Friday 5 May 2017

Who Will Save Us Now? Watchmen 'Homebrew' Update (BMG)

I like the Knight Models' Watchmen minis (missing detail on Nite Owl aside!), but found them somewhat lacking on the table (only one run out mind you, so hardly cast-iron evidence - I will accept!), a view which seems shared by many. Basically the game has moved on but Knight have never really addressed updating the Watchmen despite several recent opportunities.

Well it turns out that Knight can no longer produce the Watchmen - by which I take as the movie incarnations as the movie rights are a somewhat messy affair; Knight are not saying why they cannot produce them, just that they cannot do so.

So what to do with an underwhelming crew? Homebrew update of course! Several years working on a supers-based minis game has taught me that it is better to be cautious as it is easy to make things 'over-powered'. As a consequence I approached my personal update with a simple rule of thumb - each character got one new Trait, no more, and two characters each got a single Ammo weapon. Then it was a case of dusting off my GiMP skills to produce some cards - the downside meant retaining a certain level of Spanglish that was inherent on the source cards.

The Updates and Why I Chose Them
Working through in some kind of order:



Comedian - he had a hefty array of Traits as-was, and his greatest weakness was his relatively low Defense for a character of his Reputation value. I added Undercover to reflect that he stumbled on to Ozymandias' plan to an extent, was at the Kennedy assassination, may have murdered Hooded Justice and was generally very good at sneaking around as a special ops and spy. To cap this off I added a tear gas grenade which he is seen firing during the 1977 riots in the movie.


Ozymandias - was given Precise Blow; I saw this on another gamer's homebrew update (credit to Liam Callebout). Based on the source material, especially the Before Watchmen comics, this just seemed very fitting for a man who always plans every single move he makes, and who has the coordination to parry a bullet with a piece of furniture and later catch one in his hand.


Nite Owl - I chose something simple for Nite Owl, Master Fighter. Functionally this is worse than the rerolls Silk Spectre gets from Unarmed Combat Master, but I didn't want to duplicate what she had, and at a similar Reputation cost Damian Wayne has the same Trait. With Bonebreaker, Brutal and Arrest already I feel it is a fair trade-off and upgrade.


Rorschach - I felt Cruel fit his efficient way of putting foes down; while the character has some nobility about him, he is incredibly brutal and the rule functionally fit with his existing repertoire. On top of this I added a one-shot attack based on firing his grapple gun at a hapless target.


Silk Spectre II - I had a few thoughts about stuff that could fit, but a lot came down to 'gamey-ness', and so when I thought about Silk Spectre I recalled two sequences in the movie in particular (the street gang fight and the prison raid) when she just mows through hordes of mooks, and Devastating Blow seemed the nearest representation of that.


Let me know what you think, comments and critique welcome!

9 comments:

  1. What a fantastic band of heroes! big bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is a little bit of me that wants to rush out and grab a Watchman set now, especially as I loved the graphic novel. Love what you have done with the updates so hopefully we will see some more Watchmen action in the future?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Michael. :)

      Hopefully they will get a game soon and feedback can be gathered from that. :)

      Delete
  3. I'm game for a homebrew run out dude if you fancy it with them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers mate - now the big question is Cruel or Takedown on Rorschach?

      Delete
  4. More excellent work! I must admit I am drawn more towards the super-heroes who use gadgets to offset their otherwise being human, as they make them easier to use in Pulp Alley etc. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now you've gone and made me regret not grabbing some Watchmen comics when they went on sale on a local bookstore. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to admit enjoying the Before Watchmen stuff on the whole. :)

      Delete