Zombie Survival CCG idea

[Trevor]

ZOMBIE CCG RULES

Objective: This is the zombie apocalypse, so really there is no way to "win" per se. The objective of the game is to not lose. The primary way for doing this is to have everyone else lose first. A player loses when all of his survivors are dead. Another way to lose is to have no cards in your deck.

Players take turns alternating from playing as the zombies menacing their opponent's survivors, and then defending their survivors against their opponent's zombies. While you are playing as the survivors, your zombie cards are just resources and not considered zombies. Your own survivors will not be harmed by your own zombie cards.

Card types:
Survivor: a character card representing one of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

Zombie: a character card representing one of the brain-eating, murderous zombies.

Item: an item representing weapons, armor, supplies, or barricades. Some items have permanent effects, and some items are discarded as soon as they are used. Some items are played to the battlefield, and some are played from your hand.

Zones of Play:

Any card not in a player's hand, deck pile, discard pile, or removed pile is considered to be "in play". Each player has 3 zones of play: the survivor zone, the resource zone, and the combat zone.
The survivor zone is the area of the table where you play your survivor cards and items.
The resource zone is where you play your zombie cards from your hand.
The danger zone is where you move your zombie cards so they can engage the opposing player's survivors.

Start up:
Determining who goes first:
At the start of the game, randomly choose a player. Starting with the chosen player, each player takes turns (in turn order) bidding for their starting food total. The player who bids the lowest starting food total decides what player takes his turn first. All other players start with the default starting food total of 10.

Initial game setup:
Each player draws 7 cards and, starting with the first player, each player plays survivor cards from their deck with a combined resource cost of no greater than 6.

Phases of a turn
Ready Phase: All players ready all spent cards. Any survivors with an infected token suffer a wound.

Scavenge Phase: All players draw 3 cards, then discard 2 cards.

Phases of turn:

Ready Phase: All players ready all spent cards. Any survivors with an infected token suffer a wound.

Draw Phase: All players draw 2 cards, then discard 1 card.

Build Phase:
Once a turn, you may play any card from your hand to your resource zone face down. (You may look at a facedown card you control, and you may do so at any time.) On your turn, these resource cards can be spent to play survivor cards and survivor abilities on cards. When it is not your turn, your resource cards are instead generic zombies with 1 strength.
There are two zones of play for your zombie resource cards. Resource cards are initially played to your resource zone (unless a card explicitly says otherwise). Later on, (in the recoup phase), you can spend any ready (unspent) zombies you have and move them to the combat zone. A players zombie cards are seperated in these two areas just to designate which are able to attack their opponent's survivors.

When spending your zombies to play cards and abilities (whether it's your turn or not), you can spend any number of ready zombie cards cards in either the resource or combat zone.

To play a survivor character or item card, you must spend X of your ready zombie cards where X is equal to the resource cost of the card. In addition to paying the resource costs of cards, some cards have additional requirements in order to be played.

Attack Phase
Begin Attack Step: All players have a chance to play cards and abilities before the survivor player declares how he will defend the attack. (The zombie player has the first priority to play a spell or ability).

Declare Defenders Step: The survivor player may assign any number of survivors to a fight with an attacking zombie. A zombie is considered attacking if it is in the combat zone and it is ready.
If there are any left over attacking zombies that aren't assigned to a fight at this point, the zombie player may assign them to fight any survivor. If this results in more than one zombie per fight, their power is totaled when determining which side wins.

Fight Step: For each fight, the survivor player determines the order the fights are resolved. When a fight begins, each side may play cards and abilities. When all players pass, the side with the greater power wins (with the zombie player winning ties). At the end of the fight, if the survivor lost, they receive a wound token. If the zombie(s) lost the fight, they are simply spent. If the power of the zombie(s) is double the power of the survivor, instead of suffering wounds, instead the survivor is overwhelmed and instantly killed.

When all assigned fights are resolved, proceed to the Recoup Phase.

Recoup Phase
Each player may play abilities that they can play during the Recoup Phase until all players pass.
During the Recoup Phase, players may play cards and abilities that say they can be played during the recoup phase. For example, the survivor player may spend a ready survivor he controls with the Scavenger ability to look for food. To do so, roll a 6-sided dice. If you roll 2-6, you gain one food point. If you roll a 1, each of your opponents may put the top card of their deck face down into is resource zone.

At the end of the Recoup phase, you lose one food point, and if you have more survivors than you have food points, you must put a wound counter (one at a time) on one of your survivors for each survivor you have in excess of your food points.

End Phase
The current player's turn ends and "until end of turn" effects wear off.

