RPGs do a lot of things that take the player and immerses them into the game. I want to make a Magic set that does the same. I only have an early concept, right now, but I have some ideas about themes and mechanics to build the set around:
Experience Counters
Experience counters will be the structural mechanic of this set, like Energy was for Kaladesh and Madness was for Shadows over Innistrad. This is the mechanic I want to use to embody the idea of level progression in the game. Obviously, the first thing that came to my mind when thinking of how to do that was the level mechanic from Rise of the Eldrazi. I decided not to do that because that mechanic as a whole is riddled with problems. Experience counters are both much more flexible and more immersive, as that theme focuses on the player rather than the cards. Experience counters also allow cards to scale with the course of the game rather than the resources you put into a single creature, dodging the problem of resource traps like Auras.
I want to use and grant Experience counters in a few different ways, so as to push players into a few different playstyles. This will create the illusion of leveling up certain stats or skills. To clarify, where players would spend Energy counters in Kaladesh, players will keep Experience counters and cards will scale over time, getting better with the more counters you have. I do have a generic mechanic to universally reinforce the theme though:
Grind (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt combat damage this turn, you get an experience counter.)
It's worded so that the creature has to participate in and survive combat for you to get the experience, so it requires some amount of combat strategy while encouraging interaction. Creatures with this keyword will also have a complementary ability that cares in some way about how many experience counters you have, so they won't be entirely parasitic by themselves.
Equipment
It wouldn't be an RPG if there wasn't some focus on your gear. Therefore, there will be a significant equipment theme. Most of the equipment will work with the next theme that I'll talk about to contribute to the role-playing aspect of RPGs. The equipment will do this by granting slightly more niche abilities than normal.
Class Tribal
Another staple of RPGs is the class system. Magic has a great way to incorporate this by using effects that care about creature types, i.e. "Tribal." In this set, however, tribal will be handled differently than pretty much any other set. Tribal usually encourages going all-in on one specific creature type, but in this set, I want to go in another direction. In an RPG, you want to have a balanced party made up of a few different classes so as to give each party member a specific role to hand a variety of situations. That's what I want to go for here, encourage running a good balance of the different class types. I'm not sure exactly how to do this, and this presents a number of challenges. I'm not sure how many types to focus on, or how deeply rooted I want them to be in certain colors or combinations, if at all. Here's a list of the best candidates I can think of so far:
Cleric
Warrior
Druid
Rogue
Shaman
Wizard
Knight
Monk
I don't wanna use them all, but these are all types that are generic enough to have a lot of backwards compatibility.
Other Mechanics
I have a few ideas I'm tossing around. For example, Raid from Khans of Tarkir seems like a flavor hit, and I feel like it would synergize well with the rest of the themes, but I'm not sure how much of the set I want to devote to it and how much it will step on the toes of things like Experience counters and such. Other smaller things like Trap spells from Zendikar, Quest enchantments (also from Zendikar), etc. I like those things, but I'm just unsure of whether I want to include them all and to what extent.
I also have loose ideas about a theme about treasure and looting using artifact cards that represent treasure caches and "Key" artifact tokens that are sacrificed to "unlock" them, but I'm unsure about how to execute that.
Finally, I have a cycle of dual lands that work to represent dungeons. They all create creature tokens under the opponent's control as a way to represent enemy creatures you'd find in dungeons and give your Grind creatures a chance to farm some experience. I'm also considering expanding the theme of creating tokens under an opponent's control, but that seems pretty risky and very difficult to balance a set around.
Edit: Something else also occurred to me. It might be interesting to let players also play the role of the enemies. Like a dungeon master filling a room with monsters, this would give the set justification to have cards representing traps and monsters, and thus let us use Trap spells.
Anyway, I'll post edit this post later to include some example cards, but I'd love to hear any ideas or feedback yall might have.
Warrior Initiate1W
Creature - Human Warrior
Grind
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each experience counter you have.
1/2
Team Healer2W
Creature - Human Cleric T: Non-Cleric creatures you control get +0/+2 until end of turn.
2/1
Shadow StepU
Instant
You may return target creature you control to its owner's hand. Then, if you have seven or more experience counters,
return up to one target creature you don't control to its owner's hand.
Necromantic Blast1B
Instant
Choose one-
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
Incendiary Projectile2R
Sorcery
Choose one-
~ deals 4 damage to target player.
~ deals X damage to target player, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
Locked Chest2
Artifact Raid - T, Sacrifice ~: Draw two cards, then discard two cards. Activate this ability only if you attacked with a creature this turn.
Skilled Druid2G
Creature - Druid
Flash
Grind
When ~ enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on target non-Druid creature, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
2/1
Drake Infestation1U
Enchantment - Quest
When ~ enters the battlefield, create two 2/2 blue Drake creature tokens with flying under target opponent's control.
Whenever a Drake an opponent controls dies, you get an experience counter and draw a card.
Experience Counters- You'll need to cap them on card if they are easy gained. Stuff like Incendiary Projectile gets OP if its too easy to get experience counters and there isn't anyway to remove or hate on them. I do however love the idea that this focus on the growth of the player, which feels more like an rpg.
Tribal- An idea but have a similar feel to have tribal focused "upgrade" to all creatures like;
Cleric of Athen WW
Creature-Human Cleric
Other Cleric creatures you control get +1/+1.
If you control three or more non-cleric creatures, non-cleric creatures get +1/+1.
2/2
That way you can still do traditional tribal if wanted but the feel of the card is that you should upgrade it to effect your whole "party". I'd personally go with Clerics WB, Wizards UW, Rouges BU, Warriors RG (or Knights WR) and Druids GR (or GU) since they feel the most rpg like.
