Mesmer
Alert
Resource
Type
Power of Mass Hypnosis
Creates Illusory Artifacts
At any time, if you have an artifact pod in your cache, you may use this power to inflict “mass hypnosis”. Discharge an artifact from your cache and transform it into any artifact pod of your choice that may be discharged with the current timing until it is exhausted.
Legacy: Aliens may inflict mass hypnosis at any time to transform any artifact into a Cosmic Zap until upkeep.
The Mesmer are the greatest alien race to have ever spawned. Their existence is a blessing upon us all, and we should feel honored to acknowledge them as the rightful rulers of the Cosmos. The Mesmer are the greatest alien race to have ever spawned. Their existence is a blessing upon us all, and we should feel honored to acknowledge them as rightful rulers of the Cosmos…
Any: Any
Optional
Wild Flare
As a leader, after contact, you may discharge this flare to target any driver with a discharge value of 10 or less. Transform that driver into an N pod until it is exhausted.
Leader: Contact
Super Flare
At any time, if you have a support pod in your cache other than this flare, you may discharge this flare to inflict mass hypnosis using any support pod in your cache.
Any: Any
Modifications
- My version of Mesmer transforms the pod until upkeep, allowing aliens like Vulture that can retrieve and discharge that pod before it is exhausted to use the version of the pod affected by mass hypnosis.
- Wild Mesmer also only transforms the pod in the moment. My version transforms it until it is exhausted.
- Mesmer’s legacy gives every alien the ability to use any artifact as a Cosmic Zap, a limited form of the Mesmer power. While it doesn’t necessarily increase the amount of Cosmic Zaps in the match, it increases the flexibility of artifacts and make powers less reliable. Aliens holding a warp key or a plague have to determine if the zap or the original artifact is more valuable, since they only choose one. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Mesmer’s power is limited to the number of artifact pods it can obtain. Gaining pods through compensation and boons is its best bet to make use of its power.
- Saving artifacts until later can be valuable to best utilize them, but it can also risk losing them to compensation.
Development Notes
- Mesmer is one of the few aliens that can directly access Mutant’s private pool of artifact pods. This private pool increases Mesmer’s options, which can also make it a tougher choice.
- There are 21 different artifacts in my Cosmic, including Mutant’s private pool. The sheer number of options is the primary reason Mesmer is a red alert alien, as a new player would need time to learn what all the artifacts are, and an intermediate player could still be overwhelmed with the freedom of choice. Mesmer can limit its options to at least 20, since it has no real reason to ever use the Omni Zap over the specific zap it needs.
- I considered if Mesmer’s power should have a more permanent effect on the match, allowing it to remove certain artifacts outright and make others more common. While it could work as a variant of the power, I decided to keep the main one temporary to drive home the difference between a hypnotic illusion vs. physically transforming the pod like Alchemist does.
- While holding artifact pods, Mesmer’s power can feel like a Swiss army knife. The Rebirth pod can be useful to protect Mesmer’s power, the Scrambler can help control its destiny, the Warp Key can ensure it doesn’t run out of ships, the Grime pod can give it the edge in negotiations, Solar Wind can give it a base as a winning defender, Boon Permit can give it boons as a winning defender, Force Field can keep out specific sponsors from an encounter. Some of these powers dip into the design spaces of other aliens like Bouncer and Siren, but there’s an appropriate tradeoff. Mesmer is limited by the number of artifact pods it can obtain.
- Mesmer and Vulture have an interesting mutual relationship. Vulture will snatch up any pod Mesmer discharges. Until upkeep, the pod will be transformed, so Vulture can use the hypnotized power during the same encounter if the timing is right. Otherwise, it will revert to its original value for Vulture, which could be better or worse. Vulture wants Mesmer to be well-stocked with artifacts, since each one Mesmer uses is another one for Vulture (unless zapped).
- Despite being red alert, Mesmer is a simple alien with a solid theme that I don’t see in need of much improvement. It’s easy to imagine it like the Hypno-Toad of Cosmic, though it actually works more like Sosuke Aizen’s zanpakuto. By flashing mesmerizing or discombobulating imagery inherent to Mesmer’s biology, the other aliens are convinced they see something that isn’t happening. It could even extend to the Federation with aspects like the Boon Permit, or even the warp itself with the Warp Key.
- Mesmer’s name comes from Franz Mesmer, the German physician who invented the term “animal magnetism”, the progenitor of what is known today as mesmerism or hypnotism. Its naming convention is similar to that of Chronos and Cryo, where the root word captures the idea as well as something like Hypnotist. The term ‘mass hypnosis’ as a power name specifically refers to the hypnosis affecting many other aliens at once, as hypnosis is generally perceived as an intimate action done to one person at a time.
- If Mesmer is zapped, the mass hypnosis is cancelled. The original artifact can still be used, but only in its original form with proper timing. The artifact pod is not wasted from the power being zapped.