The cardback will have a generic picture of a zombie because face down cards played to the table are generic zombies with 1 power.

Zombies can be played (upgraded from face down normal generic zombies) if you meet their requirements. Some Zombies have keyworded traits, like "FAST" or "TOUGH", or other rules text. To play a powerful zombie, you might need to control 2 fast zombies and 1 tough one, for example. This mechanic makes it so you need to choose one or 2 zombie themes to be effective. If would be difficult to play a deck both with a zombie that requires 3 Fast+3 Tough zombies and also one that requires 4 Enduring + 3 Sentient zombies.

Zombie "Factions"
The zombie factions are: Rage, Horde, Contagion, and Weird.

Rage:
These zombies are filled with rage and ferocious energy. As soon as they see survivors, they will run towards them with horrifying speed, and they will pursue them with recklessness and savage intensity.
Gameplay mechanics include being able to attack immediately, surprise attacks, self destruction for temporary or instant effects.
Faction color: Red

Horde:
The true power of these zombies comes in their numbers. Horde zombies swarm and overwhelm survivors. They may not be the fastest zombies, but what's the point of running away from them, only to find out you are running toward more of them and you've been surrounded?
Gameplay mechanics include abilities to play a lot of zombies, zombies are more powerful when you have a lot of them, ways to draw lots of cards, and return discarded zombies back into play.
Faction color: Orange

Contagion:
All zombies are able to infect a survivor and thus turn them into a zombie, but Contagion zombies are blood-spitting, ichor-spewing, infection machines. Instead of killing survivors, why not just "recruit" them to fight for your side? There is no greater horror than to have a survivor have to face what used to be a family member or friend.
Gameplay mechanics include turning survivors into zombies, special abilities to use on ex-survivors who are now zombies, and damage over time effects.
Faction color: Green

Weird:
This group includes zombies that have been altered by science, and non-human zombie creations (such as zombie dogs), and everything else the survivors couldn't possibly expect.
Gameplay mechanics include being able to use some (crude) items, being able to able to counter survivor strategies, and a lot of other weird effects.
Faction color: Purple


Basic Keyworded Zombie Abilities
Infectious: When this zombie wins a combat, you may put an Infected Token on one of the defending uninfected survivors. When that survivor dies, you gain control of it. Remove all tokens and cards on it and place it in your zombie zone. It's game text is ignored.

Fast: When this zombie is moved to the combat zone, ready it.

Fierce: When this zombie wins a combat, it deals an extra wound to the defending survivors. This ability is cumulative.

Basic Keyworded Survivor Abilities:
Medic: During the recoup phase, spend this survivor to remove a wound counter from any survivor.

Scavenger: During the recoup phase, spend this survivor to look for food. To do so, roll a 6-sided dice. If you roll 2-6, you gain one food point. If you roll a 1, each of your opponents may put the top card of their deck face down into his resource zone.


Here are some sample cards: http://lackeyccg.com/zombie/zombie.txt

EDIT: just updated with some new ideas.

[Trevor]

Deck Construction Themes:

Some kinds of survivor decks will be good at evading combat, some will specialize in using weapons, and some will special in things like healing and utility. Another theme is backstabbing where you can sacrifice some survivors so that others can live.

Zombie deck construction themes include: Swarming (lots of cheap zombies), Overpower (few but strong zombies), Infection (try to kill survivors by turning them to zombies), Weapons (where zombies can use crude weapons), Zombie pets (where you can attack with things like zombie dogs)

[Cyrus]

I was literally 100% until zombie weapons, which I just think don't make sense in the kind of zombie settings I like, but as I could see how it would be a decent mechanic I'm still at about 95%. Really hope this comes to fruition, sounds really fun

[yudencow]

its awesome when you play as the zombies to pressure the other side by revealing zombies, can really spook the other player

the game has a great theme and great mechanics to appeal (especially if you add vampires, bloody twilight, even the x-men are fighting dracula now...), i also very much liked the different classes of both zombies and survivors

i didn't quite get why not to have a survivor deck and zombie deck like decipher's star wars ccg
also it feels the zombies kidna overpower in coolness the survivors

i think you should some fortifications for the survivors, like mines or hurdles, which of course zombies can jump over or secrifice lungs or something

it is deffinately an engaging and fun to play game in the making, hoping there will be actual tournaments not just at halloween, friday the 13th or a saw movie release

[Trevor]

I was literally 100% until zombie weapons, which I just think don't make sense in the kind of zombie settings I like, but as I could see how it would be a decent mechanic I'm still at about 95%. Really hope this comes to fruition, sounds really fun

I see where you're coming from, but I meant that some zombies that are sentient could use some items. In some movies you will occasionally see some zombies that aren't completely mindless. Consider the zombies in "I am Legend" for example. I definitely agree that mindlessness is one of the defining characteristics of zombies, but I was thinking that a not-completely-mindless zombie faction could be interesting for some players to use.

