I thought it was probably better to put this info in here rather before discussing some of the mechanic ideas I have. Basically the game is untitled as yet. But here are some more of the initial thinking.
Do I look at a community deck where players all draw from the same deck or should each player have their own individual deck kind of like a ccg. Decks will contain: ‘Evil Lair’ cards, ‘Master Plan’ cards, ‘Secret Agent’ cards, ‘Henchmen’ cards, and ‘Fiendish Trap’ cards. Is there multiple decks? A community deck including Lair, Henchmen & Fiendish Trap cards, a Master Plan Deck, and a 20 Card Police/Agency Deck. Pros: More chance of getting what you want with multiple decks, always guaranteed a Master Plan if you take from the Master Plan Deck. Cons: does this make the game easier to play?
All cards have icons. Master Plan cards require certain ‘sets’ of icons in play to be able to finish. Maybe some master plans require other things to be completed. Maybe you need to go to a certain location to steal a particular item. Master Plan ideas: Bank Withdrawal (Multiples allowed of this plan), Kidnap Music Star/Movie Star/billionaire/etc, Assassinate the President, Nuke/biobomb town, Steal the Million Dollar bill, Destabilize the World Stock market, Steal x county National Treasure, etc, etc.
You can only have 1 type of any evil lair card, no multiples. Other players may have the same type as you. Evil Lair Cards: Training Room, Barracks, Laboratory, Archives, Control Room, Power Room, Medical Facilities, Server Room, Holding Cells, Radiation Vault, Launch Facility + Maybe more.
Henchmen cards also have icons. Their icons state what they are good at. Perhaps a robbery requires 2 henchmen, plus drive, safecracking, and gun ability to pull off successfully. Henchmen may have 1, 2, or 3 abilities. Do they have a cost requirement to keep them in play? (possible abilities: Drive, safecracking, biological, weapons, scientist, + more).
Secret Agent cards are cards that can be played during your turn, or during another players turn. SA cards each have abilities (possibles include: Black Ops: Kill a henchman. Remove random Henchman; Foiled!: Master Plan just completed is foiled at the last second by the Secret Agent. Player who played Secret Agent card chooses one Master Plan Requirement to discard; Raid!: The Evil Genius’s lair has been raided. 1 random location has been destroyed; + more)
Fiendish Trap cards can be played to counter a Secret Agent from entering a player’s lair. Only 1 can be in play
Ideas: Fiendish Trap cards a played when a Secret Agent enters lair and are either stopped by a certain trap, ignore others, or have a 50/50 chance of being stopped. The traps that affect the Secret Agent will be on the card.
Or: Fiendish trap cards are played face down next to the lair. When a Secret Agent ‘enters’ the lair, the trap is sprung and has icons that denote what happens: Death – Agent is discarded from the game, escape – Agent escapes the trap and continues his mission, foiled – Agent can’t get past the trap and is returned to the bottom of the communal deck. Trap card is returned to the player’s hand.
Fiendish Trap cards (Laser Trip Beam, Motion Sensor, Poisonous gas, Saw Blade, Piranha Tank, Electric Floor, and Pressure Pad)
.
Endgame: Current thinking is that when a certain number of ‘Master Plans’ have been completed (ie once a player reaches, say 8 master plans) the game finishes at the end of the round, when everyone else has had a turn. Infamy points are scored and the player with the highest number of infamy points wins. Master Plan cards have an infamy value that are totaled. Are there other ways to get infamy points – ideas include as henchmen successful complete jobs they become more infamous (put an infamy token on the card). However, infamous henchmen increase the odds of being caught by F.B.I (or other Secret Agent outfit).
There are x Evil Overlord/Geniuses. Each have their own areas of expertise and thus certain master plans are easier to complete. Also each have a special abilities that can be used once per game. Not sure whether this is even necessary.
Currently, I'm looking at what actually happens during a players turn. I Have a general idea of the types of cards, just not how many will be in the deck, but that will come through playtesting I would imagine. It will be a matter of getting the balance right for the players.
