Adding yet another "layer" to my existing game

It's been a while since I have posted about the "advancement" of "Monster Keep" (MK). MK is still in an "art production" phase, meaning we are working with a talented artist to render the cards for the game.

However at the same time, I had expressed some insatisfaction with the layout of the cards themselves. And so I reached out to a fellow Designer who is an expert in both web and graphic design. I asked him to see if he can "refine" the card layout and while doing this, I "streamlined" the cards a bit to reduce the amount of "elements" on the card and allow the art to shine through the template.

But recently (afterwards) I had been expressing some doubts about my ideas concerning the "cardbacks". I had nine (9) color-coordinate backs which used the same texture with a different color. This was a bit too much. I just didn't like how you could know which cards a player had in his hand or the fact that they revealed the races of your deck.

So I re-worked the "carbacks" and produced ONE (1) Version of it. I was happy with this... But as usual, I was using an "older" template for the "cardback"... And I realized that there were some "COOL" icons that I had in place for another iteration of the game.

These "icons" are the basis for my NEW "layer"!

There are now three (3) icons on the cardback. The same "cardback" for all of them, with the exception of the icons. What do the icons do??? Well there are three (3) different ones:

1. Scout: Using your Lord, you can examine the "conquered" card next to your Lord (provided there are no other Lords on it). This costs 1 Action Point (AP).

2. Discard: Using your Lord, you can remove the "conquered" card from play, giving it back to its owner who places on the bottom of his deck. This also costs 1 AP.

3. Trap: When gathering Loot, you must roll 2d6 successfully with a value of eight (8) or higher to avoid the trap. Otherwise you lose an Action Point and gain no further Loot. Looting costs 1 AP and if you successfully avoid the trap, you earn the Loot... Otherwise you merely lose 1 AP.

How it work is that IF the icon has a Diagonal Bar across it, it means that this is NOT PERMITTED. So the first icon "Scout" has a bar, that means that you are NOT allowed to "Scout" this card. Same goes for the other two icons.

What is so neat about this???

Well it gives the Lords an ADDED PURPOSE: they can now use their Action Points to further "interact" with the conquered cards in play. And on some of them they can "discard" them opening up the area of play, or scout them to "reanimate" one of the card (another example)... And of course Traps merely hinder the progress of gathering Loot from a fallen unit.

So effectively this INDEPENDENT "layer" adds more thought and purpose to the Lords of the Keep. I have yet to playtest this... But rest assured, I will do so some time soon enough.