City of Black: My new CCG and a discussion on multiplayer mechanics

[Wisp]

My main motivation for making a CCG is making an engaging multiplayer game. I've done a lot of research and put a lot of thought into what makes a good multiplayer ccg, and these are some guidelines i've come up with.

1. Keep it simple, stupid. There should be as few contrived rules as possible. What i mean by this is that a bunch of extra rules that aren't in the 1v1 game shouldn't pop into existence when you start adding extra players.

2. We're all in this together. The win conditions should be designed in such a way that everybody stays in the game until there is a winner. No one is eliminated, and everybody has a chance to win right up until the end.

3. Slow and steady doesn't win the race. Multiplayer games generally tend to be slower by nature than their 1v1 counterparts. The mechanics of the game should naturally account for this and encourage players to be aggressive.

4. Leave him alone! The game shouldn't encourage picking on the weaker player.

5. There's always something to do. Players shouldn't feel like they aren't a part of the game when it isn't their turn. The mechanics should encourage them to pay attention and interact at all phases of the game.

If anyone has any comments on my multiplayer guidelines, I'd like to hear them. Now onto the finest iteration of my game engine yet. This is a short version of the rules designed to cover the important unique elements of the game. The setting of the game is subject to change, but I like the idea of sci-fi, since it's a rare setting for a CCG.

Introduction

Water; water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

City of Black
?   Sprawling diesel-punk city
?   The last place on earth where there is fresh, clean water.
?   Chinese/Japanese/Arabian influences
?   Verticality
?   Bottom level: Canals, melting-pot metropolis, shadows, underworld, crime
?   Upper level: Pristine buildings, Interconnected walkways, skyscrapers and airships, rich upper class


6 Factions
1.   Aristocracy: Ruling class. Bankers, property owners etc. Trying to maintain their privileged position
2.   Lotus: Chinese/Japanese theme. Organized crime. Trying to take over Aristocracy from within
3.   Union: Workers union including, dockworkers, zeppelin pilots, police etc. Trying to check power of Aristocracy
4.   Inventors Guild: Pushing technology forward at all costs, enabled the building of the city
5.   Cirque: Circus. Front for occult organization. Ritual based magic, summon spells and creatures from other dimension etc.
6.   Visionaries: Arabian theme. Combining magic with technology to modify selves, push the boundaries of what it means to be human

Setting up
Each player needs a 75-card deck plus their 4 territory cards. The deck may not contain more than 4 copies of any card with the same name.

At the start of the game each player draws an 8-card starting hand. They may then mulligan by moving any number of cards from their hand to the bottom of their deck, and then refilling their hand to 8 cards.

Winning the Game
The object of the game is to control all of the Water in the city at the end of a turn. Players claim 1 Water when they build territory. Players can steal 1 Water from an opponent by destroying that opponent?s territory.

When the game starts there is 10 uncontrolled water waiting to be claimed.

Territory
Territories are what provide you with water and resources and are where combat takes place. You may play any card facedown horizontally from you hand as Territory and when territory comes into play under your control, you claim 1 unclaimed water. If there is no unclaimed water, then you do not gain any. It costs equal to the amount of territory you already control for you to build a new territory. At the beginning of your turn you generate resources from each territory you control. When a Territory you control takes damage equal to its HP it is destroyed and moved into your resource pool. If a Territory is destroyed in combat the attacker steals 1 Influence from the controller of the destroyed territory, which may either be added to the attackers influence, or discarded (added to the uncontrolled water) to generate resources equal to the number of the people in the game +1.

Resources, Drawing cards and Thresholds
Your Resources are the cards currently in your resource pool. When you generate resources, you move that many cards from the top of your deck face down into your resource pool. To pay for costs, you move that many cards from you resource pool back to the bottom of you deck. Moving a card from any zone to the bottom of your deck is called ?Cycling?. To draw card, you take one card from your resource pool, and add it to your hand.

To play a card you not only have to pay its resource cost, you also have to meet its threshold requirement. Cards in play and in your discard pile provide threshold. Threshold isn?t spent like resources; it is just a minimum requirement. There are certain cards that provide threshold, but do not have a threshold requirement and every deck must contain some of these in order to play the other cards it contains.

The Cards

Character Cards: Cards that get things done. They attack territories and other characters in order to gain influence and hinder your opponent. Stats: Faction, Cost, Strength, and Initiative.

Support Cards: Cards that attach to characters and territories, either to help your own or hinder your opponents. Stats: Faction and Cost

Event Cards: One-off effects on the game that can be played at any time to gain an instant advantage. Stats: Faction and Cost.

Every card has a resource cost, which is paid for with resources generated by you and your Territories.

The Turn
Turns are simultaneous. At the start of each turn, these abilities trigger for each player:
?   Resource: At the start of your turn generate 2 resources + 2 from each of your territories
?   Restore: At the start of your turn restore all depleted cards

Each player then takes alternates making the following actions:
?   Play a card
?   Build Territory
?   Use an Ability
?   Declare an attack
?   Turn a character to heal it
?   Set a trap
?   Draw a card
?   Pass

Once everybody passes in succession, the turn ends.

Once a target for an attack is chosen, the battle is resolved by taking these actions in order:
1.   Starting with the active player, each player chooses their attackers, taps them and moves them to the territory of the battle. This is the attacking party
2.   Starting with the player to the left of the defending player, each player chooses if they are going to block, and moves their characters accordingly. This is the defending party.
3.   The active player and the defender assign the damage of their respective parties in order of Initiative groups. If there are no defending characters or lethal damage has already been assigned to the blocking characters, the attacker may assign damage to the target of the attack.
4.   Damage is applied

[yudencow]

I think the territories should be contested for like in Sall of Cthulu LCG, so people won'y manage the risk in summoning territories. To have the game with a lot of people make that every time someone attempts to conquer one, other players can attempt as well.

Effects depedent on votes can help you to get all players working together.

If 2 players have 8 influence on the same round, they should both win.

City of Black is a nice name.

[Wisp]

Thanks, I'll change the title to include it.

Because this is a truncated version of the rules, I don't think i explained how the territories work very well. I didn't understand your suggestion in the context of my game, so I'll try to explain better.

When a player builds a territory, it comes into play under his control. Territories are arranged horizontally infront of the player who controls them. Each territory is a separate location. Characters can only block the territory at which they are located. They can move from one territory to an adjacent one by exhausting (tapping), and they can only move to an opponent's territory to attack or block.

Territories are how you expand your supply of resources, and having the more territory than any other will gain you influence. However, the more territories you have the harder it is to protect them, and if your opponent destroys a territory of yours, they gain influence.

Could you explain your Call of Cthulhu idea to me again? Thanks

Voting effects sound like a good idea, do you have any examples?

[yudencow]

In Call of Cthulu LCG there is a neutral Story Deck. Cards come form it and are contested to the first 5 investigation tokens. The winner takes the card, and a new one is up for grasp. First to 3 story cards wins. I think this would allow a far more offensive style, chasing to conquer. It will also take the focus of the weaker players at the time to the battle between the big players.

The voting mechanic comes from Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (V:TeS). You vote if effects will take place like discarding and redrawing you hands.

[Wisp]

It's a very interesting concept but it doesn't seem suited to the game i've developed. Also, I am prejudiced against extra decks

In terms of focussing on weak players, my battle system allows player to block any attack, not just attacks aimed at them. Other players will step in to protect weaker players because if they don't their opponents will win.

How do the voting mechanics transfer over to a 2-player game? And when do they happen usually?

[yudencow]

The voting mechinc does not transfer well to a 2 player game. V:TeS was fun with 4+ players. You can set a special rule if the voting player shosed a side, and it's a tie, that side wins.

[xchokeholdx]

I really like the concept and setting. However, your current rules are very prone to a "run-away leader" effect. You should never reward a player for destroying opponent's resources, especially if it is tied with a win condition.

If your Resource is destroyed, you not only have less resources next turn, your opponent is even closer to victory, making it harder to come back into the game.

--

A sample voting system could be with "influence numbers" on cards in hand. Whoever is willing to discards the most influence numbers from their hand "Wins" the territory.. or something like that.

[Wisp]

That might well be true in a 1v1 game, but i don't think it is in multiplayer. People can block for each other, so the idea is that the weakest player will be protected by all the other players because if they don't protect him, they lose too.

The precise balance will be difficult to see until I test it, it's definitely one of the things I'll be looking out for when testing. It still might be worth separating the resource mechanic from the territory mechanic.

[Wisp]

Could I have some suggestions for a mechanic by which you can steal influence from an opponent?

[Wisp]

Also, i think I have solved the problem of run-away victories. When somebody destroys a territory you control, you gain resources. That way, when it comes to your turn you can quickly rebuild.

[yudencow]

I like the compensation mechanic for losing a territory. Stealing influence can be supported by effects, or that you can steal by winning a challenge of some kind against a player, and you win the difference in victory, sort of like in A game of Thrones LCG.

[Wisp]

There could even be particular cards that let you pay them at a discounted cost when they are destroyed as a territory.

Some stealing mechanic ideas:

Some characters could have an ability which lets them steal when they do damage to a territory?

There could be a raid option, as well as the option to attack, which could have a different dynamic to normal battles? For example characters could compare initiative to a value on the defending player's stronghold.

[yudencow]

I like the fact a territory evolves into a support cards if destroyed.

If you win by gaining influence, I don't think they should be stolen in the first place. You can steal anything from a player, but not victory points. That's just bad design. Same thing goes with life link in magic though it is quite limited.

[Wisp]

Could you expand on why you think it is bad design. if you can convince me that would be great, one less mechanic to worry about

[yudencow]

The last thing you want to do is to frustrate the player. People will strategize hard to gain these points, if you lose them, the game shifts from keeping the territories to keep influence safe.

On the other hand, It doesn't mean there can't be other cards that generate influence regardless of the territories or stealing.