A slick little combat game 15-30 minutes. Try it out?

So, the rules as they are currently written up is a pared-down version of the original concept. Originally, my intent was to design a game that represented the development of a fighter over time, from battle to battle. I tried a few prototypes, and had the most success with what you see now: simple rules and mechanics, allowing for complex interaction between cards and a certain amount of strategy on the part of the players.

However, if it is agreed that the game could benefit from something else, something more, then there are two ideas that I'll put forward:

1. Weapons - by mucking around with the ranges and tying it to damage, it should be possible to mimic different hand-to-hand weapons. For example, a long sword might do more damage at a range of 5 and 6 and be completely ineffective at 3 or less, while a dagger works best at ranges 1 and 2 and can't reach beyond 6. This way, players will be trying to shift the battle in different directions. Could work really well.

2. Persistence - By allowing players to create new attack and defense cards, under strict limitations, and by adding in Skill Points to track their ability to do so, the game becomes a model of a fighter's development, from beginner to expert. Regardless of experience, players would still start with the same number of cards in hand, but a more advanced fighter would have these created cards available in their deck, which they could draw from (this introduces the random element), which extends their health and also could convey some new ability, such as moving two spaces at once (a charge or jump), reducing the time of a combo by two instead of one, picking up a card more quickly, etc.

I'm most excited about the second option. What do you folks think?

Thanks for the suggestions! I think we're on the same page regarding the persistence aspect. The deck would grow, but players would have to balance their deck so that they get a proper amount of attacks and defense. But regarding weapons, the idea is that each player would have one weapon, perhaps a dagger or a sword (but what about trident & net?!) and you'd stick with that weapon for the whole match. It would be one deck vs. another. Combining the two ideas, you'd see players slowly adding different moves to their deck, developing a fighting style according to what weapon they've chosen, and then honing their skills so that they have access to the right cards when needed.

The challenge as a developer is to make sure that players can create cards that have an appropriate in-game effect, yet remain balanced such that no one strategy is unbeatable. I've got some ideas: basically, forcing the player to advance their deck one card at a time, that is, the initial cards, "punch: damage 1" would move to "punch: damage 2", or even "punch: damage 1 plus a 1d6 chance for +1" for really slow development. New cards would be duplicates of the original cards. So the player would slowly advance, bringing each maneuver up a bit at a time.