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Topics - Malagar

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CCG Design Forum / Last Fief - free fantasy CCG

« on: May 05, 2013, 01:48:16 PM »

okay guys - i need your help - and this time, for real

Im working on another game. A tiny, little, FREE print-and-play CCG for kids, grown-ups, nerds and casual gamers alike. And i really need your help with creature names, name/mechanic combinations and name/artwork combinations (i take care about the artworks). As some of you might already know, im not native english speaking - so getting EN/US jokes is not an easy task for me. But this is exactly what this game is asking for.

Does someone remember the old Guardians CCG where you had hillarious creatures like "Giant Aunts" and "40.000 useless warhammers"? It was a combat game after all, but set in a very funny fantasy world. Last Fief ist trying to trailblaze good old Guardians.

The Last Fief game itself is almost ready. the rules are finished and playtested (still balancing is required). Rules document got a layout and the 36 card base set is ready to go. All i need now are more ideas for really funny, sarcastic, ironic creatures (for base set or the future).

Remember: This project is free and i will add every contributor to the thanks section of the rulebook. Furthermore I will post the full rules here later on and let you participate in creation of the next expansion set (for anyone who might be interested).

THE LAST FIEF - STORY

“The war is over and noble houses divided the whole realm among them. Wait, really the whole realm? Not quite! A long overlooked fief in a far corner of the land is still unconquered. Battle starts again, as nobles from all across the realm strive to conquer the last fief!”

Welcome to the official LAST FIEF card game. LAST FIEF is a fast, two player dueling game played using stacks of square tiles and a tiny game board. The player who controls all nine spaces on the board, wins the game. Last Fief is easy to learn, plays very fast and still provides a decent depth for strategies and tactics.

This is a game for everyone. Got time during lunchbreak? A few minutes before your bus arrives? Going on a train travel? Grab your comrade (little brother, sister, girlfriend, class mate, father, mother) and play!

THE LAST FIEF - GAME

Grab a stack of 18 crazy fantasy creatures. gain 3 gold per turn. use gold to play tiles onto the 3x3 tic-tac-toe board. or use gold to do various actions like drawing tiles, attacking, moving, activating special abilities and so on. attacking reduces the targets life by your creatures power rating (use dice or counters to keep track). the first player who puts a creature tile onto each one of the 9 spaces on the board - wins the game.

THE LAST FIEF - MY REQUEST

Creatures! No mechanics (as you dont know the rules yet). Focus on crazy names and name/artwork combination. They must be fantasy with lots of craziness, sarcasm and self irony. You always wanted to make fun of your favorite boardgame/movie/series/comic/computer game? NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!

Give me the good old "Lizards on the Toast"!

THE LAST FIEF - CREATURE SAMPLES

CCG Design Forum / The Magitech Wars

« on: March 14, 2013, 03:33:21 PM »

UPDATE: Name, Theme and several mechanics of this game changed. There will be a detailled update within the next weeks. We also got a talented artist for this game. The new name is also the new theme: "The Magitech Wars". There have also been efforts to step away from the "Elemental Wizards duelling battle game" style you see everywhere.

My second "commercial" project (well, print-and-play for a few bucks) for this year - expect release late 2013!

* The Magitech Wars - expandable board/card hybrid combat game
* 2-4 players ages 10+, playtime 30-60 minutes (depends on number of players)
* Uses cards, six sided dice, a board and a few tokens
* Combat: Attacker rolls 1d6 + attack, Defender rolls 1d6 + defense, higher roll wins and deals one hit
* Each cards features up to three special abilities and can be played as both: a creature or a spell
* There is no deck (!) - you start with your whole deck in your hand (!!)
* Bears strong resemblance with a computer game on the C64 from 1983
* Features a Phantasy Star Online like "Techno Fantasy Theme"

cheers!
-Tobias

CCG Design Forum / Brainstorm: epic space opera game

« on: March 10, 2013, 10:02:40 AM »

Wow, thats a post title! Well, first of all: Im very busy with my main project (gods & minions) ATM, so this post is just for brainstorming. Im far from launching another project currently - its just too much work.

Recently, after playing Spore, Ascendancy, Alpha Centauri and Master of Orion I thought about our community space game project once again. I did not want to post this in r0cknes thread, as my idea is somewhat different, although it shares the same tought: Epic Space Opera!

