Hexdrake Evolving Card Game

[DavidChaos]

Hi, everyone.  I've been working on a new CCG for a while now, and decided to share (now that I found somewhere to share, y'know.)  Here's what I have so far:

The game has 5 different kinds of cards:

Characters:  These are, in essence, the cards you attack and defend with.  They're your creatures and characters that you control.  They have Attack, Defense, Health, Class (with subclasses; for instance, a Beast-class character may be a Bear, or a Wolf), Cost, Element (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, and Shadow), and Skill (in essence, the effect of the card).

Gears:  These are various equipment cards that can be equipped to a Character.  Most have an Element, or Class, which reflects what Characters are allowed to have the Gear card on them, Attack, Defense, and Health to represent the bonus given to the Character's Attack and Defense, and a Skill, which provides any other effects the Gear has on the game.  Gear cards enter play equipped to a Character, and remain on the field when the character is removed from the field, but unequipped; you may equip them to another character by paying their cost.

Drops:  These are cards that reflect various actions the player can take to directly influence the game, or events that occur, possibly even objects in certain cases.  Notably, Drops have an Element, but they have three different Elements from Characters or Gears (Action, which is pretty much just a Drop that gets used during your Action Phase and goes to the discard pile; Rapid, which is like an Action but can be used during any point in the game; and Perma, or Permanent, which stays on the field after it gets played).

Warzones:  These cards are various places within the world, where combat actually happens.  They typically will not have a cost, and very rarely will have a skill that applies outside of combat.

Sources:  These are basically the cost system of the game; they go in a seperate stack from the rest of the cards in your deck, called the Source Deck.  You "exhaust" (lawsuit-friendly tapping) them as you play a card to pay its cost (Note:  This is different from Magic, because in Magic you can generate mana independent of playing cards, and generate more mana than you need if you have to; neither of those things can be done in my game).

Decks consist of 50 cards, with a 20 card Source Deck, and your deck cannot contain more than 4 copies of any given card, save for Basic Source in the Source Deck.  Both players begin with 20 Health.  After shuffling both decks and drawing a starting hand of 6 cards, the turns go as follows:

1. Start Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Combat Phase
4. Action Phase 2
5. End Phase

Start Phase:  Here, you draw 1 card, and if you have any cards that are exhausted, you turn them back to their proper position (this is called "Restoring").

Action Phase:  You may play Drops, Characters, Gears, and Warzones at this point, as well as using the skills of Characters you have.  Each Play Phase, you take the top card of your Source Deck, and place it on the field upright (this is "Generating Source").

Combat Phase:  Neither player may attack on their first turn, but after that, you may enter the Combat Phase.  The attacker, at the beginning of this phase of the turn, will now arrange his characters into "Teams" (thinking of changing this to "Parties" or "Squads", lemme know.) of 3 or fewer to attack with.  Then, the attacker chooses a team, places them on a Warzone (if there is one), and declares a target player (in games where this is applicable; an optional rule for multi-person games is that, if you attack an opposing player's Warzone, you are automatically attacking that player).  The defending player then selects a "Team" to defend with.  Any applicable skills (from Warzones, or Characters in combat, as well as the play of any Rapid Drops) are applied, and the total Attack score of the attacking Team is compared to the total Defense of the defending Team.  Each member of the Team that loses receives 1 damage per point of difference in combat scores, and characters are destroyed when their damage is equal to or higher than their Health. (Note:  Damage does not recover at the end of the turn)  If the attacking team goes undefended, the defending player takes the combined Attack as damage to their Health.  After that, the process either starts again with a new team, or the attacking player decides he's done with this phase (the Characters are marked as unavailable for further combat by the presence in the Battlefield area; when the Combat Phase ends, all Characters move to the appropriate side of the field).

Action Phase 2:  This part of the turn is pretty much identical to the first Play Phase; note that a second Source card for the turn is generated here; this gives the game more speed, but not too much, considering how easy it is to create a defense.

End Phase:  During this phase, the turn player forms teams of 3 or fewer again, as was done at the beginning of the Combat Phase, this time in preparation for defense.  After that, the turn ends, and goes to the opponent/next player.

