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View Full Version : Original System Homebrew Jedi Dueling Game : Balanced?



Crow
2015-05-16, 02:36 AM
I got my kids a pair of awesome LED lightsabers. In an effort to prevent them from beating the ever-loving crap out of each other, I am trying to come up with a structured game that they can play when they duel. I was thinking some sort of card game that they could play and act out at the same time.

I came up with something simple (little kids), and I would appreciate it if you guys gave it a pass to make sure there were no glaring balance issues. Remember, this is for small kids.

The objective is to score 3 Hits on your opponent.

There are 4 stats (placeholder names for now):

Lightsaber Attack - Used to score hits on your opponent
Lightsaber Defense - Cancels out lightsaber attack points
Force Attack - Used to score hits on your opponent
Force Defense - Cancels out force attack points

How to play:

1. Each duelist draws 3 dueling cards. These cards describe the combat moves, and have stat values (+2 lightsaber attack, +1 force attack and +1 force defense, etc, etc). Keep your cards hidden from your opponent.

2. Play proceeds in rounds. At the beginning of each round, each player chooses a combat form and assumes the proper ready stance. Each form gives a bonus to your stats for that round. Available forms and their effects are (placeholder names for now):

Attack form - +1 to lightsaber attack (LA)
Defense form - +1 to lightsaber defense (LD)
Channel form - +1 to force attack (FA)
Rebuke form - +1 to force defense (FD)

3. In the first round, the challenger in the duel plays the card of his choice from his hand, showing it to the respondent and placing in the discard pile (the ground!). The respondent can then chooses one of their cards to counter. Total stats are quickly tallied. For every uncountered point of attack dealt to your opponent, you are credited with 1 hit against them. Act it out!

Example: Cali has challenged Roger to a duel. After seeing her cards, Cali assumes the Juyo stance, granting her +1 to her lightsaber attack stat. Roger responds by taking up a Niman stance, granting him +1 to his force attack stat.

Cali then decides to play her Hawk-Bat Swoop card, which gives +2 to lightsaber attack, bringing her total lightsaber attack to +3! Roger responds by playing the Barrier of Blades card, giving him +2 to lightsaber defense.

Cali has +3 LA to Roger's +2 LD, scoring 1 hit!
But Cali has no defense against the +1 Force Attack granted by Roger's Niman form. He also scores a hit!

They act it out and Cali swings with abandon, striking Roger once before he executes a force push, knocking her back.

4. Before the next round, each duelist draws a new card to replace the one they played in the last round, and play resumes as before. Duelists assume a new stance if desired. In the second round, the respondent goes first, followed by the challenger. This order switches in the next round, and so on.

5. Continue until one duelist has inflicted 3 strikes upon the other. In the event of a tie, the duelist who went first in the round in which the final blow was struck is the winner. Act out overly dramatic death.

The dueling cards are unnamed so far, and are as follows:

+2 LA
+1 LA +1 LD
+1 LA +1 FA
+1 LA +1 FD
+2 LD
+1 LD +1 FA
+1 LD +1 FD
+2 FA
+1 FA +1 FD
+2 FD

Please provide constructive feedback (and suggestions to fix problems) so I can make this fun and enjoyable for the kids. Thank you!

Temotei
2015-05-16, 07:00 AM
I'm too tired to really critique the rules right now, but you should totally establish rules for a third player coming in and making it so the two original players have to work together to defeat the third (you, of course, Papa).

"Ha ha! I have five cards to your three each! You must work together to defeat me, the Sith Lord Dad! I am your father, after all!"

Basch
2015-05-16, 03:32 PM
I like it. Makes me wish I had kids to play with. Definitely something I'll have to try when visiting family members with smaller kids, though. I would probably have them both choose their card before seeing the other person's card, just because it might cause an argument of "But he got to see my card first, it wasn't fair." But then again that depends on the individual kids.

Crow
2015-05-17, 05:15 PM
I'll have to try out the challenger/respondent dynamic, and the variant of having both present their card at the same time and see what works best.

Something I am considering to speed up play is to just have two stats, sabre and force. With each stat representing both attack and defense for sabers and force respectively (one point of sabre cancels out one point of the opponent's sabre, etc). Then the kids only have to worry about who has more of two stats instead of keeping track of four.