I was thinking along the lines of some weapons could have a "Crude" subtype, like bats or crowbars, and sentient zombies could use these kinds of items. I might just scrap the idea to simplify things and have items only usable by survivors. It depends if the added level of complexity is worth it. I'm currently on the fence. Even with the flavor of not-completely-mindless zombies, this could be reflected in other mechanics besides being able to use some items.

The more I think about it, the more I think I will abandon the idea of letting zombies use items. I don't think it's worth the extra complexity, and it could make it difficult to balance the power of items.

[Trevor]

its awesome when you play as the zombies to pressure the other side by revealing zombies, can really spook the other player

the game has a great theme and great mechanics to appeal (especially if you add vampires, bloody twilight, even the x-men are fighting dracula now...), i also very much liked the different classes of both zombies and survivors

I think I want to keep the theme just zombies. When you add other fantastic elements it spreads the theme too thin. The game is a plain zombie survival game.

i didn't quite get why not to have a survivor deck and zombie deck like decipher's star wars ccg

I don't like the idea of having more than one deck. It seems like an inelegant solution. With the current concept, I imagined that each player was competing to see who could survive the longest, as if each player's survivor party was in the same city, but were not traveling and working together. So the zombie cards in your deck would be the zombies that are chasing after your opponent's survivors. I think a deck's zombie strategy and survivor strategy should be linked.

also it feels the zombies kidna overpower in coolness the survivors

Survivors can be pretty bad ass too. Especially with shotguns and stuff. But I think the overall feeling I want to convey is the horror of the zombie survival genre. In a zombie apocalypse, you don't really win even if you survive the day.

i think you should some fortifications for the survivors, like mines or hurdles, which of course zombies can jump over or secrifice lungs or something

Those kinds of cards are represented by Item cards. One subtype of item is a barricade, which can be used to block zombie attacks instead of direct combat with survivors.

Another element I want to incorporate is the idea of fleeing. I want to do this by giving some items a passive keyword "stationary". For example, a barricade would be stationary. When players flee, they need to discard stationary items.

[Cyrus]

There would have to be some other penalty for fleeing, such as maybe losing a placed resource (and thus zombie), otherwise players could continually flee if they haven't played barricades, and I don't think it would make too much sense to only allow fleeing from barricaded "locations," because realistically you'd probably want to be fleeing from those types of areas less than open areas. Could be as simple as a mill effect as well, and having an exhausted deck also means defeat, so you'd have to choose your battles wisely...

[xchokeholdx]

I like the idea that the resources interlink between Zombies and survivors. If I use my resources to play survivor cards, I wont be able to turn them into zombies.

If I turn over my resource cards into zombies, I wont have that much resources to use for my survivors.

this is more or less the same mechanic as the shadow pool in Lotr, but more directly interlinked, which I like. Lotr had the problem that even though playing a lot of free people cards allowed my opponent to play more shadow cards, it had almost no effect on the shadow cards in my deck. It made me feel like I was forced to shuffle 2 decks together and play with it. the resource system you have here is quite nice.

It also allows you to shift focus if you want to, a feature other dual deck systems (like lotr) never had. "So my survivors are getting banged up?", I?ll save more resources to be able to help them. "my zombies are getting run over?", I?ll turn over more zombies to eat some brainssss!

A neat idea, and quite balanced. You just would have to make sure that both players won?t resource-hog enough to "overwhelm" the other player. Like playing nothing for 10 turns (survivors), then turning over 10 cheap zombies and kill the opponent.

Will zombies be turned back face down at the end of each turn? or will they stay face up? will a player still be able to use that zombie as a resource?

To ease up on rule problems, I would delete the "generic 1/1 zombies", and only use zombies that are turned face-up. they would stay turned face-up, and thus your survivors would lose one resource, in effect.

It will be HELL to balance it correctly, but it would make for a great strategic element. Maybe turning zombies face-up could be tied to tapping resources too?

there definitely needs to be some fail saves, like a big fat zombie that can be turned face up if X survivor has 10 or more power for example, or a chainsaw that discards zombies if there are 5 or more in play. You?ll always have players that will focus just on one side of the equation. (lotr Horn deck anyone?)

