Idea in search of a theme

well, in a game like that, since it's a CCG I would simply play all the cards that have a really low casting cost and just keep casting them. That way, it would be very hard, if not impossible for the other player to win.

You could have it where when you play a card, you put it back on top of your deck. That way the only way to get a 'new' and 'fresh' card is to have your opponent force you to draw more cards - leading to your demise!!

Wow, that idea is soo good!! You're a genius. I hope you develop it further. I would certainly buy a CCG like that.

Good luck!!

Rob

Possible theme: the focus of the game is a power struggle where the object is to force your opponent to absorb so much power that he becomes overloaded and, essentially, explodes. Absorbing power is reflected through gaining cards. Think of Yoda struggling to catch a ball of Force energy and directing it back at Palpatine, or the spell battle between Gandalf and Saruman. You have to cast spells, i.e. cards, to deplete power.

On a much different tack, you could be engaged in an epic battle of CYA. Perhaps you and your opponent headed up a project which you both now know will fail, and must strive to make the other the "guy in charge" to take the fall. Of course, the more your opponent is in charge, the more options he has. This could be a good spy theme.

How about Cold War weapons proliferation? Forcing the other player to spend themselves into oblivion? Weapon systems would represent national prestige, or political capital, rather than destructive force. This also allows concepts like weapons research (very expensive propositions that usually get the country nothing concrete), accidents, and coverups, all of which would cost the government in charge political credability.

Hey! I was actually going to do a game about monks trying to get rid of their attachments. It was sort of a reverse Monopoly. Dead serious.

Hmm...that really does kinda stink, doesn't it. :P

K.

To me, it suggests something like.....

(a) Executive skiving - trying to offload work and tasks on other managers at a company, get them to do the workload while you take the glory..?

(b) Being coerced to do something - a hostage situation, or that Dirty Harry / Die Hard 3 situation where you're being made to run here, there and everywhere by the badguy, doing his bidding while all the while trying to work out how to defeat him. Hell, you could probably pitch that as a '24' tie-in. :)

(c) The classic drinking match - think Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark - you're trying to drive your opponent to drink more than you, and the winner is the last one left standing. Every card is a drink, with different amounts of alcohol content.

Any use to you sir? :)

I like fastLearner's hot air balloon idea. If I saw that as a theme for a retail release, I'd be very tempted to buy....

Honestly, my first thought was a battle of Jugglers...

You and the other jugglers each have the ability to juggle up to, say 10 balls... anything above that, you drop a ball and you lose.

You can perhaps draw cards that allow you to handle more balls... or perhaps instead of a ball, you end up drawing a club, which counts as 2 balls.

You can throw a ball to your opponent... You can distract them...

All sorts of possibilities....

Interesting. This CCG seems very similar to Gin and Gin Rummy, in that cards in hand are bad and count against you.

Theme ideas that leaped into my mind:
Cards could represent debt. Not necessarily a fun topic, however.

Pounds. Each card is 5 pounds of weight, and you and your siblings (the other players) are trying to get The New Jeans (or whatever), so you want them to gain weight so they won't fit them. Not sure how good it is, but hey, the theme of handing someone an Oreo and having them flinch is kind of appealing.

In the family vein of things, the cards could be chores, and whoever has too many can't finish them on time and gets grounded.

More politically, you could have each player being a corporation... but too many senators in your pockets (or hand) means you have to keep bribing them all, which is expensive. Or if too many come over you get investigated by the FCC and lose (because all corporations are crooked).

Just a few notions.

So basically, when you hit 15 (or whatever the number will be) cards in hand, the "WN" comes in and busts you for all those illegal weapons, right? Sounds really interesting, and I love the setting too.

However I am having trouble seeing what exactly the different cards will do. Is there some alternate "win condition" that you are going for, and having to draw cards is sort of like a "timer" of sorts? Meaning that if you make bad game choices, you draw alot of cards, making it harder to get to that win condition. If thats the case, then you could have all sorts of interesting cards that affect gameplay, the "better" ones forcing you to draw alot of cards as a payment.

In fact, I think it would be interesting to have drawing cards from your deck as sort of the "casting cost" (to use a Magic term) or "activation cost" for your units and effects. If, when the player ends his/her turn, they have more than 14 cards in hand, they loose. Daring and/or desperate players could gamble on a huge effect, in the hopes of knocking their opponent out first, or finding a way to deal with all the excess cards before they end thier turn. That would make for some very interesting game play in my opinion.

But, if there is no alternate win condition, or nothing much more to the game then just forcing your opponent to draw cards, then I don't really see how the cards will work. I would love to hear more about how you envision the game working, or any rough ideas of cards that you have. I'm really interested in seeing how this develops!