Ok, now here are some thoughts for a possible game that aims to be innovative of some sort:

1. Pseudo Randomized Content for art and flavor text
While working on Gods & Minions (my main project) i realized how much time and care is required to build a background world including races, their cultures and technologies. This is okay for a medieval game that is limited to a single continent or planet. But a space game that features a whole galaxy or even universe, is too much work in my eyes. I want to keep this game expandable and would like to make this multitude of races a core feature.

In order to achieve this, some simplification is required. and a technique found in computer games - called "pseudo randomized content". I could imagine using random generators to creatte planets, races, names, descriptions, universes and more. this cuts out much of the development time required - and to be honest: most of the content is flavor text anyway. do we really require a background story-writer in a grand scale space game where the players are supposed to write the story themselves? But, this is a art/flavor thing after all and not important to the game itself.

Some links on the subject:

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=alienrace
http://omniversegc.wikia.com/wiki/Random_civilization_generator
http://omniversegc.wikia.com/wiki/Random_star_system_generator
http://www.rancorpit.com/planetGenerator.shtml
http://donjon.bin.sh/world/

2. Mechanics with (almost) no tapping
I thought about getting rid of the tapping mechanic alltogether. Instead, the players would place tokens on their cards to indicate different states of advancement. in total there would be four or five different types of tokens in the game, some of them also represent the resources in the game:

* Worker tokens
* Resource tokens
* Time tokens

so, players put time tokens on cards to indicate how advanced a building or research project is. they spend resource tokens to bring new cards into play and use their worker tokens to get various jobs done. workers could be placed on a "civilisation/species" cards to breed (gain more workers) or draw cards from your deck, workers could also be placed on "planet" cards to grant their owner a higher resource income - and so on.

Being already more a boardgame than a card game, i would not care about the extra complexity at all. Using tokens that represent 1,5 or 10 at a time makes things a bit easier to manage.

3. Grand Scale Mass Production of units
When a player brings a "Space ship" card into play from his hand, it should not represent a sinlge ship. It rather represents the players ability to being able to build this ship type.

Once played, you can build as many ships of this type as you want - by putting worker tokens on the ship card. this helps you to keep track of three things: the amount of workforce required to build it, the time/advancement of the building task and finally: the amount of people you need to crew the ship.

this rule could be applied to all kinds of ships, personell and technologies: the card just shows that "you can build it", the number of tokens shows how many you actually own.

maybe worker tokens must be converted into time tokens and time tokens into ship tokens. the details of this process are still to be developed.

4. Research & development
Research works similar to Ship building: You bring a technology (or culture or whatever) card from your hand into play. this now represents merely a "blueprint", on the card it says that you require - say - 12 time tokens to finish the blueprint. the card enters play turned 180 degrees to show that its still in "research mode".

you can then place workers on the card. at the beginning of your turn - for every worker token on it, you may put a time token on it too. once there are 12+ time tokens on the card - remove all tokens and turn the card upright. it is now ready for use.

lets say we have a "space marine" card researched this way. once turned upright we can train space marines, also by putting workers on it. there could also be 1 resource token required to turn a worker into a space marine.

finished space marines are also kept on the card in token form. so with one space marine card, a player could easily represent 10-20 space marines - just by putting enough tokens on the card.

5. Removing pre-determined species and ship types
this goes hand in hand with point nr. 1 - why not remove pre-determined species and their technologies at all? instead, let the cards be blueprints for tech-bits altogether. and let the players research, design and build ships anyway they like.

When using the token system - this would not be a problem at all! you can have a hull card, a engine card, several weapon cards and special cards. stack them all together on your side of the table. this reprsesents the complete blueprint of your ship-design.

finally, by putting tokens on it - you represent the amount of ships of this type you have in your fleet. its not required to have one card-copy per ship in play at all.

this idea can be maxed out: remove species as well and let players combine two or three cards to build their own species. put tokens on the "species stack" to represent total population - thats it!

of course, there must be some cornerstones like the blueprints, tech-bits and planets. but this is still open for discussion, testing and development.

6. Final thoughts
Okay, thats a big wall of text, i better come to an end.

As a final note, i would like to add where my original idea for the community space game started: a game that is not focused on combat completely, but instead tries to represent intergalactic empire building at large scale. let there be diplomacy, intrigue, coalation victory, religious enlightment victory, managing the hapiness of your species as well as reaching transcendency victory by achieving technological god-like status - and then put a bit of space combat on top of it. but dont make spaceship combat the core of a project like this.

Malagar over and out!