Comments
Secret Agents and Traps
All Secret Agents have icons that highlight if they are foiled, killed, or defuse particular traps. Secret Agents also have differing jobs that they can fulfil – Assassinate (kills a henchman before being discarded; Sabotage (Destroy a lair room), Espionage (examine a Nefarious Scheme), or Pillage (Break into another Evil Genius’ vault and steal a piece of loot
When traps are played to a lair, they are played face down onto a room of the lair. When a secret agent enters a lair and encounters a trap token then token is turned face up and their icons are checked.
If a trap foils a Secret Agent, the Secret Agent is returned to the player who played the Agent’s hand, but the trap is now left face up in the room. It is assumed that the Secret Agent informs all other agents what the trap is.
If a trap kills an Agent, both the agent and the trap is returned to the players hand.
If a trap is defused, the trap is discarded and the Secret Agent continues on.
Moving through a Lair
When a Secret Agent is played to a lair, he enters through the hidden entrance. Trap cards cannot be played on the entrance. Secret Agents have a move value which tells how many rooms that he can move through. Secret Agents with high move values, tend to get caught by wider ranges of traps while those who move slower tend to be more adept at getting past traps.
Suggestions
I'm been playing card games more than half my life and I've won in big TCG tournaments too. I personally want to create another card based game as well. I do like the idea of your game. I agree that you should follow the stereotypical theme, such as electric eels pools with flavor text "Shocking! isn't it!?"
There are two way i see it going, the first way is like Race to the Galaxy style, where you try to build to a certain amount, in this case to a master plan or many master plans. Or it will be like Dominion and players will have their mini-decks (like a TCG) and they will add cards into it, so the deck grows as game progresses.
I feel that you also need another deck for the "Good guys," card such as super heroes or the F.B.I that will hinder your growth, or a city to harass through more cards or a board and pieces, id want to make a Godzilla type monster and make some havoc through the city! BWHAHA!
Ill be keeping tabs on your post, seems like you got a good idea here.
Some Suggestions
This, I think, is a very good idea. I agree with a lot of stuff you said.
One thing, though. Do you want it to be serious or sterotypical? I can imagine this being sterotypical with like Volcanic Island Base and comical art.
I agree with a lot of the things you mentioned. A couple suggestions, though:
On a player's turn, I say they draw a Master Plan card (maximum of three at a time).
They can hire Henchmen (which are used to finish Master Plans) or Special Agents (Used to hinder opponents).
This creates a situation in which the player can choose to accomplish their own goals or finishing others from reaching theirs.
You can alternatively buy traps, which counter Special Agents.
I would say seperate Community Decks. CCGs can create one sided matches where the Veterans will usually win against the newbies.
I would recommend Master Plan deck, Henchmen/Special Agent/Trap Deck, Icon Cards/Special Event Deck.
Each Henchmen has a "Job" in which you must move them to a certain location to accomplish. Accomplishments give you Icon Cards which lead you closer to Victory.
I think also each Special Agent should have three "Consequences". Next to each one is a symbol. If a trap is revealed with a matching symbol, then that effect occurs to the Special Agent. They would be "Immune" (nothing happens), "Foiled" (Special Agent is returned to the Players lair and must be played again), or "Killed" (the Special Agent does not succeed and is discarded).
Draw from Master Plan Deck rarely.
Draw from the Icon Deck whenever you complete a Job or through some other special consequence. Enough Icon cards of the same Icon and you complete your Master Plan!
Those are some suggestions. I hope they were helpful, though most of them simply recapped on your idea.
an idea for an expansion
might be to have different kinds of villains/agents - for example fantasy, superheroes etc.
The Game Turn
Here is what I think will happen in a turn.
A) Gain $$. You can take 2 $$ from the central pile.
B) Take up to 2 Actions.
a. draw 2 cards from the community deck
b. play a card from you hand and pay the required cost
c. Have a henchman/men attempt a ‘job’.
d. Play a Secret Agent card
e. Finish a Master Plan
f. Discard up to 2 cards.
Gain $$: This represents your incoming revenue from ‘legal’ endeavors…after all even an Evil Genius needs money. Take 2 $$ from the central ‘Bank’.
