The thing about fake themes is that a lot of themes that at first seem fake, with the help of a good flavor team, can be made not-fake, so long as they actually play together well, even if they dont actually play off of the same thing, if that makes any sense. So I get that a lot of the set doesnt directly play into the CMC theme, and that is because the CMC theme is fairly limited, and instead I play off of number of creatures etc, but I dont see that as necessarily a problem in and of itself.
Thats why I think the less than 3CMC vs. more than 3CMC theme is of more import than the actual general CMC theme itself. So long as those two sides have distinct playstyles and are interesting, I think the set could be a success. Not saying Ive got the sides right, but I think at that central idea is at least valid. I'm most worried about the side of the elites, to be honest.
Creative isn't relevant to how good a design is. It doesn't matter how awesome the storyline and world is, a bad design is bad. Design incorporates creative, but don't let that fool you into thinking that creative elements in design are not part of the design. The point, to me at least is not about you sticking to your CMC theme, that's not the point at all. The point is that core of your design doesn't seem very developed, if I am correct, everything is going to work fine until things have to start being ironed out and finalised, when you will realise you don't have enough development of your theme to make things work.
In order to fix this potential problem, I would sit down and really break down your set: What is the most essential idea that drives your set? Is that an interesting idea? Or are you trying to make an interesting set out of a boring idea? What themes are their to represent your basis idea (as many as you can think of)? Is there ways you can expand change your basis idea to allow for more themes to draw from? Is their enough diversity in your themes to create an interesting strategical environment (especially for experienced players)?
Those are the question you need to ask when creating a set, it's the same sort of questions I ask myself, especially when I am having doubts.
Think about things, explore possibilities, take your time. If something isn't quite working, don't give up on it or try to use it anyway, work with it.
Good luck
So basically, you're saying that the general problem is that there isn't enough design space in what I've set out for this set, and that I should try to come up with more design space that ties into my general themes.
Ok, in order to fix the set up a bit and make it more focused, I've decided to focus on the flavor, and build stuff around that flavor. Tell me what you think.
The setting is Mercadia. I'm not hugely well versed in MTG lore, but Mercadia is the original plane of the Rebels and has a lot of focus on money and markets, so it seems like a rational choice.
Money, for the purposes of this set, is represented by mana. This allows me to give the upper classes a more homogenous theme, to make them stand for something other than "control with high CMCs". The upper classes own the valuable land (lands), which they use as a renewable source of income (mana). They siphon away the wealth of the lower classes through high prices, rent, and taxes. This is mechanically represented by raising the mana costs of various items, and imposing as many mana costs on the opponent as possible, such as with the Rhystic mechanic. What this basically means is that I'm changing the CMC-matters theme to an overall mana-matters theme. Not the color of mana matters, but overall mana wealth matters. That opens up a lot more design space.
Another thing I'm changing about the upper classes is that they should be able to have lower cost stuff associated with them, in the form of serfs, etc... They will be easily distinguishable from the rebelling lower classes because they help the upper classes by raising mana costs and slowing the game down.
Seems pretty solid, although I don't know too much about mercadia either. I think we might need to do some research about mercadia. Other than that, its nice to have more ground to build upon. We might need a mechanic overhaul and redo a lot of the cards. In fact, we might even want to start a new thread, since we finally got the setting down, and this thread is pretty much exploratory design anyways.
Also, about the rare ratio: The older sets you were talking about had over 300 cards, giving room for a little over 100 commons. This ratio doesn't work for modern sets that only has around 250 cards. There's just too little room for commons if you do it the old way. Again, I suggest a 100/80/60/15 rarity ratio.
Lets see how it plays out before we make a new thread, I can always edit OP. I am reading up a bit on Mercadia. I'm fairly confident about me getting the general setting right, but I'm a bit worried I will refer to organizations/people/etc... who are dead or no longer exist.
Also, I think we should fix the skew at common. There are way too many prole cards, and not enough for the elites.
If we are going to "return to mercadia", we probably need to make new stuff up, since it's about 15 blocks old. After all, that's what they did with RTR: They redid a lot of the characters and guild leaders.
Ok, in order to fix the set up a bit and make it more focused, I've decided to focus on the flavor, and build stuff around that flavor. Tell me what you think. (snip)
This definitely is a step in the right direction. Mercadia in an interesting choice, but I would consider making a new plane. If you are going to be expanding to a more 'mana matters' theme, I would consider using either hybrid (e.g. Deathrite Shaman) or twobrid (Beseech the Queen) to play up this theme. Hybrid is more versatile and cleaner, but twobrid is less explored, so it depends. Of course, you don't have to use either.
Creative isn't relevant to how good a design is. It doesn't matter how awesome the storyline and world is, a bad design is bad. Design incorporates creative, but don't let that fool you into thinking that creative elements in design are not part of the design. The point, to me at least is not about you sticking to your CMC theme, that's not the point at all. The point is that core of your design doesn't seem very developed, if I am correct, everything is going to work fine until things have to start being ironed out and finalised, when you will realise you don't have enough development of your theme to make things work.
In order to fix this potential problem, I would sit down and really break down your set: What is the most essential idea that drives your set? Is that an interesting idea? Or are you trying to make an interesting set out of a boring idea? What themes are their to represent your basis idea (as many as you can think of)? Is there ways you can expand change your basis idea to allow for more themes to draw from? Is their enough diversity in your themes to create an interesting strategical environment (especially for experienced players)?
Those are the question you need to ask when creating a set, it's the same sort of questions I ask myself, especially when I am having doubts.
Think about things, explore possibilities, take your time. If something isn't quite working, don't give up on it or try to use it anyway, work with it.
Good luck
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice
The setting is Mercadia. I'm not hugely well versed in MTG lore, but Mercadia is the original plane of the Rebels and has a lot of focus on money and markets, so it seems like a rational choice.
Money, for the purposes of this set, is represented by mana. This allows me to give the upper classes a more homogenous theme, to make them stand for something other than "control with high CMCs". The upper classes own the valuable land (lands), which they use as a renewable source of income (mana). They siphon away the wealth of the lower classes through high prices, rent, and taxes. This is mechanically represented by raising the mana costs of various items, and imposing as many mana costs on the opponent as possible, such as with the Rhystic mechanic. What this basically means is that I'm changing the CMC-matters theme to an overall mana-matters theme. Not the color of mana matters, but overall mana wealth matters. That opens up a lot more design space.
Another thing I'm changing about the upper classes is that they should be able to have lower cost stuff associated with them, in the form of serfs, etc... They will be easily distinguishable from the rebelling lower classes because they help the upper classes by raising mana costs and slowing the game down.
Also, about the rare ratio: The older sets you were talking about had over 300 cards, giving room for a little over 100 commons. This ratio doesn't work for modern sets that only has around 250 cards. There's just too little room for commons if you do it the old way. Again, I suggest a 100/80/60/15 rarity ratio.
Also, I think we should fix the skew at common. There are way too many prole cards, and not enough for the elites.
This definitely is a step in the right direction. Mercadia in an interesting choice, but I would consider making a new plane. If you are going to be expanding to a more 'mana matters' theme, I would consider using either hybrid (e.g. Deathrite Shaman) or twobrid (Beseech the Queen) to play up this theme. Hybrid is more versatile and cleaner, but twobrid is less explored, so it depends. Of course, you don't have to use either.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice