Rpg - The Card Game

[Cyrus]

Firstly; I don't have a name for this yet, and who knows if it'll see the light of day outside of a rules sets.
Secondly; speaking of rules, fans of ye olde Middle Earth ccg will be like "heyyyy" to these rules, because they borrow heavily from them. I don't really care because those rules aren't being used and this is really my homage to them. They are also changed a decent amount, meant to be both streamlined and improved.
Thirdish; this game would be marketed as a living card game or something like it. Maybe even more like a board game, with no set monthly releases.
4thy; this game is not meant for fans of pokemon, magic, duel masters, wow, etc. While those games are all great in their own right, I am not out to make the next super-accessible money-maker of a ccg. This is for a specialized audience that misses reading rule books and probably enjoys playing board games more than card games for the most part.
High five!

Okay, the rules. If you want a prettier version click here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9WiznWWlKgpzIaOeSQNhu6HiYfupiXRmirFwucHKUE/edit

DISCLAIMER: I'm almost positive I missed something in the explanation of how to play this game. LET ME KNOW!! FEEDBACK!!! I know there is a lot of rules, D1E HARD GAMERZ ONLY!!

Object:
Gather more points worth of support cards before the game is over. Support cards represent things that will help your kingdom in the upcoming world war. This game isn?t about the war itself, but instead its focus is on the prologue; the many quests and perils these unknown heroes have endured to gather support for their cause.

Setup:
Each player brings a deck with at least 60 cards (including characters, support, opposition, and action cards) and a location deck with any number of location cards in it. Each player starts with a location with the subtype ?safe? in play, with a party of characters and items whose total upkeep is 20 or less in play at that location. Each player then draws a hand of 8 cards.
The player with the least upkeep in play goes first (break ties with some random method such as a die roll). Turn order continues to the left of the player who goes first.

Card Types:
All cards have text, name, and type boxes, and are worth points (except locations)? some cards have some other stats.
?   Characters ? Upkeep, Combat, Skill, Health
?   Locations ? Environment, Region, Destiny
?   Support
o   Item
o   Faction
o   Ally ?Upkeep, Combat, Skill, Health
o   Special (could be a blessing, an inherited quest, an owed life debt, etc.)
?   Opposition ? Combat, Health
?   Action
o   Fortify
o   Threat

Characters
You start the game with some number (20?) resources (or some other name) in your resource pool. Characters (and other cards with upkeep) require you have enough unused resources in your resource pool to keep them in play. At the beginning of the game, you search your deck for any number of characters whose upkeeps add up to 20 (or less) and put them into play.
   Characters are used to move around to locations in order to search locations for support cards. Most stats on characters are used in battle, which will be explained later.

Locations
   A location?s environment determines what threats and oppositions can be played against a party on their way to the location. The region determines where a party can move to the location from, and where the party can go next. Destiny is the number of cards all players draw when a party moves to the location.
   A location?s text box also will usually have inhabitants listed in the form of, for example, ?Inhabitants ? Orcs: Combat - 2. Attacks ? 3.? and also a list of support sub-types playable there such as ?Support ? Items worth 1 to 3 points, Elves of Northwood, and Illana.? We?ll see how this works in a minute. Locations with the subtype safe (usually villages, castles, etc.) don?t have inhabitants to battle or support cards to find, as they are already on your side.
   Each player also starts the game with a safe location in play, and their starting characters are placed here.

Support
   When a party searches a location, they are looking for support for their cause, be it an item, a faction, an ally, or some special support. Most support cards are worth points or have beneficial effects for your characters. Items and factions are placed on a character in the party that searched the location when found. Allies join the party, but you must have enough unused resources in your resource pool when they are found or they are automatically added to your support pile (your points pile for the end of the game). Special support cards have a variety of ways they are brought into play.

Opposition
These cards are played against parties as they move to a new location. They are usually worth points if defeated, but can hinder a parties ability to explore and find support. In their text box, opposition have their number of attacks listed, for example, as ?Attacks ? 3.?

Action
   Fortify actions are used to help your characters on their journeys, while threat actions are used to hinder your opponent?s character?s progress throughout the game.

