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Monkey Card Game

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3ddevine
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Joined: 10/13/2010

Hey everyone
I’m working on an idea for a card game. Quick premise, you and your opponent each have 5 monkeys (basically cartoon monkeys, pirates, cowboys ect.) The object of the game is to knockout all 5 of your opponent’s monkeys before he does the same to you.

Each monkey card has 4 symbols that represent the 4 seasons. On those symbols is a number 1-4. Example: Pirate monkey (Summer) 1 (Fall) 3 (Winter) 2 (Spring) 4. This means that this monkey is the strongest during spring and the weakest in the summer. There would be a card visible to all players that displayed the current season.

Gameplay:
Each player puts 4 monkeys forward and one in back. The monkey in the back is the captain. The captain’s stats determine your team’s strength, so say we were staring in spring, you want a captain that is strong in spring.

Each player is then dealt 5 cards. These cards consist of numbers 0-5, wilds, change captain, change season. The rest is put in a draw pile.

The captain cannot be attacked until the front 4 monkeys have been knocked out.
Attacking: To knockout a monkey you place number cards in front of them starting with 1 and going to 5, once a 5 card is placed in front of a monkey, that monkey is knocked out. You get to play cards equal to your current strength amount. For example if the pirate monkey mentioned above was your captain “Pirate monkey (Summer) 1 (Fall) 3 (Winter) 2 (Spring) 4” and the current season was spring, you could play up to 4 cards from your hand on your turn.

Healing: On your turn you can choose to use some or all of your cards for healing. You do this by placing numbers counting down on your own team. Example: If you had a monkey that had a 3 card placed in front of him, you could play a 2 and so on. To clear damage completely you would place a 0 on 1.

Change Season: With this card you have the option of changing the current season to something that might be more of an advantage for you.
Change Captain: This card allows you to swap your captain with one of your front 4 in order to achieve an advantage over your opponent.

Captains Last Stand: When only your captain remains, that monkey receives a 4 regardless of the season.

Play continues until one player is out of monkeys.

Any ideas, questions, or comments would be greatly appreciated, I’m not married to the battle mechanic by any means.

samuelsun
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Joined: 11/01/2010
good idea..!

This is really good idea .. keep it up

3ddevine
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Joined: 10/13/2010
Thanks, I play tested it a

Thanks, I play tested it a little by myself and it felt a little stale to me, I still like the basic idea of this but it needs some work.

cniemira
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Joined: 03/21/2009
I like monkeys. :-) I like

I like monkeys. :-)

I like the concept behind your mechanic and I'd be interested to see it in action. The idea of using numeric cards to increment/decrement progress balanced with your "season" and "change captain" concepts to determine your various strengths and play capacities could work out quite elegantly. More over, it seems like an approachable, easy-to-learn mechanic. Of course, the devil would be in the details... for example you'd want to ensure it's difficult to get into a back-and-forth war of numbers.

What age range is this targeted towards? Based on the theme, I'd guess kids, but the rules mechanic looks like like it could be a little complicated for anyone too young. If I'm completely wrong, I apologize for that... I'm new to game making myself, and I'm getting started very simply by trying to come up with something targeted towards my own kids' age ranges, so that's where my head's at. Either way, it seems like the artwork and theme are going to be the crucial combination for you.

One of the things I've realized is that repeat play testing is key. I even wrote my own tool for play testing card games, though there are others out there.

Good luck! And, when you get it ready, I'd love to help you test it out.

3ddevine
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Joined: 10/13/2010
My mind frame was to make a

My mind frame was to make a game that is fun to play for adults & kids, im guessing 8 or 10 and up. I felt that by using a cartoon monkey theme it would have a little more universal feel to it. Regaurdless of age, this idea is intended to be a simple pick up and play.

I have actually started taking my monkey idea in a different direction completely the last week or so, but getting feedback from people makes me think I may have something here already. Maybe I will post the other "monkey" game I am thinking of to see if that one sounds more entertaining or not.

Thank you very much for the playtest offer, maybe i can get a print and play set up for anyone that is interested.

Oh and I tried to check out the link you posted but it seems to be broken. I have been looking for a program to help test my card games on.

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