Taking a step back and starting basing myself purely on the essential or fundamental elements in the game, I have defined these five (5) types of "Fragments":
- Terror: specify a fright level and are minor or major.
- Boon: something that is helpful or beneficial in some way.
- Challenge: a type of obstacle or event which must be overcome.
- Heroism: anything related to characters and heroes.
- Ether: the fabric of life itself coming from the Celestial Heavens.
It took some time to define these more "abstract" types of "Fragments". But they are quintessentially the most appropriate categories I could come up with. Each "Fragment" is pretty "self-explanatory" with the exception of "Ether". However this is simply a question of History as people in earlier centuries believed that Ether (or aether) was a substance believed to occupy space beyond the sphere of the Moon. And so I refer to it as from the "Celestial Heavens"...
These "Fragments" are more encompassing than things like an "Item", "Equipment" or "Treasure", all three being "Boon" Fragments. I had to think about these since they will be the fundamental building blocks of the game.
I am very pleased with these "Fragments" since they encompass all the cards types that I wanted and more...
Your thoughts?!
Comments
So what are "Ether" Fragments???
I just wanted to address this question: "What are 'Ether' Fragments?"
The best way to explain it is when something is attributed to "God" or related to some form of Supernatural being, this is a "Ether" Fragment. So how about some examples...
Example #1: Tolvian Grassland
This is a place that may exist in a player's storyline. It refers to a location that may produce "Light" Virtue because of it's NATURAL link to being created by some supernatural power... It is not a "man-made" location such as a Mine, City or Dungeon. It is part of "nature" ... which is created by a supreme being.
Example #2: Electrical Storm
This is an "event" which is controlled by "nature". It is not "man-made" either but it could pose a threat to a Party of Heroes and must be resolved first by conquering the "challenge". So it is "Ether" and also a special "Challenge" fragment too.
I think they're excellent and
I think they're excellent and easy to understand. Terror seems to stand out a little as being 'different' than the others. I guess because it's a specific emotion.
Source of "Terror"
Like say a Village is being threatened by some big old "Red Dragon"! He "Terrorizes" the village and cause tensions to rise. So "Terror" is exactly that: how much fear a monster is causing.
There are two (2) distinct levels: minor and major. Minor are monsters that are weaker (and only have 2 stats). Major are like "Bosses" (for lack of a better term) and have 3 stats that need to be overcome.
The idea behind "Terror" Fragments is when there are too many - your land is over-flooding with fear and therefore the land is lost (the player loses the game).
e.g.: The Monsters win the game! (And that player loses)
New ideas for "Fragments"
Originally I was thinking about using two-sided cards. That soon became unpractical and then I thought about "rotating" cards ... and that too led to more confusion.
So I'm thinking each card has benefits for the player who plays it BUT it also inversely allows your opponent to earn "resources" for his tableau of cards.
The three (3) types of "resources" in the game so far are:
1. Gold (Income)
2. Dark Virtue
3. Light Virtue
Of course you can try to "starve" an opponent from one or several of these resources - but usually at a price of crippling your own adventure.
This would be the less intrusive and easier to manage type of dual purpose types of cards... without requiring any type of "turning". I'm still for "taping" a card - but not inverting or 180 degrees, etc.
To me this sounds like a much simpler solution.
I just realized...
"Ether" the fifth (5th) card Fragment is not "necessary". If my 2nd example of "Electrical Storm", this could be a "Challenge" with natural powers. And my 1st example "Tolvian Grassland" which could be a location need not be a part of the game.
How you thread together the story matters. Labels and actual sites are less important than the "Fragments" at those locations.
So we could have "Lady of the Lake" another "Challenge" card which is a LOCATION and a "mini-quest". The reward a "Magical Sword - Excalibur". Again I am using examples which can be familiar with the reader.
Some other "Challenge" could lead to another "Magical Sword" (for example).
Therefore I think the game should have FOUR (4) "Fragments":
I think streamlining it to four (4) types of "Fragments" will allow me to focus on the design and see where we can go from here...
Cheers.
Current Roadblock
Although I have the idea of four (4) separate tracks for the game; I am still a little bit unsure about how "Resource Management" will work.
