LackeyCCG is a tool for playing any CCG (collectible card game) online (or offline in solitaire mode). It's also a great tool for building and designing decks. You can create your own CCG or download a plugin of an existing game and play with your friends.

History: My friends and I have always enjoyed playing CCGs, like Magic: the Gathering, Lord of the Rings, Warlords, Yu-Gi-Oh, Star Wars, and many others. The genre was invented by Richard Garfield (the creator of Magic) in the early 90s. What I find really cool about CCGs is that they involve a lot of creativity and strategy even before the game starts. Building a deck requires artifice, craftsmanship, and imagination. Being a fan of other CCGs, me and my friends thought it would be cool to be able to design and create our own games and play them. Then we all went off to different colleges and could no longer play any CCGs together. Desiring a means to play CCGs online, and finding every existing program to do so lacking, I decided to create LackeyCCG.

FAQ:

Q: How do I use LackeyCCG?
A: Check out the Lackey Tutorial page. It tells you how to actually do things. This page, the "About" page, is a cursory overview of what LackeyCCG is, not how to use it.

Q: How do I get started using LackeyCCG?
A: Read the page about Getting Started with LackeyCCG.

Q: How can I find CCG Plugins?
A: There are several ways, but the easiest way to find and install plugins is using the PluginFinder feature. Read about using it at Getting Started with LackeyCCG.

Q: What games does LackeyCCG play?
A: LackeyCCG lets a person play any game as long as someone makes a plugin for it. A plugin is what defines how a game is played and what it looks like as it is being played. Plugins are easy to create. While you can play plugins for existing CCGs, please make sure you have the permission of the owner of that game's copyrights. There are no official plugins per se. To find a plugin, look at the Getting Started with LackeyCCG webpage, or check out the plugins section of the Forum for more information on plugins.

Q: Does LackeyCCG force people to follow a CCG's rules? Will it allow me to do something that isn't legal?
A: LackeyCCG does not implement rules forcing. I have tried other methods of playing CCGs online and I have found that forcing rules adherence just serves to bog down the game and makes it much less fun to play. Lackey allows you to simplify your turn when not much interesting is happen (so you can get to the more fun parts of a game faster). LackeyCCG will allow you to do anything you could do if you were playing with real cards. It also allows for a more formal adherence to the rules if you want to play that way, but it doesn't force any particular play style.

Q: How much does LackeyCCG cost?
A: That has yet to be decided. There will always be a free version. There will also be a premium version with lots of bells and whistles. The spirit of LackeyCCG is that it is donation based. I know lots of people can't afford a hefty fee. But also please note that Lackey has taken years to develop and I will continue to toil to make it the best program of its kind bar none. I am trying to support myself and my loving wife, so if you can, please donate. (There is a paypal link at the bottom of every page on this site.)

Q: Does LackeyCCG allow you to use all cards at once or do I have to open virtual packs and slowly accumulate cards?
A: LackeyCCG gives you immediate access to any card in your plugin. You are not restricted in any way by the size of your card pool (or your card budget). All players are on equal footing and victory will go to the better deck builder and player, not the player who can afford the most cards.

Q: Does LackeyCCG support multiplayer?
A: Yes. Up to 10 players can play in a single game.

Q: Does LackeyCCG support solitaire play?
A: Yes. It fully supports solitaire play. You can play one deck against another with a lot of features which make that easy to do.

Q: Does LackeyCCG allow you to play against an artificially intelligent computer opponent?
A: No. Doing so would be immensely complex. I don't even think such a thing is possible. AI for a CCG is far more complicated than it may seem.

Q: Does LackeyCCG allow you to save/resume games?
A: Yes. It even has an autosave feature, in case anything happens during the game.

Q: If a new expansion set for a game comes out, will I have to redownload the whole plugin to be updated?
A: No. Sets are very modular withLackeyCCG and it is very easy to add the latest set. The AutoUpdate feature in LackeyCCG makes installing and updating plugins incredibly simple. You update with the click of a button.

Q: Is it availible for both MAC and PC? How about Linux or other operating systems?
A: LackeyCCG is availible for both Mac OSX and Windows. Lackey is also currently being ported to Linux as well.

Q: Where can I download LackeyCCG?
A: You can download LackeyCCG from this site in the downloads section.

Q: How do I make plugins for my game (or an existing game)?
A: Check out the Plugin Creation Tutorial page.