Action Points Resource Mechanic

[coreymdesign]

Here's the way it works right now:

Cards cost a certain amount of Action Points to play. This includes Units to recruit as well as other Continuous, Equipment and One-Time effect cards.

Each player starts off with a pool of action points at a predetermined amount (right now, I have it at 10). At the beginning of each turn, the player gains 2 Action Points.

My personal logic behind this system is that it allows me to put a cost on cards without having to rely on creating special resources cards for players to use.

I would like some constructive criticism on this. I've personally been thinking this might make my game too slow. I'll also give more information if you don't have enough.

[quinflecher]

sounds like an intresting mechanic although what would be an average point cost for each card because if the costs are too high you could have stalemate games.

[coreymdesign]

Most of the cards I have made are in the 1-3 range. The highest I have right now is 6.

That was one of my thoughts about it as well. I was thinking of adding some way that a player could gain more action points during the beginning of their turn, other than with a card specifically designed to do so.

[Cyrus]

Here's the catch 22 with this situation (imo, of course):

You will probably want (as you've mentioned above) to create cards for each of your factions (if the game has factions) that increase your actions per turn. This is all well and fine, except that I think you may end up running into the same thing you're trying to avoid; a resource card type. Basically, if all or most decks run a 1/3 or so split of their deck as things that increase their actions, then all other decks are going to have to follow suit in order to keep up the resource race (unless, of course, you go for a weenie-creature type strategy). So, it may be more balanced than a land-card system, but I'm not 100% sold... tie it in with a sweet theme/flavor, though, and it may work perfectly!

[coreymdesign]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, my game does have factions, which are primarily used for how unit promotions as well as for specific support cards to target them.

One thought I had was to use the resource card idea you mentioned, but make a separate deck for it. During the recharge phase, when you'd gain action points, flip the top card of that deck over. It would provide a bonus to how many action points are gained based off of certain conditions, such as how many units of a certain faction you possess, or "Gain 1 Action Point for each unit costing 3 action points or more".

Another though I had was action points would be recharged fully during the beginning of each round, but the amount you have each turn would be smaller. However, there would be many ways to increase the amount of action points you get each turn, and some cards would not be playable until you increased the amount you gained at the start. For example, lets say each player gets 5 action points a turn, which can be spend on playing cards or activating card effects. Now, if you did something, such as destroy an enemy unit, promote one of your own units, or something else, you would instead get 6 action points a turn, and it would increase. This solves a couple problems: games becoming a stalemate because action points restore too slowly and the problem of people using high cost cards too early.

My CCG also uses a Modern Military Theme in a fictional setting.

[MLaRF]

Ever so conveniently I basically have the exact same mechanic in my game (Warlock's Warfare, in this same forum, gonna update the thread soon), and I've found that gaining 2 per turn is a bit much, as I can usually gather sufficient enough funds gaining 1 point per turn. It should be noted that I also include a mechanic for gaining more points if you have too many cards in your hand, so if you don't have any other way to gain points you might want to try 2. However, if you can use the action points for other actions, like drawing and attacking, 2 would be either just enough or even restrictive, and I'd go fer 3 in that case.

[coreymdesign]

Ever so conveniently I basically have the exact same mechanic in my game (Warlock's Warfare, in this same forum, gonna update the thread soon), and I've found that gaining 2 per turn is a bit much, as I can usually gather sufficient enough funds gaining 1 point per turn. It should be noted that I also include a mechanic for gaining more points if you have too many cards in your hand, so if you don't have any other way to gain points you might want to try 2. However, if you can use the action points for other actions, like drawing and attacking, 2 would be either just enough or even restrictive, and I'd go fer 3 in that case.

The Action Points are used to play cards and use certain card effects. For example, I can recruit a Basic Infantry Unit card from my hand for 2 Action points, then it could have an effect such as "Pay 1 Action Point in order to have this card's armor rating to increase by 1 until the end of this turn".

How much do the cards in your game cost on average?

[MLaRF]

They cost about the same as in your card game, but mine only really require points to play, and the effects usually don't have any cost. I guess fer yours ya might want to go fer 2 points then, and maybe test out some kinda mechanic for people who can't afford to play their cards to gain more points.

[Typherion]

Just thought I'd mention that I just made a thread about a new game I'm designing called Chosen that uses action points as a resource mechanic.

The game is intended to play pretty quickly and I tried to keep all numbers in the game as small as possible, so players start with 5 Energy and regain 2 Energy per turn. In addition, a player can Rest on their turn to regain 2 Energy. Cards cost either 1, 2, or 3 Energy to play.

The inspiration for this system was the Kongai web browser card battle game, where characters have 100 energy and regain 20 each turn, and a further 20 if they rest. But they can only act once each turn, whereas I wanted to enable combos and reactions.

Some concerns I have about your proposed system is that it could be incredibly swingy or else too predictable depending on how it's balanced. There would need to be a massive power difference between cards that cost 5 or 6 AP and ones that cost only 1 or 2 AP. I think this would make cards pretty difficult to balance.

I think you'll have to find a balance through playtesting for the regen rate and starting of AP together with card costs. Too low a regen rate and the game will grind to a halt probably with one player with a massive advantage. Too high a regen rate and high cost AP cards start to become more valuable than lower cost ones due to each taking up a card draw. Too high a starting AP amount and you allow players to empty their hands too soon and go into topdeck mode.

All of this will depend on your design goals for the kind of experience you want to create.

[coreymdesign]

Just thought I'd mention that I just made a thread about a new game I'm designing called Chosen that uses action points as a resource mechanic.

The game is intended to play pretty quickly and I tried to keep all numbers in the game as small as possible, so players start with 5 Energy and regain 2 Energy per turn. In addition, a player can Rest on their turn to regain 2 Energy. Cards cost either 1, 2, or 3 Energy to play.

The inspiration for this system was the Kongai web browser card battle game, where characters have 100 energy and regain 20 each turn, and a further 20 if they rest. But they can only act once each turn, whereas I wanted to enable combos and reactions.

Some concerns I have about your proposed system is that it could be incredibly swingy or else too predictable depending on how it's balanced. There would need to be a massive power difference between cards that cost 5 or 6 AP and ones that cost only 1 or 2 AP. I think this would make cards pretty difficult to balance.

I think you'll have to find a balance through playtesting for the regen rate and starting of AP together with card costs. Too low a regen rate and the game will grind to a halt probably with one player with a massive advantage. Too high a regen rate and high cost AP cards start to become more valuable than lower cost ones due to each taking up a card draw. Too high a starting AP amount and you allow players to empty their hands too soon and go into topdeck mode.

All of this will depend on your design goals for the kind of experience you want to create.

What do you mean "too predictable"? As in what cards will be played?

Also, I proposed a couple of alternatives in an earlier post:

One thought I had was to use the resource card idea you mentioned, but make a separate deck for it. During the recharge phase, when you'd gain action points, flip the top card of that deck over. It would provide a bonus to how many action points are gained based off of certain conditions, such as how many units of a certain faction you possess, or "Gain 1 Action Point for each unit costing 3 action points or more".

Another though I had was action points would be recharged fully during the beginning of each round, but the amount you have each turn would be smaller. However, there would be many ways to increase the amount of action points you get each turn, and some cards would not be playable until you increased the amount you gained at the start. For example, lets say each player gets 5 action points a turn, which can be spend on playing cards or activating card effects. Now, if you did something, such as destroy an enemy unit, promote one of your own units, or something else, you would instead get 6 action points a turn, and it would increase. This solves a couple problems: games becoming a stalemate because action points restore too slowly and the problem of people using high cost cards too early.

[Typherion]

I meant that if AP recharge is low, then the outcome of the game could become too predictable. Even though both players might be running low on AP in the midgame, if one player has control over the board then the losing player has no chance of turning the tables.

Because it seemed like you haven't decided 100% which variation you want to go with I thought I'd just try to discuss general stuff like this for you to think about if you weren't already.

[coreymdesign]

You're right. I have not decided which variation I want to go with. I'm in the early stages right now, so nothing is set in stone.

I'm thinking I'd go with an alternate system I proposed where you gain all action points at the start of your turn, but the max number starts lower. Either that, or I could give cards alternate costs to be played.

Either way, I hopefully will be able to get the basic rule to my game down soon so I can post it here for feedback.

[MLaRF]

You could just begin your alpha testing with whatever you think will be a reasonable number, and then change it from there. After all, that's really the point of playtesting, I suppose. Testing by playing.