The game ends when one player's Health is reduced to 0, or one player surrenders.  When a player runs out of cards in their deck, they no longer draw new cards; the game doesn't end, but does become more difficult.

Reading costs:

Costs are read as XC, where X is the number of Source, and C is the letter representing the Element (A for Air, E for Earth, F for Fire, W for Water, L for Light, S for Shadow, and N for Neutral, which can be paid with any Element).  If there is no number present in the cost, it is 1 of that Element.

Some general keywords I'm using:

Rapid (Any Skill on a character with this in front of it can be used any time one could play a Rapid Drop.)

Max Team Size: X (Changes the maximum number of Characters a given Character can be in a Team with.  Example:  A Character with "Max Team: 2" is limited to a Team of 2 Characters, including itself, whereas a Character with "Max Team: 4" can actually go over the normal limit on a regular team.)

Unique: X (Only one character with Unique: X may be on the field at once.  For instance, a card for Hiroki Sando would be Unique: Hiroki Sando.  The main reason I do this is so that I don't rely on subtitles and such for various things.  The Unique keyword appears directly below the name, as a "qualifier", as opposed to other keywords appearing in the text box.  I have ideas for at least one other "qualifier keyword" or "super keyword" that would appear like this.)

Eject (Basically, a term for being taken out of a given Team/Party/Squad.  In the first set, this will simply be a Ranger cost, but other sets may do more with ejecting characters from the groupings.)

Ranged Combat (This basically reads "Eject this character from its team in combat to activate this effect.  Return it to that team after combat ends."  What that means is that a character removes itself from combat to use a skill, and returns after combat is done.  This will be most frequently found on Rangers.

Merge (Gear keyword, will not be in the first set.  Basically, a Gear with "Merge" is taken off the field with the character it's equipped to, in the same way the character was taken from the field.)

Gear (Most of the time, this will be "Gear X", with X being a cost.  This is for character cards that can be equipped to characters, like Gear; a Class and/or Element may also be indicated.  Also not in the first set.)

Some things I'm not sure on:

Rebirth (A keyword that means "You may play this character from the discard pile") (Would be mostly associated with Shadow and the subclass Undead)

Shielding (Shielding was originally something you could do in regards to the old deck mill damage system; when you milled a card for damage, you could pay N to "shield" with that card, reducing the remaining damage by its Defense.  I could reintroduce it as a keyword, that probably would use Defense, Health, or some arbitrary number, as indicated on the card.)

Lemme know what you think; recommendations?  Suggestions?

[DavidChaos]

Introducing:  The Elements

Each of the six elements in the game has a central gameplay theme that is seen in most of its characters.  Here, I'll describe each of the elements, and the primary culture associated with them in the beginning; the flavor of the game evolves over time, with new factions, as well as changes in the cultures/nations already in existence.

Fire

Fire's gameplay focus is simple; hit hard and hit often.  Fire utilizes high damage output to neutralize its enemies, either through the use of its character's skills dealing damage, or the Bypass of other characters preventing foes from stopping them.  In addition, Fire is adapt at creating temporary Sources out of what it already has.  Fire, unlike most elements, is unafraid to destroy itself to take whatever action is needed.  It is adjacent to Air and Shadow in the elemental circle, and opposite to Water.

The Nation of Newsmoke is a representative democracy of elected officials, and tends to be partially reclusive.  However, if one can survive in their lands, namely the volcano Newsmoke Mountain area, they are welcomed as citizens.  As of late, they have come to clash with the expansionist Vasalgatar of the Dalin Isles.  Its primary leaders are Chancellor Kan Dowyn; current Parliament Chairman Vangris Drakmir, and Commander of the Newsmoke Defense Corps, Lo Yn.  Major landmarks includes Atiro City, the city of phoenixes; and Highrest, the seat of Parliament.

Fire Keywords:
Burn X (When this character attacks, deal X damage to the defending player)
Berserker (This character gains a permanent +1 ATK for each damage it takes.)

