New card game based on my experience with fighting games.

[Loose_Moose]

So I'm working on this new card game based on fighting games I've played and some of the technicalities that are involved. I've worked out I'd say 95% of the base rules and phases. I used the Magic Set Editor to work on the cards and used the VS System template. If things work out I'd like to get a custom template.

Anyways, let me explain some rules/cards/gameplay.
I'll compare this game to Magic a fair bit so it'll be easier to understand if you're familiar with Magic. To start off there are NO CREATURES/CHARACTERS TO SUMMON, you are your character and the cards you use will be your moves and attacks.

So in this fighting game all cards can be put facedown as "Mana" like lands in Magic but in this case it's called Vitality placed into the "Vitality Bar" area. To use moves you tap Vitality cards which give you energy, similar to how tapping lands give you mana in Magic. So with this explained I'll explain some more on how a combat exchange might work.

So the basic card types so far are:

Offensive Moves: During your turn you'll be able to use offensive moves to attack your opponent. They play like spells would in Magic, except some of them can stay on the field and continue to be used in another turn. Let's say your opponent plays this card.


Defensive Moves: Whenever an opponent uses an offensive move you may use a defensive move against it. Then the power of the offensive move, indicated by the number in the bottom left, versus the blocking power of the defensive move clash, and the difference in power, if the offensive move has more, is dealt to the player being attacked. Let's say you play this card against your opponent's card.

So in this instance if a player plays "Overhead Heel" and you play "Reversed Parry" against it then you would take 3 damage instead of 5.

HOWEVER:
Every move also has a speed rating to the bottom right of the card, the lower that number, the faster the move is and can take priority in special instances. In this case this defensive move has the property "Counter" which means that if used against an offensive move slower than it then the offensive move has no effect at all even with greater power.

So in a real game the offensive move, "Overhead Heel", would deal 0 damage if you play "Reversed Parry" against it.

HOWEVER(again):
I've mentioned the Vitality Bar, which is where you store mana/energy to use moves. Moves can also be played straight from the Vitality Bar just as if it was played from your hand and some cards benefit from this such as "Overhead Heel". So let's read the card again shall we?

It has an ability called "Vitality" which means if the card was played from the Vitality Bar it will gain a bonus effect, in this case the speed rating of it would be 2 instead of 4, making it faster than Reversed Parry, meaning that the "Counter" effect of Reversed Parry doesn't activate and your opponent ends up dealing damage 3 to you.

So I'll note again that offensive moves may ONLY be used when it is your turn, when it's your turn you're basically on offense and the opponent is on defense, of course there are special conditions where this might not apply due to some special effect a card has, but this is the base rule.

So that's basic combat explained I'll say a bit more on your character. There will be character cards that represents you, basically like choosing a fighter in a fighting game. Each character will have a fighting style, although the moves you use don't have to share the same fighting style as your character, there are advantages if you do.

So there is a very important aspect I have to explain first:

Some cards have a special property called "Staple Move" which means it becomes a "permanent" as would be described in Magic. Basically it's a move that stays in your playing field which allows you to use it normally by paying it's cost and tapping it, without having to get rid of it after 1 use. So with this explained let's continue.

Let's say that this is your character. The name at the very top and the subtitle says "Desert Arts". That's the fighting style of your character.

Now, this move also has the subtitle "Desert Arts". This means that characters who have the fighting style "Desert Arts", such as Enma, The Prophet, may use "Shifting Dunes" as a Staple Move. In short, moves that share the same fighting style as your character automatically become Staple Moves. Only moves with the subtitle "generic" may have the Staple Move property for all characters. Moves with a specific fighting style will never be a Staple Move for all characters.

There is more to the game with "Move Enhance", "Meta Game" and "Mind Game" cards but I'll explain those later if there's any interest.

