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Post by Tout-Perd on Dec 29, 2013 15:57:28 GMT -5
But, but, MTG already did a set called "Exodus"!
Actually, for a little while, I'd dabbled in making an Archipelago Exodus based Magic: The Gathering Set. It was a fun little attempt at designing a set where you built around groupings of characters and their associated locations/allies/gear, sort of a take on the oooold Legends set from '95 or so. There were ten different factions: Cherrygrove: White-Blue-Green APCARP: White-Red-Blue Obsidian Hearts: Black-Blue-Red Rogues and Brogues: Blue-Red-Green Parmigianino Institute et Psymendjes: Blue-Green-Black Summoners: Black-Red-Green Fallfish Trio: White-Green-Red Mafia/Joyeuse Insurgency: Black-White-Red Fascere Order: Blue-White-Black Timewenders (Flint, Didn't, Belwyn):Black-White-Green
It was interesting, though I didn't get far enough for playtesting before college and work on a game I could actually sell choked it out. Some of my favorite designs were -Terrian: gave every Rogue/Brogue you controlled Curiosity -Flint: Depending on how you paid his mana cost (Either Black or Green), would either enter as Zagaroth (Who would kill whoever meddled with him, First-Strike and Deathtouch) or Flint (who could pick fights with opposing creatures with Tap to Fight). It gets really fun in Commander, where after going down once, he can use both personalities at the same time. -Sly: Had this neat mechanic where he'd study other characters and could turn into them. -Dace/Durant/Laksha: All had an effect that gave you a mana rebate that let you play their Pokemon for free along with them. Dace didn't do all that much on a tactical scale, but Laksha gained you life every time you attacked with Trample, and Durant could tap to regenerate any green Characters that got hurt. Dace's big thing was fetching a spell that could switch Power and Toughness, turning the 1/5 Burmy into a dragon-slaying beast. -Ganesh: Probably my favorite; he started as a 4/4 with 3 -1/-1 counters, one of which that came off each time he attacked. So he started out weak, but once his roll-out got going, he was pretty brutal.
That said, were we to do something like Magic, I think the five colors would become: White: Faith Blue: Knowledge Black: Money Red: Magic Green: Friendship
I'm not sure how much we'd want to tweak it, but I already thought of some different rules; for example, instead of each color playing lands, each resource is generated in different ways. Each player would work kind of like the obsolete Vanguard in Magic, assuming the role of one of the manipulator Characters playing the groups against eachother. (So, for example, you could play Yoon/Lorenna/Massimo/Auguste/The Tutor/George) Each one would come with special perks, and would also provide your initial resources.
Each would also generate resources differently: Faith would be hard to get started in, but each character would gradually rebate you, whereas Money is easy to start in, but the Characters would continuously ask for payment or would leave/hurt you. Intelligence would put you directly against the opponent, rewarding you for how much control and knowledge you had over the game. I'll admit Friendship and Magic both mystify me. I'll let a pony fan figure those ideas out.
Example Starting Characters: Yoon: You start with 15 Influence (Life), 20 Knowledge, and 10 Money. Each turn, gain 5 Money and 5 Knowledge. You may look at one card you couldn't normally see once per turn. (Opponent's hand, the top card of a deck, etc.)
Lorenna: You start with 12 Clout, 20 Friendship, and 15 Faith. Each turn, gain 5 Faith and 5 Friendship. If no Characters died during your turn, you may put a 0/1 Butterfly Token into play. You may exile a Butterfly to gain 5 Knowledge.
Auguste Tylor: You start with 18 Influence, 15 Magic, and 10 Knowledge. Each turn, gain 5 Knowledge and 5 Magic. You may pay any multiple of 5 in Magic to gain that much Money.
Example characters: Nopcsa Cost: 10 Magic, 5 Knowledge Wages: At the start of your turn, name a card, and pick an opponent. If that card is in that opponent's hand, gain 5 Knowledge. If not, either pay 5 Money, or show that opponent a card from your hand. TAP: Your opponent shows you two cards from their hand. 1/2
Zebedee Taylor Cost: 25 Faith, 5 Friendship Wages: Each turn, gain 5 Faith. If you have any Faith you haven't used at the end of your turn, lose 2 Influence. Flash, Hexproof 2/4
Reba Winset Cost: 10 Money Wages: Each turn, pay 10 Money, or the opponent with the most Money and Influence (total) gains control of her. First Strike, Deathtouch 2/2
Albatross Trevelyan Cost: 20 Friendship, 5 Magic Wages: If you have ten or more Influence, pay 5 Friendship a turn or exile Albatross. If you have less than 10 Influence, gain 5 Friendship per turn. If you have less than 5 Influence, gain 10 Friendship per turn. Tap Albatross, pay a multiple of 5 Magic: Tap a number of Characters equal to the amount of Magic you paid, divided by 5. Trample 4/3
This is just totally spitballing as a game designer, but hey, why not?
