 or 3 times per year and the game will stay fresh and exciting (and I think profitable!) for quite some time.
Also, how about tiles that are connectable on all 4 sides? Just look at the 5-player thread to see how difficult it is to make a fully balanced 5-person setup. It would be much easier with more tiles to choose from with different connectability.
That's a very good point. I'd be happy to see some new tiles like that too.
Also how about different settings?
Mountainside
Town
Underdark
Desert
Gameplay-wise there would probably be little-to-no difference, but it would make a nice change.
... even if you are studiously avoiding increasing raw power on individual components, a customizable game always increases in power as you can combine more stuff. Sure, Beast Mastery making creatures from Sting of Lolth better is probably intentional, but the more components you have, the more of that stuff goes on and the less predictable it is.
... Having out-of-the-box Sting of Lolth be as good as a super tuned Bugbear Combo or Priestess/Beast deck or whatever is just not possible, and the gap can only grow as more stuff comes out.
+1 to this.
In any kind of customizable game, those with more parts to pick from will always be able to build better teams.
To think that those box sets will remain competitive over the long term is unrealistic. It is important, however, to have pre-made sets available so that a casual player can have a reasonable entry point to the game. Two friends want to play? Each picks up a box set and now they can start right away and experience all parts of the game. The problem with the old blind booster packs was that two friends could buy a couple of boosters and end up with a terrible play experience.
MtG makes those dueling pre-made decks which are really fun to play head to head but using them in competition would be pointless. While scoffed at by tournament players, they do serve an important purpose in the overall health of the game. I see the DC boxed sets in exactly the same role.
What I'm hoping is that somewhere down the road once enough boxed sets are available we'll get some randomized minis + cards booster packs. They could help flesh out everyone's options and I do love a good draft party But the boxed sets should always be available to keep bringing in new blood.
No waaaaayy. Randomized boosters are the reason me and my group quit MtG. Here's an interesting fact: To make a tourney competitive deck in MtG these days, you'll have to spend at least a thousand dollars.
Plus, WotC would be cannibalizing their OWN target market with randomized DC packs.
In the case of Dungeon Command, WotC could release three minis with their creature cards, a new leader card, and 15 to 20 order cards. In a two months the next booster would come out. This would keep the price manageable and still give people something new every few months.
I would like this, as long is it's not randomized. To be honest though I don't mind getting more terrain and tokens. The terrain gives variety (although past 2 boxes it wouldn't be useful) and the tokens just stay unpunched except for my lloth ones which I got first and more recently we punched the gruumsh ones as we had two games going at once.
The problem I have with box sets is that we're paying extra every time for more terrain tiles and tracking tokens. I already have way more than I need.
How about instead of randomzed boosters, WotC released fixed booster packs? I'm thinking something like the "Living Card Game" series that FFG uses in games like "Lord of the Rings: The Card Game" and "The Game of Thrones". Every few months FFG releases a booster pack of 60 fixed cards that are very thematic.
In the case of Dungeon Command, WotC could release three minis with their creature cards, a new leader card, and 15 to 20 order cards. In a two months the next booster would come out. This would keep the price manageable and still give people something new every few months.
I really like the living card game system that FFG uses and I think DC would really benefit from this format.
I agree. Also a fan of this model, although FFG releases a bit too often for my financial taste (new expansion pack a month). Still a lot cheaper than CCG/TCG games, but still.
Also....how can you not mention "Android: Netrunner", which is in my opinion THE best game out there at the moment ;)
The problem I have with box sets is that we're paying extra every time for more terrain tiles and tracking tokens. I already have way more than I need.
How about instead of randomzed boosters, WotC released fixed booster packs? I'm thinking something like the "Living Card Game" series that FFG uses in games like "Lord of the Rings: The Card Game" and "The Game of Thrones". Every few months FFG releases a booster pack of 60 fixed cards that are very thematic.
In the case of Dungeon Command, WotC could release three minis with their creature cards, a new leader card, and 15 to 20 order cards. In a two months the next booster would come out. This would keep the price manageable and still give people something new every few months.
I really like the living card game system that FFG uses and I think DC would really benefit from this format.
I like this idea also. Non-random sets that aren't full boxes seems like a winning idea to me. Definitely want more product available in a non-random distribution format.
There is actually a huge thread of a Wish List for this game with all kinds of set ideas, as well as new mechanic ideas. You all should check it out if you haven't already. I think one of the biggest things Wizards needs to do though is improve its marketing for the game. I'd hate for the game to die just because people don't know about it.