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SpellMasters — Cards versus a Book(?)

3 replies [Last post]
Mon, 11/12/2018 - 23:40
questccg
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Okay so it's been a while I have posted any NEWS regarding the design I am currently working on. In the effort of "streamlining" the game, I have come to an interesting *crossroad*.

A lot of the "common" components have been removed from the game. And this leaves me with a very compact product. Which is great... But I still had one issue (or component) that I am still very unsure about (and I'll explain why).

The component in question is the "Encounter Deck".

This deck was supposed to be 10+ cards with various "Monsters" that you could combat in the game. My issue with this deck is that it's an EXTRA component and it requires additional ARTWORK.

It's not like I am AGAINST "artwork", it's more that I am having an issue with how I want players to not require a SMALL deck of ONLY 10+ Monsters. I find using cards as being VERY LIMITING.

So I would instead propose something more CREATIVE!

Each Wizard has a Spellbook which is a rulebook with the rules of HOW spells are put together using one to three Wizards.

I was thinking, what IF the players choose the enemy in question from their Spellbook. And that somehow that Monster would be generated using some ADDITIONAL RULES too. Like a MONSTER MANUAL in D&D but instead for SpellMasters...! Having some kind of D6S system combined with the dungeon crawl ... The more words, the stronger the Monster gets and each player would have their own D6 with a minimum of 3D6 (for three players).

What do you think about this instead of CARDS???

All ideas and suggestions welcome at this point... This design isn't really advancing forwards as I am a bit *STUCK* with how things need to work.

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Tue, 11/13/2018 - 00:27
#1
questccg
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More thoughts...

What I am thinking is that the game is for three (3) to five (5) players. Each player has his/her own die and it's a standard 1d6. I'm not sure how to structure the round of play, but the idea would be something like roll ALL d6s and the lookup the monster in one of the Wizard's "Grimoire".

In principle, rolling lower values makes the encounter EASIER. Rolling HIGHER values makes the encounter HARDER. Each "Grimoire" would have 18 Monsters (3 dice x 6 numbers). From 54 to 90 Monsters in total.

I am still working on the premise of the game (Victory, Leveling, Experience, etc.)

Just some additional thinking...

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Tue, 11/13/2018 - 14:11
#2
Fertessa
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Joined: 07/18/2018
Could you have tokens to

Could you have tokens to represent the monsters and have the monster stats in the rule/player book? Also, what kind of stats do these monsters have? How would players defeat them?

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Tue, 11/13/2018 - 18:56
#3
let-off studios
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Joined: 02/07/2011
Dice = Creature Variables

If you wanted some variety, but also wanted to cut back on components used, then maybe the dice results indicate a couple different variables for general classes of monsters.

For example, in a 3 player game, three dice are thrown.
The first die indicates the monster category. Something like this:
1 = Undead
2 = Insect
3 = Lizard
4 = Slime
etc.

The second die result indicates the variety within that category. So each of the six categories has six possible varieties. For example if a 2 was the result on the Category die, then the second die result indicates:
1 = Centipede
2 = Beetle
3 = Wasp
4 = Hopper
etc.

Finally, the third die result indicates the challenge level. Tougher words may be required to defeat that monster, for example. Not sure how you have this developed in your rules, but I'd hope you would be able to determine an incremented level of difficulty.

For additional players, the additional dice results can indicate other variables: additional treasure to be found; strengths or weaknesses of the creatures faced; etc.

This way, artwork is limited in scope. I see as few as 6 and as much as 36 possible different pieces of artwork to indicate creature types. The additional rules you refer to could be indicated on the cards themselves, or on a single sheet of the rulebook as a kind of lookup table.

Hopefully some of this can be useful to you. :)

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