I've recently been realizing that the community here is in need of more guides, primers and articles dedicated to custom magic card design as I feel like the range of knowledge in the community has this huge gap between the long time designers and those who have fun making and commenting on cards but often find it difficult to find info on things like playtesting, creating commons and set skeletons.
Great in depth resources like Goblin Artisans, the NWO primer or Adventares are too rare or assume a its audience knows about a lot of the design principles that we take for granted.
With the recent expansion of the Limited Resources podcast into Cnstructed resources as well as newer niche podcasts like Vorthos Snacktime popping up I've been giving some thought into the potential of a weekly or bi-weekly podcast dedicated to custom magic card and set design.
I'd love to write more long primers like the NWO primer but they are incredibly time consuming and I feel like I'm better at talking about this stuff than writing it.
My plan is that it would cover a range of topics starting from the basics in good individual card design, how to start a new block, evaluating mechanics etc. To more in depth topics like set reviews of a custom set or how to do online and real life playtests.
I wanted to post this to get an idea of potential interest and to provide a call out to anyone who would like to co-host or guest host.
My plan is to make the first episode early next year and then based on the amount of interest I'll hopefully organize the show to have a regular schedule.
Let me know what you think and what kind of topics you would love to hear about.
I think its a worthwhile endeavour to start a podcast - regardless of whether or not it ends quickly, those resources, like your NWO Primer, will be there for new designers to catch up on, and if that happens I'd honestly be willing to transcribe them into a individual primers myself.
While I don't think I'd listen to them myself (unless there's a particularly unusual topic or relevant to my current needs), I'll still support this project for sure. I'm also not going to offer to be a guest host, because my mic is bad and I'm not a charismatic person in the slightest.
As for topics, I think starting on individual card design is better than starting on set-focused design - making a set doesn't mean much if your cards are poorly made, and starting a set isn't an endeavour I'd recommend to anyone right away, considering my 3+ terrible attempts at set design before beginning to post them here. First episode should be something simple along the lines of overall design (things like simplicity is best and gameplay trumps making something cool but functionally pointless), or an introduction to the colors (as in, green gets big efficient creatures, white gets weenies, blue is inefficient, etc.) Then, get into focused individual cards - Common design/NWO, difference between tertiary and out-of-color effects, designing lands, etc. and then after a couple episodes get into set design - making and evaluating mechanics (which can be earlier of course), where to start (top-down or bottom-up), design skeletons, etc. One more random topic to throw in is Planeswalker designs - a lot of planeswalkers that go up here aren't well evaluated, even if its just on minor detailed like +1 card draw for 4cmc - its a topic I was actually considering doing a primer on a few weeks ago while the SCCT had a bunch of PW being made on it.
Either way - I say go for it. There's plenty of material to talk on, including drawing on some of MaRo's articles, and it'll be handy for new designers for sure.
I could post responses to posts from a little old Power pusher like me. I can't do live streams untill I can get Skype or some other webcam like platform. I am interested if you could also add in different view points from conservative to radical card designers and debates in such. I would easily do a response 2 a week. I am in.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Glad to see there would be some interest.
I'm currently trying to get in contact with the creator of The Tolarian Academy which is a new podcast on similar topics that has started on the /custommtg reddit.
I've also had people on twitter etc post some interesting suggestions including looking at alternate formats like The Beer Cube and doing some sort of "Crack a Pack" of a custom set.
I am wondering if we could get a group of programmers to see if we could actually create variations of custom card formats, only using custom card sets, like sets that are vintage/legacy power level, Modern level and standard level, so that way it would not be sets designed for modern against sets for Standards and etc.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Facepalms I did not know that. What I was saying that people could either make a Cockatrice extension/plugin or make an original software to play specifically with custom card sets. This could be implemented through uploaded custom sets and a council of people deciding if a set is Vintage, Legacy, Modern, or Standard levels of playable. Then sets with similar power levels would be formatted together and people could make their own decks using various custom sets only to draw from. This would be a totally new experience and twist to magic that would be enjoyable. Only thing some people may not like is the lack of pictures on some sets but some will get over it and some won't. Despite that their will be a huge number of players interested in that of that I am certain, since virtually every Custom Card Designer has the dream of playing with their sets of a period of time.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
This would definitely be an interesting project. I think one of the barriers is just how diverse the custom card scene is. What we consider to be "good design" here on this forum varies drastically from person to person, and most certainly doesn't always align with other sources as well (for some people, custom cards are just putting a funny picture in a card frame and giving very little thought to the abilities, while for others (like me) its much more based on set construction). This means its hard to know what to talk about and hard to know who should actually be on this podcast. Obviously you wouldn't have to try and encapsulate everything, but it could limit your listener pool.
