Rithaniel
2010-06-03, 06:06 AM
Alright, in all of me and my friends years of playing Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, never have we even once had the desire to play a Planeswalker. Don't get this wrong, the Planeswalker cards are freaking awesome, and add a new dimension to the game, we have no problem using them in a deck or two, but, when it comes down to what a Planeswalker actually is supposed to be, in the MtG universe, me and my friends have never once liked the idea.
For those of you who might not know what a Planeswalker is, the shorthand of it would be 'mortal ascended to deific state'. This skeleton idea is fine, playing a demigod is cool. The only thing is that Planeswalkers were never intended to just be that: Planeswalkers were meant to be untouchable by everything and anything except for other Planesewalkers, and not having a challenge in the game is just not fun. Playing what a Planeswalker was intended to originally be would not be even remotely interesting.
Of course, on the same note, the images, concepts, locations, and ideas captured in the MtG cards are just cool, and there is still a desire to play some of these characters. So, recently, me and my friends decided that a class, not based around being a Planeswalker (as so many have attempted in the past), but based around being one of the characters embodied on a creature card, like the Hypnotic Specter or the Platinum Angel, would be very desirable. In turn, I, being the resident 'homebrewer' of our group, took on the task of designing this class. I did not know what I had I done.
I've been working on this class for a while now, and what I've got so far, follows:
The best idea I had for capturing the feel of MtG, would be to have the player essentially 'design a card' as they rose in level, with the restrictions as to what you can give your character being based around what 'colors' you are.
First and foremost, the colors of the game are 'white', 'blue', 'black', 'red', and 'green'. You also have 'colorless' cards, which would also be adressed in the class. A character could pick one of these colors and go through it till the end, being pretty much average. Mono-colored cards are simple to play and usually give you a straight-forward benefit. Being mono-colored with this class would give a similar feel, being easy to pull off all around. Or, you could go with no color at all, and follow the path of 'colorless' cards. 'Colorless' cards are things like Eldazi and artifacts, and, while being able to be played with any mana at all, usually are a bit more expensive, but are also some of the most impacting and versatile cards in the game, being your Darksteel Colossi, Emrakul, and Platinum Angels. Being a 'colorless' character would lead to requiring more investment (more expensive class features, or something), in exchange for impressive and exotic returns. At the other end of the spectrum, you could simply choose to be 'all colors at the same time'. Cards like this are called 'rainbow cards' and, while being the most difficult in the entire game to play, they also are game enders and the most powerful cards in the entire game, being things like Sliver Legion, Horde of Notions, and Progenitus. Playing a 'rainbow' character would be desirable to feel the same way, insanely difficult to pull off, but, if you do, you freaking rock.
Now, that was the easy part. Next, you begin to hit some of the confusion of 'everything in between'. These start off by saying 'two colors at the same time'. Now, this can be done one of two ways: dual-colored cards, like those way back in Ravinca, costing one white and one black, or split-colored cards, like those that surfaced en masse in Shadowmoor, costing one white or one black. This would be likely simple to work out how exactly they would work, after a night of headaches and deep work, but then I looked up to the next teir of 'three colors at the same time' and saw the 'one white and one green and one black' version, the question of whether I should make a 'three-way-split-color' option, 'what if I mixed a mono-color with a dual-color-split that the mono-color didn't consist either side of?', 'what if I mixed two dual-color-split combo's together like (one black or one white) and (one green or one white)?', 'what about two colors and a split?', 'No not four colors', 'You could be a rainbow card using nothing but dual-splits', 'you could also be a rainbow card using two triple-splits of different types, one dual-split, and a single mono--
After that I kind of decided to stop and seek help. Suggestions on how this could work are very welcome and appreciated, please, I invite you to post as many different answers as you possibly can, and try to help me figure this out.
For those of you who might not know what a Planeswalker is, the shorthand of it would be 'mortal ascended to deific state'. This skeleton idea is fine, playing a demigod is cool. The only thing is that Planeswalkers were never intended to just be that: Planeswalkers were meant to be untouchable by everything and anything except for other Planesewalkers, and not having a challenge in the game is just not fun. Playing what a Planeswalker was intended to originally be would not be even remotely interesting.
Of course, on the same note, the images, concepts, locations, and ideas captured in the MtG cards are just cool, and there is still a desire to play some of these characters. So, recently, me and my friends decided that a class, not based around being a Planeswalker (as so many have attempted in the past), but based around being one of the characters embodied on a creature card, like the Hypnotic Specter or the Platinum Angel, would be very desirable. In turn, I, being the resident 'homebrewer' of our group, took on the task of designing this class. I did not know what I had I done.
I've been working on this class for a while now, and what I've got so far, follows:
The best idea I had for capturing the feel of MtG, would be to have the player essentially 'design a card' as they rose in level, with the restrictions as to what you can give your character being based around what 'colors' you are.
First and foremost, the colors of the game are 'white', 'blue', 'black', 'red', and 'green'. You also have 'colorless' cards, which would also be adressed in the class. A character could pick one of these colors and go through it till the end, being pretty much average. Mono-colored cards are simple to play and usually give you a straight-forward benefit. Being mono-colored with this class would give a similar feel, being easy to pull off all around. Or, you could go with no color at all, and follow the path of 'colorless' cards. 'Colorless' cards are things like Eldazi and artifacts, and, while being able to be played with any mana at all, usually are a bit more expensive, but are also some of the most impacting and versatile cards in the game, being your Darksteel Colossi, Emrakul, and Platinum Angels. Being a 'colorless' character would lead to requiring more investment (more expensive class features, or something), in exchange for impressive and exotic returns. At the other end of the spectrum, you could simply choose to be 'all colors at the same time'. Cards like this are called 'rainbow cards' and, while being the most difficult in the entire game to play, they also are game enders and the most powerful cards in the entire game, being things like Sliver Legion, Horde of Notions, and Progenitus. Playing a 'rainbow' character would be desirable to feel the same way, insanely difficult to pull off, but, if you do, you freaking rock.
Now, that was the easy part. Next, you begin to hit some of the confusion of 'everything in between'. These start off by saying 'two colors at the same time'. Now, this can be done one of two ways: dual-colored cards, like those way back in Ravinca, costing one white and one black, or split-colored cards, like those that surfaced en masse in Shadowmoor, costing one white or one black. This would be likely simple to work out how exactly they would work, after a night of headaches and deep work, but then I looked up to the next teir of 'three colors at the same time' and saw the 'one white and one green and one black' version, the question of whether I should make a 'three-way-split-color' option, 'what if I mixed a mono-color with a dual-color-split that the mono-color didn't consist either side of?', 'what if I mixed two dual-color-split combo's together like (one black or one white) and (one green or one white)?', 'what about two colors and a split?', 'No not four colors', 'You could be a rainbow card using nothing but dual-splits', 'you could also be a rainbow card using two triple-splits of different types, one dual-split, and a single mono--
After that I kind of decided to stop and seek help. Suggestions on how this could work are very welcome and appreciated, please, I invite you to post as many different answers as you possibly can, and try to help me figure this out.