New Super Robot CCG

[Malagar]

I am writing from work, so this was written in a hurry. All questions will be answered and I try to explain the rules a bit more later on:

you know - every once in a while someone has the idea of creating the next "super robot battles game". Now its my turn and I want this game to be a CCG. I have 90% of the core rules ready (based on earlier designs) - but would like to ask the community for feedback. usually i design games with only my own vision in mind - but in this case i would like to hear your opinions before going in (the probably wrong) production direction.

So its all about 2 or more players bringing giant robots in cardform onto the playing field and battling each other with skills and weapons. you are able to attach "parts" to your bot-cards to equip them with weapons, shield generators and so on.

* QUESTION 1: victory conditions
this is rather easy: what victory contition would you like to see? i have five possibilities:

A. defeat all enemy robots

B. destroy your enemies home-base (the place where he brings robots into play)

C. win via terrain control, by locating bots on important terrain locations

D. gather 7 victory points by blasting opponents bots into pieces

E. (my favorite): a combination of all of the above: for destroying bots or the homebase and by controlling terrain, you get victory points. the first player who has 7 points, wins the game.

* QUESTION 2: robot parts
you will be able to upgrade your bots by attaching cards to them. the question is how far shall i go with this system? how complex? how strict? this is the most important question and theese are the options:

A. robots are represented by cards, you only attach special skills and only a few of them - this allows robots to be unique and characterful. they have all weapons built-in already and additional cards just make them stronger. this reduces freedom of robot design a lot.

B. robots are empty frames and you have to attach quite a few cards to them (skills, attacks)

C. robots are divided into card-parts and you have to attach everything from chassis, to gears and weapons. this removes a lot of flavor from the game - as there are no robot cards (just parts). this approach allows maximum freedom of robot design. maybe its a bit lame because attaching "gears" to a "chassis" is not epic at all.

* QUESTION 3: the setting
also very easy, im just asking if you prefer a pre-set setting or something new:

A. Generic (my favorite) - a new setting written by me, allows maximum design freedom but lacks material.

B. Gundam Wing - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

C. Super Robot Wars - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

D. Mega Man - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

thats all for now, you can answer like a poll (1:a, 2:b etc.) or write some of your thoughts. thank you for your feedback!

[Cyrus]

1: E (definitely). If you can make it work, it will be epic

2: A combination of the options listed. I think it should mostly be A, but with a good amount of "blank" robots that either get a bigger bonus from having pieces attached, or make pieces cost less to attach to them, or something. OR, you could make all robots have some pieces but missing others, and have a decent amount of deck searching effects, perhaps on the bots themselves, such as, "when this bot comes into play, search your deck for all missing pieces. Their combined cost must be less than X." Some people really don't like mechanics that encourage a lot of deck searching, though, but to steamline it you could make a separate "assembly deck" that houses all of the pieces of your bots, while your main deck has everything else. Could allow for a lot of deck building ideas.

3: I say original (A), but only because obtaining a license seems damn near impossible for anything cool. Although I have heard that fan games can sometimes really take on a life of their own, and certain copyright holders don't mind them (especially if you make sure you don't make ANY money doing it). Of course you always run the risk of getting hit with a cease and desist, but really how bad is that?

[Malagar]

@cyrus Thanks for the feedback!

Regarding 3: Actually I dont care for licenses because this game will be free forever. but you are right in general. the thing is that i am "forced" to use stolen artwork anyway! why? because i dont have any artwork to use. from this point of view, one could say: "okay, lets just use a copyrighted setting - as i dont care for copyright and have to use artwork of some sort". but well, i dont want to let this look like i want to do something illegal ;-)

Regarding 2: @Cyrus and @All:

I was talking with a friend about the game and the question i asked in this thread. after a bit of brainstorming we discovered a truly mega-epic idea. the only problem is that it would complicate the game a bit more and turn it more into a wargame instead of a "pure robot skirmish" game. anyway, here we go:

the forces a player can bring into play are not only represented by robots. instead there are three different types of troops:

A. Units - Represents single card infantry, vehicles and flyers. Each card symbolizes a squad of troops, all gears, weapons and skills are already "built-in". Unit cards cannot be upgraded or receive attachment. Cannonfodder.

B. Bots - The classic mobile combat suit. Represents a single "mech" with a height of 10-30 meters. the Bot is represented by a single card, but can receive several upgrades in form of additional weapons, shield generators and various other extras (usually up to a maximum of 3). the important point is, that bots do not require attachments to function.

C. Titans - This behemoth class of Bots is about 40-150 meters tall and towers high above the battlefield. Titans are represented by multiply "part cards" that comprise "gears", "chassis", "weapons", "pilot" as well as "upgrade" cards. A titan can only function if all vital part cards are attached and working, but once unleashed - it is usually a game breaker as its powers equal about 5-7 unit cards or 3 bots.

Different from the other troop types, you literally have to "build" a titan in your homebase before you can unleash it to the battlefield. This is done by paying costs for all "part cards" one by one and attaching them to form this super-robot-being. the trick is: you can bring card parts face down into play and then pay their costs distributed over several turns by placing tokens on them. once the cost of a part is fully paid, you turn the card over and it is considered "active".

example: The "Dreadnought Class Titan Chassis" costs a whopping 24 resources to bring into play. but you decide to bring it into play at your homebase face down and pay 3 resources to place 3 tokens on it. during later turns you can slowly continue to pay and place tokens until you reach 24 resources.

finally: if your opponent decides to attack your parts in production, he may of course do so! every point of damage instead removes one resource token from the card. once there are no resource tokens left, the part is considered to be scrap and discarded from play.


sounds good? got any ideas? keep 'em coming!

[Malagar]

to keep you updated: i spent a little bit more time on this game concept, here are some of the results:

A. name of the game changed to "machine world" (working title). its a card based wargame set in a dystopian future.

B. gameplay was expanded from giant robots to more unit types (last stated in my last post): there are of course the bots called "striders", but there is also plenty of infantry and vehicles to support them. and there will be the "titan class" robots, wich are made up from parts.

C. changed the victory condition. there are no victory points or anything. instead, you have to deplete your opponents deck. there are various ways to do so: by destroying enemy units, by controlling terrain and by attacking your opponents base.

D. i removed the "build a base" element of the game. instead you are granted a number of "deployment points" every turn to bring new units into play. terrain control is critical for earning more deplyoment points.

E. started working on the background world and the first faction.

thats it for now, thank you for reading, i will see how long it takes until i can cook up a template for this project