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Unnamed TCG game

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jedite1000
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orc troop.png

My tcg game is about player cards that acts as factions and troop cards that help defend the faction card, the first faction card reaches 0 life points loses. What is great about the faction system is multiple players can play at once in an all out faction war. Currently this is what i have come up with

I appreciate if i can get some ideas added to the game, but since my mechanic is set i dont really want to hear, TCG type game wont be good or there is no market for this type of game, i get it but if its the type of thing i enjoy then i would like to see it through

So here we go

Unnamed TCG

Faction card
4 available factions are at launch, each faction has a special ability that differentiates from each other.
Players choose a faction to represent themselves, then players choose troop and spell cards to act as the faction's defence. Players need to draw resource food cards so they can spend the food to play troop monsters.

The faction cards is the players life points, once it reaches 0 that player loses. (life points are not set but an example would be 1500 LP)
The faction cards have numbered abilities 1, 2, 3, each turn on the players turn a counter is placed (max 3) on the lowest number first, each passing turn that player can put another counter on the 2 and 3. The player is free to spend the counters on either 1, 2 or 3 on their turn to activate an ability which could alter or change the battle around. Once an ability has been used, the counters are removed from the card and the card returns to 0 points and you must then power up the cards again during your own turns.

Region cards
Each deck can have region cards, you are able to play 2 region cards at a time, they are used to power up your troop or give you an advantage in battle, and they remain on your field until you replace the regions or the opponent destroys it.

Region cards (All may not be available at launch)
The monster associated with that region are only affected by that regions ability. The regions abilities are still WIP

Swamp

Volcano – Burn: Once per turn on your turn only flip 3 coins, if heads all enemy troops that are not associated with volcano receives 20 damage X number of heads.

Snow – Blizzard: Once per turn, on your turn only, put a counter on snow (max 5). When enemy attacks roll a die, results are as followed.
1 token, result 1. Enemy misses attack
2 tokens, result 1,4. Enemy misses attack
3 tokens, result 1,4,6. Enemy misses attack
4 tokens, result 1,3,4,6. Enemy misses attack
5 tokens, result 1,3,4,5,6. Enemy misses attack

City

Horror – Parasite:Each turn put a counter on your monsters, when attacked you can choose to flip a coin, if heads, damage is inflicted to enemy X number of counters on monster. 1 counter =10 damage. Remove counters after using ability.

Forest – Regeneration: Each turn passed, heal all forest region monsters HP by 10

Sky – Direct hit: Flip a coin and choose a monster to attack with, if heads, your monsters can bypass enemy troops and can attack opponent's faction card directly.

Earth
Graveyard
Mountain
Sea
Demon world

Troop cards

Some troops will have special effects while others will just have flavour text like a story/background of troop. You can only use troops that belong in the faction you chose but you can use any region card that is associated with that troop.
The template of the troop card with have an attack/defence (example 450 atk 500 def) stat as well as a region and faction type symbol that will determine the troops allegiance and the region it will benefit from.

Orc faction (contains orc, goblin, ogre and troll)
Orc – Swamp
Ice Orc – Snow
Fire Orc – Volcano
Ogre – Mountain
Undead Ogre – Graveyard
Goblin – Forest
Troll – Forest

Human faction (contains only humans so far)
Wizard – City
Knight – City
Blacksmith – Volcano
Hag – Swamp
Skeleton – Graveyard
Ninja – City
Hunter – Forest

Monster faction (contains Abomination, gouls and mythical creatures)
Abomination – Horror
Abomination knight – Horror
Abomination fly/insect – Horror
Goul – Graveyard
Cerebus – Demon World
Hydra – Demon world

Fantasy faction undecided name
(contains fairies, elves and mythical creatures)
Elf – Forest
Mermaid – Sea
Griffin – Sky
Fairy – Sky
Centaur – Forest
Minotaur – Mountain

Unreleased factions
Eternal/Gods faction
Demon – Demon World
Succubus – Demon World
Fire god- Volcano
Ice god – Snow
Angel – Sky

If you don’t think some creatures belong to the right region or faction or if you can come up with some more creature species ill appreciate the help

Resource
Each deck will have a certain amount of resource cards which are in the form of food, they are used to play troops onto the field, some require 1 will others require 4 or more( you would need food for your troops when in battle right? So I thought this is a appropriate mechanic )

I was thinking of adding different food sources for different factions since some that eat meat is illogical so one food source is find for this game. Most food cards will only contain 1 food while some cards will probably have 4+ food. I haven’t fully decide on if food cards are used they will be discarded or the ones that are played will have a cool down on it so you cant use the ones you played until a turn or so has passed like in magic, the mana cards are replenished on your next turn.

