Collectible versus "Collection"

I understood... BUT would you COLLECT cards if they allowed you to ONLY "Customize" your Deck for playing???

I know people collect things because they like the artwork. "TradeWorlds" is a BIG example of that too...

But I'm freaken tired of pouring most of the money on Illustrations, ESPECIALLY when there will be little room for them on "Square" Cards (2.5" x 2.5"). Plus it takes SO LONG to do all the artwork. If I just had "Functional" Cards ... They could be made much more easily and I could expand on the number of cards (like in Stretch Goals)!

My ANGLE is "If you LIKE the Game... Consider buying MORE cards 'that do different stuff'"... And because the game is an "Engine Builder", you'll be able to construct a Mini-Deck to your liking (30 cards).

Does any of that make sense???

No "blocks of text", Rule sets.

For Example: The Blacksmith.

Build (Gear): +1 Income (Yellow Cube) & +1 Renown (Blue Cube)
Explore (Flag): N/A
Conquest (Sword): N/A
Scoring (V): Each Noble (Orange) converts to +3 Victory Points (VPs)

Now this is "written", there would mostly be symbols and cubes... But your balanced deck can ONLY have TEN (10) Nobles/Characters. So you need to figure out what is best for your deck.

And it's not like I haven't seen something SIMILAR – On BGG I often see people selling these kinds of cards for games I've never played. I think they are mostly for "Collectors" (because of rarity) but they could also be for gameplay reasons too (not sure).

Really the space on the cards is too little to "describe" each card's function and have artwork. Granted the Graphic Design will be "killer" and the cards will look graphically nice.

But I'm leaning towards "no illustrations" because of space restrictions.

This is how I am designing my "engine"...

Note: "The Blacksmith" is an interesting CARD because it allows you to produce EQUIPMENT on a single turn: Yellow + Blue = Green. See how the "engine" is going to work?!

Combine this with "The King" (another Noble) which is +2 Influence (Red) and then on ONE TURN you can produce: Yellow + Blue + Red = One White token (a guard). There are other combination worthwhile too...

But it's just too COMPLEX to describe. You would need to have the cards in front of you... And of course you would need to analyze what are the better COMBOS for your cities. It's really a freaken COOL "Deck-Construction" off-line.

I'm working real hard to ensure that the game offers a lot of unique PLAY.

That's why I'm saying I NEED ROOM for the rules on the cards...

Note #2: The BACKSIDE of each card will be CUSTOM. It will have "special" artwork... Keeping that a surprise. But each card will have custom artwork on the cardback (not a unique cardback).

I'm NOT proposing to sell "Randomized Boosters". I dislike the play on emotions that occurs when spending money on booster.

Instead what I propose is an OPEN "Aftermarket". Basically you can BUY "Brand New" SINGLES off the Internet only. The "core" (Starter Kit) could be sold in stores with the Original "Adventure Pack".

Future "Adventure Packs" may be bought online – I'm still in the process of figuring things out. Those would be like "Fixed Booster": 20(?) cards used by the adventure in question.

So with SINGLE you can decide what cards you WANT and which ones are valuable to you. It works with a Supply/Demand model with pricing depending on the popularity of cards. So there is NO "rare" chasing but there could be cards with "HIGH DEMAND" that are more expensive and often sold-out. That's how the aftermarket works.

Therefore the model is NOT that of a CCG. With "Fixed Boosters" for Adventure Packs, that's more like XTG3. But the Singles Aftermarket is another source of cards that may be useful and/or popular. That aspect is borrowed from the "after-effect" of booster – but in this case would be the primary source of NEW cards available to players.

Does any of this make any sense???

Ahhh... now I see what you mean!

Well I did state that the "backside" will contain CUSTOM artwork. And it is related to the game too! So there will be "artwork", just not on the facing side of the cards.

I guess you could "proxy" the facing-side, but that would leave the opposite sides "blank". And obvious. So you could do a version with both sides too.

But that might be more complex and aligning everything might be rather difficult too... So I guess the REAL cards would look nicer than "proxied" cards because of the two-sided nature of the cards.

MOREOVER you've really helped me with the "sale" of these cards. I think what I can do is "display" the "functional" side of the card on the online store – but NOT display the "cardback" side which is artistically rendered. There still might be "proxying" but I guess that could be the same for "Magic" cards too...

