Disney's Villainous lets players take control of the villain in the story, prompting them to do whatever it takes to complete their objective before their rivals can. Often this entails trickery, deceit, and careful planning, but much of that depends on which villain one is playing. At the moment, there are six villains in the core game and three villains in each of the three expansions. All total, that's an impressive 15 playable characters, but there are still several iconic Disney villains that aren't yet represented in the game. A perfect example of this is Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a character that would fit perfectly in Villainous.
Disney's Villainous' core box set comes with Maleficent, the Queen of Hearts, Ursula, Prince John, Captain Hook, and Jafar, all recognizable villains from a variety of Disney movies. The first expansion, entitled Wicked to the Core, added yet more classic villains, including the Evil Queen, Hades, and Dr. Facilier. After this came Evil Comes Prepared, introducing Scar, Yzma, and Rattigan to the mix before the third and final expansion released. Perfectly Wretched is the most recent Disney expansion, and it adds Cruella De Vil, and Mother Gothel. With such a massive library of movies and great villains, there are plenty of potential choices for the next expansion, and Oogie Boogie should be one of them.
Oogie Boogie's Objective
In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Oogie Boogie's motivation is simple, as he wants to add Sandy Claws to his stew and eat him. Although this might lend itself to a standard "vanquish the target" victory condition, there are a lot of ways that Ravensburger could spice this up with Oogie Boogie's unique abilities. One way to do this would be to draw inspiration from Ursula, an existing character that can't vanquish heroes in the typical fashion.
In order to vanquish a hero as Ursula, players have to attach a contract to the enemy. Moving that enemy to a specific location in her domain causes them to be defeated. Working off of this concept, Oogie Boogie could do something similar but with the use of traps. Perhaps he could place traps in certain areas of his domain, and has to move heroes to those areas in order to defeat them. Each of his traps could have conditions to work, for example one the trap for Oogie Boogie's lair might only be able to defeat heroes of a certain power or higher.
Using Dice in Villainous
Another way this character could differentiate himself from others is through the use of dice. In the movie, Oogie Boogie's traps are all related to gambling and chance, and dice play a major role in many of them. In Villainous, it would be interesting to see this box come with a pair of six sided dice that players could use to determine the effects of some of their cards. There are a number of ways that this could work depending on how Ravensburger decides to handle it.
One simple example could be an effect card that vanquishes a hero if the player can roll its power or higher on a six-sided die or grants power equal to the roll, but it could also affect Oogie Boogie's movement and other aspects of the gameplay. There's already some degree of chance involved in Villainous by nature of the randomness of shuffling a deck, but this would take things to another level. Of course, players would have some way of manipulating the dice so their victory wouldn't be entirely up to chance, but it would make for an interesting playstyle nonetheless.
Oogie Boogie's Villain Deck - Allies, Items, and Effects
In terms of allies, there are a few easy picks from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Lock, Shock, and Barrel would each appear as a separate ally, and would likely be pivotal in moving heroes around the board into traps. Another potential option would be the bathtub that the three ride around in, and it could have the ability to move allies and items on Oogie Boogie's side of the board. Dr. Finkelstein could also work as an ally, as even though he wasn't working for Oogie Boogie directly, he was an antagonist to Sally for most of the movie.
In terms of items, these would constitute Oogie Boogie's traps that are featured prominently throughout his lair. If these were implemented, they would likely be the primary way for Oogie Boogie to defeat heroes that find their way into his realm. Finally, Oogie Boogie's effect cards and reactions would be based off of some of his iconic quotes and actions in the movie. These could be lines from Oogie Boogie's song like "I can't believe my eyes" or "I might just split a seem now." These cards are where Oogie Boogie's dice would come into play the most, having random effects or potency based on the roll.
Oogie Boogie's Fate Deck - Heroes and Effects
Although Oogie Boogie's list of allies is somewhat limited, the same cannot be said for heroes in the story. There are several obvious inclusions such as Jack Skellington, Sally, and the Mayor of Halloween Town, but the movie is filled with wacky characters that would make great heroes. Wolfman, the Vampire Brothers, Mr. Hyde, and Teddy could all be used to fill other niches that are missing from his Hero Deck and throw off his evil plans. More than that, it would make it more difficult for him to find Sandy Claws.
As his objective is to vanquish Sandy Claws in a trap, Oogie Boogie would have to have a way to pull him from the fate deck if other players don't fate him. This would mean players would find themselves battling through the cast of Halloween Town with an array of deadly traps in an effort to find Sandy Claws and defeat him. There would also be effects included to make the player's life more difficult, perhaps referencing the Deadly Nightshade that Sally uses to try and poison Dr. Finkelstein.
Disney's Villainous is available now.