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Post by Tout-Perd on Dec 29, 2013 16:15:22 GMT -5
Not sure what symbols would work best per faction, as an aside. $ works pretty smoothly for Money. ? works for Knowledge, I think. Another possibility is Pi, though some smart alecs might try using that as a number when naming the values. There's a font symbol for a Cross which could work for Faith, but seems too pigeonholed, since it'd mean only Christian characters and be a bit over the top. Omega might be a bit more subdued, but still get the message across? No idea, again, on Magic and Friendship. Maybe... ♥ would work for friendship? I'm not finding any pentacles in the proboards fonts, which strictly speaking, is one of the most definitive symbols for Magic. Then again, there's an argument that while more verbose, writing each out adds a lot of flavor to it. (I think in designing Al, I did figure out friendship's deal. In contrast to Knowledge, which rewards how dominant you are, Friendship gets stronger the worse off you're doing.)
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Post by Beelzebibble on Dec 30, 2013 16:51:19 GMT -5
How many characters could you see running on Faith, though? I could only think of the one, and I've never heard of Lorenna.
inb4 Lee "Well, actually, [names five characters who all hail from the casts of Lee's IRL associates and who have collectively appeared in three RP posts so far]"
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Post by Tout-Perd on Dec 31, 2013 12:06:12 GMT -5
Zebedee, Thyra, Belwyn, Lorenna, Laksha (Maybe, Faith is being flavored more as belief/ties to a higher power than a tie to Christianity), Yoshimitsu (depending on if faith is interpreted as holiness or more a matter of bearing), Nagisa, Prime (depending on era)... Those come to mind in a few minutes, but it depends on how widely we interpret it. The problem is Faith and Friendship often have a large degree of overlap. (For example, Kitten would possibly be Faith, but Friendship most likely trumps that. Same with Illiana, Lacy, Maude, Dace...)
Faith largely depends on how we flavored it; faith in benevolence of a higher power is pretty narrow, but faith that things will all work out for the best is pretty wide. (For example, I can see Emily and Renard both falling under that definition.)
It would make each category clear cut on what the characters seek: Faith: The character seeks to help everybody and make the world a better place, regardless of personal reward. Friendship: This character seeks to make friends and keep those dear to them safe. Magic: This character wishes to pursue greater mastery of powers and influences beyond the mortal ken. Money: This character cares for financial well being and luxury. Knowledge: This character wants to learn everything that they possibly can.
Back in the day, I get a feeling that Faith would be a much more robust category. The present day, we have a bit of an overload on the more cynical end of things, whereas on the Snitz, I could pound out a list about twenty long in no time.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Dec 31, 2013 14:56:37 GMT -5
Yoshimitsu (depending on if faith is interpreted as holiness or more a matter of bearing) You're gonna have to explain that one to me, cupcake.
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 31, 2013 18:37:25 GMT -5
dafuq is this quote box doing with an avatar in it
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 1, 2014 13:10:21 GMT -5
Yoshimitsu's powers have been narrowed down to Light, which is pretty close to holy powers, and he channels the powers of Bahamut, a benevolent dragon that is almost deific presence. His powers are borderline angelic, and he's very oriented towards altruism as a motivation, but he himself is cynical and doesn't put too much stock in any sort of faith proper. So I'm not sure exactly how he'd sort out in there.
I've been looking for a possible term for "Faith" that encompasses more "Altruism" and "Optimism", but thusfar, most words are either way too slanted ("Kindess" rules out any well intentioned extremists) or way too long to read well ("Compassion", "Altruism")... Hmmm... Maybe Hope would be a better term than faith? Still a little too slanted towards positivity, but closer to what we're looking for?
EDIT: After doing a lot of thinking on it, I think Hope will be what we go with. Short, punchy, and a bit broader. Emily and Renard, for example, definitely fall under Hope.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 1, 2014 13:20:21 GMT -5
Just a placeholder name for now, for a game idea that Pohatu dreamt up and I've seized upon. As a matter of fact, with all my practice at game-designing, I actually have ways to make up decks for this for anybody who'd be interested. They're not by any stretch perfect, but I could totally have this thing playable by the next Exodus meetup.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Jan 1, 2014 16:23:52 GMT -5
Yoshimitsu's powers have been narrowed down to Light, which is pretty close to holy powers, and he channels the powers of Bahamut, a benevolent dragon that is almost deific presence. His powers are borderline angelic, and he's very oriented towards altruism as a motivation, but he himself is cynical and doesn't put too much stock in any sort of faith proper. So I'm not sure exactly how he'd sort out in there. Spoiler alert: his powers are narrowed down to just Bahamut, as of my last streamlining.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 3, 2014 10:11:57 GMT -5
Hope is better than Faith, but then it sounds like Hope is the one that should work better the worse you're doing (or, let's put it a more exciting way, incent you to hold off pressing your advantages until one late-game swoop), instead of Friendship.
Are there any villains on the board now that would qualify for Hope?
Also, how about Favor instead of Friendship? Sounds much less singalong-y, and I could see criminals like the Giarrettieras running off Favor as well as Money. Favor would still work for the good characters while not sounding weird on bad characters.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 3, 2014 15:15:46 GMT -5
Hmmm... Hope, not so much for villains, since it's mostly being flavored as trying to do what's best for everybody, instead of what's best for self (Magic, Money) or your close friends (Friendship). There are a few villainous (or at least antagonistic) figures who would qualify, though. Williams, the whole police force, and Marshall would all clearly fall under Hope, as would the Vermillion Vanguard and a number of the Summoner types.
Not sure Favor works as well as Friendship, but that depends. Friendship actually fits for quite a few villains (Scar, Lucas, etc.), but Favor would open it up to a different flavor of villain. If we could find a word somewhere between the two (Camaraderie sounds about right, but too verbose), it'd probably be our best option.
I've been dithering back and forth on if we should keep Magic as it is, or rename it Power. Magic is a bit too narrow, but Power is a bit too broad (after all, Power is also Money, and Knowledge, and Favor, soooo...) Also, Magic has the nice flavor of letting you channel it through your dudes for special effects, whereas Power just feels generic. Though Power lets a much wider variety of Characters in. (For example, George Buckland feels awkward just being Money-Knowledge, but Magic, though closest to his ethos, has nothing to do with him. Then again, if Friendships becomes Allies or such, it'd work just fine to round him out.)
BTW, my conclusions for the playstyles: Hope: Early Game: Set up defenses, try to hold out. Characters are weak, but good at stalling for time and sacrificing themselves to achieve goals. Late Game: Starts dropping the bombs. Hope has a lot of characters who can close out the game quickly, either by wresting control of tempo from the opponent, or just plowing straight through them. Resource Generation: Starts slow, but gets better as the situation gets tougher.
Knowledge: Early Game: Sneaks about, gathering information, leeching resources, and just generally making itself a pain in the ass. Late Game: Starts undermining the opponent on a massive level. Stacking decks, stealing necessary resources, and ultimately, grinding through for those last few points of damage. Resource Generation: Case by case, but generally runs on knowing hidden details and gambling on that info.
Money: Early Game: Fast, hard hitting. Tends to pack a lot of oomph into the early characters. Late Game: Has the weakest late-game strategy of the resources, but can have early Characters level into late game threats, and can filter into other resources easily. Resources: Instead of the characters generating any resources, they tend to be a drain. However, Money gets a lot of effects that let them earn resources, such as putting bounties out on enemy Characters that they can collect, or stealing resources from other players and cashing them in for more funds.
Magic: Early Game: Starts setting up resources and Characters. Magic Characters tend to have special effects and abilities that use your resources to allow them to activate special effects. Lots of trickery and manipulation is available. Late Game: The individual effects of all your casters start working together, turning them into a gigantic engine of destruction. Resources: Magic tends to be very case by case. Each Character brings a goal to the table, something that they want you to do, and by meeting those goals, you get returns.
Favor/Friendship: Early Game: Favor characters like to flood the board. They don't have much evasion or such, but instead get a big mosh pit going. When you're first setting up, a lot of Favor Characters will bring buddies with them, either helping you draw more, or bringing a minion with them, or so on and so forth. Late Game: The allies build up to critical mass, and mosh pit right over the opponent's defenses. Resources: The Characters repay you based on you reaching certain goals in recruiting. Some pay you back based on numbers, whereas others encourage you to bring out specific allies to work alongside them.
That's the tentative state I'm designing around. It's a little tricky finding just the right balance (especially for Money and Favor, since one is hard to keep running, and the other tends to run away with the game), but we're getting there. Once we've narrowed down the list and locked in the resource names, I'll put up a tentative list of the Mastermind characters who players can use. (BTW, anybody who cares to suggest mastermind types for the game, please do. My list so far is: Williams Massimo Ysane Lorenna Yoon Terrian Charles Tanner Auguste Tylor Maydell Shouse George Buckland Elisna (Vermillion Vanguard) Cevahir Kujtime (Whispers, Murder Mystery) The Tutor (Fallfish)
Been considering putting Valon and Sly as manipulator figures, though not positive on that one yet. We'll need a total of twenty five, to make all Resource combinations (except four and five resource) playable.
The basic premise of the game is that you're one of the mastermind figures in the Archipelago, trying to gain influence and support your agenda, when you run up against some other figure whose goals run opposite to yours. In this game, instead of Life, you have Influence, so a character getting through for damage doesn't necessarily represent you getting hit, as much as it does them dicking with your plans in some way, shape, or form.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 3, 2014 15:24:24 GMT -5
Tentative List of Masterminds per each Resource: Hope: Williams Knowledge: Lydia Money: Magic: Ysane Favor:
Hope-Knowledge: Hope-Money: Elisna Hope-Magic: Hope-Favor: The Tutor Knowledge-Money: Yoon Knowledge-Magic: Cevahir Kujtime Knowledge-Favor: (Sly?) Money-Magic: Charles Tanner Money-Favor: Massimo Magic-Favor:
Hope-Favor-Knowledge: Lorenna Knowledge-Money-Hope: Maydell Shouse Money-Magic-Knowledge: Auguste Tylor Magic-Favor-Money: Favor-Magic-Hope: (Valon?) Hope-Money-Magic: Knowledge-Favor-Magic: Money-Hope-Favor: Magic-Hope-Knowledge: Favor-Money-Knowledge: Terrian
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 3, 2014 16:18:50 GMT -5
Oh, I like putting Williams and Marshall in Hope, not that either of them is really a straight-up villain. Miko would fit too. I like the flavor of putting antagonist/anti-villain/anti-hero characters in there who are operating mainly on the strength of their conviction that what they're doing is right. Hell, Shouta would actually fit that definition of Hope, to use a more purely villainous example.
I REALLY like players competing for "influence" as opposed to "life".
Mastermind suggestions:
Knowledge: Blaise Magic-Favor: Illiana Hope-Knowledge: Renard
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 3, 2014 17:56:12 GMT -5
My one problem with Blaise is that she's never really a mastermind; she's typically more of an active agent when it comes to any conflicts. Now, the head of the Parmigianino Institute, once I name her... She'll definitely be a Mastermind type. I dropped a few hints about her in Tuning, but held off on locking more in til I knew where she'd fall in the scheme of things. Magic-Knowledge-Money is pretty darn well taken, as is Magic-Knowledge (The Psymendjes can sum up their whole agenda in those two words...) But Magic-Hope-Knowledge might work, especially considering the Parmigianino Institute's theme of "Magic, for the People".
Illiana and Renard run into similar problems (though you nailed exactly where I would put them); they're seldom the ones pushing an agenda, instead being used as agents by those who actually have larger plans. I had put down Marshall for Hope-Knowledge, but I'm not positive on that one. He's got an agenda, but he's very involved in the actual situation (Sort of like Miko, who I also wonder about).
What about Mildred Hooper? She's been out of focus thusfar, but I'm getting a vibe from her. Elliot's character Alex seems to also be a manipulator, but I have no idea what goals he's actually pushing. Magic and...Something? Oooh, ooh, just brainstorming now, Julia Romanesco seems like a pretty solid mastermind, unless there's somebody higher up in her organization that we haven't seen. I'm pretty sure she'd be perfect for either Knowledge-Hope, or pure Knowledge. If Ninety or Biscuit could give us some tidbits about the Joyeuse Agency, I think a higher-ranking member there would be pretty solid for pure Money.
Another question is how wide we want to open the scope on this. Would FRP be fair game? PRP? Househeld? If so, then there's a few other Masterminds of note. I could see Collin Atreides or Waylon both being Masterminds, for example. And Zebedee is odd in that in PRP, he's very much a manipulator, whereas in ORP, he's much more reactionary.
