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Symbology

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Desprez
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Joined: 12/01/2008
Test Cards

I'm at a phase to expand testing to players who have never seen my game. So I've been redesigning and cleaning up all the various icons and symbology.

Naturally, I'll have detailed rules and and reference that explains everything.
But I'm curious to see if someone who knows nothing about the game or how it works, can look at some cards and have an intuition about what they might mean.

So here is an image of six cards. All I'll say is that these represent abilities your character may collect in an RPG dungeon crawl style game.

Reply with your guesses. Can anyone get close to what they represent or do?

lonacker
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Joined: 11/05/2013
Here goes: Left containers

Here goes:

Left containers with dice next to them: range
container with area hand: range=all within reach
container with single hand: 1 within reach
container with 1-2: distance 1-2
container with 1: distance 1
8 pointed emblems: type of damage
crossed out plus with (2): cannot heal 2
small red splat: crit effect
lower left mana blobs: card cost

SLiV
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Joined: 10/21/2011
My interpretation

There are 6 classes: Warrior, Thief, Ranger, Mage, Wizard (Necromancer?) and Priest.

Shockwave affects all nearby enemies, deals 1 blunt damage and applies knockback, which means the enemies are moved one space away from the Warrior.
Backstab affects one target enemy which, at the start of the Thiefs turn, was not standing near the Thief (else it wouldn't be a backstab). It does one sharp damage, applies a bleeding debuff and an acid (or cabbage?) debuff.
Vital Shot is an attack with a range of up to two, does one ranged damage and makes the target unhealable for 2 turns. A dice is rolled and if a red pip is thrown, a bleeding debuff is also applied to the enemy.
Frostbolt costs 1 magic, deals two frozen damage and makes the target unable to move for 1 turn.
Lightning Bolt costs 1 magic and applies two wizardish damage to a target. For one extra magic, it can also damage a different target with 1 wizardish damage.
Mending costs 1 magic and restores two health to a target character. A dice is rolled and if a red pip is thrown, Mending does not cost any magic, and also increases the Priests mana with 1.

I'm not sure what the mana means; perhaps the actions usually cost 1 mana and Backstab costs 2. If so, I'd change the name, because mana only applies to spellcasters as far as I know.

--

After reading lonacker's post:

Ah, yeah, perhaps the mana is indeed the cost of the action, and the purple icons are range, similar to the Vital Shot range. Would make sense, but why are the lower three actions purple? And as I said, I think it would be confusing if all characters use Mana for actions.

I didn't recognise the cubes with the dot on top as dice, to be honest. I thought they were action cubes of some sort. If they are dice, I would add the pips on the other two sides of the cube as well.

Desprez
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Joined: 12/01/2008
Pretty good.

Both replies are mostly there. This is a fairly good sign considering none of the rules have been stated.
There are a few subtleties that weren't guessed, but at least the core ideas can be intuited.

Cabbage damage? LOL.

There are plenty of concepts I didn't expect would be known, but here's the rundown if you're curious:
- There aren't classes, per se. Instead there are sets of abilities you can draw skills from, though in large part these are inspired by familiar fantasy tropes. In this regard, the game is quite modular for character progression. This is also why mana is, indeed, a universal energy stat.
- Skill sets, in order: Melee (weapons and armor), Subtlety (enhancement of existing skills - including casters - though the shown card is a melee attack), Ranged (mainly archery), Elemental (balance of offensive and defensive magic), Arcane (offensive magic), Life (magic defense, heals, and some utility) There are about 7 other skill sets in dev, many of which begin to diverge from the more common fantasy expectations. But these are more of an expansion thing, and probably just going to have the 6 core skills as the base game.
- All the shown cards are free to use once. When used, the card is turned. To reset an ability, the mana cost in the lower left must be paid. This is also why it is sideways.
- Each of these is color coded as orange (an action - characters usually only get 1 action per turn). Not included are also green instants (can be used multiple times), and blue static effects (always in effect)
- There are 2 different attack dice. Yellow is for physical attacks, purple is for magic attacks. The brackets are colored to match.
- The 8-sided stars are direct damage (immediate), with the damage type as the center icon. Auras and damage over time appear circular and have a number indicating the number of turns they are in effect. (Though no aura damage was shown)
(If you care to know, there are 3 classes of damage, and sub-types within those classes - and the little icons reflect this)
1) Physical (grey square): Sharp (steel point, not shown), Blunt (brown club looking thing)
2) Magic (orange diamond): Frost (blue flake), Fire (dark orange flame, not shown), Arcane (white pointy thing)
3) Biological (green tri-circle): Bleed (red drop), Poison (green blob), Mental (pink brain, not shown)
4) Healing (green cross)
In large part, the damage types aren't too important unless an immunity or vulnerability is in play - though this can happen quite frequently do to enemy properties, and some skill sets play with vulnerabilities more than others.)

The cards:
1) Shockwave. Melee skill. Physical area attack on every grouped (touch range) enemy. Roll for each target, if hit, 1 direct blunt damage, and a knockback (push away)
2) Backstab. Subtlety skill. Physical touch attack. If roll hits, weapon damage, plus 1 direct bleed, and 1 cabbage... I mean 1 poison damage.
3) Vital Shot. Ranged skill. Physical ranged attack from 1 to 2 spaces away. If roll hits, ranged weapon damage, and a 2 turn aura that prevents the target from being healed. A crit may deal an extra bleed damage.
4) Frostbolt. Elemental skill. Magic attack up to 1 space away. If roll hits, 2 frost damage, and a 1 turn aura that prevents movement.
5) Lightning Bolt. Arcane skill. Two separate magic attacks, up to range 1. The first does 2 arcane damage, the second does 1 arcane damage.
6) Menting. Life skill. A magic cast up to 1 space away. Roll die (for possible crit - friendly spells always hit if the target wants it to) heals 2 health. If a crit, caster may target something in the same space to gain 1 mana, no die roll. (no die on the bracket)

Thanks folks!

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