Turn phases & how to play:

1.   Ready Phase ? The active player readies all exhausted cards they control.
2.   Party Phase ? The active player forms parties using their characters. The characters must be at the same location to be formed into a party.
3.   Morning Phase ? If any of the active player?s parties are at a safe location, they may heal any of their characters in that party by removing all damage tokens from them. The active player may also play characters from their hand during this phase, as long as they have enough unused resources.
4.   Battle Phase ? If the active player has any parties on a location that an opponent also has a party at, the active player may initiate a battle between the parties.
5.   Planning Phase ? The active player may assign locations from their location deck to each of their parties. A party does not have to be assigned a location.
6.   Travel Phase ? One party at a time attempts to travel to their new location. Your opponent?s may play oppositions or threats against the party at this time, starting with the opponent to your left. No more opposition or threat cards can be played against a party than their party size (the number of characters in the party). To resolve battles with opposition cards, see Resolving Opposition below. As long as the party has at least one surviving member after resolving oppositions and threats, the party moves to the new location (discard the old location and place the party on the new location card). Once all parties controlled by the active player have moved, chosen not to move, or been destroyed, go on to the next phase.
7.   Search Phase ? Each party may now search the location they are on by exhausting the location. First they must face any inhabitants listed on the location card. Inhabitants are just like opposition cards, and are resolved the same way. If the party defeats this opposition, the active player may exhaust a character in that party and play a support card from their hand that matches the ?Support ? ? list on the location card. The played card does not have to be attached to the character that was exhausted to play it. Some support cards have additional requirements to bring them into play.
8.   Night Phase ? All players may discard any number of cards, then all players draw until they have 8 cards in hand.
9.   End of Turn Phase ? End of turn effects trigger and the player to the left of the active player becomes the new active player, and the turn begins anew.

Resolving Opposition
   When an opposition card is played against a party it must be resolved before the party can move on. Opposition cards have only combat and health stats, and a number of attacks listed in their text box. Resolve as follows
1.   Opposition strikes first; active player chooses defenders: For each attack the opposition has, the active player chooses a defender to face the attack. If the opposition has more attacks than active player has characters in the attacked party, the active player assigns a -1 combat modifier to a character in the party for each unassigned attack.
2.   Face the attack: Exhaust the character facing the attack. If the character was already exhausted, they receive a -1 skill modifier for this attack. Characters also receive a -1 skill modifier for each damage counter on the character card. Compare the combat of the opposition card to the skill of the character facing the attack. At this point the active player may exhaust another character in the party to give the character facing the attack a +1 skill modifier. If the combat of the opposition is higher than the character?s skill, the character is ?hit,? place a damage counter on the character.
3.   Defeat the opposition: After facing all the attacks from the opposition card, the party may attempt to defeat the opposition. To do so, the active player chooses a character in the party to attack the opposition. Exhaust that character. If the character was already exhausted, they receive a -1 combat modifier for their attack. They also receive -1 combat modifier for each damage counter on them. The active player may then choose to exhaust other characters in the party to give the attacking character a +1 combat modifier for each other character exhausted. If the character?s combat is higher than the opposition?s health, the opposition is defeated. When a party defeats an opposition card, place the opposition card in party?s controller?s support pile (they earn points for the opposition card at the end of the game).
4.   Undefeated opposition: If the opposition card is not defeated by the party the opposition is discarded. The opposition is still resolved, so the party either moves on or may have other threats or oppositions played against them.

Battling other Characters
   To battle a character controlled by another player both players must have parties at the same location. Battles between parties are resolved as follows:
   Each player finds their parties battle total by adding their character?s combat and skill stats. Parties then receive a -1 battle total modifier for each exhausted character in the party, and another -1 battle total modifier for each damage counter in the party. The highest battle total wins the battle. The winner of the battle may place 1 damage counter on any character involved in the battle.
   Some characters are out for blood, and grant special rewards for winning battles against other parties!

Resting
   Whenever a player must draw a card but cannot (their deck has run out of cards) they must rest for the remainder of the turn.
   If the active player is resting, they can no longer draw cards, but may continue the turn as usual.
   If an inactive player is resting they can no longer draw cards, and may not play opposition or threats against the active player.
   At the end of the turn, all resting players go through their discard piles and may place up to 4 cards from their into their rest pile. These cards are essentially removed from the game. Then they shuffle their discard pile into a new deck and continue play.

Stashing Cards:
   Some cards are worth more points while in your support pile, and cards there are generally harder for opponents to mess with then cards that are in play. Thus, sometimes you may wish to move cards your parties have found to your support pile. To do this, you must stash the card. To stash a card the active player must have a character at a location with the keyword ?Stash.? Simply exhaust the character with the card you wish to stash attached to them, and place the card in your support pile.
   Any card worth points may be stashed, including character cards (in which case you need only to exhaust the character itself to stash them).