The trouble is figuring out who is using illegal cards and who is using legitimate cards! That brings up a whole new can of worms!!!

Hmm... I'm going to think about it some more.

And if some other Authors decide to use a service like "The Game Crafter" well it means that "proxies" might take over the whole "Aftermarket" side of things... Which is wrong, illegal (subject to copyright) and hard to police too! It's the last part that I'm struggling with...

Note: I plan to identify each card with a "serial number" but I would need a way to determine the validity of each number. Like an ONLINE "form" where you submit the number and appears the card and the related information. So that's one way to combat "proxies".

The Aftermarket SINGLE online store would allow you to BUY any ONE (1) card for the game... The buyer pays shipping and it's sent in bubble wrap envelopes (part of the cost of shipping).

All the cards would have SOME "Function". Just you could decide while shopping what your "Deck" would look like and only choose to buy the EXACT cards you want.

So you can spend hours pouring through the online store when building your Decks. This is kind of what one other Designer was saying "Building a Database"... Well this is an online "Database" + Store Front for purchasing. Effectively killing to birds with ONE (1) stone!

Well for one thing, you should know that I have already talked with some store owners (FLGSs) and they absolutely HATE the CCG business model. I'll explain further...

Basically they are forced to purchase a CASE of "Random Boosters" which retails at upwards of $200+ dollars and only make any profit if 60% or more of that box is sold.

Store owners have told me they would "rather sell A GAME". A game comes with a box and everything together. Each time they SELL a "GAME" they instantly make PROFIT (50% markup or lower sometimes). They don't need to invest in buying $100+ dollars worth of merchandise and they make money on each sale of the game.

That's what FLGSs store owners tell me. So my goal would be to OFFER "Starter Kits" to stores (the GAME) and also sell "Adventure Packs" which are Fixed Boosters in stores. But realistically the problem lies in the distribution and resale of games.

See ONLINE I can easily market the game to players. There would be a central website with a store front from which players can buy the game. And obviously SINGLES would be a big part of that online store.

I guess I haven't thought my way through it ... because A> I don't think stores will be carrying my game B> The only place to buy the game and cards would be online.

Knowing what I know NOW about retailing and what distributors carry, I'm not certain this game fits into their catalog. Obviously there is nothing that will replace Magic (and that's not my goal anyways).

My goal is to offer something different than other collectible games. How BIG of a community I get is well... debatable.

Well you see that's not how it works. There are economies of scale. Remember you need to be able to "manufacture" the product. My guess is that the $299 (retail) which has 36 or so boosters may indeed allow the Publisher to sell a booster at about $5 each.

So that means 21 booster must be sold to break even (21 x 5 = $105). Which is close to $120 (60% markup). So it's between 21 and 24 booster to break even (FLGSs/retailers).

That's still a lot.

I understand your point, make smaller CASES (less than 36 boosters).

My guess the Publisher has figured out the "sweet spot" in terms of how many booster they can "profit" from. That's something else one of the store owners told me: "YOU (the guy making/selling the boosters) are the one who is 'profiting' from this format."

And I understand what he means: the publisher gets his money UPFRONT. Meaning the FLGSs (retailer) pays the $105-$120 per case UPFRONT. You've MADE your money already. Now it's up to the STORES (and owners) to promote the crap out of the game to break even.

Distributors love it too. They get their money up-front too! So there is some weird "role reversal" that occurs where the stores (the riskiest business with the toughest margins) is taking most of the risk selling the product.

In the case of Magic, it sells. How well, that I don't know.

But if stores (FLGSs) say that the business model is not "fair" well it must be because they have REAL experience SELLING Magic and its booster format.

Note: That's not to say that Magic booster don't sell, they do... But there seems to be a certain "peck-ishness" that FLGSs dislike. If you know what I mean...

As I said above in the OP, both sides of the cards will fill a "Feature" of the cards themselves. The "Back-side" will demonstrate which deck a card belongs to (Heroisms or Terrors) and the "Front-side" will state the various rule sets used by that card.

I've since reconsidered that each card should have four (4) functions. Some may only have two (2) for example.

This will cost some money to put together the artwork, but LESS EXPENSIVE than highly sought after artwork. Something like Sepia for the Heroisms and Mauve for Terrors.

So therefore there will be ART – But not the kind like Magic cards have... Again something much less expensive to produce that has a "function" rather than general "eye-candy".