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Quest Adventure Cards(tm) — 2nd Edition : Designing some cards

Well I just DESIGNED the "First" of six (6) LEGENDARY cards:

Purse of Plenty = Item (Purple), +1 Orange, Stockpile = 2Y + 2O + 2R

I realized one (1) of the cards previously drawn/illustrated was NOT going to be used by this 2nd version. I don't know WHY... It seems like during the sorting, the card was removed from circulation.

And so I decided... Why not make it the first Legendary card...

EXCITING...!!!

Note #1: This still gives a PREVIEW of one of the "rarest" cards to be a part of the future game.

Note #2: In regards to the "rareness" of the card itself being a "Legendary" card... There are five (5) levels of "rareness":

Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic and Legendary.

In terms of odds to get the card (or for that matter any other Legendary card also) is 1 out of 246 Mythic cards. So 0.41% ...! Got to be real LUCKY with these cards.

Note #3: the odds of GETTING any Legendary cards is 6 out of 246 = 2.44% Better than 1%!!! But not by too much.

Comments

Could your resource cubes be

Could your resource cubes be differentiated by shape as well as by colour? Cube, diamond, sphere or something.

Hmm... I guess that could be possible

But not in my present situation. However this could be possible with some modifications to the "Build Engine"... You would probably need to go from physical representation (like actual Wooden Cubes) to something more virtual like a table for tracking resources.

Like I said it "could" be done with some alterations in how you TRACK the resources themselves...

Right now I am leaning to PHYSICAL components since this is easier to keep the amount of resources "visible" to the both players. I already have "virtual" "Virtue Points" (VPs) which are used for enhancing your various aspects of the game in addition to serving as a way to WIN the game.

So for my OWN/PERSONAL version, it might be overly complicated to have TWO (2) separate tracks to maintain/monitor how your resources are being earned.

questccg wrote:But not in my

questccg wrote:
But not in my present situation. However this could be possible with some modifications to the "Build Engine"... You would probably need to go from physical representation (like actual Wooden Cubes) to something more virtual like a table for tracking resources.

Like I said it "could" be done with some alterations in how you TRACK the resources themselves...

Right now I am leaning to PHYSICAL components since this is easier to keep the amount of resources "visible" to the both players. I already have "virtual" "Virtue Points" (VPs) which are used for enhancing your various aspects of the game in addition to serving as a way to WIN the game.

So for my OWN/PERSONAL version, it might be overly complicated to have TWO (2) separate tracks to maintain/monitor how your resources are being earned.

Ah, I see. I didn't realise they represented physical components.

How about some analysis!

So the card itself has been given a "Power" value of six (6). And the highest possible value is nine (9). So 2/3 the way up the power ladder. What I can say is that from a "design" perspective this is an AMAZING card. Here is some analysis regarding the card itself:

  • It has a higher than average Power for one of the "starter" cards. Of course over time, there will be STRONGER cards that will be created.

  • BUT there are no "card restrictions" as to it's use. The Ability doesn't serve as a way to "restrict" the card in any way.

  • It allows the player to CHOOSE the resource of his choice. This is VERY useful especially when building a strong engine. Although this card is meant to play "Yellow", it is more of a colorless card (when it comes to the Bonus Ability).

  • For Yellow it serve a pretty good "Stockpiling" action.

  • And it earns you +1 Orange... It doesn't COST you resources like a penalty or usage of resources (Negative values) which will also be common place as well.

So all-in-all ... It's a PRETTY DECENT card of "Fabled Lore"...

Three (3) lines for Ability or Restriction

Notice that I only have three (3) lines to state the Bonus "Ability", a "Penalty" or a "Restriction". Originally (in "Quest AC") there was no additional text/writing on the cards themselves. (Well except for the Event Cards). So I've made some space for SIMPLE Bonuses/Penalties... It'll force me to be BRIEF and to-the-point when it comes to their description.

I'm not quite sure

I'm not quite sure I understand the wording on when exactly you can use that ability, and how many times it applies, etc.

I mean, it's an item, and it refers to "this quest" in a weird way, and the word "before" also makes it unclear to me.

Sorry ... I've looked into this...

Yes I have re-worded the Bonus Ability so that it is much clearer... I removed the term "Before" and replaced it with "When" as per your suggestion. I also removed the reference to "this quest" which was extraneous (probably).

Now you should have a corrected ability which is much clearer to understand and not error prone to interpretation.

The ability may be ONLY used when the active quest is being completed (so only once per turn and more importantly AT THE END of a player's turn). I didn't want to say "End of turn" because if you have no "conversion" card, the quest remains uncompleted... And this card's ability CANNOT be used.

