Strategy Card Game

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here and I have an idea for a card game but am looking for some help with it. I've never designed a game before. I do enjoy it though!

I'm trusting that if I post this game in a public forum that people will respect my copyright on the game. I want to design a game that my friends and I can enjoy, but if I see somebody take it and use it to make money then I'll be upset. If it turns out to be a good idea I obviously want to make some money off it (you can all stop laughing now...Yes I am new here...)

Ok, enough of the boring stuff. Here's the general overview of the game.

It's a 'gambling' game and a Collectible Card Game (CCG). I want to create a fairly quick game that involves some sort of 'gambling' (note: when I say gambling it doesn't have to involve money. It can be marbles, or poker chips, beer bottles, cars and trucks, etc). For the purposes of this description, I'm going to use the word 'chip' to refer to the gambling medium. (i.e. He pays 4 chips to the pot)

The game still needs a setting and a plot as I haven't really taken the time to figure that out yet. I’m not a plot kinda guy. I’m a mechanics person. If somebody reads this and has a good plot idea please feel free to contribute it. Never the less, here's what I've got so far.

Following is a list of definitions to help with the game details:

Pot
A pot consists of an amount of chips. The game has 8 pots in it. The pots are represented by 8 Pot cards. (Note that the pots must have a means to hold chips, or marbles or whatever. Something like a bowl of some sort since players will be paying chips into the pot.) Players fill the pots during the game.

Ante
An amount of money agreed upon by all players. The ante could be any amount, like 5 chips, or 1 chip.

Energy
Every game needs resources (will, most strategy games anyways). Energy is the resource used throughout the game. There are cards that provide energy for you.

Cost
What a player must 'pay' (in energy or other ways) in order for a card to be played

A Game
A Game is a set of phases. A game is composed of the following phases: round 1, round 2, round 3 … round 8 and finally the collection phase.

Round
A round consists of a series of turns and phases. The game has 8 rounds in it (one for each pot). During a round, each player gets one turn. A round always starts with ALL players paying the ante to EACH pot.

Points
Points represent the score keeping mechanism (because I don’t have a flavour for my game yet, I’m referring to points as the scoring counter. If it’s set in medieval times, the points might be represented by flags or something of the like). Most permanents allow a player to increase or decrease the total number of points they control. The number of points will be represented by a number (like, ‘3’) somewhere on the card (I don’t have the card design down yet). At the end of a round, the player with the most points wins that round.

Playing a Card
Playing a card consists of paying all costs associated with the card and then doing what the card says. You may only play one card per turn (that includes anybodies turn. So, if there are 8 people in the game, you may play one card on each of their turns). Another rule is that you may play a permanent card (read below for more details on what a permanent is) on yourself or on an opponent. If you play it on yourself, you put that card into play under your control. If you the permanent on an opponent, the card comes into play under their control.

Types of Cards:

Permanent
A permanent is a card that can only be played on your turn. There are two types of permanents: game permanents and round permanents. Game permanents stay in play for the entire game. A round permanent stays in play for the entire round. You may play permanents on yourself, or your opponent.

A Hot card
You may play a Hot card whenever you want (during your turn, or during an opponents turn). It never stays in play and must be put into the discard pile once the effect has finished resolving.

A Cold card
A Cold card is a card that can only be played on your turn. It never stays in play and must be put into the discard pile once the effect has finished resolving.

Now onto the actual game play.

Game Setup:
The game is played with 3 or more people. Players build a deck of 60 cards with each card appearing no more than 4 times in a single deck. Players start by drawing 5 cards from their deck. Somehow (with a dice, or whatever) players decide who goes first. Play continues clockwise around the table. The first round begins…

Winning:
Let me quickly describe how to win the game. The goal of the game is to win the greatest number of Pots. (And hence you’ll win the greatest number of chips). You win a Pot by winning a Round. You win a round by having the greatest number of points in play. Confused yet? No? Good.

Alright, so the game is composed of 8 rounds. A round always begins with each player paying the ante to EACH pot. Following that, the first player may start their turn. (Remember… a Round is made up of each player having one turn). A turn consists of the following phases.

Draw Phase
You draw a card.

Energy Phase
All players collect their energy. Most permanents give off energy and it’s this energy that gets harvested and used by the players. A permanent card will have an energy number on it for you to see. Simply add up the total number of energies found on all cards YOU control.

Main Phase
During the main phase you may do a number of different things. You may play a card (just one), you may activate abilities found on cards, or you may do nothing at all. Remember, you may play a card on yourself or on your opponent.

Auction Card Phase
This phase consists of you discarding a card to auction off to the other players. Almost all cards will have a ‘discard’ section that gets triggered during this phase. So discarding a card can be a good thing. The discarded card will go on auction for all players to bid on. Which ever player wins the auction pays you the amount of chips they bid, and then puts the auctioned card into play under their control as if they had just played it. You cannot bid on your own card. If nobody bids on the card, then you put the card into your discard pile.

Discard Phase
This is the final phase of the turn. You may not have more than 5 cards in your hand at the end of the turn. If you have more, you must discard cards from your hand until you reach 5 cards. The discarded cards are placed in the discard pile.

Each player gets one turn per round. At the end of the round, which ever player has the most number of points in play (check cards to count the number of points. The points are displayed on each card) wins that round and they gain control of a pot (they may take one of the pot cards). Note this does not mean they take the actual chips from the pot and add them to their stash. They simply have control of a pot. During the collection phase players collect the chips from the pots they control. There are cards that allow you to steal pots controlled by other players, and that’s why you don’t actually collect the chips until the end.

After the first round is finished the second round begins. Players start by paying the ante again to each pot. And the phases described above repeat again.

Once 8 rounds have finished, players collect their money and the player who won the most number of pots wins the game.

Dropping out of a Game:
If a player is unable to continue (they ran out of chips maybe…) or they simply wish to sit out this game, they may forfeit any pot(s) they control. You may only drop out after a round is finished and before you pay the ante for the next round. You may not drop out in the middle of a round. For the player who dropped out, each pot that player controlled makes the game extend an extra round. So, if I drop out of the game and control 2 pots, then the game continues for 2 more rounds after the 8th round. This accounts for the 2 pots that will go unclaimed because I fell out.

I hope you find it interesting.

So what do you think? I’m looking for comments and criticism (constructive preferably!). I’m also looking for advice on what will make game play better, or what I can improve upon.

Thank you,

Rob