Marvel: Crisis Protocol – King Black Bolt’s ‘Sonic Blast’ Might Be Busted
It’s time to dig into the weeds of the rules of Marvel: Crisis Protocol on this one. King Black Bolt’s Sonic Blast might be busted.
I want to start this off by saying I really don’t want to start a “haha, see Black Bolt DOES suck” article. The Inhumans get a lot of flak online for various reasons which I won’t get into here. That’s not the point. I have a genuine rules question here and, as much as I’ve played, I’m not confident in my own judgement with this one. So Internet, I’m tossing this out to you to see what you all think.
King Black Bolt’s Sonic Blast – Working As Intended?
So what’s the issue with Sonic Blast? Well, as I mentioned in his rules preview it’s his builder attack. A “Builder” is an attack that generates energy for the characters to spend on other things (like attacks or other super powers) later. In this case, he’s got a builder that’s a Beam-4 for 5 dice. That’s all pretty standard. Now, let’s get into what it does because this is where it gets weird.
The bullet points read as follows:
- After this attack is resolved, this character gains 1 (energy).
- (Wild) Push: After this attack is resolved, if the target character is Size 3 or less, this character may Push it Away (short).
Now, did you notice the wording on the first bullet point? It seems like it might be missing some text. Let’s look at another character with a Beam attack that’s also a builder.
For Malekith’s Blood Boil note the first bullet point’s wording:
- After each attack is resolved, this character gains 1 (energy)
Now, that “after each attack is resolved” is kind of a big deal. Why? Because of the way Beam attacks work:
Basically, each character that’s touching the beam gets an individual attack roll on them and you completely resolve each attack before moving to the next. That means multiple attacks can happen from a single Beam attack action. For Malekith, that means each target generates an attack and each attack resolution gives him 1 energy.
But for King Black Bolt? Well…that’s the issue. His Sonic Blast does not include the same wording. There’s no “after each attack is resolved” phrasing. It’s just “After this attack is resolved.” See the issue?
So…How Much Energy Is Generated?
Let’s have a real example here to work with. It’s King Black Bolt’s activation and he’s managed to line-up a shot against three targets.
Now, as this is a Beam Attack, he can choose the order of the attacks to resolve. In order, he’ll hit targets 1 (Maximus), 2 (Gorgon), and 3 (Karnak). That doesn’t really matter here…but let’s continue.
Okay let’s get into how this could be resolved. If we are going by the Rules As Written, after the entire Beam attack action resolves, he gains 1 energy. The “Attack” in this case is implied to mean the entire Beam attack. Therefore, even though he’s hitting 3 targets, he only gains 1 energy.
But if that’s true what happens if he gets any (wild) results on the dice for any of those attacks? Do all three of these size 3 or smaller characters get Pushed Away (if the King Black Bolt player chooses to)? This matters because, again, it’s “after this attack is resolved” and not “after each attack is resolved…” the wording really does matter.
Alternatively, it resolves as you would expect every other Beam attack works. Each “Attack” is it’s own instance and you resolve each attack individually. Thus, King Black Bolt would gain 3 energy in this example. Any Pushes would or wouldn’t happen when those attacks are resolved individually. This seems like the most common sense answer…but I can see someone arguing for the previous interpretation.
Personally, I just want an official errata/confirmation one way or the other. I even went back to read the From Panel to Play and it doesn’t address it.
“Sonic Blast is a Beam attack with a Strength of 5 and will trigger Push on a Wild. This torrent of energy is sure to whittle down anyone foolish enough to stand in its way! “
This seems like a minor oversight and I, personally, would just rule it as 1 energy per target and each attack is it’s own possibility to push. But that’s just me and I would prefer to keep it simple and use the common sense approach.
Then again maybe AMG is playing it safe with this TL 6 character and he’s only going to get the 1 energy total. I really don’t know!
…And One More Thing
If King Black Bolt wasn’t breaking norms there’s one more thing I wanted to mention. His Super Power Increase the Volume adds 2 dice to (all) the attack rolls of the next attack action. I’m pretty sure that means in the example above, if that power is used, then each attack would be 7 dice as well. Most dice-adding super powers don’t work like that but the wording is the same as Iron Man’s Friday AI:
This is actually covered in the FAQ as well:
So at least that’s solved! Make some noise for King Black Bolt in that regard…I guess?
If you’ve got an interpretation on King Black Bolt’s Sonic Blast please drop it in the comments — and let’s keep this one civil. How would you rule this one?
