Hexdrake (working title) ECG

[DavidChaos]

I know, I've made a topic on this before, but it's thoroughly buried, and I didn't exactly keep schedule...and a lot has changed.

First, I give you the current version of the rules:

Hexdrake Rules: Current Version

Next, I have something I've not had before: A picture of a card! (It is attached below)

And now, my new to-do list:

1) Rules
    a) Add new wording and rules: "Deploy Trigger", "Victory Trigger", etc.
    b) Reorganize rulebook
2) Mechanics
    a) Clarify mechanics for each element
3) Cards
    a) Factions (30/faction, approx. 180 cards)
         i) 20 characters specific to each faction (3/faction confirmed)
         ii) 5 gears specific to each faction (1/faction confirmed)
         iii) 5 drops specific to each faction
    b) General cards (70-120 cards)
4) Design
    a) Add rarity indicator
         i) Use card frame to indicate rarity?
         ii) Use set symbols?
         iii) Use letter in front of card number?


Lemme know your thoughts on the game so far!  Here's some fluff for the first set, too.

It is an age of wars.  Wars that spread throughout the lands of Navalos.  From the forests of Phaelin that border the Faiha mountains, to the volcanic region of Newsmoke and their southern neighbors, the Dalin Isles.  Even the planes Av'n Daal and Drearch are not immune, continuing the battle for Highborne that has lasted through the ages.  We stand on the precipice of war, the tide only changed by one thing; your command.

[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

[nickyinprogress]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this feels a lot like an RTS turned CCG, and it's GOOD!

I like the team mechanics and terrain, makes it different than other games, and that's not just a plus, it's a requirement! Though I can't really comment on anything else unless I see some card effects, especially terrain.

The terrain cards in the terrain deck are pre-determined right? I mean a desert deck has desert terrain, tundra has tundra, and players pick which to use right? Awesome.

Terms make it concise in the long run, and a quick lesson will make players remember.

Good luck with your game. Check mine out if you have the time, link is below.
Can't wait to see more cards

[DavidChaos]

To answer your question, no, the cards in a Terrain deck are not preselected for you.  Although many structure/starter decks may include themed Terrain decks, you are fully capable of building your own.  Typically, though, a desert deck is going to be using desert Terrain.

[DavidChaos]

Hey, everybody!  A bit of an update post here.  I haven't been working on the cards like I should, mostly because of other conundrums with design.  Here's the main ones:

1)  This one I want some public opinion on.  Should I include the faction a card belongs to on the card, or should I keep factions as a flavor-only sort of thing.  There is a mechanical reason to do this; for one, later sets might include faction-based support.  Also, I can make the limit on individual cards be based on name AND faction, rather than just faction.  In most cases, the only way faction will matter is in terms of how many copies of "Burdened Wind Controller" (example) you could have; If the only one that exists is "Burdened Wind Controller (Dabaki Empire), then you can have up to 4.  However, if "Burdened Wind Controller (White Citadel)" also exists, you can have up to 4 of each version; and they could be 2 very different cards.

2)  This one I'm not sure I wanna do, because it's too similar to other games.  Basically, all characters would enter play exhausted by default.  This removes certain other rules; namely, the "cannot attack on the first turn" rule, and a rule that has not been put into the rulebook yet (mainly because I haven't yet made the cards that use the rule).  However, this would also add a potential keyword that would cause a character to restore itself when it enters play.

Lemme know what people think of this stuff!  Thanks in advance!

[Kosmosis|Omegan]

1. Duh of course include it.

2. Very unique not like other games at all, try it out.

[Kevashim]

1. The only reason I can possibly see for not including the factions is if the card is already very cluttered. Even then, adding a faction can be achieved just by adding a single word, or even just retexturing/retheming the cards. So yea, add it!

2. Characters entering play exhausted is a nice simplification of the "can't attack when entering play" rule, plus it can potentially allow for other combos that play specifically off of exhausted characters. Playtesting may be the best way to see which performs better in the game.

[DavidChaos]

I appreciate the feedback; I'm going to try and work the faction of the card onto the card design.  The only concern with entering play exhausted is that it's a bit too similar to Magic's summoning sickness, and Magic may call me on it.  I do have a particular card type that does this for balance reasons, which I won't go into just yet.

At this time, the current in-game rarities are Bronze (common), Silver (uncommon), Gold (rare), and Platinum (sort of a mythic or super rarity).

There's another possible rules change to the game as well:

Card type changes:

Basically, Drops would be changed to Events; Events, flavorwise, are things that happen.  Something that happens that has a permanent effect on the game would be represented by a Permanent Event, as would something that occurs repeatedly; for instance, if tidal waves happen every so often, it would be a Permanent Event that represents when those tidal waves happen.  A new permanent type, currently called Items, would involve objects that do things; for instance, if the player has an enchanted necklace that gives them an ability, or a statue the can do things, then it would likely be an Item.

Thinking about it, Items could very well be absolved into Gear; they can very well equip to a character when they enter play, and sort of be the exception to the rule.  They could also be Gear that doesn't equip at all, and would have a keyword to reflect that.  I'd appreciate any opinions on these potential changes.

