As I already mentioned in my 'Welcome to BGDF' thread I am closing in on finishing the design of a cardgame and playtesting should start soon.
But then I thought that I would prefer to get some feedback and started a thread on boardgamegeek. Now I would like to present and discuss my game here too. So without any further ado, let's take a look:
Shinobi – The Clan Wars (working title).
In Shinobi players take on the role of a ninja clan. In the capital at the imperial court four royal families strive for power. They plot and scheme against each other and their actions and wishes become missions that the players may take on. For example a famous general should be killed or an important message intercepted.
The players are free to choose which family they want to support and which they want to hinder in their endeavours. This choice is still not a permanent one and players may freely change their allegiance.
If a player decides to take on a mission or contract by a family he will influence the way things are at the imperial court. For example if he kills the general, the family the general belongs to will lose military power – one of three domains of power at the court. The other two being political influence and wealth.
Players will have different interests of course. For example one player might not like that the general is being assassinated and therefore he wants to prevent that. This is actually the heart of the game since it revolves around duels in which two shinobi fight against each other.
Another main focus resides in the preparations for a duel. In each round a player will (most likely) recruit a new shinobi and increase the size and composition of his fighting deck. This fighting deck works just like a deck from your 'ordinary' deckbuilding games like Dominion. That means you draw cards from the deck, use them and then refill your hand for the next turn.
However the deck is not build like in Dominion. You don't buy cards you, draft them like in 7 Wonders. This means at a certain point during a turn the players will be dealt several cards. They choose to keep one card and put it directly into their fighting deck. The cards that they still keep in their hands after choosing one will then be handed over to a neighbour and they receive new cards from the other neighbour.
If you combine these two mechanisms (deckbuilding and drafting) you get deckdrafting. I still don't know if that is the right term but we called it deckdrafting when we played Magic - The Gathering twenty years ago.
So, basically the players recuit shinobis and draft their fighting decks to go on missions for the royal families. There they will most likely engage in duels with another player's shinobi. Depending on the outcome of the mission the power relations at court change and the players need to decide how they will continue in the next turn. After five turns the game ends. The player who had the most influence on how the power struggle ended wind the game.
I guess for the first introduction that should be enough.
I'd like to point out the thread on bgg again since I have already posted some sample cards there.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/913288/wip-shinobi-the-clan-wars
Please let me know what you think of my idea so far. I know that it is hard to judge a game simply buy its theme and I will work hard to present you the mechanisms I thought of as soon as possible. However any comments you have for me so far, any advice or critique is more than welcome.
~ Having players shout "Let's Duel!!" really loud is cool, but doesn't seem to fit the stealthy theme of ninjas. It can also be really awkward and peer pressury for players who are more introverted.
~It would really be nice if there weren't any dice in the combat system. This may just be a pet peeve, but it feels like a DnD hangover: it works in DnD because the game is literally designed around the combat system. In this game you have a lot more going on, and don't seem to need the dice. It adds time, randomness, and components, resources that you could be using elsewhere. With the drafting and RPS aspects you already have a lot to play with in combat: try to find new solutions that really work with your unique system. Should ninja combat feel random, or more like an elegant dance of cunning and skill?
~You should have a playable prototype about 1/3 of the way through your design process at the latest. It doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't even have to be the full game, but you need to have something to tinker with. Playtesting should be one of the first steps of a design. I know it can be painful letting your baby idea out into the world, but you really need to see how mechanics interact when other people get their hands on them, and then continuously iterate, integrating new approaches and ideas. Games are fundamentally experience engines, and it's impossible to evaluate a game without seeing people play it.
~Aside: have you considered releasing this as an app? I get the feeling that it would play really well as a slow, almost play-by-email speed game with kind of a calm zen vibe. You could unlock more families, more items, more missions...there's potential. It seems like a neat commute experience with a mixture of calm and action.
Hope that wasn't too harsh, definitely interested in seeing the development of this game. You have a lot to look forward to :)