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Racing Deck Builder Idea - Inspiration From Dominion, Hearthstone and RPG Games

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Kurjen Rahija
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Joined: 01/25/2016

Hey everyone, recently I've gotten really into deck building games and began thinking about adding my own flavor into the mix.

Like many other deck builders, much of my inspiration comes from Dominion, which has molded how almost all subsequent deck builders play out. After talking it over with some friends and doing a medium level of research online, I figured that having a racing deck building game would offer its own fresh experience.
(I found salmon run to be the closest and after looking into it many people conclude that it has deck builder elements, but in its truest form is not a base deck builder.)

I have also been playing a lot of Hearthstone recently and thought it would be especially cool if in my deck builder players could choose between playing as various classes to offer access to a specific set of cards, with their own unique play-style.

So enough backstory, let's get into the meat of my idea.

I want to make a deck builder where players use cards to race to the end of a track, while providing each player with a unique play-style from each other player. I also want to promote deck diversity. By this I mean that I don't want players to just be able to by 1 or 2 cards over and over again and be able to win. I want them to be encouraged by meaningful choices to buy into a diverse deck of cards.

My deck builder would consist of 3 basic uses for cards.
-Movement, that would progress the player closer to the goal line
-Currency, like most all deck builders players use these cards to buy new ones
-Damage, these will allow players to fight various monsters that appear along their path

In addition to these basic uses, cards will also give players access to other actions similarly to Dominion.
-Draw Cards
-Gain more Actions
-More Buys
-More Buying power
-And various ways to 'play' with their decks

As I've said before, I would like to give each player access to unique 'class' cards. At the beginning of the game players would be randomly assigned or choose a class to play as. These classes would be inspired by the commonly used RPG classes.

I will give a brief summary of the ones I've thought of that I'd like to include.

-Ranger, Uses their wits to control what card will appear in his deck and hand. Places themselves in just the right spot to be able to take advantage of their ranged weaponry.

-Warrior, A slow but hulking soldier prepared for any battle. Has access to big damage cards and is able to take a beating.

-Rouge, The trickster of the group. Likes to sabotage other player's decks. Not a very hard hitter when it comes to straight up fighting but will use stealth to their advantage.

-Mage, A versatile spellslinger that is the renaissance man. Good at doing a little bit of everything but not particularly excellent at anything either.

-Warlock, Has access to powerful card, but at a cost. Will bring harm to themselves and their deck to be able to do so.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Would love to know if anything like this has already been done or attempted. Let me know what parts sound good, bad, and which may need a bit more explanation (as i know i can just sort of fly by major details).

Thanks again and am really looking forward to your input!

let-off studios
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Talisman & Thunderstone

Have you played Talisman at all? It sounds quite similar to what you're suggesting, although it lacks the deck-building mechanic you're describing. If you've not played it, then I recommend you have a look. It could prove for a lot of worthwhile inspiration. Here's the BGG link:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27627/talisman-revised-4th-edition

A lot of people give that game a lot of grief, but I find it dramatic, unpredictable, and - with the expansions included - chock full of content that makes each game different, even when the main goal is (almost always) to reach the center space of the board before your opponents. There are many obstacles in your path, but also many ways to improve your chances of success at these obstacles: equipment, allies, event cards, permanent spaces that offer boons and perks. If a player defeats several monsters, they use those "trophies" to improve their ability scores. Each character type also has their own special ability to provide advantages (at least in certain situations) the other classes don't have.

Deck-building adds another wrinkle on top of this race-to-the-end mechanic you want to go with. There's a game called Thunderstone that lacks the race-to-the-end but is heavy on the deck-building, adventurer-management you're suggesting. Here it is on BGG:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/53953/thunderstone

There's also Thunderstone Advanced which is a revised version of the original, but I've not jumped in to that yet. I still play solo runs of the original from time to time, and like it a lot.

However, I recommend you start small. Put together a basic prototype deck with maybe two or three of the classes you're talking about, and see how a session or two goes. Build from there. Look at those two games and see if they have something you like, and find a way to add it in - or do it better with your own innovations.

Hopefully this is useful info. Best of success to you! :)

radioactivemouse
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Let me get this straight...

So...it's a racing game (I assume using some sort of vehicle), and you're going to incorporate fantasy classes in this racing game?

The two don't sound like good bedfellows, but I suppose it could work.