Ending the Game
   Many different cards can trigger the end of the game based on different criteria (especially ?special? support cards). The game also ends:
?   Whenever a player has 30 or more points in their support pile (note this player may not be the winning player, as cards in play are also worth points)
?   Whenever a resting player places the 11th card into their rest pile
?   Whenever there is only one player with character cards in play.

When one of these conditions is met or when another card calls for the end of the game, play continues until the last player in turn order takes their turn. At the end of their turn, the game is over, and players find their score by adding the points in their support pile with the points of the cards they have in play.


Feedback, feedback, feedback?

[Wisp]

Didn't read the whole thing, but is this a basically a solo card game (like Lord of the Rings LCG) in which your opponent can mess with your game? Interesting idea...

[Cyrus]

Kinda, except you can build a deck to be more based around character combat as well, and the interactivity should be fairly high. Cards are constantly being drawn and moved around so I feel like the excitement value will register higher than most solitaire games. And you are still in direct competition with your opponents, not co-op.
While I'm sure those that are not of the target audience will think it seems like a solitaire game, it should end up being more interactive than games like magic, etc, especially in multiplayer. This is because when it isn't your turn, you are kind of on a team with everyone whose turn it isn't, because you can all player hazardous cards against the active player. I don't want to make any rules on what players are and aren't allowed to share with each other about their hands, so that it is a strategic choice whether or not you show your now-allies-soon-enemies what tricks you have up your sleeve.

[Wisp]

Clever. I like that shifting teamwork idea.

[Cyrus]

Got the first half of a demo deck done this morning, maybe have time for the second half tonight? Second half should surprisingly be easier. First half is 20 individual cards with multiple copies, second half should only need 10ish. I'll let you all know what I find in play testing

Also; I'm designing the cards in mse with the old school magic template, and I don't give a fuuuuuuuuu

[Cyrus]

Hola. I need halp.

So, in this game, each location has different environments listed that are in the path to that location. For now, I've been listing them as terrain types like plains, badlands, forests, etc.
If I could just get a brainstorm list from people for different terrain types and/or the beasts that may inhabit them, it would be awesome. Things are going fine for the test decks, but for making more cards I want to have a fairly diverse range of terrain types available, so that when players are building their decks they will have multiple options for where to go to obtain their support cards, and can build around what types of opposition they might see based on where they plan to travel.

Any help appreciated

[Cyrus]

Alright ya dang non-repliers, I can figure out my own terrain types!

Anyway, I thought of some other stuff that might get people more interested - game format variants!

Tournament
2 players face off against each other trying to earn the most points. The most competitive format, although not necessarily what the game is designed around.

Standard
Any number of players play to earn the most points. Play goes around the table in clockwise fashion, with the player to your left being the first to play oppositions and threats against your parties.

Dungeon
Requires a special dungeon deck and dungeon hazard's deck. Playable with any number of players (the dungeon set will dictate the maximum amount of players). Players must remove all opposition, threat, and location cards from their decks (or build decks specifically for the format).
This is a co-op format in which all players are exploring the same dungeon together, trying to find a certain piece of equipment or fulfill a certain quest. Instead of playing opposition/threat cards against each other, those cards are drawn off the top of the dungeon deck and played immediately against moving parties.
Dungeon expansions are separate from regular expansions to the game, containing dungeon location cards as well as a new cast of opposition and threat cards and a handful of support cards for players to add to their decks.
More rules are involved with this one, and I plan to support it at least as much as the standard format. Dungeon format can also be played as a solitaire game.

Honestly I'm sorta the most excited about the Dungeon format, and want to make sure the game reflects that and encourages that play mode. I also want to appeal to more straight-forward-yet-still-casual gamers with the standard mode, and look forward to seeing what kinds of game-breaking combos the tournament types come up with (if I have too I'll just maintain a banned/restricted list for each format, especially tournament).

Probably just getting ahead of myself, but the first deck was so easy to design!! Gotta get on top of playtesting a bit more, been really busy etc, etc, but things are looking good!

[Malagar]

whoo hey, i just returned to the boards and had no chance to reply yet!

first of all: whoot you are working on another game already?

okay, is this a party based dungeon crawler using a CCG/LCG/Deckbuilder style system?

will figure it out, im reading this wall of text now!

[Cyrus]

Hahaha I forgive you, but only this time!

Yes I'm working on another game, but I'm always working on another game, and never finishing anything. Sorta my deal.

Annnd no this game is not like that haha, you shall see once the wall of text is read. I need to summarize the rules... essentially you are moving dudes around to locations to collect things that are worth points, your opponents play cards against you to make this harder, except in dungeon format, which is kinda like mtg's archenemy but no one plays the bad guy.