Lets thing what would make PvP boards more diverse and creative: 1) Each board should offer an unique experience with a need of a specific playing style. 2) I would like to see more creative party builds and the boards should encourage it. 3) The boards should be about positioning with a need of constant rearrangement. (No camping on the VP once you reach it...) 4) The boards have to be balanced for more possible builds. Easthetics: +) I really like how are the rotation sets thematic. They could even form some "story" together... So we should keep an eye on a playing diversity especially amongst the boards from the same set. +) It's nice whan every board has its own small "story". I like for example what Gnizla does with his board descriptions. Every time there's a different motive to fight for the VP. So how can we achieve those points?
Possible VP distribution I think that the VP positioning is a key for playing diversity. So let's see what are the options: Single VP The character holding it is like sitting duck. Encourages nimbus, healing, blocks, bashing, tank + ranged attacks... Single VP cluster There is a room for more characters so there's no such fosuc on damaging or protecting a specific one of them. Encourages melee. Two VP (or two groups), one for each party Similar to Single VP once you reach the oposite team. But there's an interesting decision whether leaving a part of your team behind holding your VP. Encourages supporting roles. It's often better to hold your ground than attack... Three VP (one for each team and one in the middle) Holding your position isn't enough. The decision whether leaving a part of your team behind is even more interesting. "Circle" of VP (mostly 4 in many possible forms) Many creative setup possibilities. Lots of moving arround and lots of spliting and regrouping the team. Mostly encourages range and retreat strategies. Deppends if you see from one VP to the other. examples: VP web Encourages withdraws even more. There's always a VP to retreat to. Very promissing setup if you'r looking for a lot's of movement and position changes. Encourages range. example: The list is not complete for sure. Do you know of any other layouts?
You are right. The story should be self explanatory if possible. So you can look at the board and understand it...
Player starting positions Spawning points are another thing that could be used more creatively. Mostly each party starts on the oposite side of a board. All characters next to each other. But what other options do we have? Oposite sides of a board Mostly the first turn works only for getting closer to the center. For some builds it helps to get the right cards. Same side, sprinting to VP on the other side It deppends on how the board is constructed but it often offers more interaction and interesting moving decisions from the start. You don't want to show your back to the oponent. example: Back to back Both teams start next to each other divided only by some blocking terain so they can't see each other. Quite fresh setup but it has to be done right or you could easyly give an advatage to some builds (mostly melee). example: Separated party I see this one as the most controversial one. Some could object that a different starting position for each character is not balanced. But I like it and I see it as the most promising if you'r looking for a new PvP experience. You can try to gang up against one of the oponents characters or try to save one of yours... Intense play from the very start! example: Party should separate at the start You are forced to divide your forces. The question is wheather to separate the team or leave them together but than you woulden't be able to cover all the VPs.
Cool idea...I am just a bit affraid that the positioning would be a bit awkward and dull... you could be easily camping on the ground and just shooting from distance... Something similar...what about a map where every square is a VP! The strategy should be to focus on killing one character so each round you would be gaining 1 VP.
Focusing one character is already basically the strategy of Card Hunter PvP, so I'm not sure this would accomplish anything other than 'win-more' situations. I think for a league it could be quite interesting.
I think a small map would take care of that. Though it would also just perpetuate the warrior heavy strategies that already exist.
Shame is I had taken the time to build a map just for this purpose with both elements of being small and still places to run. I basically made a triangular map so at the bottom the distance was large, but it was a back-to-back spawn mid-map. Unfortunately my wife's laptop which I was using to do this had a hard drive corruption (I swear I heard the thing pop) and I lost it forever and haven't had the desire to re-try. But if I were to re-do I think I might model it after the first map of Card Stock II preview, sans VPs of course. Call it the Arena or DEATH DOME!
VP distance from spawning points It affects how much time do you have before the encounter. How far is it to the firs VP from the spawning points? The larger the distnace between a strating position and an opposing team (or VPs), the more time you have to prepare for the encounter. Some builds are more reliable and stable and can work from the first turn. Others need some time to get the right cards. In most cases the teams fully meet in turn two. First turn (before teams meet) can be used to sort out your hand a bit. That way you are not dissadvantaged if you draw a really bad cards at the start of a match. I think that the well designed boards should enable this "card sorting". But there still should be a possibility to get to the opponent even in the first turn with a more movement focused build. On the other hand it would be interesting to have a board with lets say two "sorting" rounds. In that case you can easily get rid of the weak cards and you start the match with a really strong hand. We could even start seeing builds with more unbalanced items with lets say 1-2 really strong cards for one really bad. example of more distant VPs Larger boards often favour wizards so you should be carefull not to give them too big advantage. There should always be some cover possibilities. Too distand VP could cripple dwarfs a lot. But it doesn't have to be only about distance. Clever use of difficult terain could make the same effect without knocking out those little fellas. example of using difficult terain:
