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Ramparts, Pens & Swords - RPS War Game

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Saratar
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Ramparts, Pens & Swords

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

Midnight_Carnival
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from a cursory review of your post

It looks to me like you really have everything figured out there, I don't know that I can be much use to you (I basically churn out random ideas, I'm what they call a "frobber" - yeah, frob!) but I wish you luck and I would like to try your game out someday.

Saratar
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Joined: 03/26/2015
much appreciated!

Thanks for the response, Midnight_Carnival! I've never heard of a "frobber" before, but the word alone brings a smile to my face. Creativity is a gift, and it's good to see you sharing that gift with others.

There's still a lot to be done before I can consider Ramparts to be in its final stages, and especially before I'm comfortable asking people to donate to its cause.

For one, I'd like to fine tune the card condition effects with more playtesting. Sending out prototypes is a plan for the very near future, especially if there's interest from members online or the local community. Another area of focus is the game board art. While having one game board has been my intent all along, I recently thought of creating individual boards for the separate player factions, each with its own unique art. At the very least, I could make them as bonuses for backers.

My next planned step is to create a video showcasing the game. I'd love to make something professional and fun, with graphics and a voice over and music and what not, but for now I'm thinking a basic video providing a visual of the game's mechanics and flow will work best. I'm in no rush, all things in good time, but I'd prefer to have a video out there sooner than later.

radioactivemouse
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Please correct me if I'm wrong...

So (after reading the rules) the game is basically a glorified game of War using Rock/Paper/Scissors? No customization of decks, not real strategy, just place cards down in 1, 2, 3 order, flip them, and determine results?

From what I've seen, it appears as though the game is all about luck. There doesn't seem to be any type of strategy and results seem to be absolute. I'm not totally sure as I don't know the cards individually, but I'd want to have some kind of decision making in the game so I could feel like I had an influence a win.

I have other thoughts, but I wanted to confirm that this is the mechanic before I move on.

questccg
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Sent him some ideas

@Jay yes I agree with you... I sent him some ideas too.

I was telling @Matthew that I would change the NAME of the game to "Royals, Politics and Subterfuge" (RPS). And that there would be 2 Categories of "Ministry Cards": Politics and Subterfuge.

Each Round, a player is chosen as the LEADING Player. Both players choose a Royal and three cards: Politic, Subterfuge and War! cards.

Then after some "banter" between the players, the LEADING player chooses ONE (1) Category of "Ministry Cards": either Politics or Subterfuge.

A WIN for either side, means the opponent's Royal is defeated. A DRAW means that it is WAR! and the two players reveal their WAR card. According to RPS rules, the winner is decided - if it's a DRAW AGAIN, both Royals are discarded (as both players lose).

Each Player would randomly build a deck of 5 Royals from 10 available. Each Player would then have a Royals Deck of 5 cards. The game's winner is declared as the last Player to have a Royal in his Deck. This means the longest game could last nine (9) rounds and probably play in about 30 minutes...

It could be a FUN game if you have interesting "Ministry Cards"... Obviously ROUND cards can affect which category is chosen: Politics or Subterfuge.

Note: The FUN is in the "Ministry Cards". If you can create "nice" Politics card and have "NASTY" Subterfuge cards - might make for an interesting game.

The basic strategy is this: Given a Royal with an Ability, a ROUND card which favors one Category and the three (3) cards that you have, you use all that partial information to CHOOSE what way the Round will proceed (as the LEADING player)...

You simply ALTERNATE who is the LEADING player from one Round to another...

Saratar
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Oh no there's definitely strategy here, and luck

radioactivemouse, thanks for giving the rules a look, I really appreciate it! I hope to someday have a visually appealing rule book. For now, a thoughtfully formatted word doc does the trick.

