Button Men: Miscellaneous 2000 Buttons
2000 was a bumper year for odd little Button Men, starting with the Button Man on the 1999 Button Men poster. In all, we've licensed or created 20 miscellaneous buttons this year, not counting the 12 German versions of the Soldiers.
Gordo
Button: Gordo
Recipe: V W X Y Z: None of Gordo's dice can be the same size.
Release Date: Spring 2000
Source: Cheapass Games
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Brian Snoddy
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? No.
Details: Gordo was printed as a section of the Cheapass Games 1999 Button Men poster, which shows a half-size image of every licensed Button Man from the first year. You can buy the poster and make it yourself, or wait patiently for Cheapass Games to send you one.
Social Class
Button: Social Class
Recipe: 4/6 6/8 8/10 10/12 12/20
Release Date: Spring 2000
Source: Balticon
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Gavin Schmitt
New Rules: Option Dice
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: Social Class was produced by Balticon, a gaming convention in Baltimore, MD. It was the first appearance of Option Dice, which were later introduced formally in the Fantasy Button Men expansion.
Tirade
Button: Tirade
Recipe: 6 <6 <10 V!
Release Date: Spring 2000
Source: Looney Labs
Designer: The Blacksburg Warren
Artist: Andrew Looney
New Rules: Time and Space Dice
Tournament Legal? No.
Details: At a small convention in the trackless East, Andrew Looney decided that the Looney Labs mascot, Tirade, should become a Button Man. Actually, he credits Joe Kisenwether with the idea. The Blacksburg Warren is comprised of John "Tucker" Taylor, Jay DeLanoy, Emily Frawley, and Adam Kopczenski. Between the four of them, they managed to create a 4-die character that's remarkably strong.
The Time and Space Dice: Represented above by the "<", Time and Space are depicted on Tirade inside pyramids. After your starting roll, every time one of your Time and Space Dice rolls an odd number, you get to take another turn. If both dice come up odd at the same time, you only get one extra turn.
Despite missing a die, Tirade is a serious powerhouse, and too strong for tournament play.
Tess
Button: Tess
Recipe: n4 8 12 n20 X
Release Date: July 2000
Source: Cheapass Games
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Phil Foglio
New Rules: Null Dice
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: Tess, like Zeppo in 1999, was printed in the Origins on-site program book. She's a character from the BRAWL expansion "Club Foglio," and has two Null Dice to reflect the three Nulls in her BRAWL deck. Tess is by far the best seller in the Foglio BRAWL set. Probably because of her boundless ennui.
Renaissance
Button: Guillermo
Recipe: 6 10 20 X Y: X and Y cannot be the same size.
Release Date: Summer 2000
Source: Stone Press
Designer: Bill Fogarty
Artist: Merald Clark
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: This button was prouced just for fun by a small group of renaissance enthusiasts called The Oldenfeld Players. Guillermo is left-handed, which explains the location of his numbers. Technically those dice should be interpreted as Auxiliary or Reserve Dice, as in the Sailor Moon Button Men expansion, but of course that's not really the point.
"Save The Ogres!"
Buttons: Ginzu and Gratch
Recipes:
Ginzu: 8 8 (s12,s12) 20 X
Gratch: 6 (s8,s8) 20 s20 X
Release Date: Summer 2000
Source: Save the Ogres
Designer: James Ernest
Artists: Troy Graham (Ginzu), Matt Wilson (Gratch)
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: On a whim, a little foundation called Save the Ogres, who are apparently concerned with the continuity of the Legend of the Five Rings Card game among other things, created this pair of Button Men for a pickup tournament at Gen Con 2000. For flavor, James Ernest designed them both with Twin Shadow Dice, which suggest overpowering strength and no idea how to use it.
