Vox

Alert

Combat

Support

Type

Power of Volume

Goes Up to Eleven

As an actor, during a clash, if either your brigade’s driver or a reinforcement pod has 10 or less might, you may use this power to increase one of those pods’ might to 11 this encounter.

Legacy: All drivers with might higher than 11 become 11 this encounter when discharged.

As one of the loudest creatures in proportion to their size, the Vox have evolved to have such terrible hearing that they need to produce sound that can be heard for miles just to converse with one another. Eventually they realized their own biology had made them living superweapons and decided to make their voices heard on the cosmic stage.

Actor: Clash

Optional

Wild Flare

As a sponsor, during a clash, you may discharge this flare to add 11 to your fleet’s total instead of the might from your ships.

Sponsor: Clash

Super Flare

Whenever you request a resupply, you may draft 11 pods instead of 8, plus lucre.

Any: Any

Modifications

Original Vox only works as leader or foreward and only affects drivers. Changed to also work as a backward.
Vox’s legacy lowers the volume instead of raising it, decreasing any pods with more than 11 value down to 11. Similar to Graviton, it effectively removes the value of strong encounter pods, making combat powers and sponsors much more valuable. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Vox can leverage a cache of weak encounter pods to still perform well. Even negative attack pods can be transformed into 11s and put to good use.
Since most opponents will be expecting an 11 when matched against it, Vox can also leverage strong attack pods for surprise attacks.
When opposing Vox, whether it is a leader or sponsor, it is usually worth gauging whether you can beat an attack pod of 11 with their current might. If not, it might be better to aim for compensation or discarding a weak pod.
Reinforcement pods max out at 10 might, so you can always use Vox’s power on one if discharged.
If you are running low on strong pods, getting Vox on your side can be a reliable way to keep your momentum.
It is worth informing Vox if you plan to play a reinforcement pod, since they can only increase the volume of one pod. If you roll a low number on the reinforcement, you might get more value by increasing that pod instead. As Vox, you can wait until the end of the clash to use your power, ensuring nothing is missed.

Development Notes

My version of Vox is effectively the same as Bill Martinson’s proposed fix to Vox, which lets it be used as an actor and also applies to reinforcement pods. It makes Vox one of the few powers that directly interacts with reinforcements. They are the only type of distress pod with a numerical value, so they are the only type that would work with this power.
I considered having Vox permanently make pods the value of 11 when using its power, but I think it would make the power less interesting. Reinforcement pods shouldn’t have hardlocked values, and the effect should work the same on both drivers and reinforcements. Also, making the 11 pod incredibly common will just reduce Vox’s effectiveness over time, which is an unnecessary nerf.
The average attack pods are 06 and 08, with Vox increasing their might by 5 or 3, respectively. The average between the two is 4, which allows Vox to pass the Human Test. Since it and its allies will be looking to leverage the power, it should be able to easily pass the Human Test in practice.
Vox’s power provides a moderate amount of consistency when it comes to combat, though the combat bonus itself isn’t that overwhelming. 10 pods are fairly common, and they are only 1 less than what Vox provides. It’s the ability to reliably get such a value that can make Vox formidable.
The power’s theme is based around the phrase “up to eleven”, which refers to the highest volume setting on an amplifier. It was popularized in 1984 by the film This Is Spinal Tap, which featured an amplifier that goes from 0 to 11 instead of the usual 0 to 10. 11 as a number has symbolism in going “further beyond”, since 10 is often seen as the number of perfection or completeness.
My understanding of Vox’s power is that it uses its powerful voice in place of a driver, being strong enough to “drown out” whatever the actual attack pod was if it’s not strong enough to overpower it. Either that, or it uses its powerful voice to charge up the value of the driver to the strength of its voice, which always equals 11.
I originally considered Vox’s legacy bringing up low-power pods to 11, but I think such an effect would be too punishing to Volt, which gets all of its power from playing pods with 10 power or less unless super. Bringing pods down also feels thematic, like the power to the amplifier turns down after Vox is “disconnected.” It also means playing attack pods with value of 11+ will more likely result in a tie against Trickster.
I consider it highly important that Vox’s power is optional so it cannot get entirely shafted by Trickster’s power. Instead, its timing can make it as strong as Oracle, priming a 06 and then changing to 11 after reveal.