(WARNING: this post is messy. Hoping people can make sense of it. Trying to describe my game without giving too much away. Paranoid someone may be at the same point in progress and I may have an idea they would like to use. There goes my idea and someone else beat me to the punch. This is not a get rich quick scheme, but i would like it to be able to replace my current job)
I was looking for a forum that suited this topic, even the creativity forum, but it did not seem to fit the topic in hand.
Anyway i have been working on a card game of my own for a while and have the basic idea. It is heavily inspired by EDH (or at least it was, i have all but since give up on the commander Idea, but i could easily return that idea later on.)
Instead of attacking players themselves you are attacking their "kingdom" (though it could be a landmark of some sort, an outpost, a Big tree if need be)
In order to diverse from MTG i am using factions instead of colors (And like EDH using cards of your commander's colors, in this you may only use cards of you faction.) As for casting costs, similar to Magic you have something that produces currency, lands produce mana, well i have something that produced gold, all factions are not required to pay with colored coins but just generic "mana".
The factions have different play styles and work in that way. for example, (Since this is a multi-player game in mind) one faction is a swarm deck, and every time i play a creature (in most cases) that faction creates a copy of it for each other opponent. It makes aggro a suitable wincon.
Back to kingdoms, they have abilities. Such as making your Mercenaries (Creatures) cost less, or pumping them up. Sometimes it allows yo to deploy your troops as son as they are played (IE, Haste)
While I wil use MTG keyword for es pay i may remove them at risk of a lawsuit.
So what exactly am i needing help with? Card designs. While i have a basic premise of how they will look, I don't have artwork (Not important at the moment as they are just test cards.) and spells that ca do certain things. A faction that likes graveyard play may want stuff that gets cards into the graveyard. What about a faction that cannot use gold mines, they need other ways to gain gold, In most cases they are designed strictly to discard cards to gain gold to pay for their stuff.
While i have 3 kingdoms for each faction at the moment, i need to know what the abilities f these kingdoms can be. I am not looking to crowd fund this (not yet anyway) at the moment i am just looking for general help to get this further developed so I can actually print out the factions and play with my friends, have some fun testing deck and seeing different strategies. i don't expect this to take off like MTG or even compete with it. Though it has been a dream to design my own TCG back when i was still playing Pokemon in the school yard. (About 20 years ago.) so i want to give it a sot, if it falls flat, at least I tried, and if it does take off, i can quit my job (Which i don't like.)
This is why i need the help for general design. Again while i have a basic card Idea, i will probably use Magic set editor, just for the basic premise. and test cards. Then afterwards, get my own frame, hopefully friendly free use artwork and perhaps have a company print the cards for me.
Like i said I don;t plan on this game competing with MT in popularity, but I know people like EDH and since i love EDH as well, i feel if you have someone deigning a game based on a format they know others enjoy, they may attract more. And If i go with my Friends on EDH night and maybe have a game of my own while others can watch, maybe get them interested. EDH will not die, after all with decks costing upward of a hundred dollars (Some of mine reaching 300+) EDH will not die. I will still be playing it, but I also enjoy other games, Such as King of Tokyo, Smash up, I even dabble din YGO at one point. So who is to say that my game could not thrive and co-exist with something like MTG. MTG has different formats, this is directly designed off of one format it has. It has since changed.
Also just so you know, One of my earlier designed was based on a hero. He had his health and when he died you lost. He had abilities and you cast things base on loyalty you had (Each card of your faction provided a certain amount of loyalty)
It was a good system and i might even go back to that if gold mines seems too "similar" but the hero idea is kind of meh. besides your kingdom already provide you with an ability that helps your deck.
An if this does work, more factions, more cards, more sets and more kingdoms to use. While i only have 21 kingdoms for 7 factions, i may move up to 35 for 7, or even introduce new faction and have 100 for 10 factions.
A lot of what you said reminds me of Legend of the Five Rings. Clans instead of colors. You start with a stronghold card that determines your clan and gives you a special ability. Holdings (lands) produce gold to pay for your personalities (creatures). You can hire personalities from any clan, but you get a discount if they are from your clan.
Magic's biggest problem is the land system. If I were planning a new TCG, the first thing I would do would be to come up with a resource system that doesn't eat up a third of the deck with otherwise boring cards.
A lot of what you said reminds me of Legend of the Five Rings. Clans instead of colors. You start with a stronghold card that determines your clan and gives you a special ability. Holdings (lands) produce gold to pay for your personalities (creatures). You can hire personalities from any clan, but you get a discount if they are from your clan.
Magic's biggest problem is the land system. If I were planning a new TCG, the first thing I would do would be to come up with a resource system that doesn't eat up a third of the deck with otherwise boring cards.
Yea i might go with the Loyalty idea (So your creatures do stuff and produce your resource)
An alternate idea i had was a separate deck. One that has your resource production cards. 1/turn you put one into play. The issue there is it becomes a Pay to play type thing Fill your resource deck with the better resource production cards. Gold mine vs Gemstone mine Gold mine produced 1, gemstone mine produces 2.
