Mechanics that represent fatigue?

Instead of SIMPLY "discarding" the cards when you SHED... They can go into the opponent's HAND. Maybe this is also a possibility. It depends if your game allows cards to be "inter-mixed".

If it does this could set up an interesting dynamic:

• Do you give the opponent the advantage or do you require it for your own "Stamina" Level and risk shedding the card.

This is obviously in the case where you have "Perception" and can verify the topmost card of the deck.

You can also make that "dialogue" partly Blind. What I mean, is when you DRAW the card to be SHED, you give the card to your opponent (not knowing what it is...) He in turn must state the "value" of the card (again a value of +1 to +X) and you don't get to see that card...

He can lie and use deception to his advantage. But YOU can call him out if you think that he is lying and then you earn the card + the "Stamina" boost... If you said he lied and he told the truth, you lose the "Stamina" boost as a penalty (for example).

So many directions you can go with this...

Hope you find something that you may like. Cheers!

• Players can play more than one card on a turn (I think you have this already, based on what I've read in this and your previous posts). Once played, they are discarded face-down.
• Once a player's draw pile is exhausted, shuffle all discards to create a new draw pile.
• Players have a set number of cards they may draw at the start/end of their turn, independent of the number of cards they may draw. So there may be situations where a player may have fewer cards in hand than their opponent. The only reason this happens, however, is because they played more cards in previous turns.
• Incentivize playing low-numbered cards by treating a single card as one part of a combination of attacks. Any card played must be a higher number than a card played previously in the same round. So instead of adding them together (cards 2 + 4 = 6 total), they have to be dealt with individually (card 2, then card 4). Targeted players must match up cards from their hand to the cards of their attacker.
• Some successful attacks cause targets to discard a card, or the attacker to pick a card at random, or withdraw/freeze a card at random from the discard, or in the case of devastating attacks reduce the number of cards the target player can draw back to their hand - either temporarily or permanently.

Not sure how much text you want on the cards to indicate special attacks or effects, but I think it can all be interesting. It can be used to simulate the back-and-forth of fighters parrying and attacking, of reducing stamina/choices, as well as fighters conserving their strength to recover or summon a devastating combo of repeated assaults.

It also allows for players to choose how they want to approach each round of attacks. They may want to have some low- or mid-strength cards that start off a combo, and then finish with a 7 or 8. Maybe an attacker continually sends out low numbers to draw out the higher numbers of the target player, so that they can unload a 7 and an 8 in the same round to really damage their target.

With some of the strategies implemented above, you will be able to:
- incentivize the play of lower-number cards,
- reduce the "memory" component of the game,
- reduce math into quickly-resolved number-to-number comparisons instead of pace-draining calculations,
- allow for varied styles of play, even from one phase of the game to the next.

Hopefully some of the ideas above will turn out useful for you, Tim. :)

For more info on 15 Love, have a look here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10420/15-love

"Players have a set number of cards they may draw at the start/end of their turn, independent of the number of cards they may play."

Also, I was unsure of when you allowed players to draw cards - at the beginning of their turn, at the end of their turn, or at some other time - so that's what the "start/end" is all about.

Sorry for the confusion. Totally my fault. Didn't have enough coffee at the time to catch my own typo. :)

I'm glad you "removed" the constraint of having "Deck Construction". From my experience ... it's GOOD for those well-known games like Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! ... but even for those game sometimes the "mechanic" fails.

Specifically introducing NEW players is a complete "nightmare". I had a friend who had a friend (let's call him Nick) that enjoyed collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Well one day he decided that he was going to build two (2) Decks and bring them over to my friend's apartment to play. I "tried" to play... but because I knew NOTHING about how the deck was built, what was the deck's "strategy", I eventually lost to Nick... and that was because he managed to use his deck's "strategy" against me.

Bottom line: Deck Construction is a real pain in my opinion.

New players are struggling to understand the basics of the game, let alone figure out how underlying cards form a more general strategy to how to use the cards in the Deck.

So congratulations about REMOVING "Deck Construction"! I applaud you (Seriously)!

But having said this... "Card Drafting" via "Deck/Pool Building" could be a viable option ... and is easier to master than "Deck Construction". Why? Because "Deck Construction" requires knowledge about an ENTIRE "Card Collection" and requires hours of offline (outside of game) thinking into how to choose cards for a Deck.

However with "Card Drafting" (using "Deck/Pool Building") you can have a common market with let's say five (5) visibly "exposed" cards. Of course new players will take more TIME "reading" and evaluating which cards they want to DRAFT into their Deck... But that's the IDEA: NEW players can learn on-the-fly.

Also creating a "master strategy" is HARDER since not all cards may be available for you to DRAFT. Your opponent may take a card you needed for your deck and you therefore cannot have COMPLETE control over the decks much like you have in "Deck Construction".

Anyhow... the point I wanted to make is that you still have options for "Card Drafting" that would allow the game to be more "flexible" than just "Your Cards" and "My Cards". "Deck Building" allows more control than simply drawing cards or simple Hand Management... You might be even capable of using a Bidding mechanic and add "cost" to use "combat techniques" some more expensive but potentially stronger forms of attack, some less expensive making the more basic in the duel process.

I don't want to be the sponsor of "Deck Building"... I'm just saying the option is available to you and thematically it could be even with bidding making it seem like some "Master" is teaching players how to duel and that both players are engaged in some form of sparring. Learning the better moves may do more damage, but at the same time you need easier techniques which require less "stamina"(?) in order to be able to battle each turn...

Cheers and I look forward to seeing what your design goals are and how you plan to foresee this game/duel being played!

And your starting Hand could be five (5) cards which could GROW given some "technique" cards that give you bonus cards (+1 each)...

(Sorry — Forgot about that!)

Note #1: And that whole SHEDDING concept/mechanic ... could still WORK!!! You've got 36 cards to win the battle... Some "techniques" you play down in your Play Area (like "knowledge" cards) which customize your character with some additional abilities. And when you BATTLE, the opponent can play cards to weaken the opponent (and discard some of those "knowledge" cards)!

Note #2: If you build up to a Deck of 36 cards (after the continuous drafting) but all the while SHEDDING cards to attack your opponent, sound to me like REAL FATIGUE!!! (LOL) You're learning and fighting at the same time... Something rather unique (I'd say)!

Note #3: The starting Deck of 6 cards (common to both players) could be "Moves" that require 0 Stamina... Forms of Basic Attacks and Defensive Counters. To WIN, you would need to reduce your opponent's Stamina (a track) = 0 or less...

hi. it looks like the other posters pretty much have you covered with ideas but here was my version.
each turn a boxer can play N cards (this could be a standard or a place to add differences in character decks) as the bout progresses this number is reduced (indicated by your stamina track, a token stack etc). obviously if this gets too low you will be limited on the size of your combo. to increase your stamina you need to block (or some other term, maybe dance like ali? or rest) this opens you up to attacks from your opponent (still allow basic "0 level" moves like "roll with punch").
as a side point the memory aspect of your game, i think, is unavoidable. any game where players have a pool of cards that get revealed can be turned into a memory test. some people will naturally count cards and there isnt really a way to stop them. not even casinos can prove you are doing it (unless your doing it outloud) they can only suspect you if you win to much (but they also dont need to prove it to ban you)