CCG Design Forum / diceless combat feedback

« on: January 31, 2013, 12:53:50 AM »

hey hello,
As you might know, im working on my first "real" ccg at the moment. So Fhizban (my co-designer) and I have decided for a diceless combat sytem (this was also mentioned in the Archon of War thread a while ago). We would appreciate your feedback! Instead of comparing attack with defense values, we decided to split the attack values into different tactics. this adds lots of diversity to the game. ok, lets see:

1. There are four attack values: Charge, Melee, Skirmish and Ranged.
2. When attacking, you choose one of the four to attack with (charge and melee is only available in close-combat, while the other two are available in missile combat, skirmish can be used in CC as well as in MC).
3. your opponent now chooses one attribute to defend with. the available choices depend on the attribute you have chosen (i explain that later in detail, but in short: you can only counter Melee with either Melee or Skirmish etc.)
4. now you and your opponent sum up your units total by adding the attribute values of all troops together.
5. the player with the higher result wins the battle and deals the difference in damage to its opponents unit.

thats the basic, now to the meat of the system.

all four "combat tactics", have advantages and disadvantages. choosing the right tactic at the right time is key to win combat.

1. Melee - the basic tactic. Only use in Close-Combat. If you win a melee combat you deal the difference of totals in damage to your opponents unit. Has no specials besides that it can be used to counter three tactics (charge, melee or skirmish).

2. Ranged - Only use in ranged-combat. Again you deal the difference in damage. The only special thing about ranged is that you must use it in missile combat (thats both a + and a -).

3. Skirmish - Now it gets interesting: Skirmish may be used in close- as well as in missile-combat. It is the most versatile of all combat tactics. when you are using skirmish, your opponents results is treated like he is using skirmish too. Skirmish is quite weak and makes it very difficult to actually defeat an opponents unit. instead of dealing damage, for each point of difference you "recoil" (turn face down) a troop card of your opponent. only when you recoiled as many troops as possible, the excess points can be used to deal damage actually. recoiled troops recover again during the next turn. note: your opponents damage points are also treated like he is using the skirmish tactic!

4. Charge - Like melee, you can use charge only in close combat. Charge is most powerful when your unit moved before it attacks, but you can choose it otherwise too. Charge is treated just like melee combat, any excess points after comparing combat totals, deal damage to your opponents unit. Now, the special thing about charge is, that its attribute rating on all your cards get +1 ,when using charge in the same turn your unit moved.

So, you first move and then attack using the Charge tactic. Any Charge value of 4, doubles up to 8. This makes this combat tactic very powerful. The disadvantage is, that you have to move in order to make it effective and - not all cards feature a charge attribute. As you cannot "split tactics" in a unit, it could be that only some of your cards are able to deal damage. Imagine a unit of 2 cavalry cards and 3 infantry cards charging: Only the cavalry cards have a charge attribute, so the infantry wont deal damage this turn (but, they are legal targets for your opponent still).

Okay thats all. Quite a long post. What do you think? is the system interesting, is it balanced? Do you think especially Skirmish and Charge are balanced? is Skirmish too weak, will Charge be used too seldom?

Thanks for any input from your point of view!
-Malagar

--
Now also on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/godsandminions

CCG Design Forum / Specific question regarding my game (Unit Cohesion)

« on: January 21, 2013, 08:09:35 AM »

hey guys,
I would like to ask you a reather specific question about my game and its system. I know this is the place where designers (not just players) come together to discuss. So, if one or two of you have an idea - i would love to hear them.

1. my CCG is actually more of a wargame - one game represents one battle, just keep that in mind
2. there are heroes and minions. heroes lead minions. together they form a unit (for example one dwarf runecaster hero can lead one axeman and one spearman, for a total unit of 3 cards).
3. heroes issue orders and initiate special actions. without a hero, a unit cannot act!
4. everyone starts with a hero in play and there are many more in each deck
5. there is no direct damage in the game, and heroes are always destroyed last.
6. a hero must always lead a unit, you cannot play minion cards if there is no hero to lead them.

as it seems, this hero thing is very limiting altogether. if you dont have a hero in your hand, or cannot pay it, you cannot build a new unit. call it "hero mulligan"

but, as far as we have tested the whole thing, its working quite well. thats because you always start with a hero, never have too many units on the table the same time (1-3 max) and you have additional heroes in your deck to replace/add to units.

so we have reached the following point: its makes no sence having the restriction, but it also makes no sense removing it. right now its just a sub-mechanism that exists more for flavor and realism.

now to my question:

what do you think? remove the restriction at all and let players have units without heroes also. then heroes would just be better version of cards. or empower the restriction even more making heroes the true centerpiece of the whole game?

thank you so much for any comments!