The reason for Items and Non-Equip Gears are that not all of my current ideas for Permanent Drops would make sense under the definition of Permanent Events.

[Kevashim]

I guess the similarity to Magic depends on whether your exhausted characters can defend/block, and also whether they can make use of any printed/activated abilities that don't require them to exhaust/tap. These would be notable differences between entering play exhausted here and the "summoning sickness" effect in Magic.

[DavidChaos]

The way the "exhausted" game state works is this; exhausted characters cannot attack, defend, or exhaust.  Part of the key difference is that characters do not exhaust when they attack, and that damage is calculated so that a character will typically take less damage, but the damage is permanent.

[DavidChaos]

Hello, me again.  This is somewhat of a minor update (but at the same time, a major one).  I've added a paragraph about the new piece to the rules that I've been keeping under my hat, EVO, to the rules document.  Take a look, and let me know what you think of the ability; I think this in particular would separate my game from Magic, and gives me that extra restriction to exhausted characters that makes exhaustion something very different from tapping; it also helps that attacking doesn't exhaust characters.

While I'm at it, I may as well clarify the kinds of skills and mechanics that can be expected in the first set, and in what elements you might see them in.  Well, here goes:

Fire:

Fire uses the keyword Burn X and the ability Conflagarate.  Burn X is a pretty simple concept; the character is on fire, so even if you declare a defending team, you're still taking damage!  The X is simply how much damage you take when you get Burned by the character.  Conflagarate is a bit more complicated; Conflagarate targets a skill, and gives that skill the extra effect of dealing 1 damage to a character!  A few cards can even Conflagarate an opponent's skill, giving you the ability to make an opponent pay for activating a skill.  And there's even one card that Conflagarates one of your skills twice!

Other mechanics seen in Fire involve the Salamanders, which get extra effects as long as they attack in their own team.  Many characters deal damage by paying a certain amount as well.

Air:

Air has a couple of unique keyword mechanics to it; Impair X and Redirect.  Impair X basically hinders an opponent's combat stats, namely ATK and DEF, by X, whether attacking or defending.  Redirect does what one might think it does; it changes the target of a skill.  Some do it automatically, and some require you to pay a cost of some sort to do it.

Air also has the most search cards so far (one, though, will work without paying Air at all), and also likes to exhaust and restore cards.

Light:

Light's individual keyword mechanics are Regeneration X and Teleport.  Regeneration X goes off every Start Phase, and a character with it will have X damage taken away from it.  In other words, characters with Regeneration heal themselves every turn!  Teleporting a character Warps, or removes from the game, a character and brings it back during your next Start Phase (there is a bit of an advanced ruling on this; because the character is being sent away and told to come back at the same time, its Line cards will do the same thing; in other words, Teleporting an EVO character is not going to remove its Line cards from the game permanently.  This pretty much only works with Teleport, and I do have some very, very advanced reasoning behind this).

Light likes to heal its characters, making them last longer on the battlefield.  I feel as though Teleport has such potentially complicated rulings that I don't need another non-keyword mechanic for Light.

Water:

Water's keywords are Numb X and Bounce.  Numb X is basically damage prevention; a character with Numb X will take X less damage in combat.  Bounce is pretty simple to understand, too; it returns something from the field to the hand.  Easy, right?

Water, so far, only has variant costs as things it can do in terms of non-keywords, but I'll work on doing more with them!

Earth:

Earth gets Berserker and Reinforce, which I think is probably the 2nd most complex keyword in the game right now.  Berserker is pretty simple, though; it gives the character +1 ATK for each damage it takes.  The ATK gain is permanent, even if the character gets healed!  Reinforce also increases ATK, but in a different way.  Basically, the source of the Reinforce (non-characters with Reinforce will probably say something like "target character Reinforces another target".) boost the Reinforced character's ATK by its own!  This is complex because, in some cases, it can do two different things to two different targets.  Still, I think my wording makes it clear which target is which.

Other Earth mechanics include resource acceleration (normally by the ability to play more Terrain) and character teamwork; Wolves will use teamwork mechanics, and Bears to a lesser extent.

Shadow:

Shadow's mantra of "by any means necessary" really shows in its keywords, Shield X and Conceal.  Unlike other keywords, though, Shadow likes using its keywords in the hand!  Shield X cards can be discarded to prevent X damage to any player (this mechanic is not likely to stay exclusive to Shadow, but it seems so fitting to the Shadow mentality of putting everything in the grave).  Conceal basically turns a card face-down, and you can pay its cost to turn it back face-up either like deploying from your hand, or when it's about to be destroyed.  Some Shadow cards will do this to cards on the field to make them easier to get rid of, while others Conceal themselves or others from the hand, only to flip over for a surprise effect!

Shadow is good friends with the grave, so it likes to get the opponent's cards into the grave, whether it destroys them on the field, discards them from the hand, or mills them from the deck.  Be warned, though; "by any means necessary" means that it may be your health you pay instead of your resources!