Leader of the Free World
Buttons: Bush, Gore, and Cthulhu
Recipes:
Bush and Gore: 4 20 4/8 6/12 6/20
Cthulhu: 4 20 (s4, s8) (s6, s12) (ps6, ps20)
Release Date: August 2000
Source: Cheapass Games and Chaosium
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: John Kovalic
New Rules: Imbalanced Twin Dice
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: "Leader of the Free World" was the "Button Men Expansion that Fits in the Gen Con On-Site Program Book." Bush and Gore were printed in this ad, and the idea was that players could bring the ad to the Cheapass booth and vote for their favorite candidate by converting him into a button. "Unbeknownst" to Cheapass, Chaosium made sure to have a Cthulhu button available for those who didn't favor either of the lesser evils. Gore won the "election" at the Cheapass Booth, but of course Cthulhu racked up more votes than the other two put together. The sameness of these two characters was apparently very appropriate, as the 2000 election lasted for weeks. We'd like to think the Supreme Court finally decided the winner over a game of Button Men.
Majesty 2
Buttons: Nerni and Yeti
Recipes:
Release Date: August 2000
Source: Cyberlore Studios
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: David White
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: To follow up their two Majesty promo buttons from Gen Con 1999, Cyberlore studios released this pair at Gen Con 2000. Unlike the 1999 Majesty buttons, these characters have original recipes instead of being versions of original Button Men.
Me am ORK!
Button: Me am ORK!
Recipe: 8 8 8 p8 X
Release Date: August 2000
Source: Green Ronin Publishing
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Toren Atkinson
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: To promote their new roleplaying game, ORK!, Green Ronin Publishing released a very short run of these "Me am ORK!" Button Men in August of 2000. The character is made entirely of 8's, one of which is poison, plus an X.
German Edition
Buttons: All 12 Soldiers, in German
Recipes: Same as Soldiers set.
Release Date: August 2000
Source: Mario Truant Verlag, www.truant.com
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Brian Snoddy
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: << Clare eine expertin für rechtschreibung und daumendrücken, und sie liebt es, sich zu prügeln.>> Mario Truant obtained the license to produce the Soldiers in German, and these one-of-a-kind collector's items include a glaring typographical error: all the characters' names are straight across the middle of the button, rather than curved along the bottom. This little defect is thanks to a conversion from Quark 4 to Quark 3, which can't handle text on a curve. German Button Men are available only in Germany, with German rules and packaged in a plastic blister pack.
Fairies
Buttons: Sven and Yseulte
Recipes:
Release Date: September 2000
Source: Cool Tuna Studio, www.cooltuna.com
Designer: Nan Fredman
Artist: Nan Fredman
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: Nan Fredman came to Cheapass Games with this expansion fully designed, and with great artwork to boot. The Fairies were created for Gaylaxicon 2000, designed to both celebrate and lampoon Gay stereotypes. Head on over to the cool tuna store to get your set.
Japanese Beetle
Buttons: Japanese Beetle and Flying Squirrel
Recipes:
Release Date: November 2000
Source: Dave "The Knave" White and Chris White; www.wfcomics.com/beetle
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Dave "The Knave" White
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: You can read the continuing adventures of the Japanes Beetle every day at www.wfcomics.com/beetle.
Howling Wolf
Buttons: Howling Wolf and White Tiger
Recipes:
Release Date: November 2000
Source: Howlilng Wolf Studio
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Cara Depugh and George Peyton
New Rules: Stealth Dice (d, or delta)
Tournament Legal? Yes.
Details: Howling Wolf Studios and White Tiger Graphics are two sides of the same coin in London, Ohio. These promotional buttons were produced in conjunction with one of their big 2000 promotions.
Stealth Dice: Stealth Dice are denoted by a Delta (or, in the case of this expansion, an inverted delta) on the frame. Stealth Dice are restricted in two ways: First, a Stealth Die can never make an attack on its own; Stealth Dice can only participate in multi-die Skill Attacks. Second, Stealth Dice are significantly harder to capture than normal dice. They can only be captured by multi-die Skill Attacks, not by Power Attacks or by any other sort of special attack.
Beat People Up, the Button Men and BRAWL Home Page, is (c) 2002 James Ernest and Cheapass Games.