Take an Action: You may do up to 2 actions per turn, but you can not do the same action twice. Actions can be played in any order.
i) Most cards require payment in some form some may even require a certain amount of infamy. When playing a card you pay $$ to the central ‘bank’ then play the card – face up if it is a lair or henchman card, face down if it is a Fiendish trap.
ii) draw cards from the top of the draw deck.
iii) Send henchmen to a location to attempt a job. The location will have a set of icons that say what is required to be successful. Each location also has a rating from 1 – 5. This rating is the security value of the location + the length of time it takes to complete the job. This determines how many ‘police cards’ are drawn. Each turn a card is turned over and will have a number on it. This number is then compared with the ability number of the henchman/men involved. If the police number is higher. The henchmen have been arrested. If the henchmen number is higher the job continues. Cards added together as the job progresses. As you can see a tougher job means more risk. Lowering the risk - Henchmen with a crowd control icon reduces the risk, meaning there is one less card drawn for each henchman with crowd control. A ‘job’ with a risk of 3, would still take 3 turns to complete, but only incur a 2 card draw rather than 3. Once the job is complete, the location has a reward table. The player looks for the loot they require and take the rewards from that line. (example: rocket engines, 5 $$, 2 infamy). Once the ‘loot’ has been decided, take the token/card relating to the ‘loot’ obtained from that area. ‘Loot’ is most often used to finish master Plans. Henchmen can only take ‘loot’ for Master Plans that they know about.
iv) Secret Agents cost $$ to play, and the amount will vary depending upon what you want the Secret Agent to do. Secret Agents can be played during your turn, or during a players turn. The Agent card will state when they can be played. The Assassin Secret Agent Card can be played to a location and is thus not affected by traps in the lair.
v) Master Plans are completed by meeting the requirements on the card. They may have ‘loot’ + icon + lair requirements. For instance the “Destabilize the World Stock Market” Master Plan requires the Financial server codes + Server Room + computer expert icon + Hacker icon. When a Master plan is complete it is turned face up and the player shows the requirements have been met. Most Master plans have $$ value that is awarded immediately plus an infamy rating for how nefarious the deed was. Some Master Plans have a set and if all Master Plans for that set are finished extra infamy are awarded. Example set would be: Steal Rocket Engines; Obtain plutonium; Nuke {town}.
vi)Discard. You may discard 1 card from your hand at the end of your turn. This discard may also be a Master Plan. Discards go to the bottom of the deck.
Hand Size: There is a 7 card limit, unless a card says otherwise. A player can only have 3 Master Plans working at a time. Master Plans do not count towards hand limit.
Please comment on what you think of the game turn and the few mechanics that are there. Now looking at setup.
I think you're missing something
The devil of it is, I have no idea what. I think it comes down to this. You've missed what a Master Plan is. It's not a short-term goal. It's a long, complex procedure that, if it works out perfectly, will let you take over the world, overthrow the government, or at least finally kill Superman. The art of a good Master Plan is to keep enough details of it secret that, when it is unveiled (with much monologueing, laughing, and switching of AWESOME looking robes) the plan is too far advanced for anyone to stop it. A plan like that can only be pulled off in a complex system, where there are enough variables that nobody knows exactly how something will work.
This is the point where I start talking about a gameplay mechanic that is unformed in my head.
One way to do this would be to have a sort of central card structure, where already played cards interact with each other. Cards you play change, reorganize, add to, and destroy that structure. It starts out fairly big, with a number of cards (representing groups, schemes, politics, whatever) already played. It gets more complex, and the game involves manipulating it to a point where you can make a move that will change it completely in your favor. I don't know how this works.
Ok, done that.
The card game you have described is a sort of backstabby opportunistic game. It might be fun, but I really doubt it will capture the essence of supervillainy, the moment when all of your schemes come together and you win. Honestly, that's pretty hard to capture in a card game at all.
I see where you are coming
I see where you are coming from, especially regarding the idea of supervilliany and the Master plan. I just loved the vision of the megalomaniac in robes monologueing away. (Just don't wear a cape )
I've been thinking a bit about your thoughts but have come with a blank in how to get it to work. I like the idea of a central 'structure' that is manipulated somehow to achieve an end game-winning master plan.
