I'm working on a deckbuilding spinoff of a forum game, and calling it Mercenaries Deck Battle. Players build a deck of video game characters, which then fight with other players' teams. Players must argue about which team would win the fight, convincing third party voters. This is primarily intended to be played as a forum game over several months with around 16 people, but currently it's possible to modify to a smaller scale and/or face to face version if you really want. The mechanics wind up being somewhat of a cross between Ascension and Superfight!, with a video game theme. Here are some links, but there will be more info below if you want it. I'd like any kinda input I can get, since I figure this the place to be to talk deckbuilders.
http://mercsdb.pbworks.com/w/page/112055320/FrontPage - The wiki is pretty rough, but the Rules page is up, and the List of Cards will at least summarize what each card does.
http://mercsdb.pbworks.com/w/page/112055431/Rules - Direct link to the rules page
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/74334377 - This is the main place for discussion (unless this thread really takes off, I guess?)
http://mercs2015.pbworks.com/w/page/90630311/Introduction - Current iteration of the inspiration for my game
Gameflow summary:
-Draw and immediately play five cards, generating resources and fielding a team of Mercs for the turn.
-Use Mercs' abilities with Red Orbs, Upgrade them with Blue Orbs, and activate the effects of other played cards
-Debate who would win a fight under the conditions generated, as outside parties vote. Winner gets a prize.
-Buy new cards with GP generated prior in the turn
-Shuffle all cards back into the deck (trashing and such happens now as well) before drawing the hand for the next turn
-Process repeats for an agreed-upon number of turns, with rotating opponents. W-L record is tracked. Elimination matches at set intervals and a tournament format at the end are recommended.
Overarching design thoughts:
-This is very complicated, and I'm okay with that.
-This is pretty RNG-y, and I'm okay with that. I think. But I don't expect that to be very popular with the intended playerbase.
-I attempted to streamline several aspects of the original game in order to compensate for tacking on a deckbuilding system.
-Since an admin will be tracking decks for everybody in the intended implementation, I tried to reduce player input at certain points. Most notably, my intent is that every card is a card you want to play, and that order will never matter. I'm sure that I will not be 100% on that goal, but I want to eliminate as many edge cases as possible (or make risk an inherent part of the card, like when I have forced trashing). All cards are played immediately when drawn, (although their effects might not be immediate) meaning that ideally player input is only required for ability usage and card purchasing.
-I want deck composition to be a major concern. It has been proposed that Mercs are given a separate deck from the main deck, but I enjoy the tension between having enough Mercs to actually put up a fight, enough econ to buy good cards, and enough support to let your Mercs shine. That said, I'd like to have more card draw, to somewhat alleviate the chance of just getting a junk hand.
-Playtests so far have been a bit too much snowballing for my taste.
I'd particularly like thoughts on:
-How much sense my rules and concepts make to a complete outsider.
-Victory rewards. I just changed it from gaining an Infra (same thing as Peddler) to gaining 3 GP on a win and 1 on a loss. I haven't tested this yet. My hope is that it will reduce the snowball effect of getting powerful econ early, and allow teams to buy SOMETHING even when they don't generate money otherwise, but it could also gum up decks too much and make it hard to get the really good cards without wasting a lot of deck space on coins.
-Is it okay to reshuffle the discard into the deck every turn? I know that's probably not ideal for a strategy game, but is it an acceptable tradeoff for not having to track what's in the deck and what's in the discard?
-If it's NOT okay to reshuffle the deck, what does that mean for starting deck balance?
-How does balance look? I think the Mercs themselves are decently balanced, but all the other resources make things complicated to price properly.
-Any good card ideas? I'm especially looking for more Constructs, Supports, 7-cost Mercs, cantrips, and deck control.
Thanks!
