osyluth
2007-11-26, 12:24 AM
For those ignorant of issues of cosmic importance, tcg stands for trading card game.
Creature types: each creature type has a different way of paying for it. There will be a number on the upper right of the card indicating cost. Anyway:
Aberrations freaky disgusting-looking creatures, maybe some inspiration from Lovecraft they will be paid for with sanity points (messing with horrible monsters from beyond space and time: not good for the brain) you start with 13 sanity points they don’t go up but there will be plenty of spells that up your sanity. If your sanity goes 0 (if it’s down to -2 you lose) you’re insane. When you’re insane you can’t look at your hand (put the cards facedown on the table or something) and when you want to play a card you just have to pick a card and if you can’t pay its cost then you run out of whatever resource that card uses and you have to suffer the consequences.
Undead Vampires, ghosts, that sort of thing. There are plenty of books and movies and stuff so inspiration won’t be a problem. They will be paid with life points (they suck your blood or drain your energy or whatever) but your life can also get damaged when your opponent attacks you. You start with 20 life. If your life reaches 0 you lose.
Mortals I think mostly humans but maybe some other fantasy races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.) paid for with gold. You start out with 6 gold and it goes up 1 at the end of each turn. It doesn’t matter if your gold reaches 0 but if it goes negative then all your mortals die and you take 1 life point damage for each guy destroyed this way.
Elementals these will be incarnations of anything I can think of, really, but each one will have the subtype earth, water, air, or fire. They are paid for with summoning points, which you start out with 13 of. You may not cast spells whose casting cost is more than the number of summoning points you have (more on spellcasting and its costs later).
Rules on creature costs (need better/shorter name)
Sanity: on your first turn, you may spend up to 2 of your sanity points. At the start of each turn, you may use one more than you did on the last turn.
Life: on your first turn you may spend up to 6. Increases 1 every turn (as sanity). This does not place a limit on how much damage your opponent can deal you.
Gold: on turn 1 you can spend 2. Then it goes up1, then 2, then1, etc.
Summoning: same as sanity.
This is to prevent people from playing huge 13-point aberrations on turn one.
Combat rules
In the active players battle phase (more on turn structure later) they first have an opportunity to cast spells. Then they declare which of their creatures are attacking and who they’re attacking. After they have declared attackers the attackers duel with the defenders. To duel, each payer roles a six-sided die (referred to from now on as d6) and adds their creature’s attack to the d6 roll. Whoever got a higher number deals damage to the other creature equal to the numerical difference between their results. Repeat this for each pair of dueling creatures. Creatures can only attack one other creature at a time. If the defending player has no creatures, the attacking creatures all deal damage equal to their attack to the defending player (you don’t roll).
Puzzle card rules
When you play a puzzle card, it does not go to the graveyard like a spell. Instead, it will stay in play. On the card, 1 or more other specific card names will be listed. If you have all of those cards in play, then you gain the card’s puzzle effect.
Spell rules
Spells are one of the Horror card types. When you play a spell, its effect activates, and then it goes to the graveyard. You pay for spells by paying magic points. There are 4 types of magic source, and each corresponds to one of the 4 creature costs. You get magic points by tapping your magic source cards, which are an exception to the rule that you can only have four cards with the same name in your deck. For each source card you tap, you gain one magic point of the appropriate type. Asylums are sanity, Hospitals are life (they don’t actually give you more life points or anything), Banks are gold, and I think I’ll decide what summoning is later, after I’ve created a few basic concepts for first edition world.
Turn structure
Upkeep phase
Draw step: the active player draws a card.
Untap step: the active player untaps 2 of their magic sources.
Main phase: the active player may play up to three creature cards of each type, and an unlimited number of spells and activated abilities.
Battle phase
Declare attackers step: the active player declares which of their creatures are attacking and who they’re attacking. The active player can play spells and activated abilities.
Damage step: dueling creatures roll and calculate damage.
This is very rough and I’m sure there’ll be some problems that need to be worked out.
Stakes
Before the game has started, each player takes a non-magic source card from their deck.
Once both players have selected a card, they reveal them, and each player draws cards equal to ¼ of their cards casting cost plus 5. These cards are then shuffled back into their respective owner’s decks for the remainder of the game. At the end of the game, the winner becomes the permanent owner of both these cards. I will try to integrate this into the cards effects and stuff, because I want it to be an important part of the game and if I don’t do stuff to make that happen then people will forget or ignore it.
