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Card game with pokemon elements

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jedite1000
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I want to create a game to play with my friends, i am not planning to sell it because the theme is pokemon. My game can be played from 2 to whatever

The idea of the game is to score points, each round players choose 1 pokemon card from their hand and place it face down on the table, then players reveal their cards and tally the score, whoever has the most points at the end of the round gains a badge, whoever scores 8 badges wins the game

to start the game there will be a deck of pokemon and each player draws from the same deck until they hold 6 cards in their hand, each round players draw from the deck until they have 6 cards in their hand

So here is how to play, each card has a star ranking from 1 to 4 or 5, all base form and non-evolution pokemon are worth 1 star, the 2nd evolution pokemon is worth 2 stars and the 3rd form are worth 3 stars and the legendary or mythical Pokemon are worth 4 stars. each star is worth a point that needs to be tallied for the total score of the round such as 1 star worth 1 point 2 stars worth 2 points and so on. The stars also have another purpose ill talk about it later.

the next stats are the element types, you know grass, fire, water and all that. at the start of a round, any player rolls 2 dice, each side of the dice has an element on it(i haven't decided if I want to use a dice or cards that will be drawn at the start of the round to determine the element type)

So what do the elements have to do with it? well lets say i roll the dice and it lands on the types grass and poison, from my hand i would want to choose a pokemon with the elements that are on the dice, so i choose baulbasaur, and i place it face down on the table and ill wait till everyone chooses a card. Once everyone has chosen a card we flip them over and start tallying the scores. Each element has a rarity score, so example, grass, fire, water are worth 1 point while more uncommon elements such as poison, ground and rock are worth 2 points, dragons are the rarest so it will be worth the most points which would probably be worth 5 points. So my baulbasaur is a grass/poison so the element points will be worth 3 points but since i have a pokemon that is both a grass and a poison and since the dice landed on grass and poison, my type points are doubled so instead of 3 its 6. You dont need both elements to play the card so you can play pokemon that is grass/flying or poison/bug whatever, but if you have a pokemon that has both elements then it is a good idea to play it.

So what if you dont have a pokemon in you hand that is a grass or poison? no matter you can play any card but you wont get the type points, however, if you play a pokemon that is strong against a grass or poison type and a player has played a pokemon with those types, then you get to add the other players type points to your own score, so if all other players plays a matching type pokemon then you will get alot of points. Next one is the ability power, each pokemon has an ability which could give you an advantage, remember the star system? well when everyone has tallied their scores the round is not over yet as it is now the attack phase, whoever has the highest star pokemon will go first then players with lower stars will go next in order (i havnt determined who will go first if players have equal stars) well anyway baulbasaur has the ability vine whip, and reads, choose 1 player and they lose 3 points, the pokemon only get 1 ability each and no pokemon will have the same ability. So once everyone has had a turn to attack the scores are then tallied and whoever wins the round, scores 1 gym badge.

That is all i have so far

I wanted to add a mechanic that has an evoultion set such as if i have baulbasaur ivysaur and venusaur in my hand then its a bonus but i couldnt think of a way to use it

Drion22
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Never too cool for pokemon

Nice design! Sounds like you've got a very cool game at your hands if you take a bit of time balancing it!
If you want to bring it to high amounts of players, you might want to decrease the badge requirements so the game doesn't drag on. One idea for the evolution could be the mechanic Dragon Punch uses; if you get defeated, you get to upgrade a card in your hand by turning it around 180 degrees to its upgraded side, evolved version in this case, so Magikarp would be a 1 star water pokemon with an ability that does nothing, and if you lose a battle with it, you get to put it back into your hand upgraded to garyados, a 4 star (Of course you have to cut everything to two evolutions then). This could give a reason for players to use their lower star pokemons and some card advantage upon losing, while the winners still have information about what the enemy might have up their sleeves. Single evolution pokemons would have to be made stronger for this reason.
Also like the mechanic about elemental advantage, just seems a bit too strong points-wise. Maybe just a fixed increase or doubling. For abilities I can only think of point additions/substractions/multiplications/drains, badge manipulation and card manipulation, like tag teaming in another card from hand.
That's all!

Best of luck and have fun out there,
Drion

jedite1000
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Yeah, that was my goal with

Yeah, that was my goal with the abilities, most of the abilities are. choose a pokemon it loses ?? points etc. I like the evolution idea though i think there might be a problem with the timing to use it, because after everyone tallies up their current score they then enter battle mode, so before the battle technically no one has lost yet, its whoever has the most stars on a pokemon will attack first so if Charizard is a 3 star and my Magikarp is a 1 star then Charizard will attack first, and after the battle is over then there wont be any point to evolve because you have already used your turn during the battle mode. Unless you mean i evolve my magikarp before battle mode starts so if charizard is a 3 star i evolve my magikarp to gyardos (realistically Gyarados is a 2 star but lets say he is a 4 star) he will be able to attack first since he is 2 star higher. What about if you have the full set of evolution in your hand, lets say you have a squirtle on the table, would i just evolve it twice at once to a blastoise?

