Monday 15 October 2012

Legends of Galria TCG

I've been toying with a card game for a long while now. Something based on my novels, something where people can pick up a deck consisting of their favourite characters and battle. Of course, my biggest problems with making one are not having the time to dedicate to it, the money to get cards printed, and the art and graphic design skills to make the cards look good.

At least I have a solid foundation of how I wanted the game to go. Read on if you'd like to see what kind of rules I'd had in store:

In the game, there would be five factions based on the factions from my Galria novels. The characters would be faction exclusive (e.g., you could not mix, say, Dane Trueshot from the Freedom Coalition faction with Xellik from the Shadow Legion faction), so players would have to pick one faction and build their deck from there.

Players would have an option to pick five champions to use as they see fit. Players would then place these five chosen champions across from their opponent, on a 8x8 grid. After drawing 6 cards, the players would then take turns, advancing their characters around the grid strategically in an attempt to eliminate the opponent's champions.

Along the way, players may play "Gold" and "Platinum" resource cards that will allow them to "buy" (put into play) Minions/Mercenaries, Abilities, spells, and equipment for their characters. These additional characters are weaker than champions, but that doesn't mean they're not threatening. They're designed to aid the champions by providing support through abilities and strategically blocking enemy movements and attacks.

Champions and Minions all have a number of stats. Each champion has both an HP and TP counter at the top of their card, representing how much damage they can take before they die and how often they can use ability cards, respectively. HP does not regenerate naturally. TP, however, will regenerate 2 TP per turn, and will generate an additional 1 TP every time the character attacks. This is designed to encourage the player to attack to maximize TP gains and utilize more abilities.

Every champion has 5 combat stats: Attack, Defense, Magic, Resist, and Speed. Attack determines how much damage the character deals with basic attacks. Defense determines how much Attack damage is mitigated when they are attacked. Magic bolsters ability damage, while Resist blocks ability damage. Speed determines what order the character's move in.

There are a large number of card types:

Champions: These are the bread and butter of any deck. Each faction has countless options for champions to use, but the player may only use five per game. Once a champion is defeated, they are removed from the game.

Minions/Mercenaries: Weaker than champions, these characters support the champions in various ways.

Abilities: These cards are special abilities that each character class can use. Players "pay" to learn abilities and equip them to their champions, allowing them to use them as often as their TP allows. For example, Severing Cut is an ability that deals damage and reduces the targets Speed stat. However, this ability is limited to characters with the Berserker and Warrior class tags.

Feats of Strength: These are like class abilities, but they are passive and active as long as the champion trained in it is alive. However, when a champion dies, all skills attached to them are discarded as well and cannot be retrieved.

Equipment: These enhance the champion or minion's stats or provides them with unique benefits of some kind. However, when a minion or champion that is carrying an equipment card is killed, their equipment falls on that spot on the grid... then anyone can pick it up and use it without paying its gold cost!

Events: These are cards that cost gold/platinum to play. They're like abilities, but they affect the entire battlefield. These are one time use only cards, but they have the potential to change the tide of battle!

Resource: There are only two resource cards in the game: Gold and Platinum. Minions, Abilities, Equipment, and Event cards have an associated Gold and Platinum cost that require you to "pay to play" them.

It was a neat idea I had... I'm not sure if I'll ever get to fully realize my dream of fully designing it but I have a lot of fun thinking about it. One day maybe I'll come upon some card stock and can mass-print these things? ;)