You'll get the advice from many people: "Don't design a CCG or a TCG!" And everyone is going to say: "Design an LCG instead."
Aside from the stupidity of the acronyms, there are fundamental assumptions made by people who don't understand the true meaning behind the CCG and TCG business models.
1. What is CCG/TCG?
A CCG is a "Collectible Card Game" and it uses random 10 to 20 "Booster" Packs (like small envelopes) to sell in game stores. Cards are collectible because of the artwork featured on the cards and the "rarity" of the various cards in a pack.
A TCG is a "Trading Card Game" and much like the CCG it is very similar. But the accent is on "Trading"... meaning players engage in trades offline (outside of play).
2. What is LCG?
An LCG is a "Living Card Game" and it uses it's own format to sell. Instead of selling "Boosters", the LCG model proposes to sell EXPANSION sets (think game boxes) to allow players to customize their decks from a preset of cards available in the various "expansions". For all purposes, it doesn't solve the "Booster" issue and one would argue: "Just make boxed expansions of your game and you should be ok."
3. Missing the mark
As I mentioned the LCG model does NOT address the "Booster" issue. Everyone who has seen or played a CCG/TCG knows what a booster pack is. But the true nature of the "booster" pack is not known by most designers. Everyone gives BAD advice saying: "Just do an LCG..."
The issue with Boosters is their sales model and the fact that one case of 36 boosters retails for $299. These are typically "random" boosters and store owners absolutely hate the fact that:
A> They have to invest $100+ dollars to put the product on the shelf.
B> That they need to sell 60% of a case before seeing any profit.
C> That given a LCG model, would be a complete and total LOSS of money.
4. Digging deeper
When would-be Game Designers think about CCGs/TCGs they ultimately THINK about SELLING "Boosters". No matter if your game is a CCG/TCG/LCG you will have serious problems selling boosters. The LCG model does not at all solve the booster issue.
Why? Because it makes it WORST!!! How so?
If you were to sell 10 to 20 "Fixed" Boosters (all the same cards like the LCG model), no store would carry a case because the likely-hood of selling 60% of the IDENTICALLY SAME content would be certainly DIFFICULT even if your game had a local fan base.
If stores have a hard time selling "Random" Boosters which feature different cards... Imagine how hard it will be to convince them to sell "Fixed" Boosters!
5. What to do?
Well it becomes apparent that the BEST possible outcome for your latest card game idea – would be to make a box and sell expansions in their own boxes. This avoids all of the biased chatter about what can and cannot be done and what is and/or is not possible when selling to local stores.
6. Conclusion(s)
LCG model is not a solution to the CCG/TCG genre. Having a game and adding expansions to a game without any "labels" is the best possible solution for most game ideas.
The problem with "boosters" is that nobody likes them ... except the would be fans of CCGs/TCGs. Admittedly it is what newbie game designer gravitate to when they take their "first steps" as designers – highly influenced by those three (3) popular CCGs/TCGs (Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!)
The "booster" format is excellent for driving low-cost alternate solutions to versioning and expansions but suffers from so much stigma ... that unless you are willing to do sales online only, you will have difficulties making sales to stores.
Originally (like probably most people who know CCGs/TCGs) I thought that using the LCG (Living Card Game) was a way to market and sell "Fixed" boosters. But it has nothing to do with this...
My confusion was that as a model the LCG model was supposed to fix the caveats of the CCG/TCG models. But it doesn't...
Sad but true.