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Need help with victory conditions in a CCG (StickLand)

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Anrkist_Pengwin
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Joined: 12/31/1969

I'm currently working on a CCG called StickLand. To give you some idea as to what this game is about, here's a short explanation of the setting:

StickLand is a two-dimensional world inhabited by simple beings called stick people. Life in StickLand is constantly changing as God-like beings known as "Artists" are always fiddling with the world.

One day the world of StickLand was wiped clean. Now the Artists are vying for space with which to showcase their abilities.

You can also go to this post on BGDF for more info:

http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4112&highli...

Since the artists are fighting over space in StickLand, I decided (after speaking with people here on BGDF) to make the main object of the game controlling the most space. To control space, you must have more SP in that area than your opponent (SP is not only the cost of the card but also its strength creatively).

That's where I've run into some problems. I've thought of using a defined grid that players play cards to but I feel that using that idea is limiting.

My new idea concerns using the entire table as the space being fought over. This gives the game more of the feel of fighting over space on a canvas but it does cause problems when determining who controls the majority of the space (what constitutes a "space"?).

Here's a couple of ideas I have of solving this problem:

* Instate a turn limit. After a certain number of turns, the game ends and the player with the most SP on the table wins.

* Have a number way-points placed on the table (always an odd number to avoid ties). The player who controls the majority of way-points wins the game.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help!

Jpwoo
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Joined: 03/26/2009
Need help with victory conditions in a CCG (StickLand)

Quote:
I've thought of using a defined grid that players play cards to but I feel that using that idea is limiting.

I wouldn't dismiss this immediately. It is something to consider trying. Having limited space would encourage conflict. You could call the play area the "blackboard"

Quote:
Instate a turn limit. After a certain number of turns, the game ends and the player with the most SP on the table wins.

There is something I don't like about this. Having your powerful cards also being your big source of VP opens itself up to the "only strong card" mindset.

What about a literal Area scoring mechanism. As cards are played on the table they go in adjascent to one another. You get points based on the area you control and surround. One point for every card left on the table and one point for every surrounded point as well.

Anrkist_Pengwin
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Need help with victory conditions in a CCG (StickLand)

Quote:
Quote:
I've thought of using a defined grid that players play cards to but I feel that using that idea is limiting.

I wouldn't dismiss this immediately. It is something to consider trying. Having limited space would encourage conflict. You could call the play area the "blackboard"

Now that you mention it, it would encourage conflict between players as available space dwindles.

I was thinking of doing the following with the game:

Since stick people are the primary inhabitants of StickLand, perhaps I should make controlling a section of the grid reliant on the stick people. Since most cards involve stick people in some way, it would make sense.

Quote:
Quote:
Instate a turn limit. After a certain number of turns, the game ends and the player with the most SP on the table wins.

There is something I don't like about this. Having your powerful cards also being your big source of VP opens itself up to the "only strong card" mindset.

What about a literal Area scoring mechanism. As cards are played on the table they go in adjacent to one another. You get points based on the area you control and surround. One point for every card left on the table and one point for every surrounded point as well.

This also makes a lot of sense. How does this sound:

You get one point for each space on the grid that you control. Once you control a space on the board, you can play cards to it that add to the value of that space. This would also add more to the conflict aspect of the game. By doing this, though, a turn limit would have to be imposed otherwise earning points for for controlling spaces is kind of pointless.

You could play play until a player completely controls the entire grid, but that could make for long and boring games (a losing player might go on the defensive and bunker down in a space).

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