Like any good ol' round of rock/paper/scissors there's a fair amount of luck and 'blind' throws involved. In my opinion, that's a lot of the fun of RPS--throw it out there and see if it sticks

But I've created Ramparts with strategy in mind, to make each playthrough unique outside of the randomness of luck. The four factions--English, Frank, Holy Roman Empire and Turk--have certain strategies to their deck. These strategies I have not explicitly stated because it's my hope that players would discover them as they play the game, but I'll divulge a few here to make my point.

The Turks benefit most from draw conditions. Also, their card conditions are based heavily on drawing more cards into your hand. Their round cards penalize or reward players with too few or too many cards in a hand, as well.

The Franks benefit greatly from losing matches. In fact, if a Frank player is losing matches more than winning them, they will likely win the game, as their cards' lose conditions penalize the winning player heavily. Additionally, they have more scissor type cards than any other deck, and they have round cards which only grant lose conditions, or force other card types than scissor to be null and void for a round.

And in terms of strategy, alternate rules allow for players to 'build' their round card deck, rather than playing the ten specific round cards associated with faction decks. Heroes, too, can all be played, chosen at will or blindly. It's up to the players.

The game is like war, and it's mechanic is rock/paper/scissors, but each playthrough, each round, each match will bring results largely based on player decisions throughout the session of a game.

Saratar
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That's a really cool idea!

questccg, thank you for taking the time to look at Ramparts, and to message me with your thoughts in further detail as well. I'm digging on the concepts you've provided, and I've taken to writing out such ideas separately as consideration for the direction of Ramparts and its current state of play. I don't think I can say "thank you" enough to you and to the others who have taken their time to look at my game and give me their feedback. I aim to glean as much knowledge as I can from the experience of those like you who have created uniquely distinct games.

If I may ask, in regards to the Hero cards in Ramparts, which Hero do you think provides the best advantage to a player over the other Hero card types? And why do you think that is?

questccg
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Not sure about the Heroes...

@Matthew: After you LIST the COMPONENTS, the NEXT section should by "How to WIN the game." (In the rulebook) You want players to have a CLEAR understanding about what they are trying to achieve while playing your game.

You say it in your "Abstract" on the very LAST page. This should be on the very FIRST page!

Also I sent you a Private Message (PM) indicating that you should explain in a very brief way the Tactics of each Faction Deck. As I said, you don't want people to "figure it out on their own." Most probably people will be like: "This is all RPS and luck, there is no strategy."

But the "Play Styles" of each Faction Deck make a difference...

Superhero IDEA: I would like to have a Hero that you "Play after winning every match in a round." = Your opponent must discard his entire hand to into his defeat pile.

That could be pretty powerful! Mouhaha...

Saratar
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That's certainly an excellent strategic advantage

I like your Hero card suggestion, questccg, it's definitely a strong strategic element for this type of game, even as a one-time use.

In fact, there's already a Hero card in the game which has this ability!
Rabban Bar Sauma, a Hero of the Turk Faction. The card's condition states, "Play after winning every match in a round," and its effect states, "You may remove from play permanently every card sent to your opponent's defeat pile during the round."

I focused this effect on the cards defeated in a round rather than the cards in a player's hand, because a player's hand at the end of a round will most often be 2 cards. Some card condition effects can increase or decrease the amount of cards a player will be holding in their hand at the end of a round. By focusing on the cards defeated in a round, this ensures the removal (permanently, too, yikes!) of at least 3 cards, if not more, as some Faction deck's round cards can increase the match count in a round to 5 or more! But generally speaking, this Hero effect grants the possibility to remove from play permanently 3 cards--you just have to win every match in a round, that's all!

Saratar
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Board design is up

I've created a game journal post discussing the board design for Ramparts, Pens & Swords. Feel free to give it a look and provide any feedback! I'm also working with artists right now, so there could be something visual to present in the very near future.

http://www.bgdf.com/node/18895

Thanks!

Saratar
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Discussing the rules further

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I've added a new journal post which discusses the game rules and provides some real examples of the game's mechanics from past playtests. Because of excellent feedback from several members I wanted to take an opportunity to answer the big questions that have been raised about Ramparts, Pens & Swords. You can find the post here: http://www.bgdf.com/game-journal/ramparts-pens-swords-rules-refined.

