Warlock's Warfare

[MLaRF]

Hey guys, my card game "Warlock's Warfare" is ready for alpha testing! My general concept was that I wanted to make a game where no general type or card was any less overpowered than any other (I doubt this goal will be too successful this far in), but also something that was easy to play. Proxy cards have been created, and I'll probably start some arting (totally a word) when I have the time later on.

Plugin download:
Version 0.03

The general premise of the game:
You are a warlock. Warlocks are cool.
You're at war with another warlock. You have to win this war by summoning menacing monsters and crazy creatures (not official terminology) to defeat your opponent's fearsome forces.
You have a deck of 45-60 cards, with no more than 4 copies of each card in your deck. You also have a value called "Spell Points," which you use to pay for your cards; the maximum is 20, and the starting value is 10. You have 2 zones, known as the Front Lines and Home. You must always have 1 Character in your Front Lines. If you don't have any Characters in your Front Lines, you can move 1 from your Home, regardless of whose turn it is or when on their turn it is. You can't have any Characters in Home if your opponent has more Characters in their Front Lines than you do.

Cards are composed of 3 general groups, with several sub-groups in each. Character cards are the backbone, as they are the only essential card you need to play; without them, you don't have any way to fight the war. Character cards include:
-Basic, which you play from your hand normally.
-Ruler, which is like a Basic but each side can only have 1 Ruler played at a time.
-Advance, which you play on top (advance from) of your Basic Characters.
-Extreme, which you advance from non-Basic Characters. For now, they only advance from Advance Characters, but we could see some that advance from Rulers or from other Extremes.
Charm cards are instant support, you play them from your hand and discard them once the effect resolves.
-Standard Charms are exactly what it says above.
-Reaction Charms are special cards that can be played at any time on anyone's turn. You can only play them when the condition in its effect is met (i.e. when your opponent deals damage; you can't play a Reaction with that condition unless your opponent deals damage.)
Zone cards are like Charm cards, but they stay played after activation. Zone cards don't get discarded unless by another card's effect.
-Normal Zones are exactly what is said above.
-Weapon Zones are like Normal Zones, but only affect one Character. A Weapon is discarded when the equipped Character is discarded or returned to the hand or deck, unless the card says to equip it to another Character upon these effects.

At the start of the game, you pick one of your Character cards and play it face-down. (As long as you meet the conditions for playing it. For now, this only means Basic and Ruler Characters.) Flip your Character face-up, pay their Cost, and Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide who goes first. Whoever goes first can't assault. Then, each player draws 4 cards. Your turn starts after this is completed.
At the start of your turn:
-Draw 1 card from your deck. If you can't do this, you lose.
-Gain 2 Spell Points.
-Use any other effects that occur at the start of your turn.
After that:
-Play cards from your hand.
-Activate effects that say "once on your turn" and "any number of times on your turn."
-Move your Characters between your Front Lines and Home zones.
Now, fight!:
-Pick which of your Characters will assault, what stat to assault with, and who each will assault. Each Character can assault once per turn, and be assaulted once per turn.
-How an assault works: You pick either the ST (strength) or MG (magic) of 1 Character, and the target of the assault. If your ST or MG is higher than the opponent's, you deal damage equal to the stat you assaulted with. When a Character has damage on it that is equal to or greater than its HP (Health Points), discard it immediately; this is called being defeated.
-If all the Characters in your Front Lines are defeated, move Characters from your Home to your Front Lines.
At the end of your turn:
-Heal each of your Characters by their RG (regenerate) value.
-Discard cards from your hand until you have 5 or less. Gain 1 Spell Point for each card discarded. You can't discard if you have less than 6 cards in your hand.
Then, your opponent's turn begins, and the whole thing repeats.

Somewhat advanced rules:
-When you use an effect, perform it in the order that it says on the card. "Discard 1 card and draw 1 card" means that you must discard first, then draw, so you can't discard the card you draw.
-If you ignore or force to not use an effect, then that's it. The effect isn't used. You can't increase the ST of a Character if the card that increased the ST had its effect ignored by a Reaction or something.
-If a Character "has no effect," then the effect is completely ignored from that moment on. If you remove the effect which causes the original Character to "have no effect," then the effect returns as it if the card never "had no effect." For instance, I play a guy that increases ST by 4 until my next turn, and you play a guy that ignores my guy's effect as long as you have that guy. Next turn, I play a guy to remove your guy's effect for 1 turn, so my guy's effect returns as if you'd never stopped it; however, he no longer increases ST, because it's already been my next turn. Then at the end of that turn, your guy's effect returns as if I'd never stopped it, so the same card is targeted by his effect.
-If something specifies an amount of cards, but doesn't specify a cards, you pick the cards, so long as it fulfills the criteria. "Deal 1 damage to 1 Character" means the owner of that effect picks the Character. But he has to pick a Character, not a Zone.