That said, I'd still be super interested in this.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
I like all of the ideas being tossed around on this thread! A podcast would be great and informative, and a stand alone cockatrice (or even a way to add cards to cockatrice) for custom card play testing would be amazing. I've always wanted some software like that but never looked into it. Both would greatly enhance the potential for the custom card creation thread forums. I'd be willing to offer suggestions and help with both although I don't think I could be a co-author. Maybe a guest or something. Keep up the good ideas and don't give up on this!
I've recently been realizing that the community here is in need of more guides, primers and articles dedicated to custom magic card design as I feel like the range of knowledge in the community has this huge gap between the long time designers and those who have fun making and commenting on cards but often find it difficult to find info on things like playtesting, creating commons and set skeletons.
Great in depth resources like Goblin Artisans, the NWO primer or Adventares are too rare or assume a its audience knows about a lot of the design principles that we take for granted.
With the recent expansion of the Limited Resources podcast into Cnstructed resources as well as newer niche podcasts like Vorthos Snacktime popping up I've been giving some thought into the potential of a weekly or bi-weekly podcast dedicated to custom magic card and set design.
I'd love to write more long primers like the NWO primer but they are incredibly time consuming and I feel like I'm better at talking about this stuff than writing it.
My plan is that it would cover a range of topics starting from the basics in good individual card design, how to start a new block, evaluating mechanics etc. To more in depth topics like set reviews of a custom set or how to do online and real life playtests.
I wanted to post this to get an idea of potential interest and to provide a call out to anyone who would like to co-host or guest host.
My plan is to make the first episode early next year and then based on the amount of interest I'll hopefully organize the show to have a regular schedule.
Let me know what you think and what kind of topics you would love to hear about.
I'm a huge fan of both Drive to Work and Limited Resources. I'd be very interested in this project and I'd enjoy helping develop it. Love talking about game design, particularly MTG, and it's an excellent exercise for game designers. Heck, we've already had an impromptu collaboration come together in the form of the red flagging primer you ended up putting together.
I've also got open time in my work schedule right now, because my work project is moving into active playtesting - so I don't need to pump out cards for it like normal.
I like all of the ideas being tossed around on this thread! A podcast would be great and informative, and a stand alone cockatrice (or even a way to add cards to cockatrice) for custom card play testing would be amazing. I've always wanted some software like that but never looked into it. Both would greatly enhance the potential for the custom card creation thread forums. I'd be willing to offer suggestions and help with both although I don't think I could be a co-author. Maybe a guest or something. Keep up the good ideas and don't give up on this!
It would have to be a decent sized council of diverse thinkers to properly approve and place sets ranging from conservative to radical card designers to get balanced progression of the game as a whole.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
I like all of the ideas being tossed around on this thread! A podcast would be great and informative, and a stand alone cockatrice (or even a way to add cards to cockatrice) for custom card play testing would be amazing. I've always wanted some software like that but never looked into it. Both would greatly enhance the potential for the custom card creation thread forums. I'd be willing to offer suggestions and help with both although I don't think I could be a co-author. Maybe a guest or something. Keep up the good ideas and don't give up on this!
It would have to be a decent sized council of diverse thinkers to properly approve and place sets ranging from conservative to radical card designers to get balanced progression of the game as a whole.
I like all of the ideas being tossed around on this thread! A podcast would be great and informative, and a stand alone cockatrice (or even a way to add cards to cockatrice) for custom card play testing would be amazing. I've always wanted some software like that but never looked into it. Both would greatly enhance the potential for the custom card creation thread forums. I'd be willing to offer suggestions and help with both although I don't think I could be a co-author. Maybe a guest or something. Keep up the good ideas and don't give up on this!
It would have to be a decent sized council of diverse thinkers to properly approve and place sets ranging from conservative to radical card designers to get balanced progression of the game as a whole.