The the Loyalty, the issue there is how do i regulate how much you can use a turn and can you use it n otehr peoples turns When you play more cards do you get more loyalty to use that turn?
I feel the best would be tally up your loyalty at the beginning of your turn and then that is what you have until your next turn.
Unfortunately, 1 board wipe and everything is gone. I don't mind wiping away forces, *** does not make me too upset. Armageddon does. Jokulhaups ever worse. So the loyalty factor may not be the best. yes resources is the first thing you must worry about.
of course, Pokemon uses Energy which eats part of the deck as well.
Pokemon has a similar system to magic, but a different feel. You play less resources than in magic, but free card draw and tutors are common in every deck.
If you are going to start with a card in play, whether it's a castle or hero or whatever, you could use that for resource production. Either:
a) They produce a set amount of gold each turn. You receive this in the form of tokens, and unlike magic, you can save them between turns. So you have to choose between making a small play every turn, or saving up for bigger plays. Having everyone get a different amount adds variety between factions, but of course the spread couldn't be toooo big.
OR
b) Every turn, you put a counter on your hero/castle/whatever and then gain that much gold. In this version, gold empties at the end of the turn just like magic. This would work like hitting a land drop every turn, kind of like what Hearthstone does.
Pokemon has a similar system to magic, but a different feel. You play less resources than in magic, but free card draw and tutors are common in every deck.
If you are going to start with a card in play, whether it's a castle or hero or whatever, you could use that for resource production. Either:
a) They produce a set amount of gold each turn. You receive this in the form of tokens, and unlike magic, you can save them between turns. So you have to choose between making a small play every turn, or saving up for bigger plays. Having everyone get a different amount adds variety between factions, but of course the spread couldn't be toooo big.
OR
b) Every turn, you put a counter on your hero/castle/whatever and then gain that much gold. In this version, gold empties at the end of the turn just like magic. This would work like hitting a land drop every turn, kind of like what Hearthstone does.
i like option one more. Have increasing costs as well. Or even make it so you discard all reserved gold at beginning of turn. So you have your "mana" for the round but you cant horde 500 and then cast god.
Edit: actually thinking about it. Hearthstone method may be better.
If you are just starting out on the mechanics, step one will be getting a rough idea of the different card types and how they interact.
But if you have already done a lot of work on the rules, we need a step-by-step of how everything works.
I would say I am working on the cards now.
For the most part the mechanics work as they normally would. Deploy is attacking and defending is well, defending. (the nly difference right now is that you cannot deploy and defend with the same minion. You send him to attack the enemy kingdom, he will not be able to run back and defend your kingdom. (that said there are cards that will do that.)
So my card types at the moment are
-Kingdom (basically your life total, but also gives small buffs or bonuses, the better the bonus the less the life.
-Minion: your basic units, they belong to your faction and you may only play minions from your faction.
-Mercenary: Similar to minions in play, they are better than your basic soldiers. Any faction may use them. they require however, A contract card. Mercenaries do not start in your deck, they are in a special zone and when you play their contract you may cast them. (with their contract attached)
-Command: Sorecery spells. They can only be played on your turn and at well (Sorcery speed). They may do a mutitude of things but that is what they are for.
-Maneuver: The counterpart to instant spells, they do what they need to do. In most cases they will be for combat.
-Equipment: (name to be changed) but they are meant to buff your troops. Such as suggesting better weapons or armor they bring with them into battle.
-Gold mines: while i am still working on the resource aspect Gold mines were the counterpart to lands.
I was looking for a forum that suited this topic, even the creativity forum, but it did not seem to fit the topic in hand.
Anyway i have been working on a card game of my own for a while and have the basic idea. It is heavily inspired by EDH (or at least it was, i have all but since give up on the commander Idea, but i could easily return that idea later on.)
Instead of attacking players themselves you are attacking their "kingdom" (though it could be a landmark of some sort, an outpost, a Big tree if need be)
In order to diverse from MTG i am using factions instead of colors (And like EDH using cards of your commander's colors, in this you may only use cards of you faction.) As for casting costs, similar to Magic you have something that produces currency, lands produce mana, well i have something that produced gold, all factions are not required to pay with colored coins but just generic "mana".
The factions have different play styles and work in that way. for example, (Since this is a multi-player game in mind) one faction is a swarm deck, and every time i play a creature (in most cases) that faction creates a copy of it for each other opponent. It makes aggro a suitable wincon.
Back to kingdoms, they have abilities. Such as making your Mercenaries (Creatures) cost less, or pumping them up. Sometimes it allows yo to deploy your troops as son as they are played (IE, Haste)
While I wil use MTG keyword for es pay i may remove them at risk of a lawsuit.
So what exactly am i needing help with? Card designs. While i have a basic premise of how they will look, I don't have artwork (Not important at the moment as they are just test cards.) and spells that ca do certain things. A faction that likes graveyard play may want stuff that gets cards into the graveyard. What about a faction that cannot use gold mines, they need other ways to gain gold, In most cases they are designed strictly to discard cards to gain gold to pay for their stuff.
