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LCG Keywords: Thematical vs Mechanical

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 09:54
larienna
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In order to make rules easier to understand at glance. It is recommended to use keywords. So instead of writting:

"This creature cannot be blocked"

You write


"Stealth (This creature cannot be blocked)"

Now the word stealth is a thematical keyword, I could have use a non thematical keyword like:

"Unblockable (This creature cannot be blocked)"

Now I was wondering in what direction I should go.

The thematic keywords have the advantage of justifying the ability making creature much easier to design. But is restrictive because it does not allow to use the same ability for other thematic reasons like:


"Flying (This creature cannot be blocked)"
"Borrowing (This creature cannot be blocked)"

In that case, that would make too much thematic keywords for the same ability.

If I use a mechanical keyword, then I can support any kind of thematical reason and it might be easier to remember that "unblockable" makes your creature unblockable than "stealth", but it weakens the theme of the game and make it harder to design creatures (less intuitive).

Which direction do you prefer?

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 11:30
#1
Tbone
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I like thematic Just because,

I like thematic

Just because, any game where you can connect to a card, character etc. it depends the player-to-board game relationship. You will always come across players who love to be stealthy, if a card naturally comes off as a stealthy card with mechanical meaning, yeah that's cool and the player will still love it. But if you give it a name, the player becomes the character/card etc. makes them come back for more.

And to an extent I don't think multiple names would be too annoying depends on the game.

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 16:26
#2
Kroz1776
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Thematic

Go with thematic. Here's why.

You can have a power named Stealth. This prevents blocking. Then you can have flying which does something else. Then you can have another which is stealth flying which is BOTH!!! Woot.

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 17:44
#3
questccg
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Very fun-eh?!

Kroz1776 wrote:
...Then you can have another which is stealth flying which is BOTH!!! Woot.

Kroz you are such a comedian! :P

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 18:37
#4
larienna
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Quote:And to an extent I

Quote:
And to an extent I don't think multiple names would be too annoying depends on the game.

I was thinking that it could be a problem because you generally try to remember keywords and that simply duplicate the number of associations you need to remember.

Just a weird spontaneous idea. How about using:

Unblockable (Stealth)

Unblockable (Flying)

Unblockable (Burrowing)

This means the the text in parenthesis is simply flavor text. But I could used indexed vocabulary to find the abilities. For example: "Hmm, what would flying creature have like ability" search "flying" and stumble on a series of abilities including unblockable.

This also means that the rules keywords needs to be short and self explanatory. Of course flavor text is optional.

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Sat, 11/23/2013 - 19:59
#5
questccg
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Hmm...

I am wondering about COUNTER-ABILITIES... So let's say you have an ability such as "Unblockable (Stealth)". You could have a *counter* such as "Infrared Vision - Negates 'Stealth' "... But it could not for example counter "Unblockable (Flying)"! Ahaa...

So your "Flavour text" is VERY RELEVANT. It EXPLAINS how the ability is gained... And you can design *counters* according to the "Flavour text" which is another type of KEYWORD (IMHO).

For "Unblockable (Flying)" you could have a *counter* such as "Gravity well - Negates 'Flying' "!

So certain units can have COUNTERS to other creatures. And you can used them in GROUPS. For example, let's say you have a "Phoenix - Unblockable (Flying)". Your opponent decides to play "Earth Elemental - Gravity well (Negates Flying)" and what this does is counter's the Phoenix ability, effectively GROUNDING that creature. So now the opponent can use his OTHER creatures to attack the Phoenix!!!

This is WAY COOL... It's not just "Flavour text"... It IS VERY RELEVANT! You should keep that NOTATION! It works good for abilities and counters!!!

  • Unblockable (Stealth) != Infrared Vision or Night Vision (Negates Stealth)
  • Unblockable (Flying) != Gravity Well or Magnetism (Negates Flying)
  • Unblockable (Burrowing) != Tremor or Earthquake (Negates Burrowing)

You could design MORE counters giving you more options when designing your creatures!

As a SHORTHAND writting instead of writing "(Negates Stealth)", you could write "(!Stealth)" or "(!!Strealth)". And what this does is create two (2) forms of Nagations:

  • The Bang (!) means something like counter "BY THIS CREATURE ONLY". So if you had a "Archer - Bow (!Flying)" this means that only this creature can counter the other creatures ability.
  • The Double Bang (!!) means that the counter "FOR ALL CREATURES". So if you had an "Earth Elemental - Gravity Well (!!Flying)" this means that the counter is such that all other creatures can counter the ability.

Do you understand the difference between (!) and (!!)??? It is subtle, but I think REALLY COOL. It's like having a 'negate' for only THAT creature vs. having a 'negate' for ALL creatures. This is cool because the (!!) are very powerful creatures abilities... I also think it adds variety to the overall mechanics of combat.

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Sun, 11/24/2013 - 09:30
#6
larienna
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Interesting idea. I don't

Interesting idea. I don't intend to use flavor text in the rules. I did not even thought of using counter abilities but I don't think it will fit in my game. I like the "!" notation, I could use it for something else.

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Sun, 11/24/2013 - 10:58
#7
Kroz1776
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Thank You?

questccg wrote:
Kroz1776 wrote:
...Then you can have another which is stealth flying which is BOTH!!! Woot.

Kroz you are such a comedian! :P

I try you know! XD

I love your idea about the flavor text actually having an effect. I think this actually builds depth into the game and allows for more abilities.

When I was talking about the abilities being mixed to have both powers, I was actually thinking of the flying power in Heroscape. They had a stealth-like power and then in a later expansions, one unit had stealth flying which was both powers in one to help save space on the card. Still, Quest's idea is a really good one!

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