Another sample card

Greedy are the pickings! This guy looks like he's having FUN!!! It took me a while to "tweak" here-and-there until I got this Rare Treasure... (I mean where do you find a "stolen crown"?! That is unless...) You get the picture! (Wink)

Stolen Crown = Treasure (Green), -1 Orange, Garrison = 1Y + 1O + 1R

Some explanations.

This is a sample "Garrison" card which is used like a "Guard" and can protect a maximum of 3 resources to be later available on your Next Turn in the event that you have no Conversion card ... or simply need to stock up on resources before playing a specific Conversion card.

Playing this card costs -1 Orange.

If it is played into an opponent's Active Quest, it penalizes the player by -2 Orange (double the -1 as per the ability).

Thoughts, questions, feedback(?!)

Note #1: The bandit in this card is a LEFTY! Know of any "greedy lefties"?!

A third card to review

Here is a preview of a "Conversion" card. It's a Common Equipment and can be used to score a "Yellow" Virtue Point.

Sturdy Pickax = Equipment (Orange), -1 Yellow, Convert = 3Y + 2O > 1Y

Some explanations.

The Bonus Ability for this card is nice because it links to another Fragment... While normally it would score 1 VP, a Bonus +1 VP can be in the mix given one or more Treasures in the Active Quest.

For a Common Card, it's a obviously an "expensive" operation. Not very "effective" in normal usage... But a nice "go-to" card when needed. It also serves as a decent Treasury card that you can put in play at a moments notice.

A very iterative process

As with anything, it takes time to properly "reflect" upon what I had (Quest AC) and what I was trying to achieve (Quest AC2). At first the two buttons were going to be "scoring adjustments". Basically using the card's Power, one of the two buttons would modify the score.

I can't firmly remember all the details of that iteration of the game... But it was MUCH, MUCH earlier than my current version. And a bit convoluted also! (LOL)

This shows that you may take "two steps forwards and three steps back"! And so I was having a bit of a bout with Designer's Block... I basically knew that what I had was GARBAGE and knew that I had to wait for something cleaner and better.

I think what I have NOW will take months and months of tweaking and trying to figure out the proper card distribution (for example). I'm still working on the design... Never the less it's headed in a more correct direction.

The colourblind

My colourblind friend actually says no to those orange and red cubes.
Just to let you know.

Ah ... darn things ... look good in most colors!

X3M wrote:
My colourblind friend actually says no to those orange and red cubes...

Unfortunately I am working with the colors that are available. There are only 8 of them. And I'm using six (6). Using either Black or White could lead to "thematic" confusion... So I'm sorry for your "color-blind" friend, there is nothing I could do except make CUSTOM Wooden Blocks and THAT would cost more money than the standard ones already available...

Regards.

Note #1: Also the buttons on the cards themselves or Playing Yellow or Orange or Red (the basic colors of the cards ...) would also require a lot of "re-designing" and add confusion to the the "theme" of the game... It's NOT just changing to color of the cubes, it's changing the colors of the buttons, part of the card template, gems on the type of cards (because I'm using 8 colors already), etc.

Streamlining and improved user interaction

For a while now, the design had FIVE (5) "Actions": Stockpile, Trade, Convert, Garrison and Raid. "Raid" served as a way to allow the players to interact with the timeline of the Active Quest, I have since decided to REMOVE IT. And there are now FOUR (4) "Actions".

Why did I decide on this?

Simply put, the other cards suffice to form interactions THEMSELVES. How? Well quite simply put is that the opponent may choose to play ANY card he wants to play "after" the player plays one (1) card. So while the turn is determined by the FIRST player, how things evolve are profoundly in-part how the SECOND player "reacts".

And ALL cards are open to being played. But each turn there is a FIRST and then a SECOND player. Interaction is determined by the "resources" and "actions" each player may use to build his/her engine. Not only can Player #2 play a penalty card (-1 Yellow resource for example), he can also perform "trades" and "conversions" to try to STEAL away points from his/her opponent.

This will also mean that the reduced number of "Actions" means more options and the availability of more cards to play with (for both players). Stealing is no longer a function of a SPECIFIC "Action" (like the previous Raid Action), all cards can serve as way to store, steal and score points for either side of the table...

And I "put back" the "Garrison" action because it serves as a way to "Protect" resources from being STOLEN by the opponent. I felt if any and ALL resources could be stolen, then I needed a "counter" to this. And this is the EXACT purpose of the "Garrison" action.

I was thinking about HOW a player could protect his/her resources from the opposing player and realized that the "Garrison" action could be a beneficial "Action" to have to protect cards...

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