Spell cards
These cards acts as attachment cards for your troops which will power their attack or defence or have a special ability. Some cards will probably only be used on certain troops for example: I can only play bone club spell attachment on my orc troop which will boost its attack by 20 or something.
Attachment cards will stay on the troop until it is forcibly removed or the troop dies.
Other spell cards I coincided are counter cards and cards that affect the opponent.

Adam Leamey
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Sounds like you have some

Sounds like you have some interesting ideas I have some questions for you to both help you outline elements of your game and understand more about it.

Who is the target audience?
How long will the game take?
How many componenets will be in your game?

As for comments about what you've posted make e health a smaller number like 20 and make enemy attacks single digits. The problem with big numbers is sometimes people find it hard to keep track of.

In regards to terrain I am guessing you use the faction hq as starting points and the build the rest of the map with a terrain deck?

jedite1000
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thanks for the comment Target

thanks for the comment

Target audience i guess are people who like games like yugioh/pokemon and magic

I dunno how long the game will take as i am still in the design phase

Basically there are the faction cards, which is you, your lifepoints
troop cards that you can play in front of your faction card and act as a defence wall, i havnt decided how many troops a player can have on their field. could be 5 or 10 troops
Also region cards, if you are familiar with yugioh, they have a spell card called a field spell, once played it effects both sides of the player fields and has certain effects, mine is like that but it only effects 1 side and instead of 1 field spell at a time it would be 2. So the region cards arnt something to build into a terrain or something, its just cards that gives the troops a boost in power

the other 2 type of cards is the food card which is needed to play the troops and spell/attachment cards which once attached to a troop its power boosts even higher

So 5 components and also including dice and coins/counters you can find around the house

Adam Leamey
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Sounds like a cross between

Sounds like a cross between yu go oh and magic when I heard your concept I thought it was something else. Like a strategy war game we're each faction is fighting over limited resources to keep fed.

jedite1000
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sounds good but, i think that

sounds good but, i think that will take bit more work to flesh out, as i want to try limit the components as my last game cost me too much to build so a straight forward game is ideal for me at this time

Adam Leamey
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Always a good idea to flesh

Always a good idea to flesh out your ideas to workout what you want to do with your game. I find brainstorming sessions to be quite helpfull.

ruy343
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Joined: 07/03/2013
Take a moment to ponder:

I've been in game designing for a few years now, and I'm going to tell you something that others had to tell me a while back:

Avoid making a TCG

The problem with TCGs is that their publishers have more than enough game developers on staff that they can turn out their own games if they wanted to, but they don't because it'll cut into their own market share (Why sell two games that target the same audience, when it'll just dilute your player base and make it harder for your customers to find other players?). TCGs are a rather entrenched market.

However, that doesn't mean you should abandon these ideas altogether! In fact, I think that when you called it a TCG, you really wanted to call it a small-box game with a number of small expansions (like Smash Up). That's much more doable!

As a point of design - most games these days don't ask for coin flips because they take much more time (and more dexterity) than rolling dice. A dice roll can easily abstract a coin toss (on a roll of 4+, do "X"; else do "Y")

Some of your locations sound rather complicated. I recognize that they probably sound ultra-clear to you, but that's because you wrote them. Blizzard, in particular, sounds rather problematic, with different numbers meaning hit at different times - it's hard to grok. Try to come up with simpler systems for such things (Roll a dice, if rolled less than or equal to [Tokens], then miss).