Shadow

The element of the Underworld, Shadow finds the greatest comfort in the end of life, and will sacrifice their own in order to drag others out of their mortal coil.  Although preferring underhanded tactics and hiding in the shadows, striking only when death is the only sure result, Shadow is unafraid of being dragged to the grave itself, being able to drag itself out.  It is adjacent to Fire and Earth in the elemental circle, and opposite to Light.

The Underworld is in inner turmoil consistently; the nature of the demons that preside over it is, after all, greed.  However, the Sendel Syndicate holds the most stable seat of power, with greater numbers and the strength if its recruitment from the outside world.  As the most powerful of the groups in the Underworld, the Syndicate leads the charge against the Heavens in Highborne; a small area a short distance away that is the one place in this world with passage to both the Heavens and the Underworld.  Its primary leader is Garun Sendel, and its most well-known holding is the Sendel Arena, an arena of bloodsport run by the nefarious Notorus Cavus, who is known to recruit "contestants" from the upper world.

Shadow Keywords:
Evade (Often written as "Evades X") (When this character's team attacks, characters or teams that meet condition X cannot defend against it.)
Conceal (Place a card face-down as a character, with 0 ATK, 0 DEF, and an amount of Health stated on the card.  Concealed characters have the following skills automatically:  "This character cannot be equipped with Gear.  Rapid: Turn this card face-up by paying its cost.")

Earth

Earth is most at home within the forests, and will actively seek out those who it sees as a threat.  Commonly seeing to a kill-or-be-killed mentality, Earth is unafraid of using stealth to ensure its survival, and is the most outwardly aggressive of the elements, able to topple defenses more easily than others.  It is adjacent to Shadow and Water in the elemental circle, and opposite to Air.

The Phaelin Tribe, residing in the Phaelin Forest, are the primary tribe of forest-dwellers that are seen in this initial storyline.  The tribe's warrior caste, the Jadeo, are known for their ruthless efficiency with their weapons of jagged green stone, although the druids, shamans, hunters, and others are also to be equally feared.  Recently, it was decided that the League of Dabaki to the north, in the Faiha mountain range, was a threat to the Phaelin lands.  The Chief of the Phaelin Tribe is Tigerrage, as he is the highest-ranking of the Jadeo caste.  He takes the advices, however, of a powerful shaman, Dustspeaker.

Earth Keywords:
Overrun (If this character's team would deal enough damage to a defending team to destroy them all, the defending player takes the remaining damage.)
Berserker (This character gains a permanent +1 ATK for each damage it takes.)

Water

Water is a contradiction; constantly changing, and yet abhorrent to it.  They use the natural change of their own tide in order to prevent others from interfering in it, by returning its oppressors to the shore, sinking them in the ocean, or otherwise simply standing in their way.  It is adjacent to Earth and Light in the elemental circle, and opposite to Fire.

The Dalin Isles were, at one time, a series of smaller, disjointed territories occupying and fighting among one another, until Varlyan Gatar changed that; he united the Dalin Isles, but did not stop with simply the islands.  Since uniting the islands under the banner of the Vasalgatar, he has begun to reach towards the mainland, occupying the nearby beaches, and setting his sights on the nearest territory he can see; Newsmoke Mountain.  The Vasalgatar is lead, obviously, by its founder, Varlyan Gatar.

Water Keywords
Numb X (Prevent up to X combat damage to this character per turn.)
Bounce (Return a target to its owner's hand)

Light

The element of the Heavens, Light embraces the might of justice, and will smite those who do not adhere to it.  Those who seek death will find a more eternal suffering if they were to cross Light's path.  Light will also defend the innocent with the same vigor that it persecutes the guilty.  It is adjacent to Water and Air in the elemental circle, and opposite to Shadow.

The Heavens, unlike the Underworld, are quite united, feeling no true need for a single leader; they work with one another for the greater good.  However, in regards to presence in the mortal world, there are those who are more active than others, due to their place against the Underworld in Highborne; a small area a short distance away that is the one place in this world with passage to both the Heavens and the Underworld.  Nidalus is a young man who, although not technically of the Heavens himself, has an affinity towards the sort of magic that Lightbringers are fond of, while Savarel faces down Sendel with a heated resolve, although serving as a partial guardian to Nidalus at the same time.