CCG Design Forum / Do we need elements?

« on: January 14, 2013, 07:32:39 AM »

Strange post title. A short post this time, plain and simple:

Does every card game require elements (Fire, water etc.) like found in Magic: The Gathering?

Is it a must to seperate card types into elemental-flavored classes?

I say: No. I further say: It limits design space. There are other ways to categorize.

Your thoughts? Do all dwarves have to be red?

CCG Design Forum / Icons, Keywords or Text

« on: January 11, 2013, 08:06:49 AM »

hey all,
While working on my project i noticed that there are various abilities that repeat on several cards. so, i thought it would be a good idea to keyword them in order to remember them better, maybe even visualize the keywords with an icon. this brings me to a general question:

Do you prefer plain Icons, Keywords with short explanation or detailed text on trading cards?

Furthermore, do you think there should be a limit to the amount of "information" on a card?

And finally, is there a trade-off between amount and quality of information? (like many abilities that are keyworded without description compared to only a few abilities but fully explained on the card).

because when keywording abilities, designers tend to add too many special rules to a single card. but i remember a magic the gathering card that featured something like: 1. flying, 2. first strike, 3. vigilance, 4. protection from demons, 5. protection from dragons, 6. likelink and 7. protection from farts! AND they printed that thing without batting an eye!

thanks
yours
-Malagar

CCG Design Forum / Gods & Minions - card based dark fantasy warfare

« on: January 08, 2013, 02:19:40 PM »

UPDATE 27th of March 2013

Final version of the rulebook as well as the worldbook can be found at project homepage (please note that proofreading is still in progress)

http://www.godsandminions.com/downloads

UPDATE 2nd of March 2013

Addes new information to this thread, as well as a few pictures.

Project Introductory Post

Hello LackeyCCG Community!

My name is Tobias, most of you will already know me, my nick is Malagar on this board.
I have been working on carious CCG designs over the past years, parts of them have been
discussed here. We also tried to realize a community CCG once (or was it twice?). Well
after several downfalls I managed to finally start a "true project" on my own. The bare
"skeleton" of my new CCG is ready, at the moments its just all about balancing, expanding,
clear-writing and painting art. This project will be released under two different licences:

A). free print and play version, as well as a free lackeyccg version later on.
B). as print-on-demand via thegamecrafter.com - but it will cost you a bit to get your
personal copy.

Im targeting this post on the "old-boarders", especially those who where interested in a
project a while ago. Maybe there are some among you, who might be interested to collaborate
and develop new rules and factions for the game. Please note that i cannot pay you, as
all my earnings are currently going straight into the art, technology and printing department.

So, what is Gods & Minions about?

Gods & Minions is a card based tactical wargame, so
one game represents one battle. You and your opponent each represent
generals who command their troops. The troops are displayed using cards.
Compared to a full wargame (like Warhammer), Gods & Minions is much
lighter on the rules and compared to a customizable card game (like
Legend of the five Rings), Gods & Minions focus is 100% on the battles
(instead of kingdom building, diplomacy or intrigue).

What are the games unique features?

* Full-fledged and affordable tabletop wargaming system without expensive miniatures
* Manaless resource system without staple cards that clutter your deck
* No artificial rarities – you get exactly the cards and amount of copies you want
* Lightweight wargame rules prevent slow gameplay without being over simplified
* Unique rules core that does not lend its main mechanics from the big CCG ancestors
* All rules and cards will be available for download. for free. always.
* You pay only if you want a printed copy (physical product) of your own via TGC.
* No dice: Gods & Minions does not require any additonal component or luck factor!
* No Grid & No Rulers: An innovative movement system renders rulers obsolete.
* No shallow story: Dive into a background world full of history and folklore.

Finally, is there already something to see?

Yep there is. The website is up and running, content is added on a weekly basis.

http://www.godsandminions.com

If you are interested, please contact me directly via eMail. Also check out
the project website first and take the effort to read at least some paragraphs
to decide if this project is for you. Then you are welcome to drop me a line:

tobias at godsandminions.com

-Tobias (alias Malagar, Author of Gods & Minions)

--
Gods & Minions - card based dark fantasy warfare
http://www.godsandminions.com
http://www.facebook.com/godsandminions
http://www.twitter.com/godsandminions

CCG Design Forum / Dice in CCGs

« on: August 22, 2012, 05:50:01 AM »

Yes i know, we had this discussion earlier. But still i would like to hear your oppinion about using dice in a CCG.

