Hallo guys and gals.
I was kinda wondering how to build a feeling that two players or more are working hand in hand taking on a situation a card provides in a game?
Lets assume that this is a coop game without traitor system (which opposing player may attack thus showing the cooperation feeling), all player must work together and being rewarded for it without the passing a useful card to the player in action?
Thanks a ton in advance.
I believe bridge is a cooperative card game, Rummy with partners.
Look up the rules and see if that will help.
Your cards (obviously) need to interact with one another. It's difficult to give an example for your case, since I don't quite understand your game, but cards should have some way that they can interact with one another.
It can be as simple as "attack your opponent. If your teammate played ____ then attack them twice" or something like that. You get to define the ____
It gets trickier if you don't want to explicitly say "teammate" in there, and it's probably not necessary.
I don't really see this as any different than making a coop game in general.
Creating coop is as simple as creating a scenario that nobody can handle alone:
- Skill tests where all players need to contribute their cards in order to succeed (Like BSG)
For example: "You draw the repair the hole in your boat card which has a challenge of 7". Each player is only allowed to put one card in and the maximum skill is 5. During every situation, each player needs to contribute to the overall succeeds.
- Multiple challenges that happen at one time: (Ghost Stories, Ygdrassil, Space Hulk: Death Angel)
For Example: One player should be playing cards to "Unlock the Door" while the other player is "Holding off the Horde". Each player is working on a separate task that contributes to the overall "success".
No single player could handle all the issues that occur so they are forced to work together to survive.
- - -
Also, it's helpful to reduce the number of "Help Yourself" cards and increase the "Target OTHER player". For example, allow the Medkit to heal other players instead of yourself or the Sniper Rifle to support OTHER attackers.
These mechanics will literally FORCE players to work together. These cards will make it clear even to new players that you should work as allies.
- - -
Finally, DO NOT PUT IN COMPETITIVE FEATURES! If you want players to cooperate, they can't be punished for doing so. Telling a player that "You gain points for killing the monster!" or "You split XP with all heroes in a fight" leads to a situation where players are rewarded for acting alone.
Reward players for behaving the way you want them to play the game.
Maybe have a secret goal that each player has that differs from the rest but for everyone to achieve their goal they need to play cooperatively building towards their goal while the others are doing the same and whoever reveals that they have completed their goal that player is the winner?... For example I will use a zombie game, my secret goal is to kill 15 zombies attacking other players, I am helping the other players by attacking their zombies hence working cooperatively yet once I complete that goal I am the clear winner.. hope that helps, not sure it the idea will work into your mechanics
It doesn't sound like you want a cooperative game. Do you mean to say you want a competitive game where the players have to help each other?
Maybe a building type game where each person plays a different role and that role determines how many VP they get at the end. They have to work together to achieve the end result although achieving their criteria provides them with more VP.
Are you talking a custom card game or a playing card game?
Sounds like you need to do a little research. I suggest playing Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games. It's a co-op card game that had a lot of elements you are looking for in a game.
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Thx for the reply guys, all really helps alot.
But let me put it into a more detailed examples. If the games objective is the vp, how do you make them work together? If each players are aiming for higher vp, then some acts of betrayal are bound to happen. If I made the mechanics to be just work together to win, how do i make a victory not to dull without the vp and decide which player is the winner? (All of you are winners just doesn't cut it)
I know there are some coop games that wins together like arkham and ghost stories. But I really need this mechanics to be like, player B really saved my ass with that card or luckily player c activates that on his turn otherwise i won't be able to do this.