Print and play a boardgame inspired by City of Heroes

[DougGraves]

I play CoX primarily as a controller, so I designed this game based on that AT.  I don't sell it, I just have it available to print and play.  It is a solo or cooperative superhero board game.   An army of villains is rushing towards city hall and you have to stop them.    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxMYou04FYt1QlJDbWdRWS1hRms

 

You play 1 of 16 superheroes.  Each has a different set of powers.  Your powers can damage, block, stop, or move around the villains.  Powers are 1, 2, ,3, and 6 - that is the amount of energy required to activate the power.  Each turn you draw 6 energy cards which you use to activate your powers.  You can play multiple cards to activate a higher energy power but you cannot use a card to activate multiple powers - so efficient energy usage is key to the game.  There are also stunt cards which can be used for energy or to modify a power when you use it - if you want to block a villain but your power does not do that you can play a block stunt card to add that to the power for that use. 

 

There are 4 villain groups: giant insects, ninjas, zombies, and robots.  Giant Insects have tough but slow villains and fast but weak villains.  Ninjas are all faster but weaker.  Zombies get slower as they take damage so you end up with a horde of slow moving zombies.  Robots have a type that powers up and shoots at you if it has a clear shot - but you can move it or its allies to take the hit for you.

 

The game plays a bit like tower defense.  It is a circular map.  Each turn more enemies appear on the edge and the enemies move in.  They move at different speeds, so prioritizing threats is vital.  You do not appear on the board.  Instead you use your powers to affect the villains on the board.  If the villains do enough damage to city hall, you lose.  New enemies stop coming after 12 turns and if you can defeat them all, you win.

 

The difficulty of the game is set by the villain cards you draw each turn.  You can have them be normal or surge.  When you draw a surge, twice as many villains come out that turn.  You choose how many surge cards to put in to set the difficulty for the game.  I can only win up to 6 or 7 surges in a game.

 

This was designed to be a solo game.  It can be played cooperative, with each player taking a turn.  With 16 heroes and 4 villain groups and varying difficulty there is a lot of replay.  And even with the same hero and villains the energy card draw and stunt cards make each turn a different puzzle for how to use your cards to survive that turn and to set yourself up for upcoming turns.