[Malagar]

just read your post and must say that i like the idea very much.

it sound much cleaner, faster and easier than some of the fighting games out there (i dislike UFS for example).

the only thing i wonder is how you want to provide enough design space for expansions. but thats nothing against your game, its just something that comes to my mind when i see games limited to just one aspect (fighting in this case). after a few dozend characters and a few hundred moves the air is usually getting thin.

you could try to implement equipment (like healing potions) and other stuff your characters can carry with them and use during a fight. or terrain cards that affect their surroundings, there could also be scenery to interact with. this helps to create some loose ends you can tie up in later expansions. but think about theese things in the beginning or otherwise it might feel tacked on later.

just my 2 cents

[yudencow]

I want to hear more. I really liked the staple moves. It reminded me of pro-wrestling where each wrestler has their 4~ moves they do every match they're in.

You are right Malagar, it can have arenas like in fighting games. Loos_Moose, you can always do crazy stuff like in "deadliest warrior" show.

[Loose_Moose]

Thanks for the reply guys, I've definitely thought about how expansions will work. I'm drawing from the fighting games that I'm basing this concept on, so there's still things like special Stance cards that will put your character into special stances that gives them advantages and disadvantages. There are some mechanics I'm holding back. Basically for now I'm only introducing "physical" moves as you can see from the Offense - Physical, etc parts of the card. I plan on adding sort of Spellcaster-type fighting as well in the future. I guess a good example would be from the Avatar series where they combine elemental control with martial arts, then that will come with a new set of mechanics that will be implemented into the core game.

Here's an example of a character who may be able to use special non-physical moves.

In this character's case he would be able to use special moves labelled as Chi. Will be revealed in the future when I feel the foundations for this game is more solid.

Also have ideas for equipments as you said that will involve more weapon-type items than potions, since the effects of potions I can probably do with the Mind/Meta game cards I haven't explained yet.

As for arenas, that's an interesting idea that I'll definitely look into but I'll have to see about how it would work with the game overall.

There's a lot you can do and right now I'm working on decks specific to a mechanic/theme. Right now the mechanic deck I'm working on will be based on adaptation and playing cards from your Vitality Bar instead of your hand.

Also working on a more "traditional" deck with a very straight-forward playstyle for beginners.

Thanks for your replies though, I'm really happy to see there's interest in this.

[Loose_Moose]

Introducing the Move Enhance cards. When you use a move you may also pay to enhance them with the Move Enhance cards. Here's an example of one.

This card is part of the desert-themed deck based on using the Vitality Bar to play moves without losing too much Vitality.

Here's some other ones:


Here's a card alluding to stances characters can use. Think of Tiger Stance, Scorpion Stance, etc from the movies. This move is for dealing with stance decks.

If used with "Repeat" move enhance, then it would become a powerful anti-stance move dangerous against Stance dependent decks.

Moving onto the mind-game cards, this one introduces a new mechanic:

Mind game cards are used to control the state of you or your opponent's characters. This one is designed for your character. Now to explain what Back-turned means.

Back-turned counts as a stance, except it's the one stance all characters have a possibility of entering, either through cards like short-cancel, or being hit into a back-turned stance like this one:
.
While back-turned, characters cannot use normal defensive moves and so for most characters it would be a disadvantage, however, it will be possible to build decks based on being back-turned since certain cards specialize in being used while back-turned, providing extreme bonuses while being extremely risky. The card "Short-Cancel" is planned for a stance-based pre-made deck I'm working on.

So this explains how Move Enhance and Mind Game cards will work and talks a little about Stances. More stuff will be revealed later. Stay tuned.

[Cyrus]

Seems pretty awesome, I'm excited to hear more about it! The stances seem like they could really open up the design space in the future, allowing you to not have to print as many characters (or cards, really) in general to achieve a lot of different deck possibilities. As long as they're some sort of Mind, Move, or Move Enhance that can disable staple moves then it is a really great mechanic (gotta make sure your brainier fighters have some sort of advantage, like making other fighters forget their own signature slams!)

[yudencow]

You talked about battle like in avatar (the anime-ish). I thought to add something similar to my game by giving a punch (light), kick (medium) and special (heavy) attackes to the heroes to make it in my hand be like a new from of fighting. What is the best way to implement it?

[Loose_Moose]

The only answer I can give you is to just go with any idea that you have of how it would work and develop it from there. There's no real "best way" to implement it. It all depends on how you want things to work. I'm not a real designer or anything but for me the best way to make something is to try it.