My current project is a wargame, played using trading cards. as it stands now, a attack roll would make the game
much richer. right now i am stuck with comparing numbers - the perfect system for any traditional ccg - but my game
is completely focused on army-vs-army combat, maybe a bit of randomness could help?

imagine a strength 2 archer attacking a armor 3 knight (with 3 lifepoints). the knights armor always soaks up the
archers damage, except if i have a special card in hand to turn things around.

this (and many other examples) is the main point for using dice -> focused on my war-game/ccg concept.

any thoughts?

CCG Design Forum / Archons of War

« on: August 17, 2012, 02:36:54 PM »

hey guys,
its that time of the year again: i have a "new" card game idea i want to share.

basically, im thinking about turning a 28mm miniature skirmish wargame into a TCG. maybe this sounds weird, but miniatures are expensive and not everyone wants to collect/paint minis and terrain (for both players) before being able to play. in addition to that, TCG cards are much better to represent add-ons like spells, items and the like.

so, i am gathering ideas how to represent a wargame using cards. the most important aspect is that i want to stick to typcial TCG mechanics. i dont want to turn this into a board game. this brings up a number of questions, a few have already been answered (i explain later in detail) - while others are still open - here is where i appreciate your feedback!

1. Starting Armies
In a wargame you begin the game with your army already in play. I dont want to do that and keep the typical "build up" aspect of TCGs. So you have a resource mechanic and are able to bring new units into play every turn, effectively building up your force. this changes the scope of play a bit and alters possible victory conditions compared to classic wargames.

2. Resource Mechanic
Tied to the first question, there will be a need for a resource mechanic. something that is obsolete in classic wargames. Im currently thinking about two simple system: A. you gain X resources per turn (where X is the number of turns already passed) basta. or B. you can play cards as resources instead and tap them to gain 1 resource (like in Duelmasters). I still have not decided yet, but i think there could be much more creative ideas or optional resource income sources.

3. Combat
The main aspect of any wargame. Well, in a TCG i dont want to make this mechanic too complex. im thinking about the typical magic the gathering system (assign attackers/blockers and compare attack/defense values). But, i would expand the system by two additional statistics: Speed and Life. Speed determines the strike order (like a "stacked" first strike in magic the gathering) while life means the number of wounds a card can take (you have to track with tokens like in lord of the rings or other TCGs). This system is actually the same as in my other TCG designs (Disciples 3 TCG for example). It represents a powerful expansion of the magic system, without making things too complex. still open to discussion (i havent even considered unit morale in my system).

4. The Battlefield
This is in my eyes the most difficult aspect of converting a wargame into a TCG. As you have no playmat or board, it will be very difficult to keep track of the positions of the various characters/units. In fact, its even more difficult to add a strategic meaning to the positions in the game. Fortunately, I've come up with a solution for this problem - wich I think is the most "well tought out" aspect of this design so far:

4.1 No Board - No Grid
Units cards are attached to Terrain cards to represent their physical location in the game. This is similar to other TCGs where you attach enchantments to monsters or whatever, wich means you know wich cards are connected to each other, without having to track their physical location on the table. There can be as many (or as few) terrain cards in the game as the players like, and each card can hold up to any number of unit cards (except there is a limit on the terrain card, like in confined indoor locations).

4.2 Inherent locations
There are two (or more) basic locations in the game, these are always accessible and prevent terrain cards to be mandatory. The first one is your Deck, the second one your Graveyard. This means you can attach unit cards to either your deck or your graveyard (and so may your opponent). In fact, your units are protecting your deck/graveyard against enemy attacks. These two locations provide starting terrains for your units, so you are able to bring new units into play at theese locations without having any other terrain cards in play. you can also play (and win) the game without additional terrain cards at all, focusing on your two basic locations alone.

4.3 Close Combat Range
One of the most important aspects of wargames is range. in the TCG version, all units attached to the same terrain (or graveyard/deck) are considered to be in close combat range to each other. Only close combat is allowed at this range. In addition, moving into close combat could be considered "charging" while moving out of close combat could trigger your enemies "attack of opportunity".

4.4 Possible extension of range
This depends how difficult we want the game to be: Range could be extended by aligning cards to the four edges of a terrain card. this way, each terrain card could provide four different placement positions for each unit. only unit cards at the same position would be in close-combat, while the others would be in (low ranged) missile combat or in charge range. but this solution makes things uneccessary complex in my eyes.

