Okay so I have been thinking about how "Mana" (the old currency in the Video game) could be transformed and used within "Crystal Heroes" The Card Game (TCG)...
And I have come up with something NOVEL (I've never seen this specific mechanic before):
When you use an "Active" ability, for EACH CARD that it affects causes you to LOSE one (1) Victory Point.
For example: if your card affects 2 other cards, that would mean -2 VPs. And the goal to WIN is having more VPs than your opponent.
This means that using an ability COSTS points towards you winning. So you probably want to be careful which Abilities you use. This also implies I may need to revise my card sets (+Expansions) to make sure abilities are valuable enough.
There is also a WHOLE lot of STRATEGY this brings into play.
For now, I think this SOLUTION is actually *very interesting*! And it is a good way of "controlling" someone from using ALL of their abilities to try to maximize a victory and this is a counter-balance.
I can't explain all the strategy (which is pretty deep) but this SIMPLE measure/method might be real cool. I need to playtest this and see if it is a good idea - right now I think it's AWESOME! Playtesting will prove if it truly is.
Comments
Are you going to start with
Are you going to start with some Victory Points then? I think you'd have too otherwise you wouldn't be able to use abilities in the early game, right?
I can't remember for certain but I seem to remember reading the rules for some TCG a while ago that utilizes something similar, could have been cards from the deck though. I'll see if I can find it again.
Clarification
You don't start with Victory Points, you just do MATH at the end of the game and figure out who has the most VPs. So if you used an "Active" ability, your overall end-game score would be LESS...
BUT like I said, this adds DEEP strategy to the game. Yes this "Ability" will cost -3 VPs but it may mean that I win by having +8 VPs (so the NET VP bonus would be +5 VPs).
So you can use "Abilities" as much or as little as you want. But remember there will be a VP cost associated to them.
All about the MATH
And to be real honest, I struggled with the game since MATH was a BIG part of the game itself. Remember it ("Crystal Heroes") was designed to be a Video game (DS/Android/Whatever), so the MATHEMATICS (or game tracking) could be handled by the computer itself... Making the game even EASIER to play.
BUT having to handle ALL the MATH manually, has forced me to use another mechanic which is not commonly used either.
Either way, there is MATH... You can't by-pass or skip it (especially in the Table Top version). Who knows if the game becomes popular, someone might be interested in making it into a Video game (Android cellular market). From my guestimates (and background in IT) I think the game could net about $500k. That's with conservative figures. On the HIGH end, I think projections are about $2M.
However at this point in time - I don't have the resources to do the development. Yeah programmers in India cost only $5.00 an hour. There are a lot of elements like Server software to DB, login preservation, etc. All IT issues that just complicate the game...
So instead of having a fan base of 10,000 Video gamers, maybe I'll get 500 Card gamers! It's all about the hobbie!