NHL Hockey CCG

[r0cknes]

I have been wanting to develop an NHL Hockey CCG. With the help of Malagar's and Ascent's recent threads I think I have finally found a mechanic that works with this theme. I don't know if there are any hockey fans on this forum, but please if you are not, ignore the theme for the most part and understand I am looking for advice as I move forward.

First of all I want to thank Malagar, and Ascent for your creativity and others involved in the other projects. I want to make sure both of you realize that I am recognizing your help in this project.

Theme:

This is the NHL hockey. I am currently using players and teams from the 2011-2012 rosters. I plan on adding cards based on teams. The "booster Packs" will be just the 12 players + some attachment, event, and play cards. All the players will be unique, but the other cards may be reused on different teams. So when you get a team pack you will receive 52 cards. After you gain more cards you may add cards from different teams to your deck. You may even have up to 3 of the same player in the deck, but you may not have 2 of the same player in play.

What makes this game unique is that although you will be battling another player to win games, you will not be able to remove an opponent's card from the field of play. The first thought is that eventually there will be too many cards on the table at once. Except the uniqueness of the game is that each player has a contract number. That contract number tells you how many turns he may be on the table. Unfortunately that requires counters, but I don't feel that will hurt the game unless someone else has a better idea. Any cards attached to that player are also discarded once the contract is over.

Mechanics:

Here is where Malagar and Ascent come in. The Resource mechanic I have chosen to use is similar to both of their mechanics. It involves spotting and threshhold mechanics. If you look at the player template I have included You will see on the top left is the the contract. The top right is the player's skill. He may have more than one. He also may have more than one of the same skill. Those poorly made icons are what are used to allow playing of other cards. At the very bottom of the card is all 4 skills listed with a number next to it. That is the cost of the card. It requires that number of symbols among your players in play in order for you to play that card. Thanks again guys!

Set Up:

Both Players choose 3 players from their up to 60 card decks to start their game with. Those 3 players are placed on the table face down. Both players flip their cards simultaneously. Add the contracts of all three players. The team with the most contract total is the Home team for the first turn. Both players then shuffle their up to 57 card decks and draw 7 cards into their hand. Both players are allowed to return their cards to their deck and reshuffle and redraw once if they are dissatisfied with their first draw.

Turn Phases:

1. Preparation Phase

Both players take turns performing actions. These actions are listed.

1a. Play a card from your hand. (Player cards, Event cards, or Attachment cards.)
1b. Exhaust a card to perform and effect.

2. Game Phase

2a. Both players starting with the visiting team (which is the non first player) chooses non exhausted players to "start" the game.
2b. The visiting team chooses the players he wants to send on offense.
2c. The home player chooses the players he wants on defense.
2d. Each player takes turns playing play cards until both pass. The symbols of players in the game are the only ones allowed to be spotted to play play cards. That also includes players that have not been used in the game yet.
2e. Each play's effects are resolved in reverse order. The last play played is the first to be resolved. (Much like jutsus in Naruto CCG.)
2f. Subtract the visiting teams offense from the home teams defense. The difference is the amount of goals scored.
2g. Repeat 2a - 2f with the visiting team on defense and the home team on offense. Players may only be used once per game. If a player has been used on offense already, he may not be used on defense, unless another card has readied him again. The team with the most goals wins. In the case of a tie, no team is awarded a win. The winning team takes the top card of the opponent's deck. Once a team has 10 wins, they win the game.
2h. During the first turn the game phase is skipped.

3. Post Game

3a. Each Team draws one card.
3b. Every player is returned to its position in front of its owner.
3c. A contract counter is added to every player in play. Any players with an equal number of counters as contract amount are discarded. The first turn is considered the off-season so no contract tokens are placed at the end of the first turn.
3d. All cards are readied.
3e. The other player becomes the Home team.

What do you think!? Merry Christmas!!!

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[Malagar]

Yay there is creativity all over the forum! Its a delight seeing more and more people becoming creative with CCG design, this could also be a boon for this forum and the whole LackeyCCG project.

Well, im not a big hockey fan - but i was thinking about a "medieval socer game" a while ago. So, all in all your ideas are reasonable and good. It fits all quite well, the contract idea is new and unique!

also, your first try of a template looks much better than many others i have seen so far.

just an idea: i guess this game is predestined to have a way to "train" your players and attach "skills" or "special move" cards to them. "team moves" would also be an idea, as well as the obligatory "cheerleaders" :-)

keep it up, its definately worth giving it a try

[r0cknes]

I honestly hadn't thought of of attaching skills or "moves". That opens the door to a bunch of ideas. I was originally just thinking equipment, but I can use skills to have more varity in the cards. I don't think I would be adding team move cards, just because you are the GM of your own team. As players come out they are joining your team.

Thanks for the compliment on the template. I think the overall gist of the card is complete. I could use some suggestions on the icons. I am horrible with them. The other issue I am having is that currently the best way I can think of doing the cards is to have the same basic format for each type of card. Instead of the position there would be the card type's name. Given the nature of the game. The colors of the cards will be based on the team they play for in the NHL. The Detroit red wings would have a red card with with a white trim. That will also signify what set the cards came from. Even though you can mix and match when you are deck building.

Also eventually I would like to use most of the ideas from this game and translate them into an NFL game as well.

[Malagar]

the skills and moves idea was just a suggestion, its your game after all so do what you want to do - we can just provide feedback.

overall its really good - for icons, textures and images i recommend that you surf to renown hockey sites and grab some pictures from there. (i know its illegal but who actually cares about a free fan game!)

[Dragoon]

Looks pretty good so far. Original idea too

[r0cknes]

If any of you know me at all, then you know that my projects move very slowly. I am making progress however. I just wanted to post a couple of cards. I have finished the card data for all of the Buffalo Sabres set, but I have only finished the cards of 13 players. I have heard that Magic Set Editor is good for making cards, but a template would need to be made. Would anyone be willing to make one, or at least point me to a good tutorial. I haven't found one. The coding seems much more complicated than lackey plugin creation and that is about the extent of my coding understanding.

Anyway, here are the cards.

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[DiamondNRG]

Although this is old, it is nice to see someone has tried this before.  I also am working on a Hockey CCG.  I come here to ask a related question... if one was to use a symbol to represent a players collective "offensive" skill ... what type of symbols do you guys think of?  The same question for defense and toughness also...

Just trying to get some opinions.

[r0cknes]

Yes sadly I have a tendency to start projects and not finish them. I would like to see an NHL game, but I didn't have the unction to finish it. I think I would rather had started this game more generic as after one year most of the cards are obsolete.

Did you plan on making a game with a single game, full season, or several season in mind?

I don't know about an icon that would be better for defense more than the typical shield. I guess it depends on the mood of your game. A silly game could have a white fence as a defense symbol. For offensive skill I think a target is an accurate symbol. It represents not only scoring ability, but also the ability to create scoring chances through accurate passing.

[Trevor]

Although this is old, it is nice to see someone has tried this before.  I also am working on a Hockey CCG.  I come here to ask a related question... if one was to use a symbol to represent a players collective "offensive" skill ... what type of symbols do you guys think of?  The same question for defense and toughness also...

Just trying to get some opinions.

I would say a hockey stick for offense and a helmet for defense.

[r0cknes]

Helmet is a good idea for defense...