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Card Mechanic - Looking for Feedback

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 10:50
Chris_Smith
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Was bouncing ideas around in my head when I came up with something that way or may not be an interesting card driven mechanic. I am thinking about using this in a Civilization building game.

There is a common deck of cards and at the start of each turn a set number are drawn and placed face up. Then each player has a certain number of actions they can use involving the cards.

-They can use a card to gain the "resources" shown on the card.
-They can "buy"the card, though they do not actually take the card - they instead place a marker on their playmat to indicate they now own what that card shows (a Kingsburg style playmat?).
-They can "use" the card's ability if they have previously bought the card.

A player can only do one of the actions - so first they will have to acquire the resources, then buy the card, then use it - each requiring a different action.

At the end of the turn all revealed cards are discarded and new ones are drawn at the start of the turn. If the deck has run out shuffle the discard pile into a new and continue.

I still have to work out if more than one player can "use" a card per turn or if it will be on a "first to use" basis or some other method (maybe pay resources to use a card that has already be used by another player?).

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas or suggestions to go with this please - I am all ears.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 15:50
#1
RTaylor
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re: card mechanic

This looks to have potential... I like the idea of having actions available to all, but no one player can do them all, which this would really allow. In the way you describe it, it sounds as though it would have to be one part of a significantly more complicated game (I'm referring to the civ game idea), but I think that it could also be simplified to the point where it was nearly all the game.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 16:41
#2
seo
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Maybe some cards (and the

Maybe some cards (and the markers on it) might remain on the table from one round to the next.

Perhaps there could be suits, like Technology, Military, etc. and only one card per suit remains for the next turn. That way some players would be able to use a card as their first action of a turn, but give a head start to other players on buying the new cards, which might result in interesting choices.

One other related idea: maybe you remove one marker when you use the card, and only cards with markers remain from one turn to the next. Players would have the choice to place more than one marker on a card, for future use (by buying the card more than once in consecutive actions).

The mechanic sounds interesting and flexible enough to allow for many variations.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 18:15
#3
spectre2661
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Card Mechanics

Not wanting to go off on too much of a tangent but from your description of the mechanics and how you would like the game to progress the suit idea got me wondering if the resource couldn't be 'constructed' where each type of resource like Technology, Military, etc. has to be built first, then purchased or commissioned then used. One way could be to have the cards divided in thirds, the top third shows the A, B or C component of the resource you want to build, the middle section of the card allows you to commission the completed resource component and the lower third of the card allows you to use the resource. This system may also assist in allowing more than one player to use the card - If I am being too obtuse I am happy to elaborate.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 18:51
#4
Rick-Holzgrafe
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Like Through the Ages

spectre2661 wrote:
... each type of resource like Technology, Military, etc. has to be built first, then purchased or commissioned then used.

Reminds me of Through the Ages, where you must first take the card (which represents a technology) from the common pool, then pay a technology cost to put the card on the table, then pay a resource cost to put the card to use.

However, in TtA each card can be used by only one player. Spectre has an interesting notion in allowing a card to be used by multiple players.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 20:35
#5
Chris_Smith
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spectre2661, you have

spectre2661, you have basically read my mind heh.

Most of the cards will be based on a 3 tiered system, thus each card has the ability to produce resources, discover a technology or construct a building - all depending on what the player who uses the card chooses (within the limits - a player can't construct a building they don't have the technology for).

For example a card may could give Science resources, have the Writing technology (which would cost Science to learn) and have the Library building (which would require that you have the Library tech and cost Production to build - which you would have to acquire from a different card). Once you built a Library you would get bonus Science next time you used a card to acquire the Science resource.

Not sure if I will make the cards first come first serve or force some sort of penalty or extra payment required to use a card that another player has already used.

