Hi, friends! Just a quick post to tell you about a sweet new collectible card game that’s available. Now, I’ve never really been into those kinds of games, ala “Magic: The Gathering,” but this game, “Sentinels of the Multiverse,” is huge amounts of fun. For starters, it’s about comic book heroes, which is always a plus in my book, and unlike a lot RGP-esque card games, it’s cooperative as opposed to competitive, meaning everybody works together against a common enemy. The game made quite a splash at GenCon in Indianapolis and Chicago ComicCon earlier this month.
Each player controls one of ten very different heroes and each turn consists of drawing various cards and using powers to deal damage to the villain, heal themselves or other heroes, or otherwise aid in the battle at hand. There are four different villains you can choose to fight, each with their own set of powers and minions you must defeat. Finally, there are four different environments to play in that can either help or hinder you depending on the cards drawn. The aim of the game is simple: deplete the villain of his or her hit points before they do the same to you.
Officially, the game can be played with 2-5 players, though I would certainly say the more people you have, the more fun it can be. And given that the ten heroes are so varied, some of them are incredibly easy to play with while some are much more difficult, just depending on whom you choose. Game play moves very quickly, though, as long as you have a piece of paper and are good at adding and subtracting (get a calculator if you’re not, no biggie), because, essentially, everything that happens takes away a hit point or gives back a hit point.
Perhaps the coolest part of the game is that it was completely independently created and developed. All of the heroes, villains, environments, and character decks are the work of writer Christopher Badell and artist Adam Rebottaro. Each different card offers a different piece of art drawn by Rebottaro, and gives a quote or reference to an issue of the fictional “Sentinel Comics.” Each character has an extensive backstory as well, which gives the game a familiar, lived-in quality that’s really fun.
So if you’re a fan of super heroes, games, and quality work, I would definitely recommend picking up “Sentinels of the Multiverse.” To find out more or to order a copy yourself, go to their website. I found the game to be huge amounts of fun.
-Kanderson is a big huge nerd, but so are you, so you ought to follow him on TWITTER
Hmmmm, with Geek.kon 2011 coming up, I might have to look into this and see if I can get a copy to run a demo with there. Looks like it could be a blast.
Yeah, sorry if I come off angry at the “CCG” categorization of this, it’s just that I am a Board Game Snob and really like the Deck Building system that a lot of games have adapted. And like Tamar said this isn’t exactly a Deck Building game either it’s more of a Fixed Deck game, which is again something else brand new, or at least brand new to me.
I can’t wait to find a copy of this.
Yeah, it’s not really a CCG (All the cards you need are included in the one box, though there ARE plans for expansions with much speculation happening in the SotM forums) or a Deck Building game (Each character has their own deck that doesn’t change throughout the game). I think the shortest (Ha!) description I’ve seen so far is “fixed deck cooperative comic book card game”. That makes sense for those of us who play a far number of games, but may be a bit of a mouthful for someone who doesn’t.
Whatever you want to call it, it’s a great game!
Is it really a deck-building game? You don’t choose what cards will be in your deck (like Dominion or Ascension), you just start with a deck and work with the cards as they come up.
Mind you, I don’t actually know how to describe the game. Having been trying to figure that out …
I tried this at GenCon, it was lots of fun. Unfortunately my wife doesn’t much like superheroes, or I would have picked it up.
@Michael
That shows you how little I know about these types of games and I STILL found it super fun.
It’s not actually a collectible card game, it’s a Deck Building Game which is kind of like a CCG but you don’t have the Random aspect of sealed cards, it comes with all the cards in the game in the box and then you can choose to buy expansions if you want to.
I’m really excited about this, it’s been getting really good buzz on the Board Game podcasts I listen to.
If this site is going to start pimping games, I’d recommend Dominion, 7 Wonders, Small World, the new Star Trek games, Martian Dice… just a whole metric assload of great games are out there now that make the sad, dusty games on your parents shelves weep with jealousy.
Pretty badass looking! Thanks for informing us!
From the look of it, it seems very similar to the Palladium RPG “Heroes Unlimited” which is one of my favorite Pencil and Paper RPGs ever. If they create an online version, I may be interested since I have a hard time finding anyone to game with me.