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Post by {WW}BetaBloodWolf7 on Jan 3, 2014 18:00:41 GMT -5
I'm ok with it encompassing all fields.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 8, 2014 4:45:56 GMT -5
Elliot, where would you put Antonio as a manipulator? I'm putting him somewhere between Hope-Money-Magic, and Hope-Money-Knowledge, though it's a pretty clear cut priority (Money first, then Hope, then the third). (In this case, Hope means "Justice" more than "Altruism", though Antonio has flavors of both woven into his thievery)
Also wondering if we should put Marshall for Hope-Knowledge. Pohatu, Elliot, where do you guys stand on that? Do you see Marshall or Renard as being the more manipulative of the two, and which is a more active field presence? Or does Julia Romanesco sneak in and run off with the role? (I'm still not sure if the Saeptum Foundation is pure Hope, Hope-Knowledge, or Hope-Knowledge-Magic. Considering the difficulty in filling that last one, I'm leaning towards moving them towards that.)
I put Lydia down for pure Knowledge, so that covers another one of the big five.
Hope-Magic, Magic-Favor/Friendship, Pure Money, and Pure Friendship are the four biggest gaps I'm seeing right now. The problem is that most characters trending towards those motivations are very field-oriented. Hope-Magic is mostly paladin types (I need more power to make the world a better place!), Magic-Favor feels like where the Summoners should be, but they don't really have any manipulators (Haze? Seriously, I'm coming up empty here), Pure-Money is tricky to find somebody who ONLY wants that (Maybe Sarosin? But I don't know if he's more manipulator or pawn yet), and Pure-Friendship Characters, by their nature, tend to get involved in situations.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 8, 2014 7:37:34 GMT -5
Didn't you say that these are Masterminds only? Marshall seems like more of a mastermind than Renard. They can still both be Hope-Knowledge, right?
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Post by {WW}BetaBloodWolf7 on Jan 8, 2014 8:28:23 GMT -5
Eric would actually work for Hope-Magic, just in a very twisted way.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 8, 2014 12:53:43 GMT -5
Yeah, these are the "Mastermind" Roles, who players will be playing as. The other characters in the resources the manipulator uses are ones you can add to your deck and play like Creatures in Magic. So, for example, a Hope-Knowledge deck would have Marshall as the Manipulator, but could play Renard (Hope-Knowledge), Landsvale (Pure Hope), or Blaise (Pure Knowledge) as characters. Right now, we're doing only one manipulator for each resource combination, but any number of characters that fit into the resource as active agents can be made.
I'd say something against Eric from a notability standpoint, but the next best thing we've got is the Hand of God from RXing, sooo... I'm inclined to go with him.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 8, 2014 13:27:32 GMT -5
Hope-Magic?
I'unno, Hector?
Also, if this is going to be a proper MTG ripoff, we need to replace the color wheel with an ASPECT WHEEL in which each aspect has two aspects that work most naturally in tandem with it, and two aspects that most naturally oppose it. I'm just gonna throw this out there and let Lee have fun divining the meanings.
---Knowledge--- Magic-----Money --Hope--Favor--
Also, Truth would be punchier than Knowledge, no? And Wealth punchier than Money?
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jan 9, 2014 1:35:14 GMT -5
Wealth does sound much better than Money, I'll give you that hands down. Money is now Wealth.
Truth is worth a little debate; it is more succinct and sounds more admirable, but I'd argue it's a more narrow field. Truth seems to imply open knowledge, sharing of information, etc., which is pretty far from the scope of most Knowledge characters. (For example, would Yoon be Truth, moreso than Knowledge? What about Terrian?) That said, I could see Truth as a possible name for it. I was mulling about how Magic's colors are all mono-syllabic today, it gives them a lot of punch. So far, Hope and Wealth match that. Magic doesn't, but it's got a lot of stock and baggage to work with, and I can't think of a good word to replace it with (Fate is too narrow, Power is RIDICULOUSLY broad, etc.)
One more name tweak I'd like to make, going in the other direction, is instead of favor, Loyalty. It's a word that as I recommended earlier, encompasses Friendship and Favor, and is open enough to interpretation to fit nicely whoever it falls upon. If I say Durant runs on Loyalty, you know I mean Friendship. If I say Cesare runs on Loyalty, you know I mean his code of Omerta and his pride as a member of the Giarretiera family. Loyalty is verbose, but besides that, is the perfect word for the idea.
Hope's opposites are Truth (the opposite of Faith), and Wealth (the opposite of Optimism). That's perfect. Loyalty and Magic are the perfect allies for it, too.