Raid- You could just use a few cards (maybe a cycle of some kind plus a few here and there) and it works well with Grind though it might make it too combat focused. I like maybe putting it on artifacts and other non-land cards to be the "rewards" you get from fighting.
I think it would be great to be able to have mechanic to let the personal feel like a dugong master/the final boss setting up their plans. A token making mechanic would be great for this.
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Experience Counters
Experience counters will be the structural mechanic of this set, like Energy was for Kaladesh and Madness was for Shadows over Innistrad. This is the mechanic I want to use to embody the idea of level progression in the game. Obviously, the first thing that came to my mind when thinking of how to do that was the level mechanic from Rise of the Eldrazi. I decided not to do that because that mechanic as a whole is riddled with problems. Experience counters are both much more flexible and more immersive, as that theme focuses on the player rather than the cards. Experience counters also allow cards to scale with the course of the game rather than the resources you put into a single creature, dodging the problem of resource traps like Auras.
I want to use and grant Experience counters in a few different ways, so as to push players into a few different playstyles. This will create the illusion of leveling up certain stats or skills. To clarify, where players would spend Energy counters in Kaladesh, players will keep Experience counters and cards will scale over time, getting better with the more counters you have. I do have a generic mechanic to universally reinforce the theme though:
Grind (At the beginning of each end step, if this creature dealt combat damage this turn, you get an experience counter.)
It's worded so that the creature has to participate in and survive combat for you to get the experience, so it requires some amount of combat strategy while encouraging interaction. Creatures with this keyword will also have a complementary ability that cares in some way about how many experience counters you have, so they won't be entirely parasitic by themselves.
Equipment
It wouldn't be an RPG if there wasn't some focus on your gear. Therefore, there will be a significant equipment theme. Most of the equipment will work with the next theme that I'll talk about to contribute to the role-playing aspect of RPGs. The equipment will do this by granting slightly more niche abilities than normal.
Class Tribal
Another staple of RPGs is the class system. Magic has a great way to incorporate this by using effects that care about creature types, i.e. "Tribal." In this set, however, tribal will be handled differently than pretty much any other set. Tribal usually encourages going all-in on one specific creature type, but in this set, I want to go in another direction. In an RPG, you want to have a balanced party made up of a few different classes so as to give each party member a specific role to hand a variety of situations. That's what I want to go for here, encourage running a good balance of the different class types. I'm not sure exactly how to do this, and this presents a number of challenges. I'm not sure how many types to focus on, or how deeply rooted I want them to be in certain colors or combinations, if at all. Here's a list of the best candidates I can think of so far:
I don't wanna use them all, but these are all types that are generic enough to have a lot of backwards compatibility.
Other Mechanics
I have a few ideas I'm tossing around. For example, Raid from Khans of Tarkir seems like a flavor hit, and I feel like it would synergize well with the rest of the themes, but I'm not sure how much of the set I want to devote to it and how much it will step on the toes of things like Experience counters and such. Other smaller things like Trap spells from Zendikar, Quest enchantments (also from Zendikar), etc. I like those things, but I'm just unsure of whether I want to include them all and to what extent.
I also have loose ideas about a theme about treasure and looting using artifact cards that represent treasure caches and "Key" artifact tokens that are sacrificed to "unlock" them, but I'm unsure about how to execute that.
Finally, I have a cycle of dual lands that work to represent dungeons. They all create creature tokens under the opponent's control as a way to represent enemy creatures you'd find in dungeons and give your Grind creatures a chance to farm some experience. I'm also considering expanding the theme of creating tokens under an opponent's control, but that seems pretty risky and very difficult to balance a set around.
Edit: Something else also occurred to me. It might be interesting to let players also play the role of the enemies. Like a dungeon master filling a room with monsters, this would give the set justification to have cards representing traps and monsters, and thus let us use Trap spells.
Anyway, I'll post edit this post later to include some example cards, but I'd love to hear any ideas or feedback yall might have.
Creature - Human Warrior
Grind
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each experience counter you have.
1/2
Team Healer 2W
Creature - Human Cleric
T: Non-Cleric creatures you control get +0/+2 until end of turn.
2/1
Shadow Step U
Instant
You may return target creature you control to its owner's hand. Then, if you have seven or more experience counters,
return up to one target creature you don't control to its owner's hand.
Necromantic Blast 1B
Instant
Choose one-
Incendiary Projectile 2R
Sorcery
Choose one-
Locked Chest 2
Artifact
Raid - T, Sacrifice ~: Draw two cards, then discard two cards. Activate this ability only if you attacked with a creature this turn.
Skilled Druid 2G
Creature - Druid
Flash
Grind
When ~ enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on target non-Druid creature, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
2/1
Drake Infestation 1U
Enchantment - Quest
When ~ enters the battlefield, create two 2/2 blue Drake creature tokens with flying under target opponent's control.
Whenever a Drake an opponent controls dies, you get an experience counter and draw a card.
Tribal- An idea but have a similar feel to have tribal focused "upgrade" to all creatures like;
Cleric of Athen WW
Creature-Human Cleric
Other Cleric creatures you control get +1/+1.
If you control three or more non-cleric creatures, non-cleric creatures get +1/+1.
2/2
That way you can still do traditional tribal if wanted but the feel of the card is that you should upgrade it to effect your whole "party". I'd personally go with Clerics WB, Wizards UW, Rouges BU, Warriors RG (or Knights WR) and Druids GR (or GU) since they feel the most rpg like.
Raid- You could just use a few cards (maybe a cycle of some kind plus a few here and there) and it works well with Grind though it might make it too combat focused. I like maybe putting it on artifacts and other non-land cards to be the "rewards" you get from fighting.
I think it would be great to be able to have mechanic to let the personal feel like a dugong master/the final boss setting up their plans. A token making mechanic would be great for this.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"