Finding people to be on this podcast (as the regular crew, in addition to "guests") would be difficult. Not to find people willing to be on it, but to find people that others would actually want to listen to. I think it might be a good idea to keep the cast rotating as much as possible: there are so many different views on custom card design that I think you'd need to constantly be finding different voices to appeal to the most listeners.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Yep my current plan is to start up the first episode sometime in the next month.
I'll start with a rotation of guest hosts and then if any of the hosts click really well I'll have them as a semi-permanent co-host.
I'm still looking for someone for the first episode so If your interested please PM me.
I think this podcast would need to figure out what it wants to be and how it wants to work. Is it supposed to be teaching people how to make better custom cards and sets? Is it supposed to be a review of existing custom sets and so on for people that want to play with them? Is it supposed to just be a fun discussion by witty people that just happens to be about custom card design? "Custom card podcast" sounds fun, but it needs a more focused goal before deciding on structures and guest rosters.
I think this podcast would need to figure out what it wants to be and how it wants to work. Is it supposed to be teaching people how to make better custom cards and sets? Is it supposed to be a review of existing custom sets and so on for people that want to play with them? Is it supposed to just be a fun discussion by witty people that just happens to be about custom card design? "Custom card podcast" sounds fun, but it needs a more focused goal before deciding on structures and guest rosters.
The imputus for this project is teaching people how to make better custom cards. I want the show to be focused on that 100%. Any features like reviewing other custom sets or talking about topics such as oddball designs would be talked about through the lens of what they are doing well and what lessons we can learn from them to make our own designs better.
I definitely want a more focused and serious product compared to something like Tolarian Academy.
In that case, having specific topics for each episode is probably a very good idea. I could see a structure with recurring features, such as critique-a-card, surrounding that core topic (similar to how crack-a-pack surrounded whatever topic Limited Information was talking about each week) - but a core topic with a cohesive message and goal seems essential. If that's the case, a rotating roster of guests with differing perspectives sounds like it might confuse the messages.
One thing we need to consider is what exactly we're trying to teach. I mean, everyone has a different idea of what "good" design is. Are we trying to teach the material given by WotC to best emulate them? What about things many designers don't agree on, do we always err on WotC's side? Just wondering, since these types of arguments come up all the time and I think would comprise the majority of conflict in the community.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
Ultimately, I think there are three main paths the podcast can take in terms of educational content. In no particular order...
1) A discussion-show where topics are presented and skilled designers bring talking points regarding them. Sometimes they might agree, sometimes they might disagree, but you hear smart and experienced people discussing important topics.
Pros: Easy for a guest-format, comparatively little preparation time, relatively easy to make entertaining
Cons: Players won't walk away with a clear message of what to do in their own designs
2) An instructional show where each episode is similar to a game design lecture delivered via audio. Clear advice is given, with the aim to give people useful guidelines and warnings of common mistakes that will directly improve their card design.
Pros: Extremely useful information
Cons: Takes longer to prepare, works poorly for a guest environment where multiple people would have to agree on the principles being delivered to the audience, the people on the show don't have a lot of credibility compared to all the resources wizards provides that fulfills a similar role.
3) A hybrid format where the hosts agree on a topic and work out agreement before-hand, then use the discussion format to collaboratively explain the topic. Like a joint Drive to Work, or when Limited Resources comes together to explain a concept like Results-Oriented-Thinking. Both contributors chime in, share examples, fill in the gaps in someone else's explanation and so on.
Pros: Useful information, less likely to cause people to rankle than a formal lecture, easy to put together if two like-minded hosts are doing it.
Cons: Much more difficult for rotating guests.
Bonus Option: Any of the above, but with a focus on explaining concepts of game design itself - and using Magic the Gathering as an amazing tool for demonstrating these concepts and practicing them. Since Magic is a game we all understand, it's a great central point to use when talking about game design in general. And, of course, game design in general applies to being a better custom card designer. It might also expand the audience significantly, and since many more people are experienced game designers professionally than they are experience MTG designers professionally, it lowers the perceived lack of expertise. But of course, that might not be a show anyone here is interested in doing.
I think the issue is that its very unclear who's a "skilled designer". Part of this community is the fact that we usually try to be as inclusive as possible, which means when people disagree it's usually a "this doesn't fit my personal taste" instead of "you're wrong and bad". It's hard to tell who's experienced enough to be considered good enough to give advice. For instance, I've designed a bunch of custom sets, but may people may not see me as experienced, especially if they don't value set design as highly as single card design.
