Legacy Lore 005: Sharpshooter

As we've gone through these first few articles, there are some elements that I absolutely love and miss and others that I understand being left in the dustbins of history. Sharpshooter is one of those that is kind of right in the middle.

Let's begin with what Sharpshooter  was:

This character can use Improved Targeting: Opposing Characters, May make a ranged combat attack targeting adjacent opposing characters.

A few things. First off, it has an improved targeting that doesn't exist anymore: Opposing Characters. This made sense when they were introducing these elements, to have some effects not be blocked by friendly or opposing characters (or both). But again, as time goes on, it just becomes a needless complication. Especially when there's no need to have Improved Movement: Friendly Characters, so you have a symbol (Friendly Characters) just for Improved Targeting.

Then there's “may make a ranged combat attack targeting adjacent opposing characters.” That was very specifically just merged into the modern “This character can make range attacks while adjacent to opposing characters.” The symbol that granted the other wording was just merged with the “Move Through” symbol, again, to reduce complexity.

Which was clarified on the WIN at one point. That the old “Double Circle” symbol was simply replaced by “Move Through.” As well as characters with Sharpshooter still being considered Standard characters. Unfortunately, those errata/clarifications have been lost to the sands of the Intertubes and is the stuff of legend.

All that being said, I liked Sharpshooter. I like little touches that make bases feel different and having a different attack symbol helped with that. I understand that it largely became redundant with the advent of Improved symbols but, I don't know. It still just felt a little extra special.

Thanks for reading. If you have an older effect that you're curious about feel free to write into joenexus36@gmail.com and maybe we'll cover it in a future Legacy Lore.