Marvel HeroClix Fear Itself: Book of the Skull!

Greetings HeroClix Fans!

Today we dive a bit deeper into the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Fear Itself storyline Organized Play event series. Earlier this week Figures.Com offered a fantastic first look at the Fear Itself: Blitzkrieg U.S.A. scenario pack (in stores May 15th!), and today we are pleased to spotlight the first of two participation prizes found in the Marvel HeroClix: Fear Itself month one Organized Play kit, The Book of the Skull resource dial!

Let’s take a look at the rules for this new resource dial; everything from setting up and assigning it, what it does for your force , and scoring points for it.

Like other Resource items found in storyline Organized Play, The Book of the Skull has a base point value that increases as you add other objects to it. In this case, the objects that further empower The Book of the Skull are none other than the eight Hammers of the Worthy! The first Hammer, Skadi’s Hammer, can be found in the Blitzkrieg U.S.A. scenario pack, and each successive Hammer can be collected by attending your local game store’s Fear Itself monthly events!

The Book of the Skull only costs 6 points to add to your force, plus an additional 3 points for each Hammer of the Worthy that you add to it (with each Hammer fitting into its own sculpted area for ease of play). Unlike previous resource dials, The Book of the Skull and any attached Hammers are actually assigned to your entire force, rather than one specific figure! Your entire team can be the Worthy!

Each turn (as described on the card image above) a Hammer may be placed in a friendly character’s square. Immediately after the Hammer has been placed in a friendly character’s square, that character can use Quake as a free action! (After all, those Hammers hit the ground with a lot of force!)

Furthermore, that character may be given a power action to place the Hammer on its character card and that Hammer is now automatically equipped without the normal relic roll! However,if your character does not use a power action to lift the Hammer on the same turn, the Hammer becomes a standard Relic per normal rules, so choose who gets which Hammer carefully because as it states above: “Unless specified otherwise, a character may only be equipped with one Hammer.” But we’ll get to that bit when we look at what The Book of the Skull can do.

So we’ve looked at how The Book of the Skull operates as a fantastic Hammer delivery vehicle (beep! beep!), but what other tricks has it got up its (non-existent) sleeves?

Basically, each turn you can choose one friendly character equipped with a Hammer to use modifiers and power granted by The Book of the Skull. And the more Hammers that began the game on The Book of the Skull, the more options you have!

So, if 1 or 2 Hammers were attached at the beginning of the game, your selected character can use slot 1 on The Book of the Skull’s dial. If 3 or 4 Hammers were attached, the selected character can use slots 1 and 2; if 5 or 6 Hammers were attached, the selected character can use slots 1, 2 and 3; and finally if 7 or 8 Hammers were attached, your selected character can use all of the slots!

But wait! There’s MORE:

“When a combat symbol appears on The Book of the Skull’s dial, the chosen character modifies that combat value by +1. When a bonus (e.g., +1) appears on The Book of the Skull’s dial, the chosen character modifies all of their combat values by the indicated amount. Otherwise, The Book of the Skull’s dial shows a power that the chosen character can use.”

So, for example, on click number 10, the selected character would be able to modify its attack by +1, due to the standard attack symbol found in slot 1. On click 22, all combat values would be modified by +2.

This is a pretty straight forward way gain access to powers and combat modifiers on the dial. Did a friendly character with a Hammer equipped damage an opposing figure? Roll a d6 and click The Book of the Skull that many times. Was that opposing figure KO’d? Click it 3 more times. And if the red line is crossed, click one more time.

OK; once 3 friendly characters are equipped with Hammers, a power action can be given to a figure to exchange Hammers, allowing you to get the best use out of them for your figures. This can be very helpful as it allows you to adjust the strengths of your team in response to what’s happening in your game.

After 4 different friendly figures have been equipped with a Hammer each, they can double up. And after 7 Hammers have been equipped to your figures, all friendly figures with a Hammer can use the Power Cosmic team ability!

And that’s not all! Provided you begin the game with the requisite number of Hammers attached, as The Book of the Skull’s dial progresses throughout the game your selected character will gain access to all manner of standard and special powers! The standard powers can be seen on the dial image above, bit here’s a close-up of the special powers available toward the end of the resource dial:

We should also note that regardless of how many (or few) Hammers you include on your force, your selected character will also enjoy bonuses to all of their combat values, beginning on click 17 on The Book of the Skull’s dial.

Finally, let’s look at how Victory points are scored in regards to The Book of the Skull and its Hammers:

This is pretty straight forward, a KO’d character is worth 3 points more for each Hammer equipped to them, and these Hammers are removed from the game. And the player who K.O.’s the last figure on your force gets the points for The Book of the Skull and any Hammers still attached to it.

We hope you have enjoyed this special look at The Book of the Skull resource dial from the upcoming Marvel HeroClix: Fear Itself storyline Organized Play series. In May, HeroClix fans will be able to enjoy a sneak-peek of the Fear Itself action with the Blitzkrieg U.S.A. scenario pack, and then in June Fear Itself tournaments will kick off in stores everywhere HeroClix is played!

Will you be Worthy, or are you Mighty? Will you conquer Fear Itself? Only YOU can decide!

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