Hey all - new to the forums but seems like the place to get advice!
I'm working on my first game - a deck building card game based on being a Lanista in ancient Rome, training your gladiators to fight in the arena.
Its based around 3 rounds, 6 turns each round where you train/grow your team then fight in the Games. Each round is a new Games and it ends fighting in the Colosseum in front of the Emperor.
Would love to get some feedback but not sure where to start...
So far I have my first draft of the rulebook ready to go here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xFBMbJIYv49inHw95jPCU0wYEWtKKMl_A_CX...
cards are all handwritten at the moment - will create them digitally fairly soon for PnP
its been playtested quite a bit with 2 players, next step test with 4 and going to try blindtesting with the rulebook. Most of the tweaks so far have been around balance (and I'm still trying to figure out how many counters/coins I need)
Any suggestions very gratefully received!
Your game is more like an Auction / Bidding deck building game than just a deck building game.
Thanks! And thanks for taking the time to read it all! Your comments are really useful. You're right about the description - the auction forms a fair chunk of the game.
I am glad you have added the females to the seen as well.
Agonised over this a bit - my pedantry for vague historical accuracy was outweighed in the end by feminism :) I'm going to have a few female gladiators but probably not Doctore - still thinking about that tho.
So the Auction wars start and take place for 25 minutes and the fighting begins just before 30 minutes is up? Building and training your gladiators / slaves I get and it costs denarii to use to train the gladiators and to purchase your doctores. But how much does each player obtain to purchase 1 doctore in the beginning?
I need to make that clearer then. They are shuffled and laid out in order. To outweigh the advantage of going first, player 1 has a choice of paying 1 denari for the first Doctore, 2 denari for the second, and so on. As they are removed the cost for that slot also is removed. So by the time you get to player 4, they are paying 1 denari for whatever Doctore is left.
How does your ludus lose denarii before or after each fight? Is that during the Auction Bidding phase to bluff the other opponent to out buy the other opponent so they get the top best gladiators for each bid for each low high grade to high grade rank during each combat ?
The game seems to be a budgeting game up to the fight. You basically spend your money either on buying slaves - and better slaves tend to attract higher bids. The guiding factor is Fame as you can always sell a basic slave back for more than the minimum bid of 1 denari (bank buys back at 2x Fame as long as not injured). This means everyone is tempted to bid as its easy money. But that does tie up funds until you can sell them (the next turn). It helps to keep the auction going each turn. Morale is very good but very expensive - that also eats money, and training cards are the other expense. Gymn and Temple are used less (at least in the last game I ran through). The balance between all of them is quite fine and each tweak alters the game a little bit. Next play with 4 players will be really telling.
Age for losing or winning for each gladiator after an opponent is down to be executed does seem right to me. Age doesn't matter during combat. Blood will be spent no matter if the gladiator is 20 years old fighting a 40 year old combatant that is a true gladiator in the games after 3 years at the top of his or her gain. Combatants / players will slip up during a crucial part of fighting. A careless mistake by not defending while that opponent should be at least attacking or counter attacking or dodging during a Jumping Spear Thrust or Spear Wide Swing Attack from a left or right offense or defense.
I am saying that during combat, age is thrown out the window. Knowledge of the other opponent wins the combat. Strategy. Crucial timing to attack or defending.
Age is basically only used as a random number generator. Its not used for anything else in the game except a tie breaker in one instance. So you have two gladiators fighting - the game is decided on tactics and then at the end, to randomly decide who lives or dies at the crowds whim, you draw the next card from the slave deck and check the age (then discard that card). Its just a random number - odds they die, evens they win. Aim is to add a bit of suspense at the end of the fight. Note that a gladiator never dies from a fight outright - its always the crowd that decides.
3 rounds of combat? How long is each fight? Is that when you look at the turn seqeunce? I think this is a good move but as you have stated in the rule book ,"Fights might end in seconds". If either opponent is down then the initial fight is over for that opponent / player or cast out another gladiator to try to take the win? So it would be like a 2 out of 3 type rock paper scissor game or the other opoonent can immediately forefit that combat. That person can choose to loose all of his or her pot winnings as a strategy or just do something entirely to out wit their opponent.
So each round a Games event is held. This consists of 5 fights (based on the billing which is arranged a some point in the previous 5 turns. The fights are fought in order from lowest to highest billing and resolve 1 on 1. Combat for inexperienced gladiators tends to be very quick as its more luck based than tactics. For experienced gladiators versus experienced, it can last a lot longer. When there's a mismatch (ie a very experienced gladiator versus a rookie) it gets progressively easier for the experienced gladiator to win the longer it goes on. A fight might look something like (capitalised words represent cards):
Valerius Jabs towards his opponent. Crixus Parries. Valerius performs a Beat attack off the parry and Slashes at Crixus who is unable to avoid the attack. Crixus falls. The crowd is merciful and spares him.
or
Agrippa aims a Two Handed Smash at his opponent. Hilarius Ducks easily and steps back. Hilarius comes back with a strong Thrust and Agrippa rolls to the side. Agrippa goes for an Overhand hack at Hilarius's head but Hilarius Throws Sand into his opponents eyes and Slashes at his side. Agrippa, distracted, is unable to avoid and falls to the sand. The crowd wants blood and Hilarius delivers the killing blow.