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How to ADD player interaction

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 02:30
questccg
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I need some "design" HELP. What I am looking at is HOW to ADD player interaction in a card game.

The design in question is "Quest Adventure Cards(tm) - Version 2.0".

I want the core mechanic to be "Deck-Construction" like most of the popular CCGs/TCGs. BUT instead of "battling" your opponent, you are "building" a STORY.

The game consists of "Fragments" which tell the story of bold adventurers and the terrors they try to conquer. Fundamentally there are two (2) types of cards: Heroisms and Terrors. One good and the later bad.

If I let both player decide on telling their own STORY (which I have thought about quite a bit) ... my problem lies in PLAYER INTERACTION.

Without "battling" (like I said I want to focus on STORY)...

How do I get players to "interact" with each other???

What I had as an idea would be the player controlled his Heroism tracks and the opponent controlled the Terror track. This kind of set up the paradigm that the obstacles to conquer would be defined by the opponent.

But then I ran into the possible issue: "What if the opponent did not cooperate and would not play Terror cards?" What then???

Any ideas/feedback/comments would be greatly appreciated.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 03:41
#1
X3M
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questccg wrote:But then I ran

questccg wrote:
But then I ran into the possible issue: "What if the opponent did not cooperate and would not play Terror cards?" What then???

One way or another, force them?
Not saying, to really force them to do so. But there should be a reward of some sorts. Players tend to do more, if it is rewarding enough.

I noticed this in my game, when players attacked while being outnumbered. Their goal was often, getting those last XP for a major upgrade. Thus they where triggered at another part of the board to take action sooner. So that they would have an advantage back at the home base.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 16:03
#2
mcobb83
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What if the game were split

What if the game were split into 4 distinct scoring phases?

Phase 1- Player A "terror" card
Phase 2- Player B "terror" card
Phase 3- Player A "heroism" card
Phase 4- Player B "heroism" card

Assign a value that affects the end game condition (commonly called points in many situations) to both Terror and Heroism cards, and thus a player scores when playing heroism and terror cards. Of course terror cards are played on the opponent.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 17:18
#3
questccg
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Force might be harsh

X3M wrote:
One way or another, force them?

I'm still in a nebulous phase with this design... The goal would be to NATURALLY play cards that allow proper interaction.

X3M wrote:
Not saying, to really force them to do so. But there should be a reward of some sorts. Players tend to do more, if it is rewarding enough.

Unlike Magic, the goal of the game is to EARN 20 Victory Points. First player to achieve this is the winner.

Two (2) ways to SCORE points:

  • Tap your own cards to "Income" and generate "X" Victory Points.
  • Conquer your opponent's Terror Track and generate "Bounty" and earn "Y" Victory Points.

So if you can WIN by generating "Income" this is one thing. BUT at the same time, you need to know what you are facing in terms of an opposing force...

I was thinking that each player gets to Player his Hero cards during the SETUP of the game. Perhaps instead of just the Heroes but also the Boss Monsters... Something like each player plays THREE (3) Boss Monsters into the opponent's Terror Track. Next, each player gets to decide which HERO he wants to battle each Boss Monster...

Need to think about this some more...

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 17:29
#4
Masters of Gettown
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Interactions

Have a look at Gloom. It's the end of the world and whichever player has the worst last few days wins. The mechanic in this that may help your game is that each player can play cards on to other people's stories. So if your games objective is to have the story with the most heroism cards played in it, then it's in your best interest to play your terror cards on the opponent with the highest running score for their story.

If you want each player to have a separate heroism and terror track then maybe if an opponent can fill your terror track before you fill your heroism track, then you are knocked out of the game? This way players can win by either racing to a heroic story ending or by filling all of their opponents with lives or torment and terror. This way of doing it will be different from Gloom and also better really as in Gloom, the winner is simply the one with the most unpleasant story.

Other ways to interact:
You could have types of cards like corruption or enlighten. What these would do would corrupt one of your opponents heroism cards and move it to the terror story or shine a light on a specific terror card and flip it to the heroism story line. These will also add suspense to the game as, if someone is holding one in their hand to play later, anyone within one story episode from losing is in real danger and anyone who gets to one away from winning with heroisms in a turn, can accelerate to the finish. This adds a sense of suspense and suspicion as the game moves in to bits final phase.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 17:51
#5
Masters of Gettown
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VP

Possible Acheivable Victory Points:

Complete your heroism story +10

Complete an opponent's terror track +5
(Being based on completing not filling the track will add the chance to steal these points)
Or +1 for every terror card played on an opponent
(if there is a way of knowing from looking at them, who played them)

I don't know what the story time line cards you play will have on them but you could have a random goal deck (like Ticket to Ride) which requires at least 5 heroism cards of the sub-class 'Life Saver' in your time line. In this deck you could also include negative goal cards (a bit like the creepers in Flux) like: If you end the game with 3 or more 'multiple personality' terror cards in your timeline, you lose 5vp. Everyone will have to reveal their goals at the end to tally the final scores, so no one can avoid a negative goal.