Do not make your game more complicated with unnecessary mechanics or other fluff - focus on making the core of your game work well. Perhaps focus on how to make your regions work and how to make monsters work, and really make that piece work. This is like what they do in the programming world, a concept called "test-driven development," which means that every time you write a segment of code, you write a test program to ensure that it works the way you expect it to. Coders will run their tests later after changes are made to ensure that it still works as intended (it makes catching problems 100x easier). In terms of game design - make sure that your mechanics work and are fun before adding additional layers of complexity - you'll often find that the game is better without that anyways.

In the meantime, play other games that are similar to your concept, and incorporate the best parts from each of them. I recommend that you start with "Smash Up" and then look for similar games after that (perhaps Summoner Wars?).

Best of luck.

radioactivemouse
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Agree...

ruy343 wrote:

Avoid making a TCG

Best. Advice. Ever.

Designing a TCG requires you're looking at the long game, which means you need to do testing that will keep that in mind. In addition, you need to account for power creep that occurs in almost every TCG and you need TONS of testing to account for the growing amount of cards.

I designed my own card game (published) that was just 2 factions, 50 cards each and it was really REALLY hard to balance and tweak. However, I learned tons of lessons along the way.

To put it practically, it's like trying to design a skyscraper when you haven't built a house yet.

This is what I'd suggest:

Keep your work on the TCG and start new with a small game. That way you can learn powerful lessons and make your mistakes on the small game that would have otherwise be disastrous if you made those mistakes in a TCG.

questccg
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Don't TCG or CCG - XTG3 instead

Firstly let me start by saying many people don't understand the principles behind modern day "card games". So let me clear up any possible confusion.

1. A "TCG" is the acronym for "Trading Card Game".

This implies that people who buy cards for the game will want to "TRADE" with friends for various cards of higher rareness or because the cards play well into the Deck-Construction they are doing before head-to-head games.

The PROBLEM with TCGs is that you need A LOT of cards. This means you need a volume of artwork - which is going to be costly. Most artists also want to be paid upfront and this means you need to have capital to pay for the artwork.

2. A "CCG" is the acronym for "Collectible Card Game".

This means that players are simply looking to "COLLECT" cards for the various Decks they want to construct. Deck-Construction is done using the cards you see best suited to help you win a duel.

CCGs require less cards than a TCGs. Why? Because you can choose how you distribute cards. For example Boosters imply random assortment with "Rare" or "Mythic" chasing. This specific model requires a lot of artwork too. Boosters are random and you must have sufficient cards (think 300+) to make this business model work (Boosters).

3. An "XTG3" is the acronym for the Open Standard "eXpandable Tabletop Game".

While we are currently piloting the XTG3 licensing, I'll take a moment to present it here...

So XTG3 is meant to support CCGs in "preset collection". What this means is something similar to "LCGs" (Living Card Game - Copyright Fantasy Flight Games) in that you offer expansions in GROUPS of cards. So you can have a Starter Deck and then launch 6 months later an "Expansion" with more cards you can add and mix with your Starter Deck. This implies NO RANDOMNESS. On the contrary players who buy the expansions all get the SAME cards.

But still this is COLLECTIBLE. Just no random "Rare" or "Mythic" chasing.

As mentioned XTG3 is an Open Standard. LCG is copyright. Also XTG3 is for not only "Card Games" but ALL "Tabletop Games" which includes board games too!

We are looking for more people who want to DESIGN Games for "Expansion". And there are two (2) supported formats for this:

A> Offering a "core" game and then designing one-off expansions.
B> Offering "preset collections" which can grow with more collections.

These are the formats currently supported by XTG3...

If anyone wants to learn more about XTG3, please PM (Private Message) me and I will provide additional details about the designation.

Cheers.

jedite1000
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Ok, i am in the nitty gritty

Ok, i am in the nitty gritty of my card game, Not a TCG but i do need a lot of cards and characters if i want my card game to have different deck builds so not much can be cookie cutted

So basically i want a box of cards and let players select the cards they want in their deck

I am in the card info stage with trying to figure out the cards mechanic and effects, i did a little character designs but if i want to speed it a long i need a solid set of card descriptions.