Light Keywords:
Impair X (When this character enters combat, reduce the opposing team's ATK and DEF by X.)
Warp (Removes a card from the game until the beginning of your next turn.)

Air

Air takes many of its philosophies from the very wind.  It allows its foes to do as they please, but manipulates the end result; enemies of Air find their aim skewed.  Air also moves with the flow of battle, allowing attackers who fail against them to fail much more decisively.  It is adjacent to Light and Fire in the elemental circle, and opposite to Earth.

The League of Dabaki finds its home within the mountains of Faiha, just north of Phaelin Forest, where its noble people for years kept their peace.  However, when General Hiroki Sando's band of travelers happened upon the Phaelin Tribe one day upon an expedition, they were perceived as a threat, and war broke out.  Central areas controlled by the League include Shurensai, the palace city owned by the Dabaki family; and Kugato, an outpost at the edge of Faiha which serves as one of Hiroki Sando's central rallying points.  The patriach of the League of Dabaki's ruling family is Asato Dabaki, who is advised by his chancellor, Tomyo Utagi, and General Hiroki Sando.

Air Keywords:
Impair X (When this character enters combat, reduce the opposing team's ATK and DEF by X.)
Redirect (Change the target of a skill.)

[cap.tiny]

I cant wait to play this 

[DavidChaos]

Well, I may as well show off a card (severely beta, btw) for the game that's been constructed, since obviously everything I've done so far is good (based on what's being said).

[DavidChaos]

I've updated some of the rules, including a few things that I know will not be seen in the first set, but will eventually be seen.

[spartan116chris]

sounds interesting, granted still alot like magic even though you are trying to seperate it. but still interesting though. my only thing is i noticed a lil oddity in ur combat approach. u say

the attacker chooses a team, places them on a Warzone (if there is one)

but then later u say

the Characters are marked as unavailable for further combat by the presence in a Warzone

so wouldnt that mean a warzone is always necessary for combat?

also, this is purely a question of opinion, u dont think a 60 card deck plus a 20 card resource deck is a bit too much? 80 cards total seems like alot

[DavidChaos]

sounds interesting, granted still alot like magic even though you are trying to seperate it. but still interesting though. my only thing is i noticed a lil oddity in ur combat approach. u say

the attacker chooses a team, places them on a Warzone (if there is one)

but then later u say

the Characters are marked as unavailable for further combat by the presence in a Warzone

so wouldnt that mean a warzone is always necessary for combat?

Thanks for pointing that out; originally, I kind of wanted to require Warzones for combat, but I scrapped the idea.  I've changed the wording in the original post.

also, this is purely a question of opinion, u dont think a 60 card deck plus a 20 card resource deck is a bit too much? 80 cards total seems like alot

This, again, is a valid point, but I sort of weighed a number of options;

First, the 20-card resource deck.  Anything above 20 felt like just too much.  I thought about going with a 10-card resource deck, especially since very few costs even reach 10, but that seemed to small.  I could've gone for 15, but I felt a nice, even number was needed.  So, I went with 20.

As for the main deck, anything over 60 would feel like too much, especially since I already have the 20-card resource deck.  My real options in this regard appeared to be 60, 50, and 40; 4 copies of a card in a 40-card deck would be too easy to get to the hand, or stack the hand with stuff you can't play, if it's higher cost.  If I reduce it to 3, then I have Yu-Gi-Oh's deck size, but if I don't, I feel like it'd be too unbalanced of a draw; Magic has 4-per-deck because it's a larger deck, and they have Land cards in the deck itself.  My only other option is 50, either at 4 or 3 (preferably 4), but for testing purposes, I'm going with 60 at the moment.