If you like the idea of the random goal deck, you could build in to the rules, a point after everyone draws their random goals, where everyone can swap one of their goals with someone else. This interaction, coupled with the negative goal cards, could add a risky, deceptive phase to the game, you would just need to find a reason for players to also swap goals with high vp, otherwise no one would swap for risk of getting a negative goal. (Maybe they are very hard to achieve?)

Sorry to go off on a tangent but just thoughts I came up with for you and the interactions in your game.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 17:57
#6
Masters of Gettown
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Where do I look?

Sorry, I've typed all this based on your top comment, I am new th this forum so can you tell me where I go to see more of the game? I didn't realise the terror cards were monsters.

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 18:18
#7
questccg
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FYI

Masters of Gettown wrote:
Sorry, I've typed all this based on your top comment, I am new this forum so can you tell me where I go to see more of the game?

The game is still in a "concept" phase. Which means no physical prototype - YET. I'm still "rehashing" the design. I have many designs and when I think of a problem or something that needs to change - I post topics about it... Seeing what other people think!

Masters of Gettown wrote:
I didn't realize the terror cards were monsters.

Terror cards are comprised of:

  • Monsters
  • Minions
  • Traps
  • Items
  • Treasures
  • Equipment

I'll take a closer look at some of your game suggestions. I used to BLOG about how the game was being developed. But I stopped since I was sort of "blocked" about where to take the game (so to speak)...

But you can read about the game RESOURCES from this BLOG entry:

Quest Adventure Cards(tm) - Version 2.0

Some advancement in terms of another component to be a part of the overall design...

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 18:51
#8
Masters of Gettown
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Maybe if a monster appears as

Maybe if a monster appears as a terror, the player can somehow defeat it and move it to the heroism line? Maybe monster cards are printed as terrors on one side and if defeated, flip to the other side 'Defeated Monster' and moved to the heroism line to speed towards those bonus points.

If you did like the random goal deck idea, it could have things like:
Blade master (end with three weapons anywhere in your timelines)
Treasure Hoarder (gain 4vp as soon as you have 3 treasure)

I'll read your blog and hopefully be better informed to help more :)

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Wed, 03/29/2017 - 19:15
#9
questccg
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No worries...

Masters of Gettown wrote:
Maybe if a monster appears as a terror, the player can somehow defeat it and move it to the heroism line?

Yes that was part of the "driving force" behind the game.

Basically your opponent "configures" your Terror Track and you must use Heroes, Characters, Items, Equipment to "conquer" the Track.

Masters of Gettown wrote:
Maybe monster cards are printed as terrors on one side and if defeated, flip to the other side 'Defeated Monster' and moved to the heroism line to speed towards those bonus points.

Instead of dual-sided cards, I was thinking about a "TAP-ing" mechanic... But yeah I had the same kind of idea.

Masters of Gettown wrote:
If you did like the random goal deck idea, it could have things like:

  • Blade master (end with three weapons anywhere in your timelines)
  • Treasure Hoarder (gain 4vp as soon as you have 3 treasure)

This is a cool idea. Random goals does change the way you play the game. But I'm concerned that if this is a Deck-Construction game... Your deck cannot be tailored to suit all random goals. So while I think the idea is real cool... There may be some practical issues with Deck-Construction that don't work together...

Update: Where this could be interesting is a SECONDARY goal. Either score 20 Victory Points first OR complete the secondary goal first! Could be cool...

Masters of Gettown wrote:
I'll read your blog and hopefully be better informed to help more :)

That particular Blog entry is about the "Resources". I wanted off-pairing of Resources such that when you play a card for resource "X", it grants your opponent a resource "Y".

Again still in the design stage. Lots of good ideas - but the design isn't together yet!

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Thu, 03/30/2017 - 01:45
#10
X3M
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What if playing a terror

What if playing a terror card, actually gives a certain boost on one of the resources? That is, if you have any?

For example, a rock golem, might increase your gold income. And the opposing player gets rewarded by reducing your gold income, by defeating the rock golem.

Player A, plays a rock golem. Gold income +1 per turn.
Player B, defeats the rock golem. Gold income -1 for 1 turn.

The same can be done for food. But then with a water elemental that is a terror. Simply more fishes to catch. :)

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Wed, 05/10/2017 - 05:32
#11
kilmor81
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Maybe you can use LOTR by Decipher as reference

Have you played the Lord of the Rings TCG?
The one based on the movies by Decipher Inc.

The game has each player build 2 decks, the Free People and Shadow

The free people deck are the heroes, equipments, events that helps the heroes on their way to Mount Doom.

The shadow deck are the armies, monsters, events that stand in the way of the heroes.

When a player takes their turn, they play their FP deck and tries to get to Mount Doom. While the opponent draws from their shadow deck and puts monsters and obstacles in the way of the heroes. After each turn, they switch sides and try to be the first to Mount Doom... or the first to finish off the opponent's Heroes.

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