Simple rules always work the best I say: Forced 50/50 decks, minimum 60 cards. Last survivor wins!

to add more room for balancing, I would "up" the starting cost of survivors to 8, that way, survivor characters can be ranked between 1 and 8, creating more room for balancing and diversity.

The problem with each playing having its own turn (I prefer equal turns) is this:
Player A uses some resources to play some survivor cards, taps some resources, combats player B's zombies and end turn.
Player B then DRAWS a card, uses all its resources to play massive amounts of survivor cards. Because player A used some cards, his zombies or soon-to-be zombies are less effective, because he has insufficient resources "left", and has effectively at least -1 card  in hand to combat the survivors.

I would change the turn structure into this:

Phases of a turn
Ready Phase: Each player readies all cards he controls that are in play.
Draw Phase: all players draw a card.
Prepare Phase: The survival player can spend his resources to play Survivor, Item, Action or Condition cards.

Onslaught Phase:
1. Begin onslaught step. The zombie player can spend his resources to turn over any facedown Zombie cards in he resource pile (assuming he meets the requirements for doing so printed on the Zombie card) or play zombie cards from hand (e.g. equipment, events etc.., not zombie characters direct).
2. Declare attackers step.All Zombies attack.
3. Ranged combat step. Both players can play Ranged combat step abilities.
4. Assignment step. For each survivor, the survivor player must choose to have it defend against one attacking zombie. If there are more zombies than defending survivors, the zombie player may assign an unassigned attacking zombie to any survivor he wishes*.
5. Combat step: The survivor player chooses a survivor character that has been assigned to a fight. Each player may then play as many card abilities and action cards as they wish until both players pass. When both players pass, the character with the highest power wins. If a zombie wins, put one damage counter onto the defending survivor. If the survivor wins, put one damage counter onto the zombie. For each survivor still assigned to a zombie, repeat the combat step. Any zombie with enough damage counter on it to be killed is placed face down as a resource again!

Recoup Phase: All players can play card abilities and Action cards that say they can be played during the recoup phase. This Phase probably is not needed, as it can be implemented into the End phase. delete it.
End Phase: This is the last phase of the turn.

[Trevor]

I haven't decided anything for sure about exactly how the resource system will work. What I like is the ability to play any card face down as a resource, like wow lets you do. This greatly helps reduce the mana screw that can happen in magic. Losing (and even winning) games in magic due to mana screw feels really lame, and it can happen to anyone regardless of how well crafted their deck is. I also think its cool how the card back decoration will look like a generic zombie. But generic zombies will be pretty weak and it will be worth it to upgrade them to more powerful zombies with actual zombie cards. In a magic game, if you could play any card as a face down land that taps for colorless mana, you would still be able to ramp up to be on par with your opponents, but you wouldn't get a free ride because you can still get color screwed. I tend to think of color screw in magic to be more of a fault in the deck than plain mana screw. Also, plain mana screw permanently sets you back, whereas with color screw, once you eventually get the right color land, your power level will be in pace with your opponents.

One important mechanic that I want to have in place is a constant ramp up for both players. Each turn there are more zombies, and the survivors need to grow more and more powerful to match them. But the zombies will always win eventually. It's just a matter of if your opponent's survivors die first.

In most games, players look forward to their turns coming. This zombie apocalypse is different, and I think keeping along the idea of it being horror, I think players should dread it being their turn to play as the survivors. Each time your turn as the survivors is over, I want it to feel like it is a relief, especially in the late game when characters are wounded and on the brink of death.

I was thinking about it, and previously I was considering more of a "you need to control X zombies in order to turn this zombie face up" type of cost scheme is a bad idea. I think cards need to be actually spent. Once you have 10 resources, it is too powerful to just be able to play all 10 casting cards you have.

Here is what the play field might look like:

[Typherion]

I think this idea is pretty awesome and I wanted to offer some of my random thoughts.

In my opinion, creepy locations are an important part of the appeal of zombie apocalypses. Places like hospitals, schools, libraries, office buildings. Really any kind of public building. Add zombies to taste. If it were my project, I'd make some location cards, perhaps with special effects. I'll never forget playing certain parts of Silent Hill...

While surviving is a noble goal, I think you could do better. Characters in zombie movies are usually trying to escape to safety, whether or not it actually exists. And speaking of characters...I think survivor cards really want to have some personality of their own. Something like, Bob the Policeman begins the game with an equipment card, or Sally the Reseacher can search locations twice or whatever.

If players were trying to escape as a victory condition, you could have them desperately trying to get places. Entering a new location could let you draw from an event deck. You would be able to draw cards representing stuff like information leading to your next location, or weapons/equipment, or SURPRISE zombies burst out from the toilet or wherever!