If there is a evolve mechanic im thinking giving bonus points per evolution, lets say i have a squirtle, i then play warturtle on top which awards me extra 2 points, but squirtles stats no longer matter as its warturtle now, i can then evolve it again to blastoise and awards an extra 4 points along with the 2 points i got from warturtle, but the stats is now blastoise so squirtles and warturtles stats and abilities and score do not matter apart from the evoloution bonus

So i guess if you want to evolove a pokemon you cant enter battle with the base pokemon, you must evolve it first, though you can still tally up the base pokemon points which your opponents will know and will think, oh that pokemon does not have a lot of points i might attack it so it will have the lowest points at the end of this round, but then you evolve the base pokemon and your opponent thinks..oh crap.

I guess evolve could work, if it is done before the battle phase

The strong against type does seem little op but i want to keep the mechanic because i want players to play any pokemon even if the round does not have its type, i want a way so, players that do have the correct type on the field, will also favour the player that does not have the same type on the field, even if the effect changes instead of adding points to your score for all pokemon that has the same type as the current round to something else

jedite1000
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https://imgur.com/a/dsD1sEyH

https://imgur.com/a/dsD1sEy

Here are some of the stats and abilities for the pokemon, could change through balancing and testing

A quick recap of how to play
A player shuffles deck and place in middle

Each player then draws cards, so far I’m thinking 6 cards but I might lower it.
Each player takes a turn to roll the dice during each round.
1st player picks up 3 dice, each side of a die has a pokemon type. The player roles 3 dice and chooses 2 of the 3 dice, the 2 are the types for the round.

Each player choose a pokemon in their hand and place it face down. When everyone is ready reveal their cards on the table, everyone tallies their own score. Count the stars of the pokemon and the score of the pokemon types. When everyone reveals their score battle starts. The player with the highest stars go first, if it’s a draw then it’s the highest current score. When everyone has a turn to use abilities, everyone tallies their new score and whoever has the most wins the round

jedite1000
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So i have all the pokemon

So i have all the pokemon moves down, the moves will change, its just a foundation until i rewrite the moves, what im having trouble is the turn order, at first i was going to use the number of stars to determine the turn order but after going through the moves, some moves are pretty good but are on a one star pokemon which means, if it is a protection move and your pokemon goes last, that move is pointless since everyone would have already attacked your pokemon.

What do you think about using a normal 6 pip die to determine the turn order, everyone rolls and whoever has the highest goes first?. If i change it to that what would i use the star system for? i kind of want to keep ite visually so people can tell its rarity.

Im also thinking of increasing the type dice from 3 to 6, because i want rounds that have a duplicate type, example Charmander is a fire/fire not fire, so having 2 of the same type in a round will help out the pokemon that only has 1 type and can take advantage of the double type rolls

let-off studios
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Option: Stronger = Slower

jedite1000 wrote:
What do you think about using a normal 6 pip die to determine the turn order, everyone rolls and whoever has the highest goes first?. If i change it to that what would i use the star system for? i kind of want to keep ite visually so people can tell its rarity.
There's already a lot of randomness in your system, so I'd discourage you relying on a single die roll to determine turn order.

Here's one possibility to consider - and test. Depending on whether or not an ability is rather powerful, it may add to that creature's initiative. This way, you can coordinate defensive actions occurring prior to major offensive maneuvers.

If you wanted to add more randomness back into it, let players throw a die, then add their initiative modifier to their result, and the lowest number goes first. This way, it would be an interesting or dramatic skirmish between even two one-star creatures.

jedite1000
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Yeah dunno, would have to

Yeah dunno, would have to test it, here is some of the pokemon it will give you an idea of how the moves work in this game

Bulbasaur Grass Poison ✪ Grass Vine Whip Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 3 points

Ivysaur Grass Poison ✪✪ Grass Razor Leaf Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 4 points

Venusaur Grass Poison ✪✪✪ Poison Poison Powder Multi target Decrease all rival player's Pokemon score by 2 points

Charmander Fire Fire ✪ Fire Ember Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 3 points

Charmeleon Fire Fire ✪✪ Fire Fire Spin Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 2 points and decrease the score of any adjacent Pokemon by 2

Charizard Fire Flying ✪✪✪ Fire Flame Burst Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 5 points and decrease the score of any adjacent Pokemon by 2

Squirtle Water Water ✪ Water Bubble Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 3 points

Wartortle Water Water ✪✪ Water Water gun Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 4 points

Blastoise Water Water ✪✪✪ Water Hydro Pump Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 6 points

Caterpie Bug Bug ✪ Bug String Shot Single target Target a player's Pokemon, if that Pokemon battles your Pokemon, your Pokemon score cant be decreased

Metapod Bug Bug ✪✪ Normal Harden Self target Any points your Pokemon lose this turn will be halved

Butterfree Bug Flying ✪✪✪ Grass Stun Spore Single target Target a player's Pokemon, the Pokemon cant use its move this turn

Weedle Bug Poison ✪ Poison Poison Sting Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 3 points

Kakuna Bug Poison ✪✪ Normal Harden Self target Any points you lose this turn will be halved

Beedrill Bug Poison ✪✪✪ Bug Twin Needle Single target Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 4 points, if the round is a poison type, decrease the score by an additional 2 points

Pidgey Normal Flying ✪ Ground Sand attack Single target Target a player's Pokemon and flip a coin, if tails, the Pokemon cant use its move this turn

Pidgeotto Normal Flying ✪✪ Flying Fly Self target Your Pokemon cant be targeted this turn

Pidgeot Normal Flying ✪✪✪ Flying Sky Attack Single target If your Pokemon wins this round, on your next turn during battle, decrease a player's Pokemon score by 10 points

questccg
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Just because I know from where you are coming from...

