[GB] Card Types

[Eliahad]

Here are the different card types I'm thinking of, there could be more out there:

Movement - Cards that let the champion move beyond their normal movement in a turn.

Attack - Cards that directly effect a champion or a God's token pools or cards, making them lose tokens.

Hindrance - Cards that make movement more difficult for a champion. Either knocking them down or making movement cost more GP or tokens.

Defense - Cards that prevent or mitigate attack or hindrance effects.

Barrier - Cards that create tokens that make movement through hexes more difficult.

Reaction - Cards that are played in reaction to other Godcards coming into play.

Terrain - Cards that alter or create terrain tokens.

Imbuements - These are special cases, that are a part of other card categories, but give the Champion tools that let them perform special actions on their turn.

[Eliahad]

I decided, when starting to figure out how we were going to design roughly 180 cards (for a 6 God starter set), that I should see if Magic the Gathering has a design blog...and of course they do. So I'm starting to get together a Design Skeleton, following some of the suggestions from that blog.



I'm going to keep reading these articles for tips, because I feel as if learning from the best is going to give us some insight as to how to polish and consider every last one of these cards.

[Eliahad]

To go with Card types, we should brainstorm what the different Card Types can do, and some of the mechanics they affect.

Attack:
Affect Champion Token Counts
Affect God Token Counts
Affect Champions in multiple hexes
Affect a champion in a single hex
Affect a chain reaction of champions within a particular number of hexes.
Knock Champions Down
Affect God's Hand or Hand Size
Imbue a champion with a power that is effectively a melee weapon
Imbue a champion with a power that is a ranged weapon.

Defense:
Limit the impact of an attack.
Create impervious shield...until the champion moves again.
Protect other champions

Movement:
Move your champion around the board (beyond normal movement)
Move other champions around the board
Move the Godball around the board
Reduce cost of moving through impediments
Cause champions to switch places (within a certain distance)
Change favored terrain of champion

Hinder:
Cause God powers to temporarily cost more GP
Cause Champion actions to temporarily cost more AP
Cause Champion movement to temporarily cost more AP
Reduce the refresh rate on token pools (one time)
Grant a champion an item that would create a hindrance (a magic rope, for example.)

Barrier:
Create a stationary impassable barrier
Create a barrier that moves in one direction
Create a barrier that is controlled by the God who played it
Create a barrier that can be moved 'x' number of times, but by anyone who pays the GP cost
Create a barrier that can only be moved through a particular kind of terrain.
Create a barrier that is only passable in one direction.
Create a barrier that occupies several hexes.
Create barriers in a shape arranged by the God.
Create tokens that can be distributed among a set of hexes as the God wishes (maybe 2 in one hex and one in another, or 3 in one hex...or 1 in 3 different hexes.)

Reaction:
These are all cards that are playable in certain circumstances...let's see...
If you must drop the Godball, you get to choose the hex instead of your opponent.
Deflect attacks onto other champions
Remain upright during knockdown attempts.
On cards that create multiple items, be allowed to remove one (after placement)
On cards that create multiple items, the God is forced to place one less.
On cards that knock you prone, you still fall prone, but can dive into an adjacent hex.

Terrain:
Create a specific terrain time in a single hex.
Create a single kind of terrain in multiple adjacent hexes.
Create multiple kinds of terrain in different hexes.
Create a certain kind of terrain in a straight line across the board.
Remove terrain from a single hex.
Remove terrain from multiple hexes.
Shift terrain to adjacent empty hexes
Spread terrain out from a certain point (a card that can raise a mountain higher...creating new mountains around the existing mountain.)
Swap terrain tokens.

There can be imbuement versions of most of these ideas...they just get delayed and activated by the champion instead.

[Mike]

I knew you had this list here, but I've felt out of touch, so I brainstormed all the kinds of cards I could think of, given the current rules. Most of these are already up above, but I'm going to post them, and then work on combining them after. My goal with this list (created with pencil and paper while stuck in a meeting again) was to try to break everything down to just the most basic effects, with the idea that most of these can then be scaled to be anywhere from a 1GP power up to 3 or 4 or whatever by increasing range or area of effect or duration.