This week I'll be providing an in-depth look into one of the four Faction Decks--how it's best played, some of its unique card mechanics, its round cards, and the synergy of its deck against the other Faction Decks. Keep an eye out for this first in a series look at the different Faction Decks of the game!

If you're interested in seeing more please subscribe to this forum thread. I'm excited at the opportunity to have you look at my game and to watch its development. And if you have any questions or ideas feel free to post a reply here or send a pm.

Thanks!

Saratar
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Modifications & Additions to RP&S from Community Comments

Phew, what a month it has been, diligently working on Ramparts, Pens & Swords, celebrating another year of life, and getting into the swing of the new year, 2017!

I wanted to take an opportunity to give a shout out to some great members here at BGDF who have taken the time to look at RP&S and provide meaningful and constructive feedback for the game. So, to questccg, The Professor, BHFuturist and radioactivemouse, thank you thank you and thank you again for your time! And to the many others who I've spoken with here and there--you know who you are--thank you as well for sharing your passion and your ideas with me. I'm indebted to the community here, and I just can't thank you guys enough! (thank you)

Here in the next week or so I'll be posting about the next Faction deck of the game: the Franks; but, for now, I want to share some additions I've begun to implement into RP&S and get some feedback on these elements. With these additions I believe I can consider the game to be moving into its 4th version since inception.

First, I've changed the Round Card's timing to occur BEFORE players set their match cards in a round. Originally, the Round Card came out AFTER players set their matches for a round, but this left players powerless each round to its effects, and I want to give players the most opportunities to play each round strategically in regards to their hand.

Secondly, I've added a new element to the game called 'Attrition.' There is now an Attrition Meter. Every time a DRAW occurs in a match one point is added to the Attrition Meter. When the Attrition Meter reaches 10, players discard the top card of their Victory Pile to their Defeat Pile. I feel that this gives draws--a frequent occurrence--more of an impact in the game, AND it opens up a whole new avenue of Faction card effects and Round Card effects that directly affect the Attrition Meter.

Lastly, and this one's a big one, I've changed how Heroes are integrated into the overall game. Originally, players chose one Hero card at the start of a game and could only play that Hero once. Each Hero possesses a unique card effect with a condition for its play (e.g. 'Play at the start of a round'). Once the Hero card was played it was removed from play permanently. Unfortunate for this element, I found that most players completely 'forgot' about the Hero card during a game session. Several times a game would conclude and a player would say "Oh right, my Hero." Also, while every Hero has a Faction association, players could originally choose any Hero card, regardless of their Faction deck.

Now, I've added 2 new Heroes to give each Faction 3 Heroes each, and Heroes can only be played with their associated Faction decks. At the start of a game, players take their 3 Hero cards associated with their choice of Faction deck for the game, and they arrange the 3 Heroes in any order of first, second and third. When that deck's condition is met for their Heroes (e.g. the Holy Roman Empire Faction requires that a player wins all of the matches in a round) then the Hero card comes out into play. Hero cards are of two types: Once-the Hero card effect occurs only one time and then the Hero card is removed from the game (e.g. Your opponent discards to 3 cards and then shows you their hand); or Continuous-the Hero card effect adjusts play continuously until the next Hero card is in play (e.g. Your redraw phase is now 7 cards instead of 5). Some Factions have Heroes with only ONCE occurring effects, some have only CONTINUOUS occurring effects, and others have a mix. At this time, there are no card effects which directly target Heroes or their abilities, but I could certainly implement this element with ease for future Faction expansions, or even by modifying a card or two already in the game to target Hero cards directly.

Sorry if this post got a bit lengthy, but hey you're still reading, so I thank you for that! Likewise, I'd love to hear any thoughts or questions regarding these changes to RP&S as I continue to fine tune and develop the game for future publication!

God bless!

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