Just getting started is a good idea, but "a bunch of strangers tell you that you're doing it wrong" may not go over so well is all I'm saying. I think, like all podcasts, there should be different segments. The beginning segments I feel should be dedicated to going over what designs that week's guest has done, and another (as StairC suggested) looking at some custom designs and doing a quick review. This would at least give an idea of who the guests are, what they've done, and what their general opinions are to kind of preface the advice they give later on.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
It is worth noting that presentation can help a lot. It could have been argued that Limited Resources was nobodies of indeterminate skill telling you what to do... But it worked great because the presentation was, "Here's our experience, here's what we think is good, we hope you find this helpful." The humble approach, and detailed argument behind their thought processes, did a lot.
Ok I'm back from christmas break so I can hopefully start getting this into action.
My vision for the show is to have the usual weekly show have a host and co-host discuss a main topic in depth, giving advice and examples backed up by detailed reasoning. This would be precluded by a a small segment were each participant on the show talks about a single custom card design that they like or dislike and then gives it a letter grade. Even better if that design naturally flows the topic of conversation into the main topic.ow
Each participant on the show rates each of the cards so you can see differences in opinion. (which should be discussed before hand. Think like a movie review.)
As well as the more design lecture approach, I'm happy to experiment occasionally having one or more guest hosts to talk less formally about either a specific topic or maybe something like reviewing a custom set.
However these must still remained grounded in teaching people to be better designers by learning how to analyze what works and what could be improved.
I'm currently talking with StairC, MOON-E and one or two others as potential co-hosts or guests. I've also talked briefly with Jay Treat at Goblin Artisans who said he would be willing to promote us a bit.
This is still early days so I'll willing to hear any more input you guys have.
I guess I'm having trouble understanding what the purpose of this is. For instance, the lecture format you're talking about seems to not need to be a podcast at all; why do you need guests and a discussion? You could easily just transfer all of MaRo's written work to audio format. It just seems strange to have this be so structured when opinions can be so diverse. For example, let's say you have StairC on to talk about something like design skeletons. Doesn't that mean you don't get to hear his opinions on any other topic? What if my opinions on design skeletons are drastically different from his? Doesn't that mean you don't get to hear my alternative stance? This goes back to the whole concept of their being no well defined objective quality in custom design. There's a general idea of what's good design (don't make keyword soup, be flavorful, etc.), but that doesn't go very far in terms of making an engaging podcast with a running time of more than a couple minutes.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In the beginning, MTG Salvation switched to a new forum format.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
It was at that moment that I realized: I'm kinda just making these things up. We can just write the rules the way we want them to work. People will have fun, and people will get it.
1) Not everyone has the time to read articles. I've gone through all of Maro's Drive to Work podcasts more than once, but when I'm at a computer I have other things I need to be doing. It's difficult to make time to read articles, but easy to listen to a podcast while I'm going for a walk or on my way to work. A design-based podcast, even if not as effective as an article series, still has this advantage.
2) In my experience, good design isn't nearly as subjective as some people here are making it out to be. Once you agree on a design goal, the specific experience you're trying to create for the players, it becomes relatively easy to deal with disagreements on design. Most intractable arguments tend to revolve around personal preferences regarding experiences and mechanics. A design goal helps clear this up, because it clarifies what preferences you're designing for.
For example, at Fantasy Flight Games recently I was working on a skirmish map for a title and we were arguing for like 30 minutes about a certain mechanic. The mechanic was a ton of fun to use for some players, but was also highly random in its outcomes and could disrupt carefully planned strategies. Some people were arguing it was good design to have this unique and exciting mechanic that a chunk of playtesters were enjoying, despite how swingy it was. Others were arguing that it was too swingy, despite how exciting it was. We ultimately went back to the design goal for skirmish mode, which is entirely Spike-Oriented and is designed for skill-testing, mentally stimulating tournament play. The moment we went back to that design goal, it became clear that having a swingy, random and exciting Timmy element was not at all what the skirmish mode was about. Since in tournament mode, maps were randomly selected, we couldn't trust players to steer clear of it either if they didn't enjoy it. The mechanic on this map would undermine the experience we were trying to create. The argument melted away immediately and we went back to work.
Once the team has agreed on a highly specific design goal (and the aspect of the one I mentioned above was just a part of it), good design becomes anything that is demonstrably achieving that goal and bad design becomes anything that isn't. People might argue in the paper design stage about which mechanics will work better to fulfill the design goal, but playtesting (and a few tiebreaker principles if you still can't decide) settle that too.
Good design, once the goal is agreed on, is pretty objective. There are a few sticking points that always come up (like how much depth are you willing to sacrifice for accessibility), but that's the case in everything.
3) Despite my point 1, I think a less formal format is probably going to help a lot in a guest format. If it's just one person giving a design lecture, fine, but if it's two people with differing opinions that's odd to me. It'll be conflicting information.
I could see people each having a short segment to talk about their ideas on the topic, and then opening it up into a discussion format where people challenge each other's points and so on, or build on eachother's ideas and probe the topic in greater depth.
I do very much like the "critique-a-card" segments too. Individual card design is probably the least interesting topic to me, my focus tends to be more holistic when doing game design and letting other team members work on content development, but even I think that would be a lot of fun.
Great in depth resources like Goblin Artisans, the NWO primer or Adventares are too rare or assume a its audience knows about a lot of the design principles that we take for granted.
With the recent expansion of the Limited Resources podcast into Cnstructed resources as well as newer niche podcasts like Vorthos Snacktime popping up I've been giving some thought into the potential of a weekly or bi-weekly podcast dedicated to custom magic card and set design.
I'd love to write more long primers like the NWO primer but they are incredibly time consuming and I feel like I'm better at talking about this stuff than writing it.
My plan is that it would cover a range of topics starting from the basics in good individual card design, how to start a new block, evaluating mechanics etc. To more in depth topics like set reviews of a custom set or how to do online and real life playtests.
I wanted to post this to get an idea of potential interest and to provide a call out to anyone who would like to co-host or guest host.
My plan is to make the first episode early next year and then based on the amount of interest I'll hopefully organize the show to have a regular schedule.
Let me know what you think and what kind of topics you would love to hear about.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
While I don't think I'd listen to them myself (unless there's a particularly unusual topic or relevant to my current needs), I'll still support this project for sure. I'm also not going to offer to be a guest host, because my mic is bad and I'm not a charismatic person in the slightest.
As for topics, I think starting on individual card design is better than starting on set-focused design - making a set doesn't mean much if your cards are poorly made, and starting a set isn't an endeavour I'd recommend to anyone right away, considering my 3+ terrible attempts at set design before beginning to post them here. First episode should be something simple along the lines of overall design (things like simplicity is best and gameplay trumps making something cool but functionally pointless), or an introduction to the colors (as in, green gets big efficient creatures, white gets weenies, blue is inefficient, etc.) Then, get into focused individual cards - Common design/NWO, difference between tertiary and out-of-color effects, designing lands, etc. and then after a couple episodes get into set design - making and evaluating mechanics (which can be earlier of course), where to start (top-down or bottom-up), design skeletons, etc. One more random topic to throw in is Planeswalker designs - a lot of planeswalkers that go up here aren't well evaluated, even if its just on minor detailed like +1 card draw for 4cmc - its a topic I was actually considering doing a primer on a few weeks ago while the SCCT had a bunch of PW being made on it.
Either way - I say go for it. There's plenty of material to talk on, including drawing on some of MaRo's articles, and it'll be handy for new designers for sure.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Gold: 0
Inventory: Clothes
Abilities:
Traits: Speed
Experience: 6/20
Mana: R
Odula Besa (U/B)
Creature - Vampire Artificer
T: Target artifact creature gets your choice of -1/-0 or +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Gold: 41
Inventory: Adventurer's Clothes, Basic Artificer Toolkit, 3 pounds of Basic metal.
Abilities: N/A
Current Goals:
Experience: 1/20
Mana: 2(U/B)(U/B)
I'm currently trying to get in contact with the creator of The Tolarian Academy which is a new podcast on similar topics that has started on the /custommtg reddit.
I've also had people on twitter etc post some interesting suggestions including looking at alternate formats like The Beer Cube and doing some sort of "Crack a Pack" of a custom set.
Love to hear other suggestions...
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Gold: 0
Inventory: Clothes
Abilities:
Traits: Speed
Experience: 6/20
Mana: R
Odula Besa (U/B)
Creature - Vampire Artificer
T: Target artifact creature gets your choice of -1/-0 or +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Gold: 41
Inventory: Adventurer's Clothes, Basic Artificer Toolkit, 3 pounds of Basic metal.
