Reason I'm asking is because I'm considering adding mounts to http://WTactics.org as a cardtype or subtype of creatures, but am not sure about what it could bring. While rules are not the same as in MtG the mother of CCG:s could still be used here to have a constructive discussion. (Adaptation would be my concern later on...oh, and as always - I'm still looking for people that want to dev this game with me - contact me already..)
Q: How would you implement the idea of creatures using a mount (i.e. a dragon to fly on, a horse to ride etc)
// Broken down
Some questions that come to mind:
a) Would the mount creature (i.e. dragon) have attack/defend values? Would it be able to participate in some kind of combat?
b) If so - how exactly does combat work when such creatures are involved?
c) If not, what other benefits would a mount be able to bring to the game? How do they work?
d) Can mounts be in play without a creature attached to them?
e) If so, would one be able to control them like normal creatures?
And the most important of all:
f) What could mounts bring to the game which can't already be achieved by other already existing cardtypes and how does it bring it in a better way? How do we make mounts interesting and let them have a clear functional identity in the game?
// Own thoughts
1. Handicap: Make each mountable unable to attack on their own: Only time they'd be able to attack would be if they were mounted. Mounts can however always be used to block incoming attacks.
2. One on One: Each mountable creature can only be mounted by one other non-mountable creature.
3.Enchant: Mountable creatures have abilities, but they're usually only in effect when they're mounted. In some cases they're transferred to wheoever is riding them.
4.Bunker: Whenever opponent wants to target a creature that is riding a mount he/she must target the mount instead. Whenever a mounted creature is blocking/getting whoop ass back it is it's mount that takes the damage instead.
5. Elephant on my stomach: When a mount is killed damage spills over/tramples to the creature that was riding it. (But the rider doesn't strike back.)
6. Exhaust: When mounts die the rider "falls off", getting automagically tapped if he wasn't already. Hopping up on a mount taps both rider and mount. Hopping of does the same. Thus mounts can be in play with no riders.
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(Totally offtopic and for whoever has kept following my ramblings in here since it relates to an older discussion about the game and viability to manage with just creature art: I've begun to ruin myself by getting original art for the game done, attached a preview.... so parts of that problem is solved... )
Thanks for the input. :)
(You did respond, but it was as a comment to the attached picture, if that's what you meant.)
I think your suggestions are interesting, and that you're maybe right about the unmounting: It could prove to make mounting too costly as it slows down that character.
Then again, I'm still not quite sure what actual role mounts have more than flavor. I don't want the whole game to revolve around using mounts - if they're included they should still be sparse and there would have to exist many ways to deal with them that don't include me having mounts myself in my deck.
My own suggestion of how they could work, as well as yours, make them "advanced equipment" in MtG terminology. I guess, since there are unique rules attached to their usage and they are not the same for any other cardtype, that they could indeed become a card type of their own.
Drawback with that is of course that there would be yet another cardtype/more rules. At current time there are:
- Creatures (humanoid characters, sentient beings)
- Mounts? (less so)
- Equipment (Always attached to a creature, played by the player)
- Artifacts (objects that can never be attached to a creature)
- Magic (Not quite clear what would set this apart from Equipment or Artifacts)
- Event cards (i.e. Instants, misc stuff that "happens")
- [Reserved for future]
= 7 card types including the not so convincing Mount as one.... This is on par with number of types in MtG, but it's not necessarily a good thing, as only reason I believe a new card type is motivated is to tell us something about how it works, what kind of rules apply for it.