The two golden rules of the game:
1. Any time a card states a contradiction to a rule, the card takes priority. If a card doesn't state a contradiction, it doesn't contradict the rules, as far as I could tell. Therefore the rule in question still applies.
2. These rules are subject to change.

So yeah, I hope that was clear enough, and I'm sorry it's so long. I'm pretty sure that's basically the entire rulebook right there. Since I'm a fan of those games like Pokemon that kids can play easily, but the inner workings are really complex, I always try to aim for a level of simplicity in what I do. I hope you enjoy and playtest, and I hope to see you soon!

Plugin advertising!

I'll be on later this evening to check up on how things're going. Thanks again for checking it out!
--MLaRF

[MLaRF]

Plugin update 1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?pcicvbppqohkdtu
Rules suspect:
-I may drop the SP gained per turn down to 1.
-The amount of stall that doesn't happen with the whole "you need as many characters in the front lines as your opponent" may be too big of a hindrance to the strategy, and there are downsides to leaving too many characters in the front lines for those aggressive strategies that benefit. More on this especially to come.

Updates:
-Frockst can kill things now.
-Harvest draws 2 cards instead of 1, meaning it's no longer just an empty space in your deck but actually serves a purpose.
-In the above post, I now remember that you need to discard equip cards whose character is defeated.
-I remember to mention that I spelled "assault" wrong in every single card.

IAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions) Time!
Q: What are all these types? Why are there 3 starter decks? I don't know what to use! --MLaRF
A: Thanks for showing your concern, MLaRF. In Warlock's Warfare, there are 9 types of Characters, and each one revolves around a different strategy. They can be divided into 3 supertypes, each being based on a larger and more general strategy.
-The "Energy" supertype is based around attacking.
-The "Life" supertype is based around supporting.
-The "Void" supertype is based around hindering.
I thought up this cool paradigm one day, which I call the "ASH" system. After making it up I later realized that Dungeons & Dragons does something very similar to this, except they split attacking into offense and defense. If you work with these three alone, then attacking beats supporting, supporting beats hindering, and hindering beats attacking, most of the time. If you use a variation of this setup (and I would love if you did), that would be the most obvious approach, but you can also make the triangle go in the opposite direction. The advantages of this three-type strategy over D&D's 4-type is that in D&D, when pit against each other, offense and defense seem to neutralize each other, as well as supporting and hindering.
But we can break it down further. How would each type go about supporting, hindering, or attacking? For years I've been sculpting this game in its many widely different incarnations (this is probably the simplest other than the first, which got nowhere because it was probably going to be a Yu-Gi-Oh! clone), and though I've tried different setups of 6 and 9 types, until this incarnation, I was never able to figure out how to split each superstrategy down further. I recently realized that I could do this in one of two ways: (A) making the effects work on the self, inside the type, and supporting other types, and (B) making them revolve around the speed, potential, and longevity of the cards or deck. I chose the second combined with the original ASH, making the "SPL/ASH" paradigm, but any 2 of the 3 sets could be chosen successfully. So please, use these setups if you feel the need! I'd love my ponderin' to be put to good use!
So, without further ado, adeu, or adieu, whichever is proper:
-Light: flood [assault/speed]
-Thunder: overheat (powerful but with drawbacks) [assault/potential]
-Fire: stat change [assault/longevity]
-Water: burn [support/speed]
-Plant: SP gain [support/potential]
-Rock: revive [support/longevity]
-Dark: stall [hindrance/speed]
-Air: effect negation [hindrance/potential]
-Ice: mill [hindrance/longevity]
(and before you say anything about how those hindrance types even remotely use their SPL attributes, they're supposed to hinder the speed, potential, or longevity of the foe's cards and deck.)
As far as theory is concerned, each type is neutral to everything within its supertype, and has 1 advantage and 1 disadvantage within each other supertype. For instance, Thunder has guys with big power, instead of a bunch of littler guys; as a result, they can only take down a couple enemies at a time. This allows Rock guys to recover their fallen brethren and keep chugging against Thunder's pursuits. Air guys negate the effects of Rock Characters, meaning they can't keep themselves alive by returning cards to the deck, and their potential as well as their longevity is ruined. But Air Characters will never be able to use their effects against a Thunder deck, because that removes the negative effects that keeps them from being overpowered.

