G THAM’S FINEST
We explore the dark DC multiverse of The Batman Who Laughs: Rising with its designer Pat Marino
The world of comics, and superheroes in particular, is a speculative one. Crossovers abound, and slipping a little bit of one character into another character’s timeline is often popular on paper and in the box office. In the world of DC Multiverses however, we often get something a little darker and more appealing – the mash-up of character background. For example the Green Lantern Batman of In Darkest Knight from the Elseworlds series in which Bruce Wayne becomes the Green Lantern, or the Batman/ Superman supervillain announcing a comeback in summer 2020.
Or The Batman Who Laughs, the star villain of the Dark Multiverse – a fusion of Batman with the most toxic elements the Joker. In this world the Dark Knights are recruited by The Batman Who Laughs and each forms a mixed aspect of heroes with an evil counterpart. These villains are intent on destroying the universe of Batman and the Justice League and our only hope comes in the form of… Pat Marino, the creator of the Rising series of games, as well as the spectacular Court of the Dead (covered extensively in issue 43), the bombastic Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist, and the Batman Talisman revival game.
We talked to Marino about The Batman Who Laughs: Rising and the series of action dice chuckers that explores some of the biggest nasties in popular culture.
The core mechanics of these games are all similar in some respect. A bad guy sits in the middle of your table, and rotates to one of the zones on the game board. You’re going to be placing your player token in one of these each turn, and maybe suffering some kind of damage when you come face to face with said nemesis. Around the edge of each area is a selection of heroes, and later, villains, who you will recruit or defeat respectively. This is all done by chucking your particular dice pool and matching symbols from them to pay for powers, bonuses, recruiting and fighting. Each game has its own flavour though, as Marino explains.
“With each new Rising game we try to introduce a fresh spin on the main game mechanics, and to tie that change to the theme of the game,” says the designer,”in this case, we added the ‘Dark Knights’ track, which persistently advances during the game, adding the toughest villains to the draw pile as it goes. For me this track creates the feeling of a constantly looming and unavoidable threat, which really links to the feel of Batman Who Laughs story arc in the comics.”
“There is also a link between the Batman and Joker cards in this game that I added as a nod to a major plot point in the storyline that fans will recognize.”
The games are all about these nods to the fans – after all, you’re going to have to be nodding at someone in the know if you can pick a main antagonist from the Dark Knight: Metal series of comics.
BATMAN, BUT METAL
The appeal of these interesting and off-beat characters might not always be apparent, especially when many games focus on the most bankable blockbusting characters. For Marino, it was about finding a unique place for the game amongst the many Batman games out there.
“When we started working on concepts, we originally had Batman as the central opponent, and the players were building teams of villains from the Rogues gallery,” says Marino, “as we worked through the concept it started to feel too similar to other games on the market, including our Batman Talisman game.”
It was Adam Sblendorio, The OP’s creative director, who suggested using the game as a way to introduce new characters and storylines to players who were already Batman game fans.
“He suggested the Dark Knights Metal story line. The more we looked at the characters and the storyline the more excited we became. Batman Who Laughs is a truly terrifying hybrid of Batman’s cunning and The Joker’s madness,” says Marino, “he is a nearly unstoppable force, which makes him the perfect threat for a cooperative game.”
Digital games have always been a good way to introduce characters from comics – the Capcom and Marvel crossover games are a fine example of extensive rosters of characters you’d never expect to make a solo appearance. The Rising series treats us to this kind of excessive roster too.
Batman Who Laughs is a truly terrifying hybrid of Batman’s cunning and The Joker’s madness
“This phase of DC comics involves a dark multiverse that mirrors the 52 light universes of the New 52,” explains Marino, “in each dark universe there is a dark version of Batman who is a hybrid of the hero we know and another powerful hero, like The Flash or Aquaman. These villains together, under the leadership of The Batman Who Laughs, make up the Dark Knights who are featured in the game.”
“The other great part of this story is that it includes the Bat Family as well as the Justice League, which provided many options for the hero cards players are recruiting. We were even able to bring in Dream of the Endless, more widely known as Sandman from the Neil Gaiman graphic novels.”
