[GB] Godball

[Eliahad]

Like, on your turn you always get to (one of the following) move/grab/tackle/throw. But then if you have AP left, you can also use a god card?

[Mike]

Yeah that.

[Eliahad]

That does simplify things. It also gets rid of movement cards, which were a thing that didn't sit particularly well with me. Unless its a special movement card, like flight or teleport...but those would be God cards anyway.

[Eliahad]

We will need a rule for recharging AP in this case. Originally it was until everyone ran out...but this way, we will need to change it, otherwise some people will hold onto AP just to keep things from recharging... So maybe, when a god is out of AP, everyone gets one more turn before AP resets.

[Mike]

Alternately...

1. Don't use AP. (But I like AP)

2. Each round is defined as X number of turns for each player (4? 5?). Then AP replenishes and does not carry over.

3. Keep things roughly as-is. Cards cost 1-3 AP each. Passing costs 1 AP... But when you pass, you have the option of discarding and replacing any number of cards.

[Cazmonster]

What if AP is your hand size? At the start of each turn, you draw back to hand size. Your deck is your generic demigod/hero plus whatever Divine Influence you might draw. Also, all cards have a move value printed on them. Use the card to move or for its ability.

[Eliahad]

I'm going to keep with the Champions theme for a second as well as the idea that Champion movement is separate from the God powers. I've added a category called 'Imbue,' which lets a God imbue a champion with a power to be used at some later time, and thus equipping their champions.

Here's what I've come up with for some of Zeus's power cards:

Zeus

Whirlwind – Special Movement/Hinder – A great whirlwind descends from the heaven and moves a champion one hex in any direction

Lightning Bolt – Attack – A lightning bolt strikes a champion, doing 2 points of AP damage. If this champion is reduced to 0 AP, he is knocked over, and must spend his next turn standing. If the champion is holding the Godball, the ball falls to a hex adjacent to the champion. Champion’s choice.

Shock – Attack – The Champion falls prone. If holding the Godball, the ball falls to a hex adjacent to the champion.

Tempest – Barrier – A storm token is added to any hex of Zeus’s choosing. Leave this card face up. By turning the card, Zeus may move the storm token to any other hex on the board. After this card is turned, it may be discarded to further move the storm token to any other hex on the board.

Rolling Thunder – Attack – A thunder token is added to the board and Zeus designates a side of a hex. On Zeus’s turn, the token moves one hex in a straight line. Any champions struck by the token take 2 AP damage.

Aegis of Zeus – Imbue – A champion imbued with the Aegis of Zeus is immune to two direct attack cards. When the champion is affected by an attack card, turn the Aegis of Zeus. When a champion is affected by another attack card, discard the Aegis.

Spear of Zeus – Imbue – A champion imbued with the Spear of Zeus can throw the spear up to 3 hexes away. This has one of two effects. 1) A spear thrown at another champion causes the champion to drop the Godball. 2) Creating a storm token at the spot where the spear lands.

Storm Shackle – Hinder – A great wind buffets the champion, causing him difficulty in movement. A God must now spend one additional AP to move their champion. This card is discarded at the end of the round or when countered.

Cleansing Wind – Counter – Zeus may discard one hindrance or barrier token on any hex.

Denial – Counter – Cancels the effect of one card as it is played.

Insight – Defense – Zeus may look at the hand of one other God.

Deflect – Defense – An attack card played on a champion is blocked and instead affects a champion within 3 hexes.

Lightning Storm – Barrier – Zeus places a storm token in one hex. This storm may not be moved except by other effects.

[Eliahad]

And a Hermes power I think might be fun:

Messenger of the Gods – Hindrance – Each God, including Hermes, selects one card and gives it to Hermes. Hermes, after looking at the cards, returns each to a different god. No God may receive more than one card in this fashion, and they may not receive back their own card. Gods may play these cards as if they were their own. Any God who is unfortunate enough to have no cards in their hand neither gives, nor receives, a card.