[spartan116chris]

hmmm well u could cut the resource deck to 15. that would bring it to 75 total...but bringing the deck down to 50 seems like a good middle ground acualy. or theres always the possibility of just throwing out the limit and setting 60 as a minimum. idk with the resources seperated and being pretty much guaranteed at least 2 per turn its gona b different to say the least. its going to take sum serious testing to find out how the gameplay unfolds. cuz if u think about it drawing 2 resources every turn will deplete the resources by turn 10 at least. and since its guaranteed things will b moving pretty dam fast by turn 5

[DavidChaos]

hmmm well u could cut the resource deck to 15. that would bring it to 75 total...but bringing the deck down to 50 seems like a good middle ground acualy. or theres always the possibility of just throwing out the limit and setting 60 as a minimum. idk with the resources seperated and being pretty much guaranteed at least 2 per turn its gona b different to say the least. its going to take sum serious testing to find out how the gameplay unfolds. cuz if u think about it drawing 2 resources every turn will deplete the resources by turn 10 at least. and since its guaranteed things will b moving pretty dam fast by turn 5

This game is designed to move at a middle-pace between YGO and Magic; YGO is a very, very fast game, and Magic, at times, can be very slow.  I feel like the separation of resources, on top of the 2-per-turn resource mechanic, make it fast, but also controlled.  If it's too fast, though, I'll likely drop the resources down to 1-per-turn.

[Cyrus]

Magic (and I'm not talking about casual magic or edh) is one of the fastest playing games out there. To really study the game length and involved mechanics in achieving that length in Magic you should watch a lot of pro tour or other high-end tournament footage. Any game over 20 minutes long usually involves a rules issue or a control deck. If you got two lands guaranteed every turn, games would probably last all of 2-3 turns every single game, except, still, against control decks. So, in order to increase/decrease the time it takes to play your game, you really just need to focus on the cards themselves (and obviously piles and piles of playtesting). If your game doesn't have a lock-down control type archtype, whether or not resources are 1 or 2 per turn, it will generally play a lot faster.

Sort of rambling haha, hopefully there's something helpful to you in that block of text and not just the rantings of a mad man

[DavidChaos]

Magic (and I'm not talking about casual magic or edh) is one of the fastest playing games out there. To really study the game length and involved mechanics in achieving that length in Magic you should watch a lot of pro tour or other high-end tournament footage. Any game over 20 minutes long usually involves a rules issue or a control deck. If you got two lands guaranteed every turn, games would probably last all of 2-3 turns every single game, except, still, against control decks. So, in order to increase/decrease the time it takes to play your game, you really just need to focus on the cards themselves (and obviously piles and piles of playtesting). If your game doesn't have a lock-down control type archtype, whether or not resources are 1 or 2 per turn, it will generally play a lot faster.

Sort of rambling haha, hopefully there's something helpful to you in that block of text and not just the rantings of a mad man

Your point is very valid; high-level Magic games tend to take less time to finish than high-level YGO games; YGO has a large amount of costless, or relatively low-cost counters to various moves.  One reason I feel like games will be longer in my game is because of the Health system and the Team system; because of the way damage works, characters could be more viable to combat even with lesser stats, because they'll give the big guys the push they need, or take the damage so that your big guys can keep fighting longer.  It's really something that only playtesting can tell me what I need to change.

In the initial game, there isn't a whole lot of control going on (Water does have negation, and Air redirects skills to different targets).

[DavidChaos]

I've updated the name of the game, as well as added keywords, along with associated keywords with what elements they'll go with in the first set.

[DavidChaos]

I have a plugin with the first 95 confirmed cards (including the 6 basic Source cards).  I don't have card images yet, which is the next thing beyond playtesting the mechanics; part of the reason I'm doing this first is to see what all I should add to the base set, and if all of these cards are balanced; there's enough variety in costs for me to gauge how my source system will work out, too.  I'll upload it tomorrow evening (the thing's too big to attach here.)

[DavidChaos]

So, here's that plugin I promised; the only actual image for the game itself I have is the image for the cardback.  Enjoy it!  Chances are, I'm gonna put out an update sometime next month, possibly with the full 215-card (confirmed number as of right now) setlist for Base Set 1, plus Basic Source cards!

Hexdrake plugin zip file

[DavidChaos]

I've made some other changes to the game's initial foundation; removed Enrage and Scorch, renamed Judgment and Recover to Impair and Salvage, moved Salvage to Earth, gave Fire Surrogate, a new revival keyword (may not stay Fire-exclusive past a few sets, but still), and gave Light Warp, a temporary removal effect.