Any Interest in a Turn-Based RPG Style CCG?

[killercactus]

Fellow CCG'ers -

I'm currently in the middle of creating my own CCG. The idea is to have it play exactly like a turn-based RPG battle (much like Final Fantasy, though I wouldn't dream of infringing upon their copyright if I ever tried to sell this).

Each deck would contain 3 Hero cards with stats (Hit Points, Magic Points, Strength, Defense, etc.) and abilities (including what weapons and armor they can equip, what spells they can cast, any maybe a special power or two), and cards that represent equipment for those heroes (weapons, armor, accessories, etc.) that begin the game on the table. The remainder of the deck would consist of Spells and Inventory cards (healing items, offensive items, etc.), along with some Hero-specific cards that are played on your hero's turn from your hand.

On each hero's turn, the hero could use their physical attack to attack another hero, use a special power, or play a spell/item/special card from your hand. The game would be over when all three of one side's heroes are out of HP.

Anyone think a game like this would be interesting? Pretty soon, I'll be looking for a couple more ideas and starting playtesting. If there is interest, I can give more details about the game.

[Disposable Hero]

Good idea. I don't think these concepts have been utilized in a CCG before. But making the cards themselves would be tricky...

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Disposable Hero

Good idea. I don't think these concepts have been utilized in a CCG before. But making the cards themselves would be tricky...

Yes - the Heroes especially have a lot of information to put onto a standard sized trading card with artwork. That will be a challenge, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I need to make a game that works and is fun first.

[Onacara]

Good luck with this killer...sounds like alot of fun. If you want a dual respective in the playtesting area I play with my 15 year old. If its simple enough to grasp my 8 year old will play too making it a triple perspective.

[yagyuninja]

Sounds great! Subscribing to this thread.

[killercactus]

OK - a couple of people care. Cool!

I've wondered why something like this hasn't been done before. It seems like people who play CCG's also enjoy that style of video game, so it feels obvious to me. Anyway....

I've tried to draw on my gaming experience with other games (including Scape) to try and create gameplay that would be fun, include some randomity that can be mitigated by skill, and hopefully easy to follow. I think that last part will be the toughest - there are a lot of moving parts to this. However, I'm envisioning that the starter sets wouldn't include all of the bells and whistles and I could introduce them in future expansions.

For example, I plan on using an Element system for the Magic, as most RPG's do. However, all characters will be able to use some level of Magic, thanks to their innate Element color - the element they are most in harmony with based on their dominant emotions. Magic comes only from manipulating the Elements, though the lower level spell casters will only be able to play emotion-based spells (i.e. something like "Heat of Passion"). The higher levels will be able to cast Element-based spells (i.e. Flash Fire). Players won't need to know all that - all they'll see is a color and a level on the Hero card, signifying what Element they can use and to what degree they can use it.
My Element system consists of 8 colors and Elements. Here is what they are and what they can do:

Red - Fire - Passion/Fury - Damage/Speed
Blue - Water - Peace/Calm - Restore/Slow
Gray - Wind - Confusion/Hyperactivity - Weaken/Disrupt
Brown - Earth - Steadiness/Patience - Strengthen/Prevent
White - Life - Love/Courage - Revive/Inspire
Black - Death - Hate/Fear - Destroy/Frighten
Green - Nature - Generosity - Cleanse/Coordinate
Yellow - Science/Artificial - Greed - Infect/Control

Each color has an opposite (they're listed next to their respective opposites - it's kind of obvious), and they affect each other more. For example, a Blue innate Hero will take more damage from a Red spell, and vice versa. I haven't decided how much more, but I want to make it as simple as possible. Anyway, I thought in the starter set, I'd only release Heroes and cards with the 4 original Elements - Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. I could bring the rest in with expansions.

I'm also working up a backstory for the game itself and each Hero. I'm fairly sure the basic premise will involve a future scientist that wants to gain power, and do to so he/she researches the heroes of the past, who have saved the world when it was in need. He/She finds out they could manipulate the Elements, and, through time travel, seeks them out to capture them and perform experiments to gain the power they had. Since the scientist becomes a threat to the world, the Planet empowers new people with Elemental powers to defeat her. The players will play as the old and new Heroes and Villains.

Here's an example of one of the heroes:

Kistri Gablon
Female Sorceress
Element: Blue 4 (element levels are 1-4)
Weapon: Staff
Armor: Dress/Cloak
HP: 6 (all stats are a scale of 1-10)
MP: 9
STR: 4 (used for physical attack)
DEF: 4 (defense against physical attack)
MAG: 7 (used for magic power)
RES (magic defense): 6
AGI: 6 (used for dodging physical attack or preventing dodge)
SPD: 7 (determines turn order)
Ability: When Kistri deals damage or restores HP to another Hero, she may recover 1 MP.

[SuperflyTNT]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Fellow CCG'ers -

I'm currently in the middle of creating my own CCG. The idea is to have it play exactly like a turn-based RPG battle (much like Final Fantasy, though I wouldn't dream of infringing upon their copyright if I ever tried to sell this).

Each deck would contain 3 Hero cards with stats (Hit Points, Magic Points, Strength, Defense, etc.) and abilities (including what weapons and armor they can equip, what spells they can cast, any maybe a special power or two), and cards that represent equipment for those heroes (weapons, armor, accessories, etc.) that begin the game on the table. The remainder of the deck would consist of Spells and Inventory cards (healing items, offensive items, etc.), along with some Hero-specific cards that are played on your hero's turn from your hand.

On each hero's turn, the hero could use their physical attack to attack another hero, use a special power, or play a spell/item/special card from your hand. The game would be over when all three of one side's heroes are out of HP.

Anyone think a game like this would be interesting? Pretty soon, I'll be looking for a couple more ideas and starting playtesting. If there is interest, I can give more details about the game.

This sounds a bit like the Munchkin franchise..no?

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by SuperflyTNT

This sounds a bit like the Munchkin franchise..no?

Nah - Munchkin is a different type of game. It has each hero fight monsters to get treasure. My game would have two teams of Heroes fighting each other, just trying to wipe each other out.

[viperhoops10]

It sounds like an interesting concept and I would gladly play test if you would let me. My only question is if those are going to be the only elements?

I realize that right now you probably just want to get the game going but if it works could you see new elements being added in?

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by viperhoops10

It sounds like an interesting concept and I would gladly play test if you would let me. My only question is if those are going to be the only elements?

I realize that right now you probably just want to get the game going but if it works could you see new elements being added in?

I think 8 elements is already quite a bit. I actually can't think of another game that has more.... Magic: the Gathering has 5, the FF series has 5 or 6, Chrono Cross has 6....?

I guess it all depends though. If the game feels like it needs more one day, I suppose I could add more, but I wouldn't know what to add. The toughest part of the game right now will already be keeping track of everything (HP, MP, status ailments, order of turns, etc), and it might make it even worse to add in more elements. But then again, it might make it better.

-----------

Here's another Hero, and then I'll give an example of a turn:

Garic
Male Vampire
Element: Black 2
Weapon: Not sure (it used to be Guns, but I'm trying to get away from Vincent Valentine)
Armor: Cloak
HP: 8
MP: 6
STR: 6
DEF: 6
MAG: 5
RES: 4
AGI: 7
SPD: 8
Ability: When Garic deals damage to an opposing Hero, Garic may recover 1 HP.

OK. Let's assume these two heroes (Kistri and Garic) were on opposing teams, fighting each other. Also, for simplicity, they're both totally unequipped.

In gameplay, the first thing to be determined is order of turns, which is based on Speed. The higher the Speed, the earlier in the round that Hero acts. It's based on all Heroes in play, which means that one player could have 2-3 turns in a row. Ties are broken by the Agility stat, then by a D20 roll. The turn order will remain the same for the entire game unless a spell/item/ability affects the Speed stat of a Hero.

In this example, Garic's Speed is higher, so his turn would be before Kistri's in the Round. A Round simply consists of each hero that's still alive taking a turn. If a hero is dead, his/her turn is skipped that round. Any Hero revived (that is, brought back to life) during a Round gets a turn at the end of the Round, but falls back into their normal place in the next Round.

On Garic's turn, he may use a Physical Attack, or play a Spell/Item/Special card from his hand. Let's assume he uses a Physical Attack on Kistri. Both players immediately roll a D20 and D6. The attacker's D20 roll is to determine a Critical Hit, which adds 2 to Strength that turn. The roll + the Hero's Agility must be > 20 for a Critical Hit. The Defender's D20 roll determines if the attack is dodged (i.e., does no damage). The roll + Agility again must be > 20. The D6 rolls just add to Strength and Defense respectively for that turn, to introduce a bit more luck. Here are the roll outcomes:

Garic, 14, 2
Kistri - 9, 3

Garic's D20 roll of 14 + his 7 Agility gives him a Critical Hit, while Kistri's D20 roll is too low to dodge it. The damage dealt is Garic's Strength of 6 + 2 (Critical) + 2 (D6 roll) - Kistri's Defense of 4 - 3 (D6 roll) = 3 damage. Kistri would lose 3 HP and have 3 left. Per Garic's Ability, if he had less than full HP, he could recover one HP.

Next, Kistri would take a turn. She has the same options as Garic had, but she'll choose to play a Spell from her hand. She plays Natural Spring, which is a Level 3 Blue/Green spell(which she can play thanks to her Blue innate color and level of 4. Someone with the innate color of Green and level of at least 3 could also play it):

Natural Spring
Blue/Green 3
Healing Power: 3
Cleanse any status effects from target hero.

The Healing Power: 3 lets the player know that this spell is meant to recover HP (as opposed to Damage Power, which is meant to decrease HP, or Manipulation Power which affects status), and the base amount of recovery is 3. To determine the true amount of HP recovered, the Caster's Magic is added, and the targets Resistance is subtracted. So, Kistri would recover 3 + 7 -6 = 4 HP (if you were calculating a Damage spell, it would work the same way, except the target could lose HP). If there were any affects on her status (positive or negative), they would be removed and her stats / status would return to normal. Per her ability, she would also recover 1 MP. No extra dice rolls are used with Magic or Items, unless specified in the text.

That's some pretty basic gameplay. I think it seems complicated to read, but wouldn't be too bad once you were playing. Thoughts?

[Dredd Stev]

an interesting idea KC, if you need play testers at some point I'd be happy to try the game out.

[viperhoops10]

8 elements is almost assuredly enough I guess my real question was will there be any lightning/thunder spells as this was the only element I noticed was missing. Although I guess that can be put into the wind element if you felt the need to add them.

Another question is why does a character resist a healing spell? Wouldn't the effect be beneficial and thus the character would want it or is it merely for simplicity?