Also, there will be cards that have will mixed effects as well, sometimes even hurting the God's own Hero or helping opponents in exchange for even greater effect.

I know I missed a bunch of stuff. I will certainly go back and update this after, but more than anything, this was for my own benefit to help me get my head around what we're doing.

Terrain Effects
Terrain effects are permanent, can happen anywhere on the board, and all of them can have "mass" versions that allow the effect to apply to multiple hexes at once. Any single hex can only have one terrain on it at a time.
*Create Terrain
*Change Terrain
*Move Terrain
*Remove Terrain

Barrier Effects
I'm using the word impediment to apply to any effect that increases movement cost for Heroes (storm, flood, monsters, monkey swarm, on fire, etc). A single hex may contain multiple barriers. These can all have increased effects by allowing them to apply to multiple barriers at once, either all in the same hex or spread across multiple hexes. Barrier effects are generally of limited duration.
*Create Barrier
*Move Barrier
*Remove Barrier

Attack Effects
Attack effects are immediately applied and damage opponents in some way and/or cause them to lose the ball.
*Simulate Hero Attack -- But with GP
*Loose Ball
*Knockdown -- Can scale up by affecting multiple hexes/opponents.
*Attack Opponent's GP -- Can scale up by increasing damage OR by affecting multiple opponents at once.
*Attack Opponent's HP -- Can scale up by increasing damage OR by affecting multiple opponents at once.

Buff Effects
Most buff effects will be played next to the Hero card and will have spaces for a number of counters on it. The buff lasts until all of the counters on the card have been used. Essentially, buffs give a Hero extra HP that can ONLY be spent in particular situations. Scaling is achieved by the number of counters placed on the card OR by the number of things the counters can be spent on. Buff's may also have a limit on how many counters can be spent at a time. For example: Boost hero attack may come with three counters, but a limit of only using one per turn.
*Ignore Terrain
*Ignore Barrier
*Boost Hero Move
*Boost Hero Attack
*Boost Hero Defense

Debuff Effects
These will also have counters on them like Buffs. Hinder effects are an increased cost to take an action--general one extra HP each time the Hero wants to perform that action. Prevent actions simply stop the affected Hero from performing that particular action for the duration. Duration is almost always one turn.
*Hinder Move
*Hinder Attack
*Hinder Defense
*Prevent Move
*Prevent Attack
*Prevent Defend

Other Effects
*Cancel God Card
*Remove Debuff
*Remove Buff
*Move Hero -- Self or opponent. Some number of hexes--probably no more than 1 or 2.
*Teleport -- Move a hero to any hex on the board. CAN NOT move the ball. So a Hero carrying the Godball leaves it behind when teleported.
*Add GP
*Add HP

[Mike]

Super important, and this is already reflected in both of our posts: Gods can't affect the Godball directly. There is no card that allows a God to move the ball anywhere. We can make someone lose the ball, but that's by affecting the Hero. God's help and hinder and meddle, but they "technically" aren't playing this game.

I imagine that the Gods all decided to play this game to settle some stupid dispute. Playing themselves was pointless, so they each designated a champion to act for them, and all of them promised not to interfere in any way. And yet... they just can't help themselves.

[Mike]

Wait! Exception to that... maybe there's a possibility that gods can have a cheap card that allows them to move something off of their own favored terrain.

So if Poseidon creates a water hex. Then later, if anything stops on that hex, Poseidon has a card that allows him to move whatever is there onto an adjacent hex. It could be a Hero. It could be the Godball. It could even be barriers if we want to.

"Hey! I didn't interfere! The waves just happened to push it that way. So... what? Suddenly I'm responsible for every incidental ripple in the ocean? I'm insulted you would think that of me!"

It's a potentially big effect, but with very limited use.

[Eliahad]

[Eliahad]

Another thing that is necessary: Imbuements can have ranges. God Powers shouldn't. Not just because they're Gods, but mechanically, it lets players that are 'far' from the action do something. Even if they can't get there immediately.

A tenant I believe in: You should be able to do /something/ every turn that influences the game, and if you don't, you should get some benefit from not taking action so that it feels worthwhile that you couldn't do a thing.