So, what do you think? this is just a rough draft and I would appreciate if you could find any holes in the system. Thanks! :smallsmile:
Creature types: each creature type has a different way of paying for it. There will be a number on the upper right of the card indicating cost. Anyway:
Aberrations freaky disgusting-looking creatures, maybe some inspiration from Lovecraft they will be paid for with sanity points (messing with horrible monsters from beyond space and time: not good for the brain) you start with 13 sanity points they don’t go up but there will be plenty of spells that up your sanity. If your sanity goes 0 (if it’s down to -2 you lose) you’re insane. When you’re insane you can’t look at your hand (put the cards facedown on the table or something) and when you want to play a card you just have to pick a card and if you can’t pay its cost then you run out of whatever resource that card uses and you have to suffer the consequences.
Undead Vampires, ghosts, that sort of thing. There are plenty of books and movies and stuff so inspiration won’t be a problem. They will be paid with life points (they suck your blood or drain your energy or whatever) but your life can also get damaged when your opponent attacks you. You start with 20 life. If your life reaches 0 you lose.
Mortals I think mostly humans but maybe some other fantasy races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.) paid for with gold. You start out with 6 gold and it goes up 1 at the end of each turn. It doesn’t matter if your gold reaches 0 but if it goes negative then all your mortals die and you take 1 life point damage for each guy destroyed this way.
Elementals these will be incarnations of anything I can think of, really, but each one will have the subtype earth, water, air, or fire. They are paid for with summoning points, which you start out with 13 of. You may not cast spells whose casting cost is more than the number of summoning points you have (more on spellcasting and its costs later).
Rules on creature costs (need better/shorter name)
Sanity: on your first turn, you may spend up to 2 of your sanity points. At the start of each turn, you may use one more than you did on the last turn.
Life: on your first turn you may spend up to 6. Increases 1 every turn (as sanity). This does not place a limit on how much damage your opponent can deal you.
Gold: on turn 1 you can spend 2. Then it goes up1, then 2, then1, etc.
Summoning: same as sanity.
This is to prevent people from playing huge 13-point aberrations on turn one.
Combat rules
In the active players battle phase (more on turn structure later) they first have an opportunity to cast spells. Then they declare which of their creatures are attacking and who they’re attacking. After they have declared attackers the attackers duel with the defenders. To duel, each payer roles a six-sided die (referred to from now on as d6) and adds their creature’s attack to the d6 roll. Whoever got a higher number deals damage to the other creature equal to the numerical difference between their results. Repeat this for each pair of dueling creatures. Creatures can only attack one other creature at a time. If the defending player has no creatures, the attacking creatures all deal damage equal to their attack to the defending player (you don’t roll).
Puzzle card rules
When you play a puzzle card, it does not go to the graveyard like a spell. Instead, it will stay in play. On the card, 1 or more other specific card names will be listed. If you have all of those cards in play, then you gain the card’s puzzle effect.
Spell rules
Spells are one of the Horror card types. When you play a spell, its effect activates, and then it goes to the graveyard. You pay for spells by paying magic points. There are 4 types of magic source, and each corresponds to one of the 4 creature costs. You get magic points by tapping your magic source cards, which are an exception to the rule that you can only have four cards with the same name in your deck. For each source card you tap, you gain one magic point of the appropriate type. Asylums are sanity, Hospitals are life (they don’t actually give you more life points or anything), Banks are gold, and I think I’ll decide what summoning is later, after I’ve created a few basic concepts for first edition world.
Turn structure
Upkeep phase
Draw step: the active player draws a card.
Untap step: the active player untaps 2 of their magic sources.
Main phase: the active player may play up to three creature cards of each type, and an unlimited number of spells and activated abilities.
Battle phase
Declare attackers step: the active player declares which of their creatures are attacking and who they’re attacking. The active player can play spells and activated abilities.
Damage step: dueling creatures roll and calculate damage.
This is very rough and I’m sure there’ll be some problems that need to be worked out.
Stakes
Before the game has started, each player takes a non-magic source card from their deck.
Once both players have selected a card, they reveal them, and each player draws cards equal to ¼ of their cards casting cost plus 5. These cards are then shuffled back into their respective owner’s decks for the remainder of the game. At the end of the game, the winner becomes the permanent owner of both these cards. I will try to integrate this into the cards effects and stuff, because I want it to be an important part of the game and if I don’t do stuff to make that happen then people will forget or ignore it.
So, what do you think? this is just a rough draft and I would appreciate if you could find any holes in the system. Thanks! :smallsmile: