Hello to all you board gamers, card gamers and kindred geeks out there! I'd like to introduce you to a card game I've been developing for a good year now called Ramparts, Pens & Swords.
Type of game:
Ramparts, Pens & Swords is a 2-player card game with deck building elements set in the Crusades era circa 1095 - 1291. A player wins by defeating all of their opponent's cards. The game generally takes 15-30 minutes to play. (Longer if you enjoy a little roleplay, as I do)
The skinny:
Ramparts, Pens & Swords utilizes a rock/paper/scissors mechanics to determine the winner of matches in a round. Cards have a win, draw or lose condition which goes into effect depending on the outcome of a match. Cards are then sent to their respective defeat or victory piles. At the start of each round, players choose from a starting hand of 5 cards (or more depending upon some card conditions) to set the three matches of each round. Before a round begins, players turn over a card from the round card deck, which is created at the beginning of a game by combining the player's round cards associated with their choice of faction deck. Additionally, each player has one hero card, selected at the beginning of a game, which has a one-time use ability, intended to interrupt or change the flow of the game. When a player runs out of cards in their deck, the victory pile is shuffled, and becomes the new deck. A player wins when all of their opponent's cards have been defeated.
Current state of the game:
Ramparts, Pens & Swords is currently in a playtesting stage. The rules are concrete, and the 4 different decks have their own style of play without any (currently known) game-breaking effects. I imagine that the card conditions will change somewhat with further playtests. The simple art works thematically, but it is not final, as I intend to hire out custom art for the game. Card names could change to match historically factional units, but at this time and for the sake of clarity I have unit names shared across the decks.
What is next:
Phew, what a section. I'll try not to make this a tl;dr, but I'd appreciate any and all feedback. Ultimately, I want to Kickstart this game, when the time is right.
- I'd like to hire an artist to do custom art for all of the cards. There are 170 cards in all: that includes the decks (120 total, 30 for each of the 4 factions), the round cards (40 total, 10 for each of the 4 factions), and the hero cards (10 total). Also, the design of the title, and the game's board design, in which the layout for card placement is complete, but no artistic direction has been made so far.
- Speaking of the board, I'd like to engineer a mechanism which flips each of the match cards over when the player presses a button or flips a lever of some kind. While this doesn't effect the rules of the game, I feel from the playtests (both blind and with friends) that it would add a more engaging element to the game. Rarrr, war!
- I'd like to change the unit names to match their factions/cultures during the Crusades era. For example, the Turk Swordsman would be called whatever title the Turks gave their foot soldiers during this time.
- I'd like to have some historical fact or piece of information on each card, preferably unique to that particular type of unit in war, or at the very least unique to the faction it represents. Much like Magic: The Gathering has blurbs at the bottom of all their cards.
-Lastly, YOUR FEEDBACK! I've been working on this game for a while now, and while I've playtested it with friends, family, and a blind group at a local card and comic shop, I haven't yet had the feedback of online users and fans and supporters of sites like BGDF and BoardGameGeek.
I feel the time is right to pull the trigger on moving forward with Ramparts, Pens & Swords. I intend to check back often for comments, suggestions and questions, but please forgive me if I respond slowly to some inquiries. Your opinions are valuable, and I look forward to helping this game grow with the community, God willing.
Thanks!
~Matthew