My only thoughts to this would be that each megalomanical supervillian has their own Master Plan that involves manipulating this central structure to their own neferious ends. I guess cards could be played that add or take away tokens to a structure (ie, maybe steal depleted uranium from somewhere and acquire the token for it, but you need to add a token (or 3) to a relevant law association (F.B.I. for instance) and there for making it harder for yourself to achieve the end goal). I don't know. I do agree that reaching that moment where your schemes fall into place and your Master Plan reaches fruition is a pretty hard point to reach. There is bound to be some way of getting there and it is a matter of finding that point and that game mechanic.
Maybe I need to change the wording of Master Plan to something no quite the same or go for a real tongue-in-cheek look at things.
Back for more
Man, going away for a while, then returning really helps clear things up. I was going through these posts looking at things and the part that really stood out was the 'master Plan' mechanic and how it all tied together. I'm not thinking that the Master Plan is the goal that the Villains are working towards and in order to do so, you need to pursue Nefarious Schemes.
Nefarious Schemes give you rewards (loot? what is the Evil Genius terminology for this?) that are used to help set your Master Plan in motion, and ultimately take over the world (cue evil laugh). However, not every Nefarious Scheme will give you want you need for your Master Plan, so players will now be able to sell their goods to the Black Market, but selling your loot to the Black Market may get you money in the short run, but it may also lead to another Evil Genius completing their dastardly plans....
Talking about money, I'm having a whole rethink on how players acquire cash to purchase henchmen, evil lair additions and so on. Now I'm thinking that players have only two ways to get money - selling stuff on the Black Market, or pulling Heists. Selling Goods doesn't get you as much cash on the Black Market, but it means that the Law doesn't find out about your deeds. I am not one hundred percent sure on the Black Martket yet. Either players can auction their loot to other players, or they sell it to the Black Market for a set price, then any player can go to the market and purchase it at a later time. Input anyone.
Pulling heists, is a little more risky, you likely get more cash, but increase the amount of Police Presence around the city to your henchmen - though a little bribery can reduce that it you have the right henchmen.
The board is going to revolve around a city that gets refreshed at the start of each round. I'm thinking that there will x number of banks, Evil Lair Hardware Store, the Job Queue (Names not set in stone), etc. X will equal 1 less than the number of players. I'll need to play test this to see what works though. A refresh means new cards are played to the city. In a 4 player game there would be three banks, 3 henchmen, 3 Lair components, etc. and players secretly choose their action at the start of the turn.
Hmmm. Gonna think on this a bit
A
Long Time, No See
Good to see you are still kicking around game design!
Thanks Sidd. Yeah, Games
Thanks Sidd. Yeah, Games still frolic away inside my head. I currently have 2 simmering away, but I want to get this to a point where it is playtestable before I move to other things otherwise I'll never get anything finished. I've also had a rethink of my own philosophy of game designing and realised what my hang up was - art work. I always tried to create a good looking game when art isn't a strong suit whihc left me feeling disappointed with my creations. If I solely focus on the mechanics, I can always find people who are willing to help to do the creative side of things.
That's my new goal, especially for this game.
art
hey,
I got the same idea about 4 years ago, but realy im not so good at game design and the mechanics where blocking me.
BUT im pretty good at art, so maybe can we work together?
You can contact me at holi.colo at gmail dot com =)
THIS game, really?
Well, this game actually SCREAMS for art to be good. IMO, mechs cannot be too hard to figure, but you have to have good illustrations to really make this baby sell. Theme-wise, its a great potential hit. It looks original and fun. But you will need at least a great box cover and some cool evil genius characters to make the miracle happen.
"No game is an island". Why don't you just find an art partner? especially for this game.
KT!
Lol. Thanks Pastor_Mora.
Lol.
Thanks Pastor_Mora. Yeah, that's my biggest thing for this. The Artwork needs to be awesome, over the top evil genius type designs. and once I nail down the mechanics and get the game working I'll likely be asking around for people to contribute.
I don't think you can really go wrong with an evil genius trying to take over the world kind of game, I'm moving away from a ccg thing now with it, to a more LCG thing that expansions simply add to the whole game, rather than players having to purchase boosters to get the cool stuff. It already has the cool stuff it's just how it all fits together is the big question.