Settling for a Rare Bad Game State

Usually when we are talking about "Card Games" there comes this notion of creating a bunch of different cards and abilities with their own distinct stats and flavor to make a more varied game.

But here is the thing...

Why is this important???

Because COLLECTORS want unique cards; to them duplicates are only valuable for TRADING. But to PLAYERS who enjoy "playing" the game ... They have a completely different attitude and perspective.

So if your DECK is 30 cards; 3 x 10 unique cards = 30 cards.

I'm not saying that ALL cards will be in counts of three (3); there may be some cards that are used in less frequency (like 1 or 2).

But the problem when designing ... Is to THINK(?) in this manner otherwise you may get a game that is BROKEN due to the fact that you did NOT anticipate HOW(?) the PLAYERS are going to build their DECKS.

This is a very important thing with any game that allows "Deck Construction".

Anyhow ... Just sharing my perspective of how to handle "broken" mechanics and configuration styles of a Deck.

It depends on the game mechanics.

But if healing is overpowered, you need to nerf it.
I personally know how hard it can be to have healing being balanced without creating an unfair advantage in a "fair" way.

There are several ways to nerf an ability.

1. Keep track of what got healed. And put a cooldown on the portion that already got healed. Or allow only a 1 time healing.
2. Have the ability cost a resource of some sort. And have this cost slowly increase, everytime it gets used. "Exhaust" the repetitive behavior. Or at most, reduce the healing effect each time it is used. +5, +4, +3, +2, +1, the end of the healing.
3. Have something that counters the healing. Some sort of poison that needs to be removed first before healing can even take place?
4. Forget about removing the poison, keep healing. However, the poison that is inflicted starts to stack. -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, the end.
5. An effect that corrupts healing into damage?
6. Steal the healing.
7. Have a synergy attack that insta kills the enemy. It simply needs a couple of turns to prepare this attack?

Plenty of idea's. But it depends on the game mechanics.

It reminds me of a 2 player hero quest game, where the barbarian was blocking the doorway and taking all the hits for the other characters.

This is called an outlier. A game situation that rarely happens, but that could happens. If it happens too much, the it becomes a dominant strategy.

Now, there can be various ways to get around this. Ask AI, it might come up with ideas we did not think about. You can either try to fix the core mechanics, to make it more solid and bullet proof to prevent other outliers you are currently not aware of. Or you can just try to patch this issue

Now I am assuming you are making a tactical board game. So solutions includes:

1. Bigger Corridors: "Dungeon Crawl" did this by using 2 spaces corridor, but I think 1 space door existed. So you could block a door.

2. Time constraint: You are forced to push forward because time is against you, there fore staying there an blocking the monster becomes a bad strategy. Maybe more reinforcement are going to come.

3. Move through: Heroes does not block enemies, that could be nasty, as the wizard in the back is not safe anymore.

4. Limited uses: All special abilities can be used a certain number of times per adventures. So that healing skill cannot be used indefinitely.

5. Push: Some enemies abilities can push heroes in a direction by ramming them. That could make them move backwards, or even fall on the floor allowing enemies to move through the hero.

6. Range attacks: You are blocking a doorway, well all monster have some thrown items like knifes that they can just throw at the blocking hero. Meaning that more than just the adjacent characters will attack the hero, possibly removing all its health at once.

7. Status effects: Monster applies nasty status effect that could make the blocking hero full of HP, but have very limited capabilities, which could make the escape from his position much more complicated when it is time to leave.

This is all I can come up with so far.

With the addition of miniatures in "TradeWorlds", the abilities of the various Reinforcement Bonuses was NOT LOGICAL. Originally what was proposed was +1 to BOTH Attacking and Defending "Initiative Rolls".

At first glance, a +1 seems like the way to luck up and simply score one (1) BONUS point.

But when you ANALYZE it a bit... +1 is NOT good for various reasons:

#1> If Attacking and your opponent has beaten your ROLL... A +1 would do either NOTHING or even worst if could trigger a "Counter-Attack" (meaning the opponent has the upper hand). Not really a GOOD "Bonus" if you think about it.

#2> If Defending and your opponent has beaten your ROLL... A +1 would do too much in that it too could trigger a "Counter-Attack".

How is this 2nd scenario BAD??? I means that every time you BEAT a opponent's Initiative roll by ONLY +1, ALWAYS use the Defending Bonus (+1) to create the situation which is a "Counter-Attack" which is ... BAD!

***

So we made it +2 for BOTH bonuses (Offensive & Defensive). This means that at least if you are BEHIND by -1 Initiative, you can always ATTACK with +2 meaning that the end result is that you would be +1 AHEAD of the Defender making the attack succeed (by +1 or more).

The defending situation can ALSO trigger a "Counter-Attack" but only if the Attacking Player is +2 ahead of your initiative roll. But if your opponent rolls a "5" (Attacker) and you roll a "4" +2 = 6 ... You DEFEND.

***

That was the LAZY solution. We did not have the "Design Space" as a tool in our toolbox. Had we had this... I would have made a FULL AUDIT and would have been able to GENERATE MUCH better abilities than the ones we used for that "bonus" Module (which was using miniatures or tokens).

We were "Fresh Out-Of-Ideas" when we thought about those ABILITIES. Again a FULL AUDIT using the "Design Space" Methodology or Process would have probably yielded much more interesting outcomes.

But hey, you do with what you know and can do. You can't be expected to know that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) created the "Design Space" for ABILITIES and allowing more comprehensive options to the game you have. And sometimes, just adding one (1) more mechanic can yield a TON of new cards. Like WotC does.

Maybe nowadays as I slowly work on my "Mystery Game" ... I can employ the AUDIT to see what is available and then I've had to ADD more elements because the design is much too SIMPLE (not enough meat for the AUDIT...) Anyhow that is another kind of PROBLEM!

So sometimes they are "Lousy Solutions" and other times "Too Simple" is the design. And doing an AUDIT only to figure out the game needs to be RE-DESIGNED is hard too... Because AUDIT requires sufficient elements and when you don't have that... You see that you need to ADD more to the game ... IF you want to use the "Design Space" principle (Methodology/Process).

Best!

You know, the ones that go hhhhmmmmmmMMMMMMMZZZZZZ PEW!!

We got these weapons that need time to "warm up".
Since it costs turns, it grows exponentially.
In the most extreme case, the damage goes up by a factor of 5 in 1 round.
But it always gets the job done. Even the most extreme case of something blocking the path.

So perhaps you can have a weapon/magic that can charge up over multiple turns or even rounds in order to fire.

hhhhmmmmmmMMMMMMMZZZZZZ PEW!!

I don’t know if it works with your game but when I read it my thought was “what if dealing damage wasn’t the only thing one could do”, like succeeding in combat allows one to deal damage or knock the opponent prone or push back.