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Wed, 04/29/2009 - 22:02
#6
Jayrome007
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I really like this idea as

I really like this idea as part of a bigger game. As a game in and of itself, I don't think it has enough complexity but that can be corrected.
I also think it would be advantageous to only allow one person to purchase/use each card. This will create a competitive attitude revolving around a card or two that multiple people may be after. It also forces each player to prioritize the cards and defend their interests if another player is threatening to take cards high up on their priority list. I kind of get a similiar feeling watching the NFL Draft. Each team targets players they like and then waits to see what the market is for that player. If it is rather cheap, they will aggressively pursue them. If other teams also show a substantial interest, it may be better to let the other teams fight it out while you move to priority number 2.

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Thu, 04/30/2009 - 02:05
#7
spectre2661
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Card Mechanics

Some good workable suggestions on this one. The card system used to get resources built and producing should have to be part of a larger game. I am assuming that there is a board where tokens are used to track what resources are owned and what is produced. Maybe build this into a sceanrio system where a separate set of cards sets the sceanario (objectives or win conditions relating to the resources, by example "The player that produces 10 Military units and 4 levels of Technolgy wins" )
The idea I have for allowing all players to use the card runs along the lines that the card having 3 levels 'Resource Components', 'Resource Commissioning' and 'Resource Use' with a priority system that makes the use of Resource Components part of the card the highest and Resource use the lowest...is probably best demonstarted with a 2 player example (albeit long winded):

Player A draws card on places on table.
Top section: Allows Component A of a Military resource or Component B of a Technology.
Middle section: Allows a Military resource to be commissioned
Bottom section: Allows a Agriculture resource to be used.

Player A chooses to take component A of a Military resource and indicates this by placing a token on the board in the appropriate place. Player B has no available action.

Player B draws card on places on table.
Top section: Allows Component B of a Military resource of Component A of a Religion.
Middle section: Allows a Financial resource to be commissioned
Bottom section: Allows a Military resource to be used.

Player B chooses to take component A of a Religion resource and indicates this by placing a token on the board in the appropriate place. Player A would liked to have claimed the Component B of a Military resource, but as Player B has already chosen from the Resource Components part of the card no further action can be taken.

SKIP SEVERAL TURNS

Player A has components A, B and C of Military and A of Agriculture and Technology
Player B has components A and B of Religion

Player A draws card on places on table.
Top section: Allows Component A of a Military resource or Component C of a Religion.
Middle section: Allows a Military resource to be commissioned
Bottom section: Allows a Agriculture resource to be used.

Player A declares that he/she will commission their military resource but Player B chooses to take component C of Religion as he/she already has several of those components. As this is a priorty section of the card Player A must allow Player B to use the card instead of him/herself.

There must be rules wrapped around this mechanic to stop this just becoming a blocking game but the few simple ideas I have for that seem to work.....

Chat to you later.

Spectre

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Thu, 04/30/2009 - 11:31
#8
Chris_Smith
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While I do like the priority

While I do like the priority section idea I think it might get a little muddling with more than 2 players and would require a lot of "if then but except when" sort of rules.

The set up of the cards is bang on what I was considering but you trumped me with the idea of adding a second resource component - good idea - more variety and more use out of a single card (I am trying to keep the number of cards needed to a minimum).

Here are some more ideas rolling around as I drink my morning coffee.

Each player has a number of actions each round. Everyone starts with 1 or 2 but can acquire more as the game progresses. On their turn a player draws a card and then can either choose to use one of their actions on one of the components or they can choose to pass and the choice passes to the left around the table until someone either uses an action to claim the card or everyone passes (not sure if the card is then just discarded or something else). Then the next player draws a card and so on. Once everyone has drawn a card the round ends.

If a player passes on a card they can instead use an action to gain "money/wealth". Primarily this will be used to be able to take an action on a card that another player has already taken an action on that turn - though they cannot use the same section of the card as any other player. So you can play the blocking game - but a player may be able to still make the best of it if they have the wealth to do so.

Once the round is over any unused actions are lost - so you could pass on a card, betting that something else better/more useful to you will come up before the end of the round - but you may end up just having to take what comes up on your turn as the round may be coming to a close.

Of course once players have some resources and additional actions it will be great bit of messy fun as the resources are used in all sorts of different ways.

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