My stages are

Mechanics - pretty much done, can go back and tweek if needed

card info - I am on this stage now

playtest - print out no pictures - rather get the gameplay set before i go any further

character designs - which will take the longest
card designs-

I already have 1 card template but its not set so i might tweek or change completely later on

Card game name - still haven't come up with the game name yet
rules-

i find doing this last is easier for me as playing the game in my head and working on the mechanics at the same time is beneficial. the rules are not for me but the players so i dont need it yet

So what i am having trouble with now is the region cards, there are some region cards that will get no use out of the game, so i need help coming up with new regions and removing the ones that wont be needed right now

Swamp
Volcano
Snow
City
Horror realm
Forest
Sky
Earth
Graveyard
Mountain
Sea
Demon world

im probably thinking of axing earth as there are no creatures that will benefit in that region as they can belong to another region which will make more sense

After i have the regions all sort out i can work on their effects and then start on other card mechanics since there are 5 different card types in this game

radioactivemouse
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Mechanics first?

jedite1000 wrote:
Ok, i am in the nitty gritty of my card game, Not a TCG but i do need a lot of cards and characters if i want my card game to have different deck builds so not much can be cookie cutted

So basically i want a box of cards and let players select the cards they want in their deck

I am in the card info stage with trying to figure out the cards mechanic and effects, i did a little character designs but if i want to speed it a long i need a solid set of card descriptions.

My stages are

Mechanics - pretty much done, can go back and tweek if needed

card info - I am on this stage now

playtest - print out no pictures - rather get the gameplay set before i go any further

character designs - which will take the longest
card designs-

I already have 1 card template but its not set so i might tweek or change completely later on

Card game name - still haven't come up with the game name yet
rules-

i find doing this last is easier for me as playing the game in my head and working on the mechanics at the same time is beneficial. the rules are not for me but the players so i dont need it yet

So what i am having trouble with now is the region cards, there are some region cards that will get no use out of the game, so i need help coming up with new regions and removing the ones that wont be needed right now

Swamp
Volcano
Snow
City
Horror realm
Forest
Sky
Earth
Graveyard
Mountain
Sea
Demon world

im probably thinking of axing earth as there are no creatures that will benefit in that region as they can belong to another region which will make more sense

After i have the regions all sort out i can work on their effects and then start on other card mechanics since there are 5 different card types in this game

You may want to try thinking of something that will differentiate your game from all the other games out there...that..."je ne sais quoi" (look it up)

It looks like you have elements, but no real mechanics, which, I suppose is a good start, but eventually you'll need to really find a meaty mechanic that's appealing and unique.

It is from there, your regions, your art direction, your testing, etc. will naturally grow from.

But there are other ways to build a game, I'm just saying this as my opinion...I personally believe in building a unique game mechanic and then building everything else around it.

Good luck.

jedite1000
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Ive already have the core

Ive already have the core mechanic in place, only tweek if needed

The troops are sent out to protect the players card. they are played though resources cards and regions give them all an added bonus which alters the playing field and attachment cards is just another added bonus to make individual troops stronger

So i already have the mechanics down its just making the cards work with each other is the challenge

jedite1000
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ruy343 wrote:I've been in

ruy343 wrote:
I've been in game designing for a few years now, and I'm going to tell you something that others had to tell me a while back:

Avoid making a TCG

The problem with TCGs is that their publishers have more than enough game developers on staff that they can turn out their own games if they wanted to, but they don't because it'll cut into their own market share (Why sell two games that target the same audience, when it'll just dilute your player base and make it harder for your customers to find other players?). TCGs are a rather entrenched market.

However, that doesn't mean you should abandon these ideas altogether! In fact, I think that when you called it a TCG, you really wanted to call it a small-box game with a number of small expansions (like Smash Up). That's much more doable!

As a point of design - most games these days don't ask for coin flips because they take much more time (and more dexterity) than rolling dice. A dice roll can easily abstract a coin toss (on a roll of 4+, do "X"; else do "Y")

Some of your locations sound rather complicated. I recognize that they probably sound ultra-clear to you, but that's because you wrote them. Blizzard, in particular, sounds rather problematic, with different numbers meaning hit at different times - it's hard to grok. Try to come up with simpler systems for such things (Roll a dice, if rolled less than or equal to [Tokens], then miss).

