Realms Unconquered: Expanding Card Game - RuEcg

[Cyrus]

Welcome to another thread for another game I'm making!
This one is slightly different in that it is not really "new" if you've seen things I've done in the past, because it is a merger of two ideas I've been working on for some time, and realized that they are meant to be together!
In summary, it's essentially Realm: A Game of Influence without dice, and Kingdom: Path to Glory with the swinging-influence mechanic.

The Rules! v0.5
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zi7qr3U0hL1Fgp7Hk9wB84M_TiuQnIHPh5_nUEeu_jw/edit?hl=en_US

Card Design (WIP)

[yudencow]

A. I dig the name the name "Realms Unconquered".
B. The stats look great, the colors are a bit flashy, dim them a bit.

In all it looks great. I want to see how will you make influence.

[snowyy]

looks cool, where do you get the card pics from?

[DavidChaos]

It looks really good, and I gotta ask the same question as snowwy.

[Dragoon]

YAAAAY, no dice

Looks pretty decent, but you may consider to have spaces between two different card abilities.

*Squints eyes* The greenish icon is almost invisible. What is it?

[snowyy]

Looks like movement or somthing, i tink the icon is a foot/ boot.

[yudencow]

It's a boot, and he can add keywords later to shorten the amount of text.

If you can, right a strategy guide for it Cyrus, I want to play it like a boss.

[Cyrus]

Ah yes my horrible boot icon... good to know I haven't started liking it any more after not looking at it for a couple days...
Really those icons exist for 2 reasons - 1) Placeholders 2) Photoshop practice

As far as the text thing I totally agree, I was just filling space for the heck of it.

Rules and at very least samples decks coming first, then strategy guide or something similar. Hopefully I'll have a decent amount of time to work on this over the next week

Thanks for all the comments!!

[Dragoon]

Well, maybe I can try to craft a better movement icon, but don't expect too much of it

[DavidChaos]

I think the movement icon needs to be a little bit darker a color so it shows up better.  Other than that, looks great.

[Cyrus]

Here's a new mock-up with some edits from what everyone's said



Coming along pretty well?
I'm going to go plant myself in a coffee shop and finish up the rules!!...hopefully

[snowyy]

Just looking at the wording of the card, would it be better as:

If this hero is in battle with another soldier it gets +1 offense until the end of the battle?

[Cyrus]

Indeed that does sound better, I am still light years away from getting actual game text on cards.

Been kinda snagged on a couple really basic problems in how I want the game to work which kinda discouraged me from finishing up the rules. Also constantly thinking of all the locations and things I won't have art for off the bat. Just gotta remember that for rules I just need to write SOMETHING and then play test it, then it will be easy to change. And for art I just gotta design a kick-ass game that people want to get paid next to nothing to provide art for.

Doesn't sound tooooo difficult......




:/

BACK TO WORK

[Wisp]

woo. rules rule!

[innuendo]

Thoughts as I read through the rules:

Initiative Step ? Figure Initiative. The player with the highest Initiative becomes the First Player, and will be the Active Player first during each step proceeding this one. Some cards increase or decrease your initiative. If a tie for initiative occurs, use a die roll or other random method to determine the first player for that turn.

There has to be a better way than this? Making take an idea from some other games and have an initiative card that is passed around during this phase to mark. And then if there is a tie the card stays where it is (regardless of if that person is involved in the tie or not)?

Either way, this seems like a huge speed bump to the game play having to essentially stop everything and count initiative. I like the idea of variable turn initiative, but I'm not sure how this will flow.

...General Influence Step...

This seems like a method of non combat combat if i'm not correct. and it seems like permanents in play will shield you from this drain. But it seems odd that you choose a single opposing player as the "target".  I dunno if it's a thematic thing for me but it seems weird that you are influencing your own territories. And you simply select the weakest player at the table to try and stop you. So "johny no talent" gets selected to prevent your influence attempt each time, and he always fails.

I'm just not sure I like this mechanic's structure, it seems very very abusive in a multiplayer setting. Possibly trying to rework it so that each player gets a chance to prevent your influence? Although that poses other problems.

In summation, when I read this it just felt "backwards." like why are you influencing your territory but stealing from another player. It would almost seem like you should influence the opposing territory in an attempt to gain influence from them? I dunno, just had a really hard time with this section and wanted to make mention of it. I'm honestly unsure of the solution.

When a Battalion with a Hero Attacks a Location with the same Hero on it (played by another player) the Heroes are both excluded from battle.

Gameplay before flavor. I know why this rule exists, and it's better than some other games, but is there really any reason not to let players just keep their uniques in action. No player wants to have their best card excluded simply because they are attacking a player who runs the same cards.

Essentially, let the players each their cake too. Unless there is some rules reason to exclude them, I would just let all cards participate

Attack Range

How is this calculate when a player with 5 locations attacks a player with 3? Is it assumed centered? Do they start left and always get added right (as such location 5 is always 3 range away from location 3?) Just not sure, would probably need a diagram. And this is compounded by the multiplayer issue. You might consider an alternate use for stamina that isn't 1:1 logistical. Perhaps some way to abstract this same feeling without having players "line up and compare" which can be tedious in a tabletop setting

When you pay Influence to Attack it must go to the player with the least Influence who is not involved in the Attack (if tied, settle the tie with a 2D6 die roll).

Here is this weird d6 in the middle of play again. I would suggest the player closet to the attacking player (aka, break ties by the player who is first in line in the active player order)

Influence Drain Formula

Without a doubt you need either a cheat sheet for this or some other method. A lot of one off rules that seemingly serve little purpose other than to exacerbate the loss. I get the idea, and each of the points is flavorful, but it just seems like a lot of "one off" rules that seem stuck on. Possibly in action this is less of an albatross, but I suspect it would be a constant "okay, wtf happens now" at the end of battle for new players.

Backup Pile

A bit of a steal from other deck builder games, great rule, very interesting mechanic. Am I correct that you "backup" = to the number of draws you skip? Or is it just once if you draw through your deck?

Tactics Phase

Very time consuming phase again. I would consider allowing each player 1-2 "moves" instead and thus keep a limit on how easily you can rearange. Plus this gives you the ability to institute keywords like "this hero relocates for free" and other such stuff. It also gives a nice logistics restraint on the game by making players work to keep their cards ordered and adds a cost to players who streatch to thin.  Just an idea.



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Whew...Good Base, and I see it's roots in your other games. I think this has some room to grow into something very interesting.