To me, TBH, it seems like the game is too simple ... to be FUN. Are you sure the "repetitive" nature of the game offers up enough sustenance to make the game interesting???

And why I ask this, is because I know the type of games that you've been working on from your various threads... And in this instance, it seems like you are STRONGLY relying on a "Single Stat": you call it "score".

Majority-wise I see that many of your abilities rely on a player's "score" and that since this is one of the ONLY stats ATM ... The game heavily revolves around it.

Again, I understand why, I get the same feeling from my own designs. Why "Quest AC2" was primarily a "Set Collection" game (mechanic too)... But that sort of "permeated" the design. It kept feeling (to me) that the game was ALMOST ONLY about collecting cards/sets.

Anyways I found a way to "complexify" Quest AC2 ... And so I think YOU TOO could find ways of ADDING a "layer of additional strategy". How you do this is entirely up to you... But like @Stephen suggested, you could have an "INITIATIVE STAT" the higher creatures attack first during the round. Why would you do this?

Well this gives you ANOTHER "Variable" to play with in Abilities too! You can have "Initiative +1" or "Initiative -3", etc. Bonuses and penalties to some of the abilities...

After this you can maybe create some kind of "RPS-like" system with relationships between the creatures. Like Fire is STRONG against Earth but WEAK against Water. I know this already exists in Pokemon ... but my idea would be to add another layer.

Things like this. And believe me, I understand. It's taken a lot of thought to take a SIMPLE "Set Collection" game and modify it so that it will be an "Engine Building" game. I also really struggled about making it a "loose form" or "free form" game too. "Set Collection" is very "procedural", it states rules about how cards are to be played. And it took a LONG TIME (couple of years) before I could sit down and change the nature of these (unwritten) RULES. Once I had seen other games, other ways of playing, other "mechanics" (too).

The thing that I would like to ADD, is that you work from a "core" and add things to give more depth to the game.

Believe me... I'm certain if you thought more about the game... You could add more "stuff" to it. Right now, I feel like it is a bit too simple. But that's just my opinion, you can ignore these suggestions if you are happy with the current design.

Otherwise just "think" about the design and see with whatever you struggle with ... Just post a thread and see if we (the BGDF community) have suggestions of things to try or look at. Just like INITIATIVE... Weaker Pokemons may have HIGHER "initiative" and go before stronger Pokemons.

Cheers Jedite!

jedite1000
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Yeah i might use the stars as

Yeah i might use the stars as initiation, but 1 star will go first and then 2 stars then so on

if the stars are equal then i guess its who has the most current points will go first or the least amount of points

I am also having trouble coming up with the text of the pokemon moves, like something that makes more sense other than

"Decrease a player's Pokemon score by 3 points"

maybe something like this?

Choose a rival Pokemon and reduce its score by 3 points
or
Decrease the score of a rival Pokemon by 3 points

jedite1000
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What is a better and fairer

What is a better and fairer random system, dice or cards to determine the pokemon type of the round

either has 6 dice, 3 dice with all the pokemon types and 3 duplicate dice so you are able to roll double pokemon type

or 2 d20 dices with 18 pokemon types with 2 extra sides with a ? so players that roll get to choose any type they want, to make it easier to roll

or have 18 cards in the middle so a player places down 4 cards from that deck and reveal them, then that player gets to choose 2 of the 4 type cards and that determines the pokemon type round, while the other 2 go back into the deck to be reshuffled.

Depending on how many players, each player will be able to roll or draw type cards each round

let-off studios
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Probability Stuff

jedite1000 wrote:
What is a better and fairer random system, dice or cards to determine the pokemon type of the round
I strongly recommend you do a little research on the topic of probability, or else you risk asking the same question over and over again each time you develop a design.

This BGDF topic points to a pair of (easily understood) articles I suggest you look into as you develop your answer to this question:

https://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/mechanics/gamblers-fallacy-prob...

jedite1000
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let-off studios

let-off studios wrote:
jedite1000 wrote:
What is a better and fairer random system, dice or cards to determine the pokemon type of the round
I strongly recommend you do a little research on the topic of probability, or else you risk asking the same question over and over again each time you develop a design.

This BGDF topic points to a pair of (easily understood) articles I suggest you look into as you develop your answer to this question:

https://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/mechanics/gamblers-fallacy-probability-statistics

So do you recommend no random, like each round a player checks their hands and find a good pokemon type combo and says ill choose rock and ground or i choose water and psychic this round. Dunno if that would be fair on the other players

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