Imagination: CCG in the making

[crapcarp]

Well, the title isn't quite definitive yet, but for now I'm gonna call it that.

Anyways, I'd like to get some feedback on my idea for a CCG. Here's the gist of it.

Flavor

The game's world is essentially Earth, but with one major change to it. People have suddenly gained the ability to physically manifest their imagination(hence the name). Think of a dragon, and you can make it appear! It's not quite that simple, though. Manifesting anything from the mind requires time and effort, and more so the more complex the manifestation. So manifesting something as complex as a dragon takes a lot of time and effort. However, the time and effort put in doesn't have to be equal. You could simply take a huge amount of time but not put in a whole lot of effort, and vice versa.

As far as the world and characters go, I'm still working on that. So many ideas floating about, and while it's coming together, it'll take a bit of time to do.

Ojective

A player wins when all other players have "run out(of ideas)", or have lost all the cards in their deck.

I do realize that this can lead to problems such as limiting players with a strict deck size. However, I've come up with a rule that any player may add or subtract cards from their deck to even all decks out before anyone shuffles their deck.

Resource System(or lack thereof)

The game will not have a resource system, or at least not in the strictest sense. Rather, you play a card as a seed, which you can only do once per turn. You can build other cards on these seeds, but you can't build cards on top of a seed that has been played on the same turn. Flavorwise, this represents using multiple simple ideas to form complex ones to manifest(hence why manifesting takes time and effort). Cards give bonuses and/or effects onto the seed. For example, you could just have a lizard card as a seed, but then give it things like giant size, wings, and fire breath to make a dragon.

Cards work differently depending on what seed it's put on. For example, the giant size card may give size to a lizard seed, but use it on a fireball seed, and it could allow the fireball to fire at multiple targets. Certain cards will work better with certain other cards, so different strategies are limited through the effiency of your cards. I purposely made it this way so that deck design would be very free-form, yet allow players to make choices for their decks.

Redemption

When you take damage, you have to discard that many cards from the top of your deck. However, before you do, you may pick some of them and put them into your hand, then discard the rest. How many cards you can redeem depends on how much damage you take. Less than 3, and you can redeem 1, after that you redeem 1 for every 3 points of damage. For example, take 2 damage, redeem 1, take 6, redeem 2, take 9, redeem 3 and so on.

This turns what would normally be a demoralizing way of taking damage into an exciting one. If a player is being bashed by their opponent, they may just be able to get that one card they need to turn the tables and win!



These are the major concepts for the game. I know it's not much, but I'll build on this seed as I go along. Feel free to give any feedback you want, whether it'd be compliments, ideas, and/or criticism.

[Vase]

I think your game concept is cool. 

And I like your idea with the Redemption mechanic.  Having a chance to turn the tables on a player is so important.  If there is a level of damage that is so low that no Redemption is allowed, say 1 damage, it may be necessary for a player to attempt to do only 1 damage if he suspects that his opponent is fishing for that one card...Nice.

[crapcarp]

I didn't think of that actually. And since redemption is a core mechanic, something like that would be important, especially in tournament matches.

So maybe I'll just make it so that every 3 damage you take you draw 1 card. Easier to understand, too. Thanks .

[Kevashim]

It would be worth deciding if the damage taken to trigger the redemption mechanic is all damage taken in a turn, or damage from individual sources. For example, taking 2 damage lots of times would not trigger redemption if you use the "damage taken from single sources" style; whereas taking 1 damage from 3 separate sources would trigger redemption in the "cumulative damage taken over a turn" style.

[Cinchspark]

The redemption mechanic seems a bit interesting, but the seed/mixing concept with the ideas is also interesting. Not a game I'd like to play because it lacks a sense of identity. For example, Shadow Era is a game I can get into because there are clearly-defined factions and play-styles, which help attract people to the game itself because it show them, "Oh, I can be a mage," or "I can be a brute warrior!" Although I know your game doesn't have heroes, maybe you could consider putting some lore in so that you have someone to identify with.

[Typherion]

Resource System(or lack thereof)

The game will not have a resource system, or at least not in the strictest sense. Rather, you play a card as a seed, which you can only do once per turn. You can build other cards on these seeds, but you can't build cards on top of a seed that has been played on the same turn. Flavorwise, this represents using multiple simple ideas to form complex ones to manifest(hence why manifesting takes time and effort). Cards give bonuses and/or effects onto the seed. For example, you could just have a lizard card as a seed, but then give it things like giant size, wings, and fire breath to make a dragon.

Cards work differently depending on what seed it's put on. For example, the giant size card may give size to a lizard seed, but use it on a fireball seed, and it could allow the fireball to fire at multiple targets. Certain cards will work better with certain other cards, so different strategies are limited through the effiency of your cards. I purposely made it this way so that deck design would be very free-form, yet allow players to make choices for their decks.

This seems like it could be tricky in practice. Will you have cards explicitly state how they affect other individual cards, or will you just have them modify different cards according to a subtype?

I think the biggest problem, though, might be with how you can show these modifications. Adding wings, firebreath and upsizing a lizard might effectively make a dragon, but the art on the card will still show a lizard - not a dragon.

Redemption

When you take damage, you have to discard that many cards from the top of your deck. However, before you do, you may pick some of them and put them into your hand, then discard the rest. How many cards you can redeem depends on how much damage you take. Less than 3, and you can redeem 1, after that you redeem 1 for every 3 points of damage. For example, take 2 damage, redeem 1, take 6, redeem 2, take 9, redeem 3 and so on.

This turns what would normally be a demoralizing way of taking damage into an exciting one. If a player is being bashed by their opponent, they may just be able to get that one card they need to turn the tables and win!

I think a better mechanic might be an idea thought up by 3XXXDDD for his System game:

• Taking X damage forces a player draw X cards from their deck, then discard X cards from their hand.

This lets players trade any cards they don't want for other ones, but avoids the issue of certain values of damage being better than others. It doesn't matter whether you take 2x 5 damage or 1x 10 damage, because the result is the same. However, under the system you have now taking 2x 5 damage lets you redeem only 2 cards, whereas taking 1x 10 damage lets you redeem 3.

Good luck!