Let-off was right in suggesting Thunderstone and Thunderstone Advanced, though it's easy to miss this one since it's out of print.

The only other thing I see that's an issue is control. With racing, you have a somewhat significant role in your maneuvering. I'm trying to see it as something progressive (i.e. "faster" cards as the game progresses) and have the lower cards be used as downshifting for turns, but in a deck-building game, you don't know what's going to come out of the deck and therefore you have no control over what you get in your hand, regardless of what you buy during your turn.

I'm not so sure if a deck-building format is right for a racing game, but it would be wrong to say I'm absolutely certain that it hasn't been done...or attempted.

I suppose I'll have to see more of this...racing deck-building game with fantasy classes. Maybe it's more of a wacky fun race; I can see that. My only criticism is that since deck-building happens to be on your radar right now, you're just putting in a deck-building mechanic into a game that may not need one and you're just putting in deck-building for deck-building sake.

Thematically, I'd approach this with reason. Why (or when) would you purchase cards in a race? If you purchase them, why would you discard (a potential ability) when you buy it? When would you use such an ability? How do you handle hairpin turns? What kinds of tracks are you creating? Oval? Abstract tracks? How do you manage money when you're in a race? If not money, what kinds of resources do you gain by being in a race? These are questions that (I believe) need to be asked when overlaying a mechanic to a theme.

Again, this is just my opinion. Take it for what you will.

let-off studios
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Sentinels of the Multiverse

Oh! And Sentinels of the Multiverse as well. The different superheroes could be seen as differently-focused hero classes/archetypes. The way you describe the Ranger, for example, fits my vision of Tachyon and/or perhaps Wraith.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102652/sentinels-multiverse

Again: not a race - unless you view the combat as a kind of race to defeat your opponent - but definitely an "exclusive deck-manager" kind of vibe. Custom decks of cards represent the heroes, villains, and environmental factors, and cards aren't shared between decks.

Kurjen Rahija
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Joined: 01/25/2016
Clarification

By racing, my intent is to simply add it as a mechanism of the game, no literally racing vehicles around (sorry if I wasn't initially clear about that).

Let-off had said it perfectly using the words 'race-to-the-end'.

I haven't fully thought through the thematic of why these 'heroes' (so to speak) are racing to the end but I have lightly thought of some ideas.

Maybe they are trying to be the first to rescue the princess, or get whatever epic loot lies at the end. Maybe they're just doing it for fame and fortune, who knows as of now.

Sorry for the unclear info, hope this clarifies things. Also thanks much for the input!

Kurjen Rahija
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Joined: 01/25/2016
More Research

Thanks for showing me these other games to pull inspiration from Let-off! Will definitely have to check them out.

I have seen Ascension before, never played it myself, but I do recognize that it has some similar elements.

let-off studios
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When you mentioned up front

When you mentioned up front that it was adventurers and not cars, I kinda figured it was a race-to-the-end instead of a car-racing game. Glad my guess was right.

...Aaaaaaand based on your reply in message #4, yeah you DEFINITELY ought to check out Talisman. Lots of people slag on it, true, but every once in a blue moon it scratches that itch for me. I play the digital version solo every once in a while, versus 3 to 5 AI opponents, and I can fit in reps of my workout between turns. :)

radioactivemouse
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well...

let-off studios wrote:
When you mentioned up front that it was adventurers and not cars, I kinda figured it was a race-to-the-end instead of a car-racing game. Glad my guess was right.

I've seen some strange subjects for games, so I wasn't going to assume anything with all the information I got.

I suppose having a deck building RPG is feasible, but it has been done before, so there's that. The fact that the ones that are out aren't exactly "new" puts you in a position to push the deck building RPG to something new.

I'll have to see how this comes together.

Zag24
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Joined: 03/02/2014
I agree that calling it a

I agree that calling it a "racing" game is a bit confusing, because it invokes images of a race track where the primary point is just to get around the track the fastest. I'm not sure, though, that I have a better short name. Competitive adventuring doesn't work, nor competitive treasure-hunting (which is too long, anyway). Maybe just calling the game "Golden Idol" with the prefixed caption "Race to the ..." before it.

Do the characters ever fight each other, or just monsters?

Do they each have their own core cards, but then you have common cards that they are buying to add to their decks? Or do the cards that you buy have different interpretations based on who is playing them? Or a mix of these two approaches?

Finally, it's spelled rogue. Rouge is a type of make-up. :-)

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