4.5 Ranged Combat
Its as simple as that: Units placed in different terrain cards are considered to be in "ranged combat distance", this means only missile combat is possible and units have to move in order to be in charge/close combat range to each other. please note that physical location of the units/terrain cards is not important: just the matter of fact that the units are NOT on the same terrain card is enough.

4.6 Movement
Now comes the real meat of the system: moving between locations. please remember that locations ARE NOT ALIGNED TO EACH OTHER IN A GRID-LIKE FASHION. All terrain cards are loosely placed on the table (with cards attached to them) in true TCG style. No board, no grid.

If you want to move a card from one terrain to another terrain, you simply compare your units SPEED with the target terrain cards DIFFICULTY. Is your speed higher, your unit arrives at the target UNTAPPED. If it is equal or less to the targets difficulty rating, it arrives at its destination TAPPED. Usually a unit can only move once per turn, but some units can move more often - in that case you have to deduct the target terrains difficulty from your speed and take the result as a base for your next movments calculation.

Finally tapped units cant act anymore during this turn, while arriving at a location untapped allows your unit to perform another action (like attacking), and is considered to be a major tactical advantage.

PS: using this system, units can always move, there is no "blocking out", even if you have speed 1 and the target terrain has difficulty 10, you simply arrive there tapped.

4.7 Artillery and Long Range Combat
A further enhancement of ranged combat could include shooting across several terrains. Similar to moving, you have to deduct your units RANGE from the terrain cards DIFFICULTY. If the total difficulty is equal or less your range rating, you may shoot there, if it is higher your target is out of range. This rules mechanics also seems to be a bit complex in my eyes, but is open to discussion.

---

Thats all for tonight, i appreciate your feedback. especially because i have not even scratched the surface of wargames! there are so many sub-systems open for translation/conversion/discussion it would be a joy to hear what ideas you have to offer (like morale, magic, terrain based cover, artefacts, mounts, war-machines, flagbearers, musicians, leaders, units gaining experience, side-quests, objectives, victory conditions and so on and so forth).

-Malagar

CCG Design Forum / Disciples 3: Renaissance - the CCG

« on: April 03, 2012, 03:24:12 AM »

Hey guys,
its been ages since my last post. well, my love for ccg design is one thing but the demanding real-life another. okay, so i think its save to say that our community project is dead - maybe its true that a single "author" is required to build a game and having too many cooks filling the kitchen just leads nowhere. this being said - i wasn't inactive over the last few month. to make a long story short: i took what i learned from the very rewarding community project thread and started working on a little project on my own. and here it is, the first glimpse of Disciples: Renaissance - the customizable card game.

ORIGIN
This CCG is based on the not-so-popular computer game series Disciples from the late 90s (Discples 1: Sacred Lands and Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy). The game recently received a third version called Disciples 3: Renaissance. Despite its mediocre success, I am a big fan of the series and decided to turn it into a customizable card game. Please note that this is just a fan-game, i dont claim any of the gameworld, artwork or the logo my own! You can get more information about the computer game here:

http://www.disciples3.com
http://www.strategyplanet.com/disciples2/

OVERVIEW
This is a typical CCG with a few very uncommon twists to both the theme and the game mechanics. First of all, it takes place in a moody dark fantasy-gothic setting that is very detailled and features lots of nice artwork. Second i tried to alter the typical CCG gameplay to turn away from the typical land/mana/attack/spell/block concepts as much as i could. But i also had to change several aspects of the computer game in order to fit into a CCG (like removing the overworld and hex-battle-maps).

So, each player takes control of one of the five races in the game (Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Undead and Demons). The goal is to crush your enemies and become supreme ruler of the land, this is basically done by depleting your opponents deck, but there are various ways to victory. You can deplete the deck by attacking your enemy but also by fulfilling quests that force all of your enemies to discard card from the top of their decks.

players have various actions and possibilities available during their turns. most important is building a city and maintaing a small raiding party led by a hero. these are the two main aspects of the game: city building and party grinding. in addition to that, you can bring quests, terrain, artefacts and magic spells into play to aid you.

the core of the game is combat, as you will try to attack and raid your opponents city almost every turn. parts of your troops can be assigned to attack, while the rest stays in the city to defend. a good mix of offensive and defensive tactics is required to maintain a prospering city while being strong enough to crush your foe.

ART
Im using art from all the disciples games. Most is extracted using a simple hex-editor and others are from the web. Maybe some of you already know my templating style, i have attached a sample template (without any text or numbers so far). please note that all of the art is from a computer game, so there won't be any high quality 300dpi printable cards in this game. as i plan to release it only via lackey (thus: only playable on a computer), i dont care too much about the limited art resources.

