Create a legally distinct substitute for Disney World that gives a related vibe without infringement
Create a challenging and potentially dangerous environment deck that will lead to an interesting Sentinels of the Multiverse match
Create a compelling fiction that engages player interest and takes itself seriously
Premise:
In the 1960s, a respected super-scientist was doing research into time and dimension travel
In the process, his child (or children) got pulled into the machinery, as they ran through the lab, and vanished into the timestream
The professor’s calculations indicated that they could emerge at any time, and be around for an indeterminate time, but they would be located nearby spatially
He thus resolved to ensure that until he could solve the problem and anchor them back in normal time, he’d make sure they always found themselves in safe and positive surroundings
Thus, he bent his genius to building something new: a theme park driven by hypertech, where there would always be children, and always be smiles
Why would this be the logical place to fight Clockwork? Leo brought a dimensional anchor along to stop Infinity from warping out. In our alternative reality here, Leo benefited from the professor’s work on time anchoring. That makes it worth the risk of having a fight in the middle of a bunch of civilians.
What elements would the theme park have, as an environment deck?
Gawking onlookers who must be protected from danger
Rogue or damaged animatronic patrols
Overzealous security robots
Hypertech rides (“take a spin on the magnetically powered Ferrous Wheel!”)
Surprise materialization of the children themselves, and perhaps temporal eddies or warping as they appear and disappear
Backstage machinery and facilities
Hidden time-anchoring machinery that messes with powers
Include Clockwork in at least one of the card art. It can just be a general “disaster” themed card (SotM has Deus Ex Machina for Oblivaeon in Champion Studios) so it’s not a difficult lift, but needs to be there to show the link.
Need to think of another villain fight that occurred in the park. Perhaps something water themed so we can work Stingray and Ninjess into the deck?
An ask from one of my collaborators was to avoid tickets and carnival games as big parts of the deck so it doesn’t encroach on one of their decks. (Alesia Circus)
Wants/Ideas
If we do have costumed mascots, differentiate them enough from the Mighty Milestone enough so that it doesn’t feel like we’re retreading old ground so soon. The Milestone will be back, but I have other plans for him later.
Power Pony is in Challenger Park, Nono is going to have her own hero deck as part of the MIA, could we fit one of the Ponies into this deck? Still want the park to be far-ish away from Halcyon (Jacksonville, Florida?) so it might not make sense, but I could see us being able to make it work. (MLP stand-in is one of the themes of the park?)
Sure, some equivalent to Sea Base. If you need a villain idea for this, you can borrow my character Sea-Czar (whatever you assume about this character based on the name is 100% accurate).
The vibe I’m imagining is much more about shows, entertainment, and fascinating rides than games as such. So that sounds very reasonable.
Amagi Brilliant Park leaned very heavily into fantasy & fairy type creatures, including talking anthropomorphic animals and the like. That should be a good place to start. The 1960s-era super-science vibe can conjure up some Zeerust robots and rocketships and the like too. So pick the style you feel like you can draw better.
Duskshine, working at the park as professional costume consultant.
Looks like I have a lot of watching Defunctland videos in my near future to mine for aesthetic inspiration. (I was probably going to do that anyway, so at least now I claim it’s for research purposes.)
For what it’s worth, I think the key here is to sell the undercurrent of sadness that made the park a reality. The professor may have been researching time travel to undo some kind of tragedy, for example, and losing access to his children thanks to that research would have just made things worse. The park is a form of atonement and correction.
I don’t have any specific concrete recommendations on how to sell this impression right now, I just want to call it out to address your concern about it being regarded as a joke deck.
Now we’ve got some ideas, let’s see if we can’t put some of them into context.
First, a list of things I immediately like and can see some interesting mechanics out of:
Gawking park goers
Rogue animatronic robots
Temporal eddies
Leo’s Dimensional Anchor
Now let’s associate some of these with some stories.
First we have the Masks game where the Menagerie were able to lock down Clockwork and the Magus’ time fight to that area. The dimensional anchor and the temporal eddies are natural here and we can probably associate some gawking park goers as well.
This leaves us with the rogue animatronic robots. We already talked about the JHHL kids, so we can associate that with them. The first thing that comes to mind is a tech-related villain who uses the animatronics to spy on the park (find some secret tech perhaps?) and then releases them to cause havoc while they enact their real plan. Berserk park robots threatening crowds of thousands definitely sounds like something the JHHL would get involved in. Think of the news coverage.
Some of these cards could have multiple copies without any issue (the robots, the temporal eddies, the part goers), so just need 4-8 more ideas to have full coverage for a 15 card deck.
And this is why I like making environment decks. A couple solid ideas and you’ve already got a cornerstone of a deck.
I can work with that.