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10 Minutes with Hair10
The Le (02/10/2010)
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HeroClix 10 Minutes with Hair10Karl "Hair10" Markovich was one of the earliest HeroClix rules arbiter for Wizkids for many years. He's since left the world of arbiting, but his legacy still stands. We sit down with Karl to get his thoughts on HeroClix, and more.

The Le: So what exactly was your role at Wizkids?


Hair10: I was the HeroClix Rules Arbitrator. Technically I wasn't "at" WK since it is a volunteer position. My job was to consult with the game designers on questions that came up about rules and rules interactions, pass along a decision about those questions, document many of them in the FAQ, write the errata documentation, review upcoming "stuff" such as rulebooks, be involved in playtesting, answer questions on the WK forums (both in the rules section and in the judges forum), and travel to the various WK attended conventions and run the tournament hall which included everything from setting up events to managing the envoys there to running the Invitational/National/Championship/whatever-name-it-was-this-year type of events.

The Le: How did you get there exactly?

Hair10: The previous rules arb, Dr. Gandalf, stepped aside for personal reasons. If I recall, he just got busy with school and such and couldn't devote the time to do it anymore. WK posted an open application to all envoys for the rules arb position. On a lark, I applied but I never expected to get the job or even be considered. I've always been rather... outspoken about things when I disagree with policies. This had already earned me one banning on the envoy forums so I figured there was no way I'd ever get the job. So I applied as kind of a "haha, I hope you get a good chuckle out of this one WK staffers" kind of deal (incidently, I did the exact same thing for the exact same reason after I was 'let go' and WK put out another open application for a rules arb! :-p). Needless to say, I about fell out of my chair when I got the call from WK to tell me that I was being considered.

The Le: How much input did you have with the rules interpretations?

Hair10: Quite a bit, actually. There were many times where Seth and I didn't agree about the way a particular ruling should go. We'd go back and forth and I'd try and lay out the pros and cons of each argument. Sometimes he'd over-rule me but there were other times when he came around to my way of seeing it. Not that we always disagreed, but when we did he was always willing to listen. A lot of stuff was often what I considered "no-brainers", either because of specific wording or, when wording was insufficent, intent. In many of those cases I simply made the decision without even bothering Seth with it.

The one area where I would have liked to have more input was in the rulebooks. I never got to see them until they were in their final form (I was told this was due to tight deadlines by editors and proof readers and such). By then it was too late to make changes. All I could do was prepare a future errata for whatever ended up being wrong in the rulebook. I always hated that. I felt that if I could have seen it earlier, before it was finalized, we could have avoided some of the problems that the rulebooks always seemed to have.


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Your Comments:
Great interview!

I agree with EVERYTHING Hair say about R/E/V, Special powers, 2 color powers and the Tuttle dislike. :p

Posted by: CarlosMucha on 2/16/2010 9:45:37 PM
Well, I'm really new to HeroClix, and have never played the game before, even though I bought a bunch of stuff as I plan to introduce the game to my family this weekend. I am a BIG Heroscape fan (my introduction to tabletop gaming) but I got interested in HC because of the comic book characters. At first glance, it seems a lot more complicated than Scape because of the PAC, but just like we did with Scape, we play the quick rules first to get the hang of the game before introducing the PAC. I did a trail run of some turns by myself just to get an idea of how combat flowed and it was very cool, it has a lot of back-and-forth (I really like the critical hit/miss and pushback mechanics), so I'm excited to see how the game goes over. I look forward to picking all of your brains about HC.

Posted by: dynomutt312000 on 2/13/2010 8:27:26 AM
I can't say I disagree with a single point made in the article (except maybe the author being more of a DC fan :)). I too enjoy getting nearly a complete set when I pick up a case, and hate having to dish out $$ to complete my set - GW takes too much of my money to devote any more to clix. I prefer quality over quantity (I use the figs in RPGs, and hate representing characters with painted lumps of plastic). And I liked not having to send off for a buy it by the brick fig. I am also glad, of course, that clix is back, and am looking forward to Blackest Night.

Posted by: Nova00 on 2/11/2010 3:26:43 PM
Very interesting article. I do remember reading some of Hair's comments and the replies on WK realms when it was up. Between him and some of the others (Harpua & nbperb mainly) they helped some some problems our judge wasnt to sure about in years past. I agree with alot of what he said here and hope WK/N doesnt just blow it off, if they even read it at all. But like BB said in his comment. I'm glad we have our game back.

Posted by: Nightwing-fan on 2/10/2010 5:20:22 PM
Nice interview, really helps pass the time her in the winter wonderland of central PA. I never met Hair but he sure has an interesting perspective on the game. I too hope the New Wizkids will learn from past mistakes, but when its all said and done I'm glad we have our game back.

Posted by: battlinbichon on 2/10/2010 12:09:37 PM