INFLUENCES
Besides the obvious computer game, this project draws inspiration from various TCGs. Of course there are aspects found in Magic: The Gathering, but this game leans more towards Legend of the five rings, Legend of the Burning sands and Warhammer: Invasion.

--
More later! I am just adding a few padding posts directly under this thread. later on i will explain the core game concepts in detail. stay tuned and never stop designing!

CCG Design Forum / Theoretical Community CCG Project

« on: December 12, 2011, 03:35:41 PM »

Hello Community,
I opened this thread because few of us started to discuss a possible community CCG project elsewhere on this forum. I know this is not the first try and maybe not the last. But I would like to consolidate all ideas about a possible LackeyCCG community project in a single thread.

First of all - I have no plans in creating or leading such a project, but would participate and help with my skills if an idea would develop enough to reach maturity. Right now - just discussing a possible, open-source community project in theory is interesting and could spawn clever ideas and maybe a foundation for the future.

Second, i have no idea what game to create. But i would vote for a classic empire building game of some sort. in my oppinion we need a broad scope to keep the game expandable. a zombie game for example is lot of fun at first, but the well of ideas dries up very fast (this is also true for fighting games and a few others). I imagine a game spanning warfare, diplomacy, intrigue, micro- and macro management, as well as politics, and some kind of magic (or psi). this enables factions, thematic deckbuilding and lots of background to keep a senario open-ended and interesting. remember this is a community project and possibly every community member will start to design cards or even expansions once we agreed on the core rules. so, the initial idea may not be too limited or there wont be much design freedom once the first few hundred cards are designed. also community members may want to design their own "races", "factions" or whatever - and the rules have to support a wide variety of fighting styles / culture / characteristics. a big idea like a sci-fi planetary conquest may sound overwhelming at first - but dont narrow the initial idea of the game down to much, or after the 300th move card of a street fighter clone - there wont be any new ideas any more. but actually - im open for any idea, as long as its good!

Third - what i could contribute to a project like this is creating and playtesting rules. as i consider myself experienced with CCGs and game development (like most people on here). in addition to that, i am able to provide professional looking templates (altough i would need help depending on the size of the project) - take a look around this forum or at my website for examples. and - working in a internet based retail company, i could also provide website, a domain and technology for free.

Number four - I am 31, full time employed, happy with my wife, my life and my job. i have no plans to create the next "blogbuster megalomaniac ccg idea to sell for millions of dollars". I want a free game, a realistic game - with realistic expectations and a sincere background story. i would not participate in a game with capitalistic thoughts in mind - it would have to be free, but developed and represented as professional as possible. i also would not join a simple "fun-game" or one with a absurd background story.

Number five - the game would only exist in the internet and would only be playable through LackeyCCG. we all live scattered across the planet and printing cards is not only expensive but absurd. its much easier to gather and link a game community using the power of WWW instead of creating local game groups everywhere and try to promote a selfmade card game. finally: creating cards for online use only, requires much less resolution of graphics and makes acquiring new artwork and designs much, much, much easier.

my 2 cents on a community project. let this thread be a brainstorming experiment or let it die in peace.

Malagar over and out!

CCG Design Forum / New Super Robot CCG

« on: December 01, 2011, 09:02:02 AM »

I am writing from work, so this was written in a hurry. All questions will be answered and I try to explain the rules a bit more later on:

you know - every once in a while someone has the idea of creating the next "super robot battles game". Now its my turn and I want this game to be a CCG. I have 90% of the core rules ready (based on earlier designs) - but would like to ask the community for feedback. usually i design games with only my own vision in mind - but in this case i would like to hear your opinions before going in (the probably wrong) production direction.

So its all about 2 or more players bringing giant robots in cardform onto the playing field and battling each other with skills and weapons. you are able to attach "parts" to your bot-cards to equip them with weapons, shield generators and so on.

* QUESTION 1: victory conditions
this is rather easy: what victory contition would you like to see? i have five possibilities:

A. defeat all enemy robots

B. destroy your enemies home-base (the place where he brings robots into play)

C. win via terrain control, by locating bots on important terrain locations

D. gather 7 victory points by blasting opponents bots into pieces

E. (my favorite): a combination of all of the above: for destroying bots or the homebase and by controlling terrain, you get victory points. the first player who has 7 points, wins the game.