It may be cooler to have zombies be put into play by the mechanics of the game itself rather than by players. Perhaps making it so the number of zombies continued to escalate the closer players get to endgame. And if a player's character died, they would naturally become a zombie. I would consider making this a co-op game for a more "us against the zombies" feel.

However, it sounds like you might already be taking the game in other directions and that's cool.

[Fian]

If you are adding in locations as the group of survivors attempt to move around to find an escape, remember that in all the movies, they move location and find more survivors. Moving to a new location could give the option of bringing into play a new survivor.

Alignment type issues could also be brought into play, someone sacrificing themselves because they are too injured to go on, leave them the handgrenade while the rest of the group run to the next location. The flip side to that is the mentality of "I don't need to be able to run fast, I just need to be able to run faster than you." Of course whenever a bad guy does this they normally run into trouble themselves and die.

[Trevor]

Location cards are functionally the same as any condition cards. I think to capture the flavor of locations, without creating a specific card type, I will make item cards like "Makeshift Barricade" and condition cards like "In the open, on the move"

A condition card like "In the open, on the move" might have text like "Stationary items are discarded and cannot be played. Zombies that aren't fast get -1 power.".

Another condition could be something like "Shopping in an abandoned store" which could have text like "At the end of your turn you may draw a card or return an item from your discard pile to your hand."

Remember that for each card type, you need to have ways of dealing with those card types. Adding Locations as kinds of cards doesn't really give you another kind of effect other card types don't, and its one more kind of card you need to be able to deal with. I think I will make some condition cards with the subtype Location and have the passive keyword "Stationary".


I want the decision to hunker down and fortify to be contrasted with the choice to flee. I think both would make interesting gameplay choices and a player SHOULD decide to do each at different times. Where there are too many zombies in an area, it might be a good idea to try to find a different place to go. But then again, if you stay in one play, you have the opportunity to fortify it a bit. This is typical in zombie movies. A group will find an abandoned store or school or something, and the first thing they do is lock the doors and set up barricades. But usually this is done for the short term.
Different kinds of decks may have survivors better at fleeing/fortifying and they will have a different feel when you play them. I haven't decided on the best mechanic for fleeing, but it should entail some extra risk (as well as discarding stationary items and conditions), but it should also reward you if you pull it off by getting rid of the ever growing amounts of zombies you need to deal with.

Here are some sample cards: http://lackeyccg.com/zombie/zombie.txt

[xchokeholdx]

I agree with Trevor here. Location cards are cool and all, but if you are not centering your gameplay around them (e.g., like having a victory condition tied to locations), they are merely condition cards.

I am not sure that the whole "your survivors will eventually die" argument will last, because if that is the case, players will abandon any serious ideas about protecting their survivors and simply go-for-the-kill with zombies, then the game will not be: "Keep my survivors alive while getting some zombies into play to annoy my opponent", but the game will dwindle down to: "Who can get the most and powerful zombies out the fastest to kill the survivors."
Gameplay and deckbuilding will all be focused on the zombie part... I personally think that the survivors should have a "way" out, e.g. win the game..

but it?s your idea, just throwing up 2cents here.

[Typherion]

You seem to have a good idea of where you want the game to go.

About stationary items...if they are all barricades you might as well just make the name 'barricades'. I can't really think of any other examples of stationary conditions.

I'm just thinking that without a focus on changing locations your survivors might feel like they're not moving much, like that plants vs. zombies game. But again, its your game so its your call and I wish you the best with it.

This thread has gotten me a little interested in trying to make my own zombie game. 

[Cyrus]

I am really into where this game is going, Trevor. Not sure what help I could offer, but I offer it

As far as people only playing as Zombies, I don't necessarily think it would happen if the cards were designed well enough.

Basically, to make a Survivor victory possible, you'd want to design late-game bombs, somehow in the form of Zombies, most likely the Sentient kind, or combination Sentient-Fast or something. So, like in other game's control decks, you'd be sitting back, fortifying your survivors, not much worrying about making an offensive with your smaller generic zombies, opting instead to use those resources for fortifications, weapons, or maybe some sort of counterspell-esque events? Regardless of the way control is represented, its end goal would be to punch through enough damage with a couple late-game super Zombies. I, personally, would probably play this game that way if the cards allowed for it.

Other players, especially those fond of red decks in Magic, would probably favor the all out Zombie assault plan. But as long as the Survivors are designed for late game wins with big baddies I think it would be a playable archtype.

I'm really just ranting because I want this game to get made lol, sounds like a lot of fun