So I have some more "visions" about how to "arrange" cards.
My thoughts about this is that "Quests" are packaged into a "group" or "set" of cards. And that grouping is the basis for the adventure for that journey.
The top track is used by the opponent to set the "competitive" aspect of that "Quest". The player must "resolve" and conquer the cards played by the opponent. To do so he must resolve "Challenges" to earn "Boons".
It's sort of like letting your opponent specify what you must conquer/defeat and then it's your goal to play the cards needed to accomplish this task.
Again it's still a bit "fuzzy"... Needs some more examination.
But essentially that is how you will play the game.
There are some "difficulties" like trying to get your opponent to play cards in his track... Some "what ifs?" I will continue to ponder on these aspects...
Anyone have any feedback?
I was just "bumping" this thread to see if anyone had any "comments/feedback/ideas/suggestions" regarding the various "Tracks".
As I have said this is sort of the "vision" - but it becoming more and more concrete as I wonder more about this design.
Cheers.
not sure
I guess my first thought was that I did not like it...
This was only because I liked the way you were describing this as a timeline.
I agree that separate areas might be needed for some cards. However, the theme it sounded like you were going for with the timeline is a great one and I think you should steer back that direction. This might be just a simple color border fix rather than a need to place things in groups.
On the other hand, the tracks add a clean and clear organization to things... you really can go either way. The timeline is just more epic sounding.
-Eamon
Secret for you ... only!
This IS the "storyline"... The will be multiple such "card" sets... I am very happy with the grouping - since it re-captures some of the earlier essences of "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)": collectible sets.
The idea is this: you will have everything that is based on a "Heroism". And you might require several to accomplish the Quest.
But as time progresses, you will have several of these "card" sets which will represent the "storyline". I'm still actively working on the design... however at its "core" you will be able to re-trace the steps of the "storyline" and this will allow people to "re-live" the EPIC Journey comprised of multiple Quests!
Early on with the design I was struggling on how to take it from PURE "set collection" to something more abstract. That's when I got the idea for the "Fragments"... This allowed things to be more abstract. But still it did not include a way to "put these fragments together to tell a story".
I'm not done with the "tracks" either. There is still things that are missing and require more reflection.
But for you to compare:
-I had "Hero" -> "Dungeon" -> "Monster" -> "Treasure". That was a SET.
Much too "restrictive" and too rigid. Although the design is not complete... This example (of two Quests) is much more flexible...
Anyways I'm rather excited about the direction... Since piecing together the "storyline" was something that I was concerned about. I would say that all this means that the design is maybe at 50%. Another 40% in transforming into a viable game... And then the difficult 10% of re-mastering the game until it's solid (playtesting, more playtesting, etc.)
I think I see :)
So, this "set of tracks" is just one piece of the larger timeline. Very interesting, I had not seen the set collection angle before. So the players would build a set of fragments into one "scene" of a larger story.
In that case, you are on the right TRACKs!
on a side note... I wonder if this concept could be adapted into a trick taking game? Each hand being a scene from the story... just a strange thought...
-Eamon
Three (3) Quests per game = about 30 cards
So if I am setting the Deck to be 60 cards, if a player plays three (3) Quests (much like the goal of the original game), he will play about 50% of his cards (or 30 cards).
Unlike the earlier version where the goal was to be the FIRST player to complete three (3) Quests, this version will boast a simple point system as an end-game goal.
The aim here is to "limit" the size of the timeline to a reasonable amount of cards and still be able to play out a unique storyline... Many things have yet to be decided - but how your "tableau" will look like is more or less defined (by the example graphic above). This is just a sample, the actual players tableau will vary according to the cards they decide to play (perhaps based on what the opponent plays as Terrors).
Note: Trick-taking involves "resolving" the cards played each turn. It would not allow for a "storyline" to develop as the basis for the EPIC Journey. And trick-taking two (2) player games are also not optimal, it is best if there are three (3) to four (4)...
In the case of "Quest AC v2", this would be a two (2) player game.
There is still a lot to "design" - this addresses only the "storyline" and how players may play cards into their tableau.