Shapes and Shifts
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:25 am
So back in the RAGE TCG review, I posted this:
But you know what's easier and more fun than rigorous design? Vague concepts and card mock-ups!
This guy introduces our two key concepts. First, the World/Otherworld divide. The World is a fantasy setting with relatively low and rare magic. The Otherworld is technically a spirit plane, but once you're there it's solid enough, and it's a crazy-heavy-metal-high-magic fantasy setting.
Second, all Heroes are double-sided cards representing some significant change they undergo. Hünek is a hardcore magician and can astral project to the Otherworld at will – and his spirit form is much more powerful than his decrepit flesh.
Arthek is a berserker who turns into a giant bear when he gets angry, but like all Heroes he is a Mage, a trait which represents a level of practical magical knowledge. There will be non-Hero characters who are not Mages.
A card's 'transformation' doesn't have to be a change of form. In the case of Melyonen, it represents her changing into her Batmanesque alternate identity.
Crossing the world-border isn't always easy (unless you're Hünek), but some characters are native to the Otherworld.
Anneth is a minor and disturbing spirit who is destined to become a greater and more disturbing spirit, but she has no innate means to effect the change, and her player will need to provide one if he wants to level her up.
Well, that urge never went away. But my job has been very intense lately, and I haven't had the energy to do something that requires as much concentration as designing a card game. I haven't even had enough to finish my Blade of the Iron Throne review.I now want to make a card game with a focus on shapeshifting and traveling to the spirit world, because those are cool concepts and this game shouldn't be their representative.
But you know what's easier and more fun than rigorous design? Vague concepts and card mock-ups!
This guy introduces our two key concepts. First, the World/Otherworld divide. The World is a fantasy setting with relatively low and rare magic. The Otherworld is technically a spirit plane, but once you're there it's solid enough, and it's a crazy-heavy-metal-high-magic fantasy setting.
Second, all Heroes are double-sided cards representing some significant change they undergo. Hünek is a hardcore magician and can astral project to the Otherworld at will – and his spirit form is much more powerful than his decrepit flesh.
Arthek is a berserker who turns into a giant bear when he gets angry, but like all Heroes he is a Mage, a trait which represents a level of practical magical knowledge. There will be non-Hero characters who are not Mages.
A card's 'transformation' doesn't have to be a change of form. In the case of Melyonen, it represents her changing into her Batmanesque alternate identity.
Crossing the world-border isn't always easy (unless you're Hünek), but some characters are native to the Otherworld.
Anneth is a minor and disturbing spirit who is destined to become a greater and more disturbing spirit, but she has no innate means to effect the change, and her player will need to provide one if he wants to level her up.