I freaking love this game, and I'm 50+ plays in. One of my few gripes though (and I'm just nitpicking/looking for discussion) is the Obligation cards. They're a great concept - I like how they're similar to the weakness cards from Arkham, but they're in the encounter deck instead.

But I think it's a shame that they're less thematic than the Arkham ones, they have much narrower design space and some of them feel less specific to each hero.

My main problem is that in almost every situation, the first bullet point (Exhaust alter-ego > remove the obligation from the game) is almost always the better choice. I feel like the intent of the cards is to make the player have to make a difficult choice, but in practice it doesn't play out this way. And the first option is made better by the fact that the obligation is removed from the game, so you don't have to worry about it again.

I wonder if simply putting the 'remove from the game' clause in the 2nd bullet point would have made them a bit more agonising.

I just find that in play the cost of the first bullet point is to miss out on a basic power and that's it. Whereas the 2nd bullet point is always a bigger cost and the card is still in the game.

I agree, they could do more/better with this concept moving forward.

I agree as well. I am usually glad to see my obligation cause I get a free flip. I'd be interest to see how horrible it would be if you weren't allowed to exhaust to remove it and had to take the consequences. The only time I've ever had an issue is when I am protection, defend, and don't have indomitable. Plus when you get the flip is already after the Villain has attacked or schemed.

I think the point is that you have a risk of the worse option happening if you’re unable to exhaust. Ie You already committed by defending? Muahahaha....now you don’t have time to pay your rent on time!

12 minutes ago, Derrault said:

I think the point is that you have a risk of the worse option happening if you’re unable to exhaust. Ie You already committed by defending? Muahahaha....now you don’t have time to pay your rent on time!

Yeah admittedly most of my experience has been solo, where defending is less common. I agree that in multiplayer, they become more potent, because they can punish you for defending.

There are also plenty of cards that exhaust your card, especially in expert mode and vs Klaw, so I've had no choice but to do the second option many times.

Yeah it’s really not about it being a choice so much as “if you can’t exhaust to deal with this, these are the consequences—and you still have to deal with it later if it comes up.”

I don't mind that they are in the encounter deck rather than the hero's deck. I think that's correct given the theme of this game. That said I agree that the designs for all the obligations feel off to me. I have almost never taken the second bullet option and the first bullet being the same for everyone currently feels very bland to me. Caleb seems aware of that. In one of the interviews I saw with him be said they are looking at the Obligation design and we shouldn't expect it to always follow that same template in the future.

I would also like to see unique obligations for the heroes as well as the option for unique obligations (weakness?) in each aspect to be shuffled into the encounter deck to adjust difficulty. Something like 'all heroes in Leadership discard 1 Ally from play or deal 1 damage to each Ally you control.'

I think tailoring the encounter deck for the heroes and aspects involved is a great thing they could expand on in this game.

Obligations are pretty disappointing.

adding obligations for the aspects could be good

22 hours ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Yeah admittedly most of my experience has been solo, where defending is less common. I agree that in multiplayer, they become more potent, because they can punish you for defending.

But as a team you have more chance that the card don’t target your heroe. She can be turn as a boost. Or she can be turn as a encounter card against another heroes. And I don’t think that if the card target spidey as encounter card but was for She hulk you have to play it on She Hulk Instead (I didn’t open my box yet).

1 hour ago, Slobosoy1 said:

But as a team you have more chance that the card don’t target your heroe. She can be turn as a boost. Or she can be turn as a encounter card against another heroes. And I don’t think that if the card target spidey as encounter card but was for She hulk you have to play it on She Hulk Instead (I didn’t open my box yet).

Obligations always target their intended heroes, regardless of who drew the card. It's actually written on the card itself that it be given to its corresponding hero first.