Getting into it

I'm going to start making the game; this is what I've decided so far:

            I decided to try a fighting engine. I’ve never been so good with the idea of calling forth other “people” to fight for you. So I go with summons – just my flare. And I’m going to do a Ps.v.G that moves into a P.v.P game? I guess that works better with more than 3 players…

            I also want to make a more dynamic turn system. Everyone does something instead of the one person goes forever and each person waits. I want a comboing system too. So let’s see how this works…

What is going into the game?

·         3 card types

o   Your deck cards

§  Name

§  Ability

§  Numbers

·         Attack

·         Recruiting power

§  Their symbols

·         2 attack symbols

o   Melee

o   Long Range

·         4 Elemental symbols

o   Earth

o   Air

o   Water 

o   Fire

·         1 recruiting symbols

§  Rule Statement: Each card will have a set of symbols. Your first card can have any symbol, but each following card has to share at least one symbol with all previously played cards

o   Monster Deck cards

§  Name

§  Ability

§  Numbers

·         Loyalty

·         Health Point

·         Experience

§  Symbols

o   Mission Deck cards

§  Name

§  Mission

§  Rewards

§  Requirement Value – On the back

Beginning of game: Each player starts with 10 pre-selected cards.

·         7 have attack symbols

·         Fire Snap x2

·         Ice Strike x2

·         Swift Arrow x3

·         3 have recruiting symbols

·         Nature's Kindness x3

I’m working on the rules now, so that’ll clarify a lot of things. 

Win Con.

I realized that something I should be looking into is a new win condition for the game. All the 7:3 games I’ve played so far have been games where players are playing with themselves (which I hate) and the end game is a counting of points – what if I changed that up?

This is not directly tied into what “opponent” you put into the game. If you do a P.v.P, then the win con is “defeat your opponents”. If you Ps.v.G then the players are trying to achieve a mission statement… I’ll consider options.

Making a 7:3 game

This morning I had the thought; a simple thought, but one that always urges me to do something. This morning I woke up saying, “I 

Okay, that sentence could end a lot of different ways, but for me it ended with, “… Ascension had missions.” Then the crazy started.

Last time I had that thought is spurred on Origins, and now this will be my second game – let’s see if I can make something that’s playable. So let’s talk crazy.

Let me start with stating the 7:3 games I've played and why I call them that. I started with Dominion, then Ascension, and this week I played Legendary and Eminent Domain. I call them 7:3 instead of Deck Builders (which they are) because in Dominion you started every game with 7 gold cards and 3 point cards. This made the beginning of the game quite predictable. I really liked that, to be honest.

The first thing, in my opinion is to figure out what your engine is. For me it’s going to be a 7:3 deck building games. 7:3 meaning a game where you start with 7 gold and 3 points in a deck, and using the deck building engine made famous by Dominion LCG.  This is good because the base rules are done for me.

The second thing is to make a list of hooks that you want to try out, here are mine:

-          Mission statements (alternate win conditions)

-          Leveling

-          Disciplines

-          Heroes

Then you need to know what is your base for your game – what is the skeleton for this engine. This is what I came up with:

-          It will be an LCG (Living Card Game – meaning there are expansions, but no booster packs. With the intro box you can play the game as is).

-          There are coins/money cards to buy things

-          There are cards to buy

-          Point system for counting victory at the end of the game

Another question that struck me is from my years playing table top games, they structure themselves in a combination of three ways:

-          A team / each player versus the game

o   The battlestar galatica board game is like this

-          Player versus player

o   Warhammer, Magic the Gathering, etc

-          You’re playing against yourself with other people watching

o   Dominion

-          Materials

-          Time length

-          Question of opponents

o   Yous against game

o   PvP

o   Playing with yourself

-          Gimmick

o   Missions

o   Levels/Disciplines