* QUESTION 2: robot parts
you will be able to upgrade your bots by attaching cards to them. the question is how far shall i go with this system? how complex? how strict? this is the most important question and theese are the options:

A. robots are represented by cards, you only attach special skills and only a few of them - this allows robots to be unique and characterful. they have all weapons built-in already and additional cards just make them stronger. this reduces freedom of robot design a lot.

B. robots are empty frames and you have to attach quite a few cards to them (skills, attacks)

C. robots are divided into card-parts and you have to attach everything from chassis, to gears and weapons. this removes a lot of flavor from the game - as there are no robot cards (just parts). this approach allows maximum freedom of robot design. maybe its a bit lame because attaching "gears" to a "chassis" is not epic at all.

* QUESTION 3: the setting
also very easy, im just asking if you prefer a pre-set setting or something new:

A. Generic (my favorite) - a new setting written by me, allows maximum design freedom but lacks material.

B. Gundam Wing - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

C. Super Robot Wars - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

D. Mega Man - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

thats all for now, you can answer like a poll (1:a, 2:b etc.) or write some of your thoughts. thank you for your feedback!

Art & Graphics & Skins Forum / Aliens Vs. Predator Card Mockup

« on: October 31, 2011, 04:10:13 PM »

I design templates of fictive franchise based games whenever i got spare time.

this is a mockup from a fictive Aliens Vs. Predator CCG. Its work in progress,
and please only judge the design as there are no rules/cards to support this
template. Feedback appreciated.

* I still work on blending the background colors of the text and number boxes better.

CCG Design Forum / Cyberwar CCG Mechanics

« on: October 25, 2011, 07:37:11 AM »

hey,
its been a long time since my last post. maybe some of you remember my ideas for collectible card games i was working on. I got time to work on one of my games again, and the core rules are almost finished. before i move on i like to discuss the key mechanics of the game, maybe you have some more input to offer. I just copy and paste some parts of the rulebook:

DARKNET

Darknet is a collectible card game surrounding computer specialists, hacker groups and corporations in their journey to plot agendas and secret objectives. The story is inspired by R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk roleplaying game, as well as other Sci-Fi related novels and settings.

Players represent hackers in the cyberspace, trying to achieve their objective as fast as possible. The core of the game is, that there is none: players decide wich resource systems, victory conditions and mechanics are used by putting the right cards into their decks.

This is cyber warfare - and you decide how the battlefield looks: first create, then break and bend the rules to your liking. the more codes the players bring into play - the thicker the maze of mechanics and endgame conditions becomes until one of them triggers.

OVERVIEW

So every player builds a deck of 60 cards, there are several card types (all cybernet related, including Agenda, Module, Program, Resource, Hack, Upgrade and so on). You draw 7 cards each and decide randomly who starts.

At the beginning of your turn, you always have the option to A.) draw a card or B.) gain one bit (the currency of the game). During the main phase of the game you can bring cards from your hand into play or activate abilities of cards already in play.

THE DETAILS

the thing is, that there are no victory conditions in this game and large part of the resource system (besides the option to gain one bit during the beginning of your turn) are completely variable. this also offers new freedom in deck design, because you can choose your own victory conditions and the way how to get there. let me go a bit into detail about this:

Resources - The resource cards enable you to add other forms of income to the game. this is similar to the lands in M:TG but offers much more possibilities. In fact, the resource cards let you decide how income is generated in your deck.

Agendas - More important are the agendas, the centerpiece of the whole game. each agenda card represents a victory condition. This way, players are able to set up ways to win the game that suit their deck best (like: Destroy 12 opponent cards, gather 40 bits, deplete your opponents deck etc.).

Clusters - cards you bring into play must be attached to other cards you already have in play. the center of such a "cluster" is an agenda card. you can create multiply clusters if you want (wich also means that you can have multiply victory conditions active as the same time). if the agenda card "dies", all the cards attached to it are also removed from play.

Raids - Attacks in this game are called "raids", where you send your computer programs, Bots and Spiders after your opponents cards in order to destroy them. Each raid must target a single cluster of your opponent. Although raids are not critical to win the game, they are the best way to stop your opponent from winning - by destroying his agenda (victory condition).

SYNOPSIS

In this game, every player strives to set up his own agenda and add resources and upgrades to it in order to achieve it. In addition, you do everything you can to prevent your opponent from reaching his goal. In this symmetrical ccg both players have to play the roles of both Aggressor (to prevent the opponent from winning the game) and Defender (in order to achieve your own victory condition).

Phew - this was a long text, hopefully you gained a few insights about the game. Now, what do you think? Might it work? is it worth developing a base set around this idea? Just reply and post your thoughts, thanks!