questccg's blog

While I was under the impression that this design was at 80%... I may need to re-think that a bit. I was planning to write a "book" to complete the amount of "Monsters" available to play against. However I realized that this might be GREAT for the "Players", it's not really great for me! Hmm...

What can I possibly mean? Well I was leaning towards a D&D component like a "Monster Compendium" with over 200+ Monsters to battle. But I realized two (2) things:

1. The Book may be too much for first time players.

Well I have been working on "Monster Keep" (MK) yet again... Thinking about the game, the deck size, the deck construction, and strategies surrounding these elements in the game.

So my original idea was to feature fifteen (15) monster cards that could be used in a multi-round mathematical contest. The earlier concept made me to make a pyramid of different "paths" allowing more than one path to victory.

One of the remaining aspects of the game (and I'll admit that the design is 80% done) was the Monster Battle Decks. Obviously the Monster Compendium is not fully written ... Never-the-less I managed to hash out thirteen different types of "Attacks" and realized that some may "recycle" and others may get "discarded" when their action(s) play out.

What remains to do is COMPLETE the "Monster Compendium" that comes with the game. That BOOK will contain ALL the enemies that you can battle. Of course you can expand the game and "invent" new or "mod" existing Monsters.

Well I received my Rulebook for "Crystal Heroes" (CH) this week... And for one thing, size matters! I chose the smaller format 3.5" x 5.0", thinking it would be sufficient enough for players to refer to the rules or read them for the very 1st time.

That MEDIUM format is simply put: WAY TOO SMALL!

I have a hard time reading my OWN rulebook, let alone allow this format to be used by my Backers (and players)...

I recently updated my prototype of "Crystal Heroes" (CH) and did a playtest. There was "more" Area Control and ties to the table. However, I have a question about the end-game scoring. Specifically, what to do when neither player collects more "Chaos Gems" than the other (tie) and the scoring of their Lord is also not an all-out victory. So, say a score of 7 versus 8 (Nine being the victory goal).

In my opinion it's too close to award a victory...!? What do you think?? Should this be a "stalemate"?