Loyalty's opposites are Magic and Truth? That seems a little rough. Likewise with Magic's opposites being Loyalty and Money. I think things would be a bit more coherent if we switched the spots that Magic and Loyalty occupy. Then Loyalty's opposites would be Money (putting self/greed first) and Magic (personal power vs. teamwork), and Magic's opposites would be Truth (how things are vs. how a character changes them to fit what they want) and Loyalty.
Otherwise, I think it checks out. Once we get these little trappings ironed out, I've got quite a bit of work done on the game proper, and should be able to put up quite a few pieces of it.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Apr 19, 2014 22:01:37 GMT -5
So, this is a card in the latest MTG set. Uncannily, it's almost identical to the Micmac design I made, except for two details: you could cast Micmac for either Loyalty (Green) or Hope (White), and you could tap a Renard or Channery to Untap Micmac, letting him get a double use per turn. Still, uncanny!
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 1, 2015 10:50:44 GMT -5
Reviving this thread. Important question: Should I design around playing this online, or design it for playing in person? It's an issue I'm rather torn on; in person allows for a much bigger variety of designs and the like, but I'm not sure how many players we'd ever get in a single room for the game, whereas online is a much more limited design, but a lot more playable here.
This'll be interesting to revisit, because a lot of the proposed schemers never really actually did anything, so it'll take some revision.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Nov 1, 2015 16:40:46 GMT -5
So where are we at on the resources: Hope, Wealth, Loyalty, Magic, Knowledge/Truth? By the way, in rereading the thread, I independently re-coined the idea of calling Knowledge "Truth", but I see the problem in your counterargument that a lot of Knowledge-y characters aren't necessarily about "truth" at all. There just aren't enough shorter, punchier synonyms for "Knowledge" that match the right tone. I thought about "Reason", but that takes it in a slightly different direction and I'm not sure it's an improvement.
For the resource that's been trickling down as "Friendship", "Favor", "Loyalty"... what about "Honor"? Or does that tread too much on Hope's territory? "Rapport"?
I feel like Magic has been the runt of the litter so far. My impression is that it captures something that ought to be a driving point for a lot of characters around here, but the motivations behind Magic, and consequently its methods, seem the least well-defined.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Nov 1, 2015 16:51:10 GMT -5
Oh, and This'll be interesting to revisit, because a lot of the proposed schemers never really actually did anything The fact that you think so means the schemers have done their job very well. No, seriously, what if "Masterminds" just isn't the right way to go? I love the idea that you're trying to compete for influence, but that could be defined as a group of characters working together for influence, not one character. Instead of having some individuals defined as "masterminds" and others as pawns, I think the ultimate would be a design that lets any character act as a leader if so designated at the beginning of the game, so that the Archipelago could conceivably end up crushed beneath the titan heel of Emily or Mayordomo. It'd probably be hard to pull that off elegantly, though, in terms of card design. It'd take a lot of thought.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 1, 2015 21:25:03 GMT -5
I've actually been pondering adding a sixth resource to the game, to distance us from Magic a bit more. The sixth resource would be called either Dread or Ruin, and would be the one for getting the "just want to watch the world burn" types like Lucas, Ysane (Dread/Magic), Mandelbrot, Karcharos, Silumas, etc. That'd put our resources at six, in three groups of two opposed: Hope vs. Dread Loyalty vs. Wealth Truth vs. Magic
Truth opposes Magic because Truth is seeking the nature of things as they really are at their core, whereas Magic is the art of taking reality and telling it what you want to be. The other two are pretty self explanatory.
As for the "Any character can be Manipulator", I'm not sure how to handle that yet. But it gives me a chance to bring up a new mechanic for this game. There are two kinds of creatures in this game, Characters and Minions. Minions are lower on the curve, but you can play multiple of them at once and they can't be shifted. SHIFTS: Whenever anybody plays a version of a character, that version replaces any other versions of that character in play. So if I control a Zebedee Taylor, normal mode, and played Full Holy Zebedee, he shifts to that form, and the other Zebedee returns to my hand. You can also use this to wrest away control of another player's Character. If I control Natalie, Cherrygrove Version (who costs Loyalty to play), you could play the Obsidian Hearts version, which costs Wealth to play. You get that Natalie, and mine gets bounced back to my hand. And since she's technically been in play since the start of your turn, you can immediately take her upside my head.
Since Shifts return the card to their owner's hand, it allows tricks like switching in and out of modes to take advantage of different traits, and can lead to players fighting for control of characters who have conflicting loyalty between multiple manipulators.
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