Hi there. I recently bought some Skull forge studios and DarkFire Design Minis, inspired from the Mandalorian series

I wanted to build some custom Character Deployment cards and also maybe some hero cards for some Characters.

I was inquiring about the rule of thumb when designing a character, is there a ratio, or a Pip system. eg ''if it costs this much, it has to be this much health'i

I know there is an IA community project, and they seem to fill their cards with too much clutter text and powers.

I have a Custom mando in pre and post Beskar i want to make, and a certain wandering desert Nomad to create.

any custom building tips you can throw my way?

I think you can make a reasonable first stab at it simply by comparing to existing cards (noting that single-figure unique groups, in particular, got much cheaper and somewhat more powerful as time went by, so you'll want to decide roughly what wave you want to compare against). Come up with what you think "feels" right to start with, then simply go through every comparable card and see how it measures up, making adjustments accordingly.

(If you use the Kensei Skirmish List Builder, and enable all the extra columns in the Deployment card list, you can see all this information at a glance, and sort by it too).

Traits, health, movement, attack dice, and defence dice are easy enough to assign in this way, just by comparing to what already exists. Abilities are much harder to judge, because they can differ so wildly. You'll soon spot patterns, though. Anything with a lightsaber has a surge for Pierce 3, for example. It's also useful to decide early-on which capabilities of the character you want to focus on. If you try to put everything The Mandalorian does in the series on his card, clutter will be the least of your problems. Ask yourself: what is the fundamental essence of this character, that needs to be represented in the game?

I don't believe there is any "magic formula" for assigning costs. People tried to put such a thing together, in the early days, but there was always so much fudging to fit that it was worthless IMO. Then the meta progressed anyway. I still remember when the Grand Inquisitor first appeared and the reaction was "wait he can do WHAT for HOW FEW points???" and nobody would bat an eyelid at him now.

In any case, once you've got the basic gist of something, you'll need to playtest it anyway - very often something that looks like it should be fine in theory, actually works much better or worse than expected in practice, or when synergising with something else, or for non-unique figures, when spammed. There's an art to this, a skill. (One I'm not very good at personally, BTW. Professional-level game design is harder than it looks).

If you want my advice, for whatever it's worth, just go for it and don't worry too much about balance. If the cost is a point or two up or down, it probably won't make much difference. Also my advice, err on the side of caution. If you make a new custom unit, and it's underpowered, the worst thing that happens is that you feel a bit disappointed. If it's overpowered, the game isn't much fun for either player and your opponent starts to question your motivations. But then, on the flip side, I often find my custom creations end up being a bit bland (like I said, I'm not great at this). Maybe it's worth taking the risk on something more exciting, knowing that it might end up OP, as long as your gaming group is understanding and keen to be part of the process. Try a few things and find your own way.

3 hours ago, Bitterman said:

Try a few things and find your own way.

Thanks man, appreciate it. I hear you, im not a fan of too much clutter, and like the essence of a character. Im using them mainly as Campaign appearances only, either allies to hire, or bad guys to face off against. Ill post up what i have once i have finished and could use some general feedback