TEAMWORK MAKES THE NIGHTMARE END
As with any cooperative game, and indeed, the message of many of comic book superhero story, working together is the most important part of having a chance to survive.
“Each player starts with a key hero from the story: Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or Hawk Girl,” explains Marino, “during the game players roll dice from their personal dice pool and use combinations of symbols from their dice rolls to recruit new heroes to their team or to attack the villains in play. Each hero has an ability that can be used once they are recruited, and some abilities can be paired with other heroes to gain extra dice, or build strong combos.”
This is all well and good, but around the table you’re going to have to strategize and most importantly, talk. You can’t work together
“It is important to communicate about the abilities your team has, and to make decisions as a team about which heroes each player should try to recruit,” say Marino, “for example, if one player has all the heroes that can heal other heroes, that means no one else can do healing actions on their turn, which can give the villains an advantage.”
“Similarly, if one player takes all the heroes that provide extra dice, that player will have a huge dice pool, but the other players will be more limited on their turns. Perhaps the most important thing is to be attentive to the villains in play. If too many villain card stack up it is very difficult to make a comeback. In this version, players really need to focus on fighting the Dark Knights cards as they come into play”
Each time you recruit a character, you’ll be replacing them with another hero, or potentially a villain or fully fledged Dark Knight.
“The game itself has to fight back and feel threatening and putting the focus on the villains is a great to do this,” says Marino, “and of course, it’s a fun way to put a new twist on familiar stories. While the players still take on the role of the heroes in a Rising game, we get an opportunity to put a villain front and centre in the title, box art, and really in the game play.”
Speaking of the villains being front and centre, there’s an elephant in the room that we’ve not really covered – the giant sculpts of these antagonists which sits at the centre of
your table.
“We are very lucky at The Op to have an insanely talented in-house 3D design team comprised of Darren Donahue, Rachel McIntyre, and Hannah Friedman, along with Bill Clark who 3D prints and paints our prototype pieces,” says Marino, “When Thanos Rising was in development we knew we wanted a cool centrepiece that also served a purpose in marking the villain’s location. We started to explore what could be done with a large figure to help the game really stand out, and to provide fans with a unique collectible. The 3D team took it from there, and the figures have been a signature element of the Rising series ever since.”
The miniature included in each box is a real showpiece for the table. In the case of The Batman Who Laughs: Rising the Joker-Batman hybrid miniature stands in buckled robes, his eyes obscured by a dark metal visor that allows him to see into the dark multiverse, and a small coterie of ‘rabid robins’ on real chains. This attention to detail is an important part of recognising that these games are also for a kind of person who exists in both board gaming and comic book worlds – the collector.
“So many collectibles focus on heroes, so we hoped fans would appreciate having a villain figure that they could use in the game, but also display on their game shelf,” says Marino, “when we design IP based games the goal is always to provide something immersive and enjoyable for fans and this is one more way we try to achieve that goal.”
“As for collectability we have seen some fans take the figures to the next level with custom paint and other upgrades. While we were design the games for the IP fans, we did not necessarily anticipate is that Rising fans would emerge in the tabletop community in this way. We are very pleased to see there are players who have collected all of the Rising games and enjoy playing and comparing the changes between the different versions.”
THE NEXT UNIVERSE
The OP has plenty coming out over 2021, with Marino working on a handful of these titles. Quests of Yore: Barley’s Edition is an RPG based on the Pixar animated film, Onward. The film itself is a love letter to roleplaying games and Dungeons & Dragons in particular and includes real nods to the game like a slowly approaching gelatinous cube. We can expect that game to include miniatures, a big player’s guide, and some power and spell cards. It’s designed to be accessible for younger players with a bottom age range of eight. On top of this, there’s more roleplaying crossovers, with Critical Role: Munchkin, which will see the ever-pliable Munchkin system given the Critical Role treatment.
Of course, for the Rising series, Marino has to remain tight-lipped, as is the way with navigating giant IPs, “in the meantime,” he says, “the development team and I are hard at work on some very exciting 2022 titles.”