So yeah, I hope this has been helpful to anyone interested. The 3 starter decks provided offer you a taste of each supertype, so if you're not sure what you want to use, try out the starter decks. That's what I've done so far. Of course, they're meant to be overviews of three types each, so naturally there isn't enough room for any 1 strategy to be prominent; as well, they're meant for starting out, not higher-level play, so you'll have to learn what's effective and what you like in order for them to compete after you face more advanced decks. And if you do play, don't feel you have to wait for me to be online to playtest! You can go about it with a friend and post your findings here on what you thought was too strong, too weak, what you like about the game, what you didn't like, anything really. Try it with the rules in the first post or the suspect ruling! Go crazy! It's a "Creative Card Game," as Trevor said in his CCG creation theory page. Get creative. Go crazy. Goet Creazy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?pcicvbppqohkdtu

Thanks again for dropping in,
--MLaRF

[MLaRF]

I swear I'm not actually gone forever

Rules change: Confirmed reduction to 1 Spell Point per turn.
Suspect: Still the whole Front Lines craziness.

Card-of-the-day (not done daily): Acoustic Bass

It should be noted that "hide" tags don't exist on this forum.

May I present a quickly growing trend in WW playtesting. Acoustic Bass is a solid Water Character that deals quick damage for a low cost. It has a good Health stat at 20, 2 Regenerate, and Magic and Strength stats that aren't too lackluster. As you can imagine, it's a fine play when you're low on Spell Points and need to deal quick damage. Even with these qualities, it's got its downsides: namely, the fact that it doesn't reach 7 in either attacking stat. Its effect is also somewhat lackluster if the advantage is not in your favour, and it really loses potential if you don't have its Advanced form, "Double Bass." But don't be fooled by its underwhelming appearance, this card can really wreck anyone who's not prepared.

The kicker that really makes this card great is "Phoenix Cards" or "Reviver Ritual." With such a low Casting Cost, reclaiming this card from defeat is no hard feat, and its poor defenses only compliment this cycle. Phoenix Cards is generally better to gain more Spell Points when you're low, but this issue can also be easily addressed: "Employee Discount" is a frightening support card on your opponent's side. Its ability to reduce the cost of each card its owner plays is undoubtedly a valuable effect, and after playing any 6 cards, its high initial cost is already compensated for. But the fun doesn't stop there: one-cost cards like "Harvest," "Resource Restore," and the main card here, Acoustic Bass, all become completely cost-free. Now you can play as many copies of Acoustic Bass as you want without having to spend anything. Additional burn support like "Invisible Gun," "Swamp Serpent," and "Double Bass" can make this deck a raging torrent, able to flood damage across the entire field and wipe out threats in the course of a few turns.

Since this deck utilizes all three aspects of the support supertype, it's quite difficult to counter, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Players who prefer a more aggressive strategy can outnumber with Light Characters like "Wandering Sun" and then hit hard with Thunder Characters like "Magnetic Eel," though you have to watch out for the negative effects of "Motor Moose" and "Bat-tery," who will add to the oncoming damage or weaken with wear and tear. Passive playstyles compliment from Air Characters like "Flightbulb" preventing the effects of Swamp Serpent or Double Bass, and can chip away more quickly at the opponent's deck with Ice Characters like "Tundra Pixie." As a general rule, the deck is somewhat slow to start before Zone cards can be acquired, so hitting 'em hard before they set up is usually your best strategy; of course, if that fails, you can always use "Zone Destruction" or similar cards to reduce your opponent's bonuses from the valuable Zones. But you'd better watch out, because this card's metal will really spell out death!

[MLaRF]

K bros so

First point of mention, the card game creation competition is possibly going to take a little while longer to set up than expected (as in it already kind of has). Sorry about the delay.

Secondly, related to this thread here, which is the reason I'm posting here! I'm thinking of implementing a mechanic called "sacrifice," where you discard one of your characters to gain a bonus regardless of any effects that may be present; this would also allow the "discard whatever" cards to be "when you sacrifice a Character," so that more can apply at once and epic combos can happen. However, I'm wondering what bonus to use for standard sacrifices. Spell Points really don't need another way to gain them. Like, really. As per the suggestion of one of my friends, my best option right now is that one Character gains ST and MG equal to the Cost of the discarded Character until your next turn. I may also have it heal a character by that amount instead (which will be more likely depending on the performance of bass decks against anti-burn decks). I'm wondering what you guys think would be a better idea.

[MLaRF]

Changes:
-Soup Kitchen heals more and costs less, making it useful.
-Decksplosion discards more and costs less, making it useful.
-Resource restore only restores 3 points at 1 cost, meaning bass decks won't be gaining 4 free with each play.
-"Scientizard" is a legitimate word.
-Added in a complimentary background with convenient turn structure on it. Made in HD if you randomly want it as your desktop image.

To test:
-Some faster cards like Light- and Thunder-types.
-I'm convinced doing so will eliminate the anti-stall rule, but it's not guaranteed.
-That whole "sacrifice" mechanic I talked about last post.
-Making all cards with 9 or more Strength or Magic cost more than 1 Spell Point.

Today's special card is:


Though this card may seem unimpressive at first, underestimating it will be a fairly large pain. With the Acoustic Bass deck's current momentum, surviving turn after turn of burn damage is a major benefit, and Batypus has the simple yet effective ability to do so. Its inability to be affected by any other card's effect (and by extension the inability to have its effect removed or negated), you're cutting down on an average of 6 to 8 damage per turn. It has a fairly strong Regenerate stat at 2, especially considering that it can only be damaged by assault, and its Health stat is grand enough to take 2 hits from a solid 10 stat. It's also able to hit quite hard, with 8 Strength and 7 Magic, which is a common balance greatly appreciated against the common 9/6 and 9/5's, allowing Batypus to take a beating while still dishing out solid pain. Adding this into any deck will surely make Water decks less of a problem.

When used in conjunction with healing Zones and Charms like Hospital, First Aid, and Soup Kitchen, Batypus is able to outlast many lower-Health Characters that it goes up against one-on-one. Add in some Weapon and Zone cards that boost its Strength, and you'll be fearlessly threatening out most cards that would otherwise threaten the sub-9ers. It would especially shine in Dark decks, whose assault-negating techniques leave them highly open to indirect damage, and with proper skill and luck it can be game-changing against a raging sea of more effect-based cards, possibly allowing you to rebuild your field.

How would you defeat such a monster able to tear down the most complex strategies? By using the simplest way possible. Stronger Thunder cards and most Rulers have high stats on both sides of the field, so without proper support any card with 9/7 or 8/8 can shut down Batypus' run. Zone Destruction, once again a useful card, will help take out any lasting support your opponent plays, making defeating Batypus in battle an easier task. When paired with Air cards, Thunder really shines strong; when paired with Dark, go instead with a larger flood of Light cards. Batypus tends to be weak to more assault-based types, which are conveniently the three energy types! But you'd better watch out if Batypus does get charged up, no amount of wear-and-tear will bat down this card!

[Typherion]

Just thought I would give some basic feedback.

I like the originality of your characters, but I don't like calling them characters because they seem to be strange creatures rather than people with personalities.

I think the art box on your template is way too small. It looks like the art has been squeezed in between the title and this massive text box. From the cards you have shown, I believe you could easily halve the text box and give that precious space to the art. I think if you actually printed these cards you might be shocked by how small the characters appear.

You also should probably think about some more visually interesting ways to display all of the stats down the right side of the card. Again, this could be done by taking some space away from the text box rather than the art.

Lastly, it isn't clear to me that Batypus could ever be damaged by an opponent's card because the word "affected" seems too broad. Yugioh usually uses a template something like: "This monster is unaffected by your opponent's card effects."

[MLaRF]

Just thought I would give some basic feedback.

I like the originality of your characters, but I don't like calling them characters because they seem to be strange creatures rather than people with personalities.

I think the art box on your template is way too small. It looks like the art has been squeezed in between the title and this massive text box. From the cards you have shown, I believe you could easily halve the text box and give that precious space to the art. I think if you actually printed these cards you might be shocked by how small the characters appear.

You also should probably think about some more visually interesting ways to display all of the stats down the right side of the card. Again, this could be done by taking some space away from the text box rather than the art.

Lastly, it isn't clear to me that Batypus could ever be damaged by an opponent's card because the word "affected" seems too broad. Yugioh usually uses a template something like: "This monster is unaffected by your opponent's card effects."

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!

-I'll agree, Characters is quite inaccurate for the game, especially since I never really want to have individuals with names for the fighters. Fighters sounds like a good idea, and it reinforces the idea that you're using them to fight a war. My next option would probably be summons, but I'm really liking fighter right now.

-I made a new card base, so now the image is the same size as the effect box. I'll probably put the stats in there at about half the size of the name box, immediately under the image. I wanted to keep the stats close to the image so that you don't have to look too far from the actual image to remember its stats. (I also made it as big as a Magic or Pokemon card, as opposed to the previous version, which was as big as a Yu-Gi-Oh card. It was originally done so that if I ever printed them I could put them in the Yu-Gi-Oh sleeves I get from tins, but since you only get 40 and the minimum in WW is 45, I felt I no longer had to sacrifice space for sleeve compatibility.

-I will change Batypus' effect as soon as I can (probably tonight), once I get it and Acoustic Bass re-fit into the new card base.

Again, thanks for the feedback! I'll try to be on today if you've downloaded the plugin.
--MLaRF