Abilities: N/A
Current Goals:
Experience: 1/20
Mana: 2(U/B)(U/B)
Did you realize I am actually a professional games programmer....
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Gold: 0
Inventory: Clothes
Abilities:
Traits: Speed
Experience: 6/20
Mana: R
Odula Besa (U/B)
Creature - Vampire Artificer
T: Target artifact creature gets your choice of -1/-0 or +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Gold: 41
Inventory: Adventurer's Clothes, Basic Artificer Toolkit, 3 pounds of Basic metal.
Abilities: N/A
Current Goals:
Experience: 1/20
Mana: 2(U/B)(U/B)
That said, I'd still be super interested in this.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
I'm a huge fan of both Drive to Work and Limited Resources. I'd be very interested in this project and I'd enjoy helping develop it. Love talking about game design, particularly MTG, and it's an excellent exercise for game designers. Heck, we've already had an impromptu collaboration come together in the form of the red flagging primer you ended up putting together.
I've also got open time in my work schedule right now, because my work project is moving into active playtesting - so I don't need to pump out cards for it like normal.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
It would have to be a decent sized council of diverse thinkers to properly approve and place sets ranging from conservative to radical card designers to get balanced progression of the game as a whole.
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Gold: 0
Inventory: Clothes
Abilities:
Traits: Speed
Experience: 6/20
Mana: R
Odula Besa (U/B)
Creature - Vampire Artificer
T: Target artifact creature gets your choice of -1/-0 or +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Gold: 41
Inventory: Adventurer's Clothes, Basic Artificer Toolkit, 3 pounds of Basic metal.
Abilities: N/A
Current Goals:
Experience: 1/20
Mana: 2(U/B)(U/B)
Well I would love to be a member of that council!
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
I'll start with a rotation of guest hosts and then if any of the hosts click really well I'll have them as a semi-permanent co-host.
I'm still looking for someone for the first episode so If your interested please PM me.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
Ophelia Le Doux (R/B)
Creature - Vampire Assassin
Haste First Strike
1/1
Gold: 0
Inventory: Clothes
Abilities:
Traits: Speed
Experience: 6/20
Mana: R
Odula Besa (U/B)
Creature - Vampire Artificer
T: Target artifact creature gets your choice of -1/-0 or +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Gold: 41
Inventory: Adventurer's Clothes, Basic Artificer Toolkit, 3 pounds of Basic metal.
Abilities: N/A
Current Goals:
Experience: 1/20
Mana: 2(U/B)(U/B)
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
The imputus for this project is teaching people how to make better custom cards. I want the show to be focused on that 100%. Any features like reviewing other custom sets or talking about topics such as oddball designs would be talked about through the lens of what they are doing well and what lessons we can learn from them to make our own designs better.
I definitely want a more focused and serious product compared to something like Tolarian Academy.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
What do you have in mind for an opening topic?
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
1) A discussion-show where topics are presented and skilled designers bring talking points regarding them. Sometimes they might agree, sometimes they might disagree, but you hear smart and experienced people discussing important topics.
Pros: Easy for a guest-format, comparatively little preparation time, relatively easy to make entertaining
Cons: Players won't walk away with a clear message of what to do in their own designs
2) An instructional show where each episode is similar to a game design lecture delivered via audio. Clear advice is given, with the aim to give people useful guidelines and warnings of common mistakes that will directly improve their card design.
Pros: Extremely useful information
Cons: Takes longer to prepare, works poorly for a guest environment where multiple people would have to agree on the principles being delivered to the audience, the people on the show don't have a lot of credibility compared to all the resources wizards provides that fulfills a similar role.
3) A hybrid format where the hosts agree on a topic and work out agreement before-hand, then use the discussion format to collaboratively explain the topic. Like a joint Drive to Work, or when Limited Resources comes together to explain a concept like Results-Oriented-Thinking. Both contributors chime in, share examples, fill in the gaps in someone else's explanation and so on.
Pros: Useful information, less likely to cause people to rankle than a formal lecture, easy to put together if two like-minded hosts are doing it.
Cons: Much more difficult for rotating guests.