[Loose_Moose]

So to give the game some flavour I've come up with a general theme for the game. The first release will be called, "The Dawn of Ascension". It'll be about a tournament that stretches across infinite time and space that brings together warriors of every possible ilk. It'll start with around 3-4 decks, each with a theme and a mechanic focus. So far I have, untitled:

A Middle-Eastern/desert themed deck.
Focuses on the ability to build up a vitality bar quickly as well as capitalizing on the mechanic of playing cards from the vitality bar.

An Asia-themed deck.
A control deck with very weak attacks but with the ability to limit the opponent's actions through card-disabling mechanics, based on the concept of pressure points to disable opponents from a specific form of Chinese kung fu.

A Stance-themed deck.
Draws inspiration from quite a lot of places. Puts your characters in different stances, providing different advantages/bonuses as well as disadvantages. Has special stance-transition moves and moves that gain special bonuses when played from a stance.

These decks I'll have to explain further in detail at a later time but the mechanics are definitely there.

Wrote a simple blurb about the "story" that'll summarize things simply.

"Within a fragment of time, a tournament stretches across countless millenia, bringing together all who seek power, glory and hold a deep curiousity for what lies beyond. Many believe that the one who rises victorious among the countless will become The Ascended, a deity above all, ascending into the realm of Godhood."

Here's a preview on one of the card-disabling mechanics:

[Malagar]

I just took a glance at the new cards and I am very excited about them. If you continue this creative approach, i bet you'll be able to fill a whole coreset and allow players to really design their decks with a strategy in mind.

somehow the age-old mortal kombat tcg came up my mind lately. does anyone remember this game? maybe you can copy some of its more creative ideas and use them in your own game?

* you could add more conditions like "backturned", "stunned" and "pinned" come to my mind. lots of possibilities there!
* fatality, friendship and finishing moves - maybe a bit cheesy but worth a thought.

thats all for today, i got struck by a game idea a few days ago and must bring it to paper :-)

PS: @Loose_Moose feel free to check out my thread in the Arts & Grahpics & Skins Forum - if you ever need a template, i might give it a try!

[yudencow]

Your game definately goes the right way, and everybody on this community can see that.

For the stanced-themed deck maybe about a society which believed in reincarnation like native americans, mayans, inca, and other pacific societies. A more rough tribal combat with war dances.

About the back-story, I really hate it every fighting game is around a tournament. If they were several factions fighting for controlling the space-time continuity, but the ascended evened the playing field be leaving all nations relying only on martial arts and their intellect. I will understand every country has its championsips she sends to gain a piece of land or resources or the favor of the ascended. I will also understand if there were disagreements between the factions themselves leaving the story open for change.

I really like the vitality bar use and the simplicdity of gameplay, can't wait to play it.

[Loose_Moose]

@Malagar: I took a look at the AvP CCG template. It's pretty awesome and feels very professional. I'd be honoured and extremely grateful if you could make a template for this card game. Are you able to make a template for the Magic Set Editor? It's what I use to make these cards and you can create custom templates for it.

As for the design of it I'll leave it up to you. All I ask is to just make it easy to understand like Magic/VS. If it's possible just make a few prototype designs and we'll see how we can change them.

@yudencow: I understand that tournaments is a very generic thing for fighting games but that's what I'm aiming for. I want to make the theme of the game as broad as possible to incorporate everything. That's why I don't have any specific fighting styles for characters but simply vague things like "Traditional Arts" or "Desert Arts". Allows for a lot more flexibility without running the risk of contradicting anything.

[Malagar]

@Loose_Moose

I am currently very busy with my job and my own projects (i just have too many of them!). But when there is time, i would make a nice template for you. I guess you still need a while until you have the base set completed, so there is no hurry. maybe we talk again (or you PM me) when you
see the "light at the end of the tunnel" with your base set.

[Loose_Moose]

Yeah probably need plenty of time for me to complete the base set. No worries.

Good luck on your projects.

[Loose_Moose]

Just a little update. I'm about finished with a couple of the decks and changed/added some card types. What do I do with this in LackeyCCG exactly?

I read a bit on it but I have no idea how to write a plug-in for it. Also still looking for a custom template. Can anyone help with anything?