[Eliahad]

Thought:

The board is flat. Everything else is tokens. It costs 1 ap/token to move into a Hex. So a Hex could have a mountain on it, and a barrier token, and that would cost 2 ap to move into. No token? That's free. Each God has x number of tokens to place at the start of the game.

God cards, generally imbuements, can make it easier for champions to move through/ignore terrain tokens.

It is also to place and remove tokens instead of whole hexes.

[Mike]

[Eliahad]

Oh, this is wonderful, Mike.

Here's what I think the first playtest should be:

A standard Hex board as you suggested, 6 across on each side.
Temples in the corners, Mt. Olympus or the Godball pedestal or whatever in the center.
No villages.
Champion movement separate from God Cards.
4(?) Gods to start with.
6 AP to start

Okay, what needs to be built: (In Roll20)

Cards (A Zeus deck is started.)
Marked off Hex board in Roll20
Tokens (I think I have a lot done here, just need to check.)
Champion Icons

Great! A plan!

[Mike]

Perfect. I will try to make some Roll20 time to figure out a map. I can find hex maps all over, so MSPainting it into a proper board should be no problem. Then someone just needs to align it properly with the hex-grid in Roll20.

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

Prolly.

[Eliahad]

Wurd.

[Eliahad]

Almost there! Have backs of cards made...now I just have to figure out what goes on the fronts.

Mike made an awesome map.

There are tokens.

So...um...yay.

[Mike]

By the way, I can't even tell you how many times I've thought of something about Godball and immediately thought, "Maybe if we rolled dice...", and every time, I've quashed it.

No dice.

[Eliahad]

No Dice!!!!

I have to think the same thing when I want to give the champions stats. Like you said, once, a long time ago. These are gods (or their avatars)! Whatever they do should happen. There shouldn't be any defense or attack, just things that happen, and other powers that keep those things from happening.

[Phoebe]

Feel free to disregard this advice if it is not helpful, but this is what occurred to me coming from the perspective of player figuring out strange new game:

I like it when a card game is a card game and you don't mix dice with the cards. There are some exceptions, but I assume this is supposed to be a quick thing you can just pick up and start playing with your friends.

I like the idea of either a completely filled out hexagonal grid map with some built-in obstacles that affect everyone, but no terrain features that affect different gods differently, with temples that are automatically set in the corners. I play one of those hexagon style Tetris games and love it so maybe the idea of setting out your own little blocks of three to four piece clusters just has unusual appeal to me and wouldn't be the same for others. But I think it will be simpler and easier if you have six temples set in the corners of a regular big hexagon. Then all of the complexity of the game will come into the actual gameplay and the cards used rather than the setup which is nice.

This is the Classics person in me talking, but I think you should aim to have either six Olympian gods only for the first test and set up, where each Temple will correspond to one god or goddess, or you should do all 12 of the standard major gods and goddesses and either let anyone reach any Temple or have two assigned to each one of the temples around the edge of the board.

I like the idea of eliminating The Villages entirely because that never made sense to me. I very much like the idea of having champions of different sorts. Maybe assigning certain ones to each deity at the beginning of the game, or maybe you have to build up enough action points to deploy a champion that you select from a pile. This would give players incentive to compete for certain Champions who have slightly different abilities.

That's all for now but I thought I would give you a quick $0.02. I really really love this game. I am super excited to join the kickstarter and promote it. One other quick thought is that Poseidon is not only a god associated with the ocean but has some other cool features.

[Phoebe]

Eleven major gods:
M: Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus
F: Hera, Demeter, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite

It sounds like you're already committed to Hades being one of them, which doesn't bother me - it's not like your goal is conformity to some story or other - but it is a little odd because he's not up there in Olympus. A better one might be Dionysius, and think of the options: seized by madness, grape assault, leopard attack...

But regardless, if you add in Hades (or Dionysius) you have 12 plus a nice mix of seven M and five F options for players to choose.