Bonus Option: Any of the above, but with a focus on explaining concepts of game design itself - and using Magic the Gathering as an amazing tool for demonstrating these concepts and practicing them. Since Magic is a game we all understand, it's a great central point to use when talking about game design in general. And, of course, game design in general applies to being a better custom card designer. It might also expand the audience significantly, and since many more people are experienced game designers professionally than they are experience MTG designers professionally, it lowers the perceived lack of expertise. But of course, that might not be a show anyone here is interested in doing.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Just getting started is a good idea, but "a bunch of strangers tell you that you're doing it wrong" may not go over so well is all I'm saying. I think, like all podcasts, there should be different segments. The beginning segments I feel should be dedicated to going over what designs that week's guest has done, and another (as StairC suggested) looking at some custom designs and doing a quick review. This would at least give an idea of who the guests are, what they've done, and what their general opinions are to kind of preface the advice they give later on.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
My vision for the show is to have the usual weekly show have a host and co-host discuss a main topic in depth, giving advice and examples backed up by detailed reasoning. This would be precluded by a a small segment were each participant on the show talks about a single custom card design that they like or dislike and then gives it a letter grade. Even better if that design naturally flows the topic of conversation into the main topic.ow
Each participant on the show rates each of the cards so you can see differences in opinion. (which should be discussed before hand. Think like a movie review.)
As well as the more design lecture approach, I'm happy to experiment occasionally having one or more guest hosts to talk less formally about either a specific topic or maybe something like reviewing a custom set.
However these must still remained grounded in teaching people to be better designers by learning how to analyze what works and what could be improved.
I'm currently talking with StairC, MOON-E and one or two others as potential co-hosts or guests. I've also talked briefly with Jay Treat at Goblin Artisans who said he would be willing to promote us a bit.
This is still early days so I'll willing to hear any more input you guys have.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Comic Book Set
Archester: Frontier of Steam (A steampunk set!)
A Good Place to Start Designing
1) Not everyone has the time to read articles. I've gone through all of Maro's Drive to Work podcasts more than once, but when I'm at a computer I have other things I need to be doing. It's difficult to make time to read articles, but easy to listen to a podcast while I'm going for a walk or on my way to work. A design-based podcast, even if not as effective as an article series, still has this advantage.
2) In my experience, good design isn't nearly as subjective as some people here are making it out to be. Once you agree on a design goal, the specific experience you're trying to create for the players, it becomes relatively easy to deal with disagreements on design. Most intractable arguments tend to revolve around personal preferences regarding experiences and mechanics. A design goal helps clear this up, because it clarifies what preferences you're designing for.
For example, at Fantasy Flight Games recently I was working on a skirmish map for a title and we were arguing for like 30 minutes about a certain mechanic. The mechanic was a ton of fun to use for some players, but was also highly random in its outcomes and could disrupt carefully planned strategies. Some people were arguing it was good design to have this unique and exciting mechanic that a chunk of playtesters were enjoying, despite how swingy it was. Others were arguing that it was too swingy, despite how exciting it was. We ultimately went back to the design goal for skirmish mode, which is entirely Spike-Oriented and is designed for skill-testing, mentally stimulating tournament play. The moment we went back to that design goal, it became clear that having a swingy, random and exciting Timmy element was not at all what the skirmish mode was about. Since in tournament mode, maps were randomly selected, we couldn't trust players to steer clear of it either if they didn't enjoy it. The mechanic on this map would undermine the experience we were trying to create. The argument melted away immediately and we went back to work.
Once the team has agreed on a highly specific design goal (and the aspect of the one I mentioned above was just a part of it), good design becomes anything that is demonstrably achieving that goal and bad design becomes anything that isn't. People might argue in the paper design stage about which mechanics will work better to fulfill the design goal, but playtesting (and a few tiebreaker principles if you still can't decide) settle that too.
Good design, once the goal is agreed on, is pretty objective. There are a few sticking points that always come up (like how much depth are you willing to sacrifice for accessibility), but that's the case in everything.
3) Despite my point 1, I think a less formal format is probably going to help a lot in a guest format. If it's just one person giving a design lecture, fine, but if it's two people with differing opinions that's odd to me. It'll be conflicting information.
I could see people each having a short segment to talk about their ideas on the topic, and then opening it up into a discussion format where people challenge each other's points and so on, or build on eachother's ideas and probe the topic in greater depth.
I do very much like the "critique-a-card" segments too. Individual card design is probably the least interesting topic to me, my focus tends to be more holistic when doing game design and letting other team members work on content development, but even I think that would be a lot of fun.
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane