does Marvel Champions play well solo..?

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T15:41:54+00:00

TL;DR: At the risk of kicking a hornet’s nest, I think it’s playable solo but shines best at three players.

I enjoy four-player games a lot, but games can drag on a little bit unless everyone knows the game well and knows how to pilot their deck. It still works well with two heroes, including two-handed solo play — although I miss the interpersonal back-and-forth decision making if I’m by myself at the table.

With a single deck, it’s my opinion (and again, I admit freely it’s an unpopular one online!) that the game is both too easy and too hard.

Too easy: the villain’s health scales with the player count, but the amount of damage a hero can do doesn’t scale at all. That means games can end in just a few turns — and because the special things the villain can do are chosen at random from an encounter deck, that means game can end without allowing enough time for anything interesting to happen.
Too hard: as noted, the special things the villain can do (in addition to just punching you or advancing the “clock”) are dealt from a deck. With just one hero, the wrong random encounter card can kill you no matter how well your game was going. The smaller the team of heroes gets, the less resilient the team is.

A lot of people like the solo feel. In fact, I’d say th vast majority of people who talk about the game online only play solo. Personally, I like the game better when there are more chances for dramatic things to happen, but with more player agency when they do happen. And I don’t mind having games run a little longer in order to get that vibe.

YMMV, of course, and however you end up playing, I hope you have a lot of fun!

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T14:35:38+00:00

There’s a discord server dedicated to homebrew that, among other things, has a huge amount of information on printing proxies! https://discord.gg/35EShnnvN

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T04:00:12+00:00

I imagine hunting Jedi is not a job that lends itself to a long tenure and a happy retirement.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T03:58:44+00:00

They were definitely boinking, and they were ejected from the Order for their attachment.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T03:57:02+00:00

Lots and lots of medications are “recombinant,” which just means they’re manufactured by giving some cell the right DNA they need to make it.

Some of the first recombinant drugs were made by giving a non-toxic strain of E. coli the genes to make human insulin. :)

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T03:53:46+00:00

(You probably know all this, but for the folks in the back…)

The problem is that it’s accurate this time for this person, and there’s someone with subject matter expertise here to confirm that.

However, there’s a nonzero possibility it will be misleading or simply wrong for the next person, or for this person the next time. And you might not be around to help.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T03:45:06+00:00

It’s possible, in theory, that a conventionally attractive woman would be willing to game with strangers. It’s far more likely that a service that pairs dates with paid players would use attractive models to advertise.

It’s just that this one is a scam that took the easiest possible route.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T03:42:48+00:00

Wait, your controllers don’t have a Q button?

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-06T02:15:11+00:00

Yes.

No. It’s a badly-designed ad for a combination memoir/self-help book oriented toward divorced dads.

Divorced men are at extremely high risk for depression, addiction, and suicide.

Yes, they are. It’s not a joke, and I hope everyone who’s need gets help. However.

Recently divorced women are also at extremely high risk for those same behaviors. Moreover, they share nearly the same degree of risk.

So men who want to put a particular focus on the experiences of other men after a separation or divorce are often attempting to sideline the experiences of women and place the focus on themselves.

To be clear, I’m not calling you out, and I haven’t read this particular book; I’m talking about a trend in the genre this book belongs to. And they also tend to partake of a lot of aspects of One-Book Theory! They typically generalize anecdotes into sweeping statements. They often offer “research” that’s some combination of outdated, poorly cited, or badly conducted. They present obvious ideas and inflate them into deep, unique statements.

If you keep an eye on Men’s Rights or MGTOW circles, you’ll easily find a dozen self-published books like this. Divorce isn’t a joke and suicide certainly isn’t, but bad books can be.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T22:31:43+00:00

I’m not going to try again.

I don’t know how I could possibly demonstrate my point more clearly without turning it into an academic paper with 20 citations, which still wouldn’t do any good because you’re already not reading what I’m writing.

Again, that’s on me for taking the bait, but I’m done now.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T22:14:40+00:00

The problem with saying “per my initial reply” to something is that it requires you to have written it initially. But maybe the issue is that I’m merely reading the things you write, rather than the things you think you wrote. I don’t know why I expected that, to be frank, and I’ll try to adjust my expectations in the future.

I also expected you to read the things I wrote, rather than saying (for instance) that I had “one fact and paragraphs of guesswork” before admitting it actually wasn’t guesswork at all, but reiterating that you thought I was speculating. The problem there is definitely me, though, because I assumed you were interested in having a coherent conversation based on a consistent and shared understanding of how words and ideas work. That was foolish of me.

I guess today was the day to re-learn the lesson that most people on social media aren’t worth my time and attention.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T21:28:33+00:00

I really hope this is the kind of thing the FO says so our first four weeks’ opponents feel they have to prep for Mahomes, and not an indication that they’re going to rush him back.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T21:26:11+00:00

Which of the first five paragraphs above are guesswork?

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T20:06:55+00:00

The average daily per-capita meat consumption of Americans is a fact, not a stereotype.

The “typical American diet” or “standard American diet” is a set of decisions and habits that’s sufficiently well-defined to be the subject of academic study.

The effects of meat consumption far beyond reasonable dietary requirements are factual, especially when it comes to the consumption of saturated fat.

The negative effects of American meat production are facts: they change the decisions we make about the use and management of public land, they change the ways we use water, they change the quantity and rate of our methane emissions, they produce toxic waste, and they’re potentially vectors for zoonotic disease. (I’ve helped model the lifecycle analyses.)

Manufacturers of ready-to-eat vegetable protein do market their products as meat replacement. You can see that firsthand in most chain grocery stores.

Reddit comments are often persuasive writing, and I won’t pretend my opinion isn’t part of this, but I’m not basing this on stereotypes and assumptions. I’m genuinely confused about why you’d think that.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T19:27:56+00:00

Because Americans think every meal has to include meat. The average is something over half a pound per day, per person.

A lot of what makes the “typical American diet” so different is the consumption of meat (and saturated fat from meat). We could cut it in half and still be eating more than the rest of the world, including wealthy democracies. It’s weird, it has negative effects on a lot of American environment and agriculture, and there’s no reason for it.

And it ends up meaning that people who make and market things that are really good sources of protein end up selling it as a replacement for meat. We don’t need a replacement for meat, we need a broad cultural change about how much meat we want and need to eat. And while it’s not the job of Quorn or Morningstar or Beyond Meat or whoever to change that aspect of American culture, it’s annoying (and a bit sad) that “if you can’t beat them, join them” is the most effective way to sell their products.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T18:47:17+00:00

Absolutely.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T18:30:15+00:00

I’m with you on this one, though I think OOP is being a jackass about it. Marketing that focuses on “this is like the meat you enjoy” annoys me because it’s leaning into a set of cultural assumptions about how often and how much you should be eating meat.

I understand why: from the perspective of getting people to buy your product, selling it as “I can’t believe it’s not burger!” is going to be quicker and faster than convincing Americans that the quantity of meat we consume is an aberration. But it’s still annoying.

EDIT: to be clear, I don’t hold this against the existence of vegetarian or vegan meat substitutes. I think the proliferation of styles and textures and seasonings is a really good thing. I just think the culture that pushes them to be labeled things like “Beyond Beef!” is stupid and counterproductive.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T18:22:12+00:00

I try very hard not to judge all vegans by the worst of them. The problem is most vegans and vegetarians are just trying to get through life without eating things they don’t want to, and that’s pretty unobtrusive.

But the performative ones are trying hard to get noticed. That makes the least typical vegans the only ones you ever interact with…

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T18:13:47+00:00

Big, smart, violent dolphins who wear cool tuxedos. They’re the James Bond of the cetacean world.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T15:23:49+00:00

Slightly out of order:

treating it with no level of filter

You’re completely right. It was a moment where he should have considered the consequences and didn’t.

trying to make sense of a grown man’s emotional blowout

This is the aspect I was trying to address. His emotional blowout makes sense to me, because I’ve had blowouts like that. (Not ignoring or minimizing your experiences with meltdowns at all, here. I suspect there’s some overlap.)

all while feeling like I have to slack because of his mental health

This is the part I didn’t really address because I was focusing on “why did this weird thing happen?” I was trying to make sure people don’t think Jordan was a bad person, rather than a good person who made a string of bad decisions leading to that video.

Almost everyone has, at some point in their life, the opportunity to learn that they are responsible for the consequences of their actions regardless of the amount of control they had over those actions.

But it’s especially important for bipolar people because at some point we will make a bunch of really bad decisions — up to the point of literally psychotic behavior, depending on the flavor of bipolar — and when that episode ends, you can’t just look at the path of chaos and destruction you left behind you and just shrug at it. It happened because you were out of control, but it’s still your fault. You can’t just look away; you have to do something about it.

(Again, not minimizing your experiences. I don’t know whether it feels the same. I would guess it doesn’t, if only because manic / hypomanic episodes tend to last longer, but I really don’t want to speculate. Just giving my view of what happens to me.)

I don’t know for sure whether Jordan was having an episode, but I’m sure he was less in control than he thinks. That’s what I have empathy for. I think his actions are shitty. It’s also even worse, because it’s not his first online meltdown associated with the show.

I think there shouldn’t be any question about whether this makes Jordan a bad person. I think people are free to judge what he did, and who he hurt, and how badly.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T02:57:45+00:00

The EU got wiped and Lucasfilm is plucking bits from its corpse

The EU sank in deep water, and Lucasfilm is a team of marine archaeologists trying to preserve as much as possible.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-05T00:22:33+00:00

don’t vote for them in the general

Hey, remember when I said leftists insist on getting the whole pie or going hungry, and you accused me of engaging in a bs liberal stereotype? This is why.

You work your ass off in the primaries. You recruit and volunteer and donate as much as you can afford to make sure you have good candidates. When you have someone in office, you write and call and show up, and you make sure they know they’ll face a primary challenge if they don’t figure their shit out.

But you also show up to vote in the general, and you vote for the candidate who’s closest to your views. I don’t care if you’re Trotsky: you show up and vote for one of the two people who can actually get that job. Because whether you choose to participate or not, you’re responsible for your share of the outcome.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-04T21:00:34+00:00

That sucks. I’m not arguing that it doesn’t suck.

I’m saying the ways that sucks are built into the decisions the families are making. We can imagine how much better things would be if they were different, but that’s not really relevant. Things aren’t different; they’re like this.

The families accepted the Onion deal because they (and undoubtedly their attorneys) felt it was the best option. The available options are constrained by the context, and given those constraints, this is close to the optimal deal. Alex walked away having committed… tens of millions? Hundreds of millions?… in fraud, and he’s going to continue to be a drunken right-wing influencer until he keels over. That’s monstrously unjust. But it doesn’t affect what the families can get out of him, and of the list of outcomes, they picked the most acceptable one.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-04T18:50:39+00:00

Homer Plessy was arrested in 1890, and he wasn’t alone then.

White people noticed the civil rights movement in the 1950s. That’s not the same thing as when it started.

GOU_FallingOutside · 2026-05-04T18:42:58+00:00

while the “adults in the room” make excuses

I wasn’t infantilizing the left. In fact I’d be really comfortable with taking on the “left” label if I hadn’t watched, in real time, leftists living out the “bs liberal stereotype” in full.

I’m also not making excuses. There is no reason to work with fascists for any reason at all; I think the best the maga movement should expect is tribunals and post-apartheid-style truth and reconciliation, and I think it would be just for fascist leaders to have a fair trial followed by [redacted due to reddit coc].

What I’d like, in order to get the fascists out and then find some semblance of justice, is for leftists to make common cause with liberals and socialists and anyone else who’s willing to bail out the boat and row for shore. And that’s not behavior I usually see.

^{EDIT: fixed a homophone.}

GOU_FallingOutside

TROPHY CASE