Fixing Risky Business (by Andy N)

Note from Astrodar: Recently, I had a chance to play Andy N’s unofficial, custom scenario Mister Negative. I had a fantastic time with it, and it was interesting seeing some of his design perspectives expressed in the scenario. Through further conversation, we chatted about some of the official content and potential fixes for scenarios that may not have landed quite right. I found the observations fascinating. Andy has put together his thoughts on one such scenario to be shared below. I hope you find the evaluation as intriguing as I did.

The first scenario pack for Marvel Champions, The Green Goblin Scenario Pack, includes two different scenarios featuring Green Goblin, but their reception has been very different: the second scenario, Mutagen Formula, remains to this day one of the highest rated and most beloved scenarios, while the first scenario, Risky Business, mostly only garners the following types of comments:

“Easy.”

“Too easy.”

“Very easy.”

“Easy to game.”

“Easy, but still fun.”

It’s that last comment that has always captured my attention: “Easy, but still fun.” Despite it being too easy, it is still fun! At least for me, and at least on the level of theme: I am an absolute Spider-Man fanatic, and I love how the scenario represents not only Green Goblin but his own “alter-ego,” Norman Osborn.

Because of the beloved theme, I have always wanted this scenario to function properly, even when we have gotten clear spiritual successors or evolutions of this scenario that work close to flawlessly, like the Spiral scenario. I haven’t been able to just move on. I have needed a fix.

So is there a fix? Actually, there are many. And while there may not be a “right” one for everyone, I think you can find a fix (or combination of fixes) that may work for you.

Before sharing a variety of fixes, one or multiple of which may work alone or in tandem, we should address clearly what needs fixing.

Too Easy and Gameable

It is important to understand that there are really two problems with the Risky Business scenario, one general and one specific:

1. Generally, it is too easy. Often, when the villain activates, he is either removing or adding 1-2 infamy counters to the Criminal Enterprise environment, which counters do not themselves challenge the player. And likewise, most of the encounter cards simply add a couple of counters to Criminal Enterprise or remove a couple of counters from State of Madness, or represent only 2-3 threat removal (per player) in a side scheme or 3-4 damage in a minion. These represent very little output and do not directly challenge the players.

2. Specifically, it is gameable. If the players flip to hero form and do not remove the last infamy counter from the Criminal Enterprise environment, then Norman Osborn will only add a couple of infamy counters each activation instead of attacking. Since there is no loss condition on Criminal Enterprise, the players can simply manage the small amount of threat added to the main scheme and build out their boards until they are ready to clear Criminal Enterprise and push damage on Green Goblin. They may experience a small burst of difficulty when they make this push, especially as they clear the villain’s first stage and take another burst of damage, but they are typically so well-prepared that the difficulty is negligible.

It is important to take note of these two different problems, because most fixes only directly address one or the other, so players may likely require a combination of fixes to properly fix the scenario.

The First (Bad) Fix: Heroic Mode

In March 2020, in response to general complaints of the game being “too easy,” Michael Boggs and the FFG team offered Heroic Mode as a way to increase the game’s difficulty. In Heroic Mode, the group chooses a heroic level number, and “for the rest of that game, during step three of each villain phase (the phase where players are dealt encounter cards), each player is dealt X additional encounter cards, where X is equal to the chosen heroic level number.”

This was an acceptable difficulty fix for some people, for some scenarios, however: it does not fix Risky Business, at least on its own. This is because the difficulty of Risky Business hardly increases with more encounter cards, rather, it only becomes longer.

For this reason, while I mention Heroic Mode as a fix, I rush to add: this is NOT a fix for Risky Business, at least on its own. It begins to address the “too easy” issue but this is hardly felt if the “gameable” issue is left unaddressed.

The Player Fix: Crisis Icon on Criminal Enterprise

Early on, the player base developed their own, simple fix: adding a crisis icon to the Criminal Enterprise environment.

This meant, while you could flip to hero form and build for a little while, you would have to flip him to Green Goblin sooner than later so you could manage the threat that had accumulated on the main scheme.

This is a very simple and quite elegant fix. Additionally, while it directly addresses the “gameable” issue, indirectly, it goes at least a little ways toward fixing the “too easy” issue, at least because managing the scenario with a crisis icon means you are likely taking damage from Green Goblin at awkward intervals when you may not be fully prepared. That being said, without steady or overkill, Green Goblin is still very easy to control with status lock and chump blockers, so some difficulty increase is likely necessary for most players.

Also, while it is elegant in its simplicity, the crisis icon is not a fun dynamic for everyone. So while this may be the fix or part of the fix for many players, it may not work for you.

The Best Fix: Standard II

Not burying the lead on this point, I believe the best fix is the Standard II modular set that comes in the The Hood Scenario Pack.

Don’t change the channel! Let me explain.

Rightly maligned for being overtuned as a general alternative to the original Standard set, Standard II actually functions incredibly well specifically for use in the Risky Business scenario. This is because:

1. Risky Business has a “too easy” problem, so the overtuned nature of Standard II works to fix this issue.

2. Often, the villain’s activations are merely adding or removing counters, as mentioned above, so the steady keyword represents less of a difficulty increase here.