While i have 3 kingdoms for each faction at the moment, i need to know what the abilities f these kingdoms can be. I am not looking to crowd fund this (not yet anyway) at the moment i am just looking for general help to get this further developed so I can actually print out the factions and play with my friends, have some fun testing deck and seeing different strategies. i don't expect this to take off like MTG or even compete with it. Though it has been a dream to design my own TCG back when i was still playing Pokemon in the school yard. (About 20 years ago.) so i want to give it a sot, if it falls flat, at least I tried, and if it does take off, i can quit my job (Which i don't like.)
This is why i need the help for general design. Again while i have a basic card Idea, i will probably use Magic set editor, just for the basic premise. and test cards. Then afterwards, get my own frame, hopefully friendly free use artwork and perhaps have a company print the cards for me.
Like i said I don;t plan on this game competing with MT in popularity, but I know people like EDH and since i love EDH as well, i feel if you have someone deigning a game based on a format they know others enjoy, they may attract more. And If i go with my Friends on EDH night and maybe have a game of my own while others can watch, maybe get them interested. EDH will not die, after all with decks costing upward of a hundred dollars (Some of mine reaching 300+) EDH will not die. I will still be playing it, but I also enjoy other games, Such as King of Tokyo, Smash up, I even dabble din YGO at one point. So who is to say that my game could not thrive and co-exist with something like MTG. MTG has different formats, this is directly designed off of one format it has. It has since changed.
Also just so you know, One of my earlier designed was based on a hero. He had his health and when he died you lost. He had abilities and you cast things base on loyalty you had (Each card of your faction provided a certain amount of loyalty)
It was a good system and i might even go back to that if gold mines seems too "similar" but the hero idea is kind of meh. besides your kingdom already provide you with an ability that helps your deck.
An if this does work, more factions, more cards, more sets and more kingdoms to use. While i only have 21 kingdoms for 7 factions, i may move up to 35 for 7, or even introduce new faction and have 100 for 10 factions.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Magic's biggest problem is the land system. If I were planning a new TCG, the first thing I would do would be to come up with a resource system that doesn't eat up a third of the deck with otherwise boring cards.
Yea i might go with the Loyalty idea (So your creatures do stuff and produce your resource)
An alternate idea i had was a separate deck. One that has your resource production cards. 1/turn you put one into play. The issue there is it becomes a Pay to play type thing Fill your resource deck with the better resource production cards. Gold mine vs Gemstone mine Gold mine produced 1, gemstone mine produces 2.
The the Loyalty, the issue there is how do i regulate how much you can use a turn and can you use it n otehr peoples turns When you play more cards do you get more loyalty to use that turn?
I feel the best would be tally up your loyalty at the beginning of your turn and then that is what you have until your next turn.
Unfortunately, 1 board wipe and everything is gone. I don't mind wiping away forces, *** does not make me too upset. Armageddon does. Jokulhaups ever worse. So the loyalty factor may not be the best. yes resources is the first thing you must worry about.
of course, Pokemon uses Energy which eats part of the deck as well.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
If you are going to start with a card in play, whether it's a castle or hero or whatever, you could use that for resource production. Either:
a) They produce a set amount of gold each turn. You receive this in the form of tokens, and unlike magic, you can save them between turns. So you have to choose between making a small play every turn, or saving up for bigger plays. Having everyone get a different amount adds variety between factions, but of course the spread couldn't be toooo big.
OR
b) Every turn, you put a counter on your hero/castle/whatever and then gain that much gold. In this version, gold empties at the end of the turn just like magic. This would work like hitting a land drop every turn, kind of like what Hearthstone does.
Edit: actually thinking about it. Hearthstone method may be better.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
If you are just starting out on the mechanics, step one will be getting a rough idea of the different card types and how they interact.
But if you have already done a lot of work on the rules, we need a step-by-step of how everything works.
I would say I am working on the cards now.
For the most part the mechanics work as they normally would. Deploy is attacking and defending is well, defending. (the nly difference right now is that you cannot deploy and defend with the same minion. You send him to attack the enemy kingdom, he will not be able to run back and defend your kingdom. (that said there are cards that will do that.)
So my card types at the moment are
-Kingdom (basically your life total, but also gives small buffs or bonuses, the better the bonus the less the life.
-Minion: your basic units, they belong to your faction and you may only play minions from your faction.
-Mercenary: Similar to minions in play, they are better than your basic soldiers. Any faction may use them. they require however, A contract card. Mercenaries do not start in your deck, they are in a special zone and when you play their contract you may cast them. (with their contract attached)
-Command: Sorecery spells. They can only be played on your turn and at well (Sorcery speed). They may do a mutitude of things but that is what they are for.
-Maneuver: The counterpart to instant spells, they do what they need to do. In most cases they will be for combat.
-Equipment: (name to be changed) but they are meant to buff your troops. Such as suggesting better weapons or armor they bring with them into battle.
-Gold mines: while i am still working on the resource aspect Gold mines were the counterpart to lands.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist