Tactical Unit-Based Combat CCG - Fully Free Print-to-Play (when finished, ofc)

[Cyrus]

Doesn't have an actual name yet, but I'm using my old Arms 4 Hire templates for the cards since they have everything I need on them. Nothing above and beyond in terms of gameplay innovation I don't think, but new and interesting enough to be exciting. Plus I'm hoping to fine-tune it to be very fast paced.

If anything doesn't make sense let me know, obviously everything does to me because I know what I want out of it but I'm sure there's something I'm leaving out in terms of how it sounds to other people. Let me know what you think!

A deck consists of ?
   8 Unit Cards totaling no more than 20 Squad Points
   4 Location Cards
   3 Game Mode Cards
   25 Tactics Cards
   40 Total Cards

Cards should be separated as indicated above.

Decide who goes first. This is Player A, the second player being Player B.

Both players shuffle their Location cards into a Location Deck. Player A then plays the top card of their Location Deck onto the table. Player B then plays the top card of their Location Deck onto the table adjacent to the Location Card that Player A has just played. Then Player A plays the next top card of their Location Deck onto the table adjacent to the last played Location. This continues until 7 Location Cards have been played. Player B will have one remaining card in their Location Deck, set it aside until next game.

Player B then shuffles their Game Mode Cards into a Game Mode Deck and plays the top card from it onto the table. This sets the Game Mode for this game.

Player A then marks a Location as a Spawn Point. This does not have to be a Location from their Location Deck. Units can only be played to a Spawn Point marked by their owner, so choose carefully. Mark a Spawn Point using a token of some sort such as a coin. Player B then marks a Location as a Spawn Point, then this process is repeated once more (both players should have 2 Spawn Points by the end of this process).

Each player?s Squad (their 8 Unit cards) is laid out in front of them, face up. Players may, at any time, look at each other?s Squad.

The game is played and won differently depending on the Game Mode, and some Game Modes add an extra step to the setup. The Game Modes are:
   Team Deathmatch ? You win the game by scoring 5 Kills, you earn a Kill whenever an opponent?s Unit is discarded from play, or when an opponent ends a turn with no Units in play. Unlike in other game modes, when a Unit is discarded it may not be placed back into its owner?s Squad.
   Capture the Flag ? During setup a ?Flag? is placed on the Location in the middle of the board (there should 3 Locations on either side of this Location). Mark the Flag with a token of some sort, such as a coin (remember to use a different coin than the ones used to mark Spawn Points). Instead of placing 2 Spawn Points, each player only gets to place 1, and it must be the furthest away possible from the Flag (at either the left or right hand side of the line of Locations). Whenever a Unit is at the same Location as the Flag, you may place the Flag on the Unit. If that Unit is discarded from play, the Flag is ?dropped? at the Location of the Unit, and may be picked up by another Unit. The player that moves the Flag to their Spawn Point wins.
   Domination ? During setup place 3 markers onto the line of Locations at the far right, far left, and middle Locations. These are Capture Locations. At the beginning of every turn a player scores a Capture Point for each Capture Location that they have Units on and the opponent does not. The first to 10 Capture Points wins.
   (More Game Modes to come)

Each player then shuffles their 25 Tactics Cards into their Tactics Deck and draws a hand of 5 cards.

Turn Structure
   Ready Phase ? Ready all Exhausted Units.
   Stock Phase ? Add 3 Stock Points (SP) to your Stock.
   Deploy Phase ? Use SP to play Units from your Squad to a Spawn Point.
   Move Phase ? Move Units to different Locations
   Fire Phase ? Each Unit you have played may Shoot at enemy Units.
   Tactics Phase ? While some Tactics can be played at any time, this is the last chance in a turn for either player to play Tactics from their hands.
   End Phase ? It is now your opponent?s turn.

Some actions that your Units take will cause them to be Exhausted until your next Ready Phase. Exhausted Units have Offense and Defense values reduced by 1, and if Hit by a Shot are discarded immediately. Exhausted Units cannot Move.

SP is used to Deploy Units and play Tactics cards from your hand. Every turn you get 3 SP added to your Stock (your pool of SP). Keep track of your Stock using tokens or a piece of paper and a pen. You can never have more than 5 SP in your Stock, so make sure to use it up as much as possible unless you?re saving for expensive Units.

Units may only be Deployed to a Spawn Point that you marked at the beginning of the game. Units come into play ready for action, so you may Move them or even Shoot with them the turn you Deploy them.
Units have 5 Values as well as Game Text that make them all unique. In fact, all Units are Unique, and you may only have 1 of each Unit Card in your Squad. The 5 Values are Offense (Off), Defense (Def), Hit Points (Hp), Cost, and Squad Points (upper left hand corner). When building your deck, you must remember you can only have 8 Units whose total Squad Points total 20 or less.
The Offense and Defense numbers do nothing on their own, but are utilized by Tactics cards for other effects. They are merely ratings of a Units prowess in those fields.
Most Units have Hp between 1 and 3, and this rates the Units physical health and ability to take a hit. When a Unit is Hit by a Shot, place a Wound token on them. If a Unit has Wound tokens equal to or above their Hp, they are discarded from play. Also, if a Unit is Exhausted and Hit by a Shot, they are discarded. Note, however, that if a Unit already has a Wound token on them and later becomes Exhausted they are not discarded, unless Hit again at a later point.
The Cost of a Unit simply tells how much SP you must remove from your Stock to Deploy the Unit to a Spawn Point. If a Unit costs 4 or more, you will obviously have to save SP up over some turns.

To Move a Unit, simply place the Unit at a Location adjacent to the one they are already at, and Exhaust the Unit.

Most Units will also have, at the top of their Game Text, a line that says ?Hits on?? and then numbers 1 through 6. This designates which Shot Values you must reveal to Hit an enemy Unit.

To Fire upon an enemy Unit, declare which Unit is firing the Shot at which other Unit. Each Unit may only Fire once per turn. Firing also Exhausts a Unit, although Exhausted Units may Fire as well. In most cases Units may only Fire at Units at the same Location, although some Units will specify otherwise in their Game Text.
To make the Shot, Draw Value from the top of your Tactics Deck. Drawing Value simply means to set aside the top card of your Tactics Deck. Take note of the Shot Value of the revealed Tactics Card (it is in the same place as the Squad Points on your Units, the upper left hand corner). If the Shot Value is the same as any of the numbers listed after ?Hits on?? on the Unit making the Shot, your Shot hits. Before applying the Wound token to the Hit Unit, however, that Unit may Return Fire using this same method to see if their Shot hits.
Repeat this process as many times as you wish or until all of your Units have Fired in the same turn.

[Wisp]

Now THAT is a cool idea!

[Cyrus]

Thanks buddy. I thought you might think so. Probably another one of those ideas that I have that I will never actually finish. You know how I do.

[Wisp]

Indeed.

Seriously though, FPS modes in a ccg, fucking genius! You need help, i'm good for that. You think you'll be able to make it for more than 2 people?

[Cyrus]

I'll mostly need help with ideas for Tactics cards, as they will make up the bulk of decks. And Locations too I guess. Plus I need to wikipedia a list of army ranks so I don't make some low ranked Unit way to strong, lol.

And I definitely gotta think of some more Game Modes. I'm thinking of adding a Hardcore Team Deathmatch in which any Hit automatically kills a Unit, and maybe some sort of Plant the Bomb/Defend the Bombsite mode.

Once I have a few decks worth of cards ready the main thing I want to do with playtesting is change rules as much as needed to make the game play quickly but also be very tactical. There was a thread here awhile ago talking about what makes a game exciting, and something to the effect of "lots of decisions within a small amount of time" came out on top, so that's sort of what I am trying to base it on.

Not sure on the multiplayer ability of it since it has a linear battlefield, but I could try and figure something out. I'm more of a 2-player game type person myself, so I don't usually think in terms of adding more than that

[Wisp]

In terms of making the game faced paced, why not make each turn simultaneous. In the Equivalent fo the main phase, each player alternates taking an action. An action can be playing a card, moving a dude, shooting another dude, etc. If you combine that with fast resource development and a system where by you don't have to worry about keeping cards in hand (refill your hand in your draw step?) you've got an interesting concoction.

As for multi-player... if the game was on a grid instead of linear, more players could just mean a bigger grid. But that's less important.

PS. If you want to chat about this game, then you have my attention until the next hour (that midnight, GMT for me). Facebook/msn/whatever

[Cyrus]

Dang I think I missed you. Damnable Call of Duty lol, although it was sort of the inspiration for this so I can't be too mad.

The only problem I see with the grid is keeping track of who controls what units... I'll think on this some more though. Personally I want to design it for 2 players and then create rules to add more players, just because that's my preference as a gamer.

Simultaneous turns is a no-brainer! I can't believe I didn't think of that. That was sort of what I getting at with the counter fire, but alternating makes even more sense.

I'm the most on the fence about the "Exhausted Units can Fire" thing, but only because I think it'll become confusing to remember who has and hasn't fired without marking them someway. Hmm.... I'm gonna go work on this more, hopefully I can babble with you about it tomorrow or something.

[Wisp]

What's the reasoning behind exhausted units being weaker than normal? Also, another way to make the game faster would be to make it so that units didn't tap after moving, but maybe still limit their moving somehow. I understand how this wouldn't be so ideal without simultaneous turns though.

In terms of the "hits on..." maybe some numbers could be a critical, meaning critical hit.

[Cyrus]

Because... they're exhausted? I dunno, I guess it doesn't really matter. The stats are just for playing Tactics cards, so I guess it only serves to slow down the pace at which you can play those, which I'm not really trying to do. I'll have to consider removing that rule, I guess it seems sort of pointless.

The whole tap after moving thing is to emulate why camping is a valid strategy in FPSs... kind of. You always want them to come to you over you having to go to them, because you're at a disadvantage as you take the corner if they are sitting there watching the corner. But at the same time I don't want the game to come down to whoever moves first loses, so I guess I should think more on this rule as well. A main purpose it serves at the moment is being able to tell who has moved yet or not.

And I like the "Critical Hit on..." idea, I'll definitely add that to some more expensive Units

[Wisp]

To be honest i had a gripe more with them only taking one hit to kill, than anything else.

Interesting. I just think it would slow the game down. If tapping stays, maybe some dudes could move more than 1 location in a turn?

Make a plug-in and let' get testin!

[Cyrus]

I've started working on some test cards to throw a plug-in together with. It really sucks that no one has gotten Magic Set Editor to export to lackey format yet though, lots of copy/paste b.s. involved. Ah well.

I didn't think the one hit to kill would be too big a deal because of the whole respawn thing. I think it would make player's less worried to try and take some shots early on because they can just redeploy soon after.

Nothing will be for sure until some more testing is done, so I'll keep working on that. I'm trying to make it sort of a sci-fi ground war feel, so if you find any websites full of sci-fi or post-apocalypse type art let me know (art is just fun to have on cards)

[Wisp]

If you get it done in the next hour you know where to find me =P

[legend zero]

In all honesty I'd just go grab some screenshots from halo 3 as they are all free to use, open source, and fit the sci-fi theme pretty easy. Search them on bungie.net and you can find some really cool stuff in there.

Dude, this idea sounds awesome, makes me wish I thought of it first. We were trying to design some sort of FPS-ish TCG and this really seems to do it. Would you mind if we still worked on our project as it is sorta gonna parallell yours a bit.

[innuendo]

It really sucks that no one has gotten Magic Set Editor to export to lackey format yet though, lots of copy/paste b.s. involved. Ah well.

If you get me your plugin I can help you do an export template.  My game siege exports from MSE to my lackey plugin just fine, and we have a magic mse>lackey export as well.  Just let me know.

[Cyrus]

@Legend Zero - That's not a bad idea, especially as place holder art. I was thinking of just grabbing some Modern Warfare 2 stuff and updating it to sci-fi when I felt like... when/if, lol. And of course go ahead with your plan dude, if you want to swap rules ideas and talk stuff out just keep replying here (i'm not reliably contactable through instant messenger or anything) and hopefully we'll come up with two different, yet possibly similar, games. I have a lot of ideas for FPS type CCG that couldn't fit in here.

@innuendo - Thanks! When I get enough stuff for this made I'll send you a PM. As for now I'm just working on rules crap and am sort of busy so I haven't had time to make test decks or anything.