The Gaming Den

So back in the RAGE TCG review, I posted this:

I now want to make a card game with a focus on shapeshifting and traveling to the spirit world, because those are cool concepts and this game shouldn't be their representative.

Well, that urge never went away. But my job has been very intense lately, and I haven't had the energy to do something that requires as much concentration as designing a card game. I haven't even had enough to finish my Blade of the Iron Throne review.

But you know what's easier and more fun than rigorous design? Vague concepts and card mock-ups!

This guy introduces our two key concepts. First, the World/Otherworld divide. The World is a fantasy setting with relatively low and rare magic. The Otherworld is technically a spirit plane, but once you're there it's solid enough, and it's a crazy-heavy-metal-high-magic fantasy setting.

Second, all Heroes are double-sided cards representing some significant change they undergo. Hünek is a hardcore magician and can astral project to the Otherworld at will – and his spirit form is much more powerful than his decrepit flesh.

Arthek is a berserker who turns into a giant bear when he gets angry, but like all Heroes he is a Mage, a trait which represents a level of practical magical knowledge. There will be non-Hero characters who are not Mages.

A card's 'transformation' doesn't have to be a change of form. In the case of Melyonen, it represents her changing into her Batmanesque alternate identity.

Crossing the world-border isn't always easy (unless you're Hünek), but some characters are native to the Otherworld.

Anneth is a minor and disturbing spirit who is destined to become a greater and more disturbing spirit, but she has no innate means to effect the change, and her player will need to provide one if he wants to level her up.

I've no particular knowledge of TCGs but - cool art, where's it from?

You did a neat job of conveying an interesting world out of very few mechanics.

From a game design perspective, I think you'll have to treat being in the Otherworld as a resource to some extent. Like if you expect most combo/engine decks to share a bottleneck of getting cards to the Otherworld, that sort of thing.

I assume Might/Craft/Lore are for removal? "Remove a card with 4 or less might" kind of thing? The other use I could think of is needing to total up a bunch of them to do a thing, but when the Star Trek TCG did it, it was always less interesting than when it did the exact same thing using tagged skills instead.

Speaking of ST:TCG, a suggestion half-stolen from that: Each player starts the game by playing two(?) goal cards, which are simultaneously world enchantments that modify something or trigger off something, and the source of the points needed to win the game. (And always designed to be available to both players / intractable by most decks.) That has a questing/mysterious feel that seems appropriate to what you're going for.

Orca wrote:I've no particular knowledge of TCGs but - cool art, where's it from?

Google.

Hünek is 'Forest king' by Andrey Shishkin and his spirit form is the Ruined King from League of Legends (I can't find the artist name).
Arthek is the cover of the Amon Amarth album 'Berserker' by Brent Elliott White. His bear form is Beorn by JMKilpatrick.
Melyonen is The End of the Song by Edmund Blair Leighton. The Jester is 'Assassin concept' by Jason Nguyen.
Anneth is Voldaren Pariah/Abolisher of Bloodlines from MTG Eldritch Moon, both by James Ryman.

jt wrote:I assume Might/Craft/Lore are for removal? "Remove a card with 4 or less might" kind of thing? The other use I could think of is needing to total up a bunch of them to do a thing, but when the Star Trek TCG did it, it was always less interesting than when it did the exact same thing using tagged skills instead.

My vision of the core gameplay is almost completely unformed. My thoughts on the stats are about equal parts Star Trek CCG, Babylon 5 CCG, and Spycraft CCG right now.

Speaking of ST:TCG, a suggestion half-stolen from that: Each player starts the game by playing two(?) goal cards, which are simultaneously world enchantments that modify something or trigger off something, and the source of the points needed to win the game. (And always designed to be available to both players / intractable by most decks.) That has a questing/mysterious feel that seems appropriate to what you're going for.

I've wanted to rip off the Star Wars CCG's double-sided Objective cards for a while now, because those were one of my favorite game-things ever. I'd also like players to have a secret face-down goal to pursue for VP, to add a deduction element. But I'm still in the 'what even do' stage, so who knows.

Those are neat. Having flipping on the objectives as well fits with the rest of your themes.

What if you combined that with shared objective cards? Like... achieving an objective means you flip it and give it to the opponent, who might flip that side and give it back. With the goal being to not have any objectives.

If flipping cards is a major mechanic, there should be some visual identification that people can use to immediately identify which side a given card is in, could be a border, sticker, color palette.

If all heroes are mages, I think it'd be cleaner to remove the Mage tag from the Hero cards, and have the rule book refer to cards with "Mage or Hero tags."

Are the transforming hero cards double sided? If so is there a placeholder card for them or are they not randomly drawn?

The MtG solution is a placeholder card

The Yu Gi Oh solution is to have a separate "transformation/upgrade" deck

The Pokemon solution is to have the upgrade needed to be in your hand to apply

Hero cards are double-sided and start in play. They are your 'main characters.'

Mandatory sleeves is another solution for decks of double sided cards.

It's a bit heavy-handed for a one-off mechanic like MtG transformations, but if that's the entire game, well.