Do not make your game more complicated with unnecessary mechanics or other fluff - focus on making the core of your game work well. Perhaps focus on how to make your regions work and how to make monsters work, and really make that piece work. This is like what they do in the programming world, a concept called "test-driven development," which means that every time you write a segment of code, you write a test program to ensure that it works the way you expect it to. Coders will run their tests later after changes are made to ensure that it still works as intended (it makes catching problems 100x easier). In terms of game design - make sure that your mechanics work and are fun before adding additional layers of complexity - you'll often find that the game is better without that anyways.

In the meantime, play other games that are similar to your concept, and incorporate the best parts from each of them. I recommend that you start with "Smash Up" and then look for similar games after that (perhaps Summoner Wars?).

Best of luck.

You a right about the coin flip mechanic, ill try do less of it however.
I did the blizzard the way it is because it IS a problematic card. Every turn i want it to ramp up in effectiveness, so the opponent has to destroy it before it reaches is final turn where basically you wont ever hit your opponent.

ruy343
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Ahh, but you missed the point:

The blizzard can grow more powerful without becoming more "complicated". A logical progression of blizzard power, rather than an arbitrary selection of numbers that come up, would make more sense. Again, a simple "on a roll of X or less, where X is the number of charges on Blizzard, the attack misses" makes more sense than your current numerical assignments. I'd have to look at the card every time I rolled, because I'd forget what would hit or miss.

All I'm trying to say is that you should do everything in your power to make it simple and intuitive for the player.

jedite1000
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ruy343 wrote:The blizzard can

ruy343 wrote:
The blizzard can grow more powerful without becoming more "complicated". A logical progression of blizzard power, rather than an arbitrary selection of numbers that come up, would make more sense. Again, a simple "on a roll of X or less, where X is the number of charges on Blizzard, the attack misses" makes more sense than your current numerical assignments. I'd have to look at the card every time I rolled, because I'd forget what would hit or miss.

All I'm trying to say is that you should do everything in your power to make it simple and intuitive for the player.

Could you give an proper example as im still trying to figure out what that means

Is it when i roll the die and the card has 3 tokens on it and it is a 3 or lower the attack misses? still not understanding it

ruy343
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Joined: 07/03/2013
That's exactly what I'm saying!

Precisely.

Your original text says:

"
Snow – Blizzard: Once per turn, on your turn only, put a counter on snow (max 5). When enemy attacks roll a die, results are as followed.
1 token, result 1. Enemy misses attack
2 tokens, result 1,4. Enemy misses attack
3 tokens, result 1,4,6. Enemy misses attack
4 tokens, result 1,3,4,6. Enemy misses attack
5 tokens, result 1,3,4,5,6. Enemy misses attack
"

Note that for some reason, your numbers don't follow a clear progression - the blocked numbers are 1, 4, 6, 3, and 5 (in that order), and 2 for some reason always makes it through. Why? I point this out as an example of a non-intuitive system. If I wasn't constantly playing the game, I'd need to read the card every time I used it, instead of following a simple pattern.

It would both be more concise, and easier to follow with the same mechanical effect, to write it like this:

"
On your turn, if Blizzard doesn't already have 5 counters on it, put a counter on Blizzard. Whenever a creature attacks, roll a 6-sided dice. On a roll of X or less (where X is the number of charges on Blizzard) the attack is an automatic miss.
"

I offer this suggestion with the assumption that there is no difference between rolled numbers, and that the roll simply determines whether an attack hits. Is there some reason why only 2s should hit? Do dice rolls reflect resultant damage, and you only want 2s to hit for some reason?

jedite1000
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Oh, i must have forgot to

Oh, i must have forgot to change the blizzard on this post, on the actual card the numbers are in order, i did it before i posted this

1 1
2 1,2
3 1,2,3
4 1,2,3,4
5 1,2,3,4,5
with 6 being the one that hits.

I think its the same way you explained it. i guess i figured out what was wrong with it, the same as you

but ill just say you suggested it first lol

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