3. The chance that any attack may gain overkill inserts a wonderful tension and real consideration to the choice of defending with an ally.

4. The brutal card Total Annihilation, representing an overkill attack AND surge normally, works here because: again, the scenario is generally too easy; and additionally, for large parts of the game, that overkill attack will actually fizzle into simply adding a couple of infamy counters.

This is my favorite fix for Risky Business. Not only does it address the “too easy” issue with almost prescient precision, it also gives a great use for the otherwise often unused Standard II and Expert II sets, which for many players are just too brutal when used most elsewhere.

What it does not do is directly address the “gameable” issue. For some players, this issue may fade to the background, especially considering how difficult Green Goblin can be when you do decide to press him. However, I do find I want a fix for this issue, too, so personally I combine the Standard II fix with the alternative loss condition fix, which follows.

The Gameable Fix: Alternative Loss Condition

Believe it or not, in 2024, I believe more than 4 years after the release of Risky Business, FFG quietly offered a fix for the “gameable” issue. In a series of challenge modes offered weekly to the player base (“Weekly One-Shots”), they suggested a mode for Risky Business with the following additional rule: “During this scenario, if there are ever 6 per player or more infamy counters on Criminal Enterprise, the players lose the game.”

While most of the Weekly One-Shots were just an extra challenge, with no other baggage or motivation, this challenge mode pretty blatantly targets the “gameable” issue with Risky Business. No longer can players simply allow infamy counters to stack endlessly on Criminal Enterprise before shifting to attack mode. Rather, they have a threshold (a very tight one in Expert) which they have to manage along the way.

Now, taken alone, this fix does not really address the “too easy” issue. With any amount of status lock and chump blocking, the players should easily manage to keep up with the scenario and surpass it quite quickly, with only the added tension that they could technically lose to too many infamy counters (and this is a real possibility in solo mode, where this threshold is perhaps too tight, like the Rhino main scheme threat threshold in solo).

For this reason, I do think some kind of fix for “too easy” should also be employed. For you, that may be playing on Expert Mode or adding in difficult modular sets. It may be Heroic Mode, or the crisis icon fix. For me, it’s Standard II, and sometimes Expert II when I am playing Expert.

Additionally, I think the “6 per player” threshold is too tight in solo. Many do not play solo, so this may not be a concern at all, but I would suggest making the threshold 12 in both solo and 2-player, 18 in 3-player, and 24 in 4-player. Or if this is still too tight in multiplayer, consider 12 in solo, 18 in 2-player, 24 in 3-player, and 30 in 4-player. This may seem like an absurdly high threshold, but any threshold helps to fix the “gameable” issue, and if you are playing with a serious difficulty bump such as Heroic Mode or Standard II, you may or may not find yourself bumping up against a lower threshold too easily.

Why in sets of 6? Because 6-sided dice are abundant and easy to track visually if you use these for infamy and madness counters. But perhaps 8-sided dice, one per player, would be a solid middle road. This is a new enough fix in a very developed scene of the game, so I don’t think there is an easy answer to the “right” number for the threshold, but I do think this is a great and simple way to address this issue.

You can be part of figuring out the best middle ground baseline for this threshold!

Another Fix: Running Interference / Power Drain Environment

One other fix I have tried in order to address both the “too easy” and “gameable” issues has been to take the Running Interference and Power Drain side schemes from their respective modular sets (which are both included in The Green Goblin Scenario Pack, in fact), and putting them in a clear sleeve to create a double-sided environment — not a side scheme — that you flip whenever Criminal Enterprise / State of Madness flips. This is essentially a visual codification of the “Crisis Icon fix,” since it means the crisis icon from Running Interference will be faceup with Criminal Enterprise and the acceleration icon from Power Drain will be faceup with State of Madness.

Additionally, I shuffle in the Tombstone and Electro minions, as well as either the remaining cards from these two modular sets or choosing a different set as the mod.

This is a cute fix because it uses cards that come with the scenario pack, however, it is essentially just the “Crisis Icon fix” and it has the same limitations as such. For this reason, while I offer it as another fix to try, I have found that using Standard II and the “alternative loss condition fix” in tandem is my go-to fix and the one I would recommend.

In Conclusion: An Invitation

So to reiterate: while there are many ways to try to fix Risky Business, I think the best solution, for me personally and the one I would recommend most generally, is a combination of:

1. Use the Standard II set instead of the original Standard set whenever playing Risky Business. (To fix the “too easy” issue.)

2. Assign a reasonable “players lose the game” threshold to the infamy counters on Criminal Enterprise, such as 6 infamy counters per player, or 6 per player plus an additional 6. (To fix the “gameable” issue.)

Additionally, I like to use a modular set (or two) that include bigger minions, such as the Wrecking Crew modular set from The Hood Scenario Pack.

But my invitation to you is: please try this! Or try one of these fixes. Or try a different fix. I am very curious to hear how you approach this scenario. The theme is too good to let it lie forever.

Don’t say to this scenario: “You’re out, Norman.”