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