VS: Getting a handle on the basics

Back in the day I wrote up a quick 3-page summary of VS. It didn’t go to any great lengths to explain the chain, it certainly wasn’t meant to supplant any offial rules document, but it was intended to at least give a basic idea of how the game worked. Some basic principles, if you will. More than anything else, I guess it was meant as a sort-of handout to be given to someone when you’ve played a demo with them, to help them understand just why you told them to put Mystique behind Blob, etc.

For the benefit of the curious, here it is. You never know, someone might be able to make use of it, or at least find a dozen or so errors and correct it for me. Heh.

VS System: A basic rundown

VS System is a card game based on comic characters. Right now it’s Marvel and DC characters, but there is a Hellboy collector’s set on the horizon.

The object of the game is to reduce your opponent’s Endurance to 0.

Each player plays with a deck of at least 60 cards.

There are four types of cards:

• Characters - Obviously, these are characters. (Reddish or Black borders)
• Equipment - Devices that can be assigned to characters. (Grey borders)
• Locations - Um… Locations, playable from  the resource row. (Green borders)
• Plot Twists - These represent tactics, occurrences, maneuvers, and other factors than can influence the game. Playable from your hand or the Resource Row. (Blue borders)

As a general rule, most decks will consist of approximately 50% characters, 50% other cards.

The game plays in turns, with initiative (priority) alternating between players each turn.

The game works in phases.

In each phase, the player who has initiative goes first, completing what he wishes to do during the phase, and then the other player follows, before the turn moves on to the next phase.

Recruit Costs and Thresholds:

Each card has a number in the top left hand corner. For characters and equipment, this is a recruit cost. For plot twists and locations, this is a threshold cost..

In the case of Recruit Costs, a player can recruit as many combined points worth of characters and equipment in a turn, as he has Resources in his Resource Row. (eg: If a player has 5 resources, he can recruit a total of 5 points worth)

In terms of Thresholds, a location or plot twist may not be used unless a player has that many Resources in his Resource Row, but any number can be used in a single turn. (eg: If a player has 5 resources, he can play any number of plot twists or locations provided their individual costs are 5 or less)

A game would proceed as follows:

Setup:

Each player starts with 50 Endurance (life).

Players choose initiative - rolling a dice is a common method.

The player who won chooses whether he wants odd or even initiative (ie, whether he wishes to have priority on turns 1,3,5,etc, or 2,4,6,etc)

Each player draw 4 cards.

Each player chooses whether to keep the four cards, or mulligan (put those four cards on the bottom of the deck, and draw four more.

Turn:

Draw Phase

• Each player draws to cards

Build Phase:

• The player with initiative plays a card face down in his resource row.
• The player with initiative recruits characters and equipment with a combined cost equal to the number of resources he has in his resource row.
• The player with initiative organizes his characters into Front Row and Support Row as he sees fit.
• Once completed, the other player may place resources, recruit, and set up his characters.

Combat Phase:

• The player with initiative declares an attack, choosing an attacker, and who he wants to attack.  Assorted effects can come into play here.
• If the attacker’s ATT is higher than the defender’s DEF, than the Defender becomes stunned. The defending character’s controller loses Endurance equal to the cost of the defender, as well as breakthrough - overflow damage. For example, if an attacker as ATT5 and the defender has DEF2, then 5-2=3 - the defending player would take 3 breakthrough Endurance loss.
• If the defender’s ATT is higher than the attacker’s DEF, then the attacker is also stunned, and the attacking player’s controller loses Endurance equal to the attacking character’s cost.
• Once the attack is resolved, the  player with initiative can select another available character and declare another attack, and so on and so forth until he chooses not to declare any further attacks.
• If your opponent has no characters that can legitimately defend, then attackers can attack your opponent directly, in which case they lose Endurance equal to your attacker’s ATT.
• At this point, the player who does not have initiative this turn can declare attacks with any available characters.
• Once the second player chooses not to declare any further attacks, the turn moves on to the Recovery Phase.

Recovery Phase:

• You get a last chance to do something prior to checking for a winner
• If one player is at 0 or less Endurance, that player loses.
• If both players are at 0 or less Endurance, then the player with the least loses.
• If both players are at 0 or less Endurance and have the same total, play continues for another turn.
• Players may recover ONE stunned character. All other stunned characters go to the KO pile (graveyard/discard pile).
• Ready (untap) all characters

Proceed to next turn.

Mechanics (for once you have a better idea of what’s going on):

• Evasion: A character with Evasion can stun themself at any time in reaction to just about anything, or as an action of their own choosing. When a character evades, the controller player loses Endurance equal to the character’s cost, just like with a normal stun. In the Recovery phase, characters who were stunned through Evading automatically recover in addition to a player’s one allowable recovery.
• Cosmic: A character with Cosmic comes into play with a cosmic counter on them. While they have a cosmic counter, they gain additional powers/abilities as specified on the individual cards. When a character becomes stunned, any cosmic counters are removed.
• Cosmic-Surge: A character with Cosmic-Surge does NOT come into play with a cosmic counter. However, if they’re not stunned at the start of each Recovery phase, they gain a cosmic counter, and hence any specified abilities.
• Willpower: Some characters have a numerical Willpower rating. This means nothing in itself, but there are various characters, plot twists, etc, that achieve assorted results based on a character’s Willpower rating.
• Concealed: A character with Concealed is recruited in the Hidden Area - usually off to the side of the main play area. Characters that are in the Hidden Area are unable to defend against an attacker attacking a player directly. They are also unable to BE attacked by opposing characters, without an effect being in play allowing an attacker to target a hidden character. Unless otherwise specified, Equipment cannot be recruited onto a Hidden character.
• Concealed-Optional: A character with Concealed-Optional adheres to the same rules as a character with Concealed, however they may be recruited into either the Visible or Hidden area as a player chooses.
• Ally: In itself, Ally does nothing. However, when you Power Up an attacker or defender (ie, you discard a card with the same name as the attacker or defender), Ally provides additional effects.
• Reservist: A character with Reservist can be recruited or brought into play from the Resource Row.
• Terraform: A Terraform location, if revealed from the hand, can be switched with a resource in the Resource Row during the Build phase.
• Press: Characters with Press reduce the cost of additional characters recruited during the same turn.
• Mutant: Some characters possess the Mutant characteristic. Mutants will be either Physical, Mental, or Energy. In itself a mutant trait does nothing, but there are a number of plot twists, etc, that refer to or feed off the mutant traits of characters in play.