Survival of the Fittest - Part 1

I've put together a deck for the "Survival of the Fittest" card game.

Basically, I grabbed some 150 card protector sleeves (often used for Magic The Gathering among other games) and printed out stand-ins for the card designs and placed them in the sleeves with some card for reinforcement.

The initial deck is 131 cards with 12 Sky creatures, 12 Jungle creatures, 12 desert creatures, 12 sea creatures and assorted other events, spells etc...

The first idea was to make a sort of advanced meld-making game where combinations of animals and territories gave points with the first to reach a certain value winning the game. Along the way you can kill the creatures of your opponent.

This concept didn't test well. Scoring a point for having a creature in each territory led to your opponent being reticent to kill a creature because you could just play another of the same color getting the point again.

With some pointers from my partner we came up with a different concept that could lead to the game being a little more interesting. We decided that having 4 cards face-down on the table representing each territory would make an interesting "deck" to draw from. The idea would be that the player would nominate a territory (eg. Sea) and that would represent the "deity" player using his/her power to focus energy along this path. Turning up a card relating to that territory will give him/her an advantage over that card. For example, if the card turned up was a "Tsunami" card affecting all sea life, the players sea creatures would be immune whereas the opponents' would be wiped out.

The idea would also be that the creatures turned up in this fashion would be potential conquests leading to points. The player can attack the central creature using one of his/her creature of the same color. A dice roll determines success or failure with experience counters helping to tip the odds. If a creature turned up is of the territory nominated by the player beforehand, this also gives advantages.

Having a win condition that the player must have a certain number of points AND at least one creature in each territory makes it a little more than just gaining points. I'm also thinking of keeping at least some elements of the meld-making mechanic - eg 3 of a kind in play (eg 3 hawks) = 2 points. It's just a matter of test-playing the ideas until something cohesive comes about.

Posted by caleb72 @ 8:37 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

An evolutionary sidetrack?

Looks like designing an Evolution Magic deck isn't all I'm up to.

In parallel I'm working on a completely new card game called "Survival of the Fittest". Why not take one idea and use it to spawn a similar - but quite different concept.

"Survival of the Fittest" is based on the concept that 2 or more players are trying to dominate the world which consists of 4 territories: sky, sea, jungle and desert. Notice there is no reference to mountains or savannas (can anyone say Expansion pack?).

Players score points by controlling different numbers, groupings of creatures - for example having 1 creature in each territory in play gives a point.

The player him/herself takes on a sort of semi-deity aspect - fighting other deities for control of the planet.

Using controlled creatures, you can attack other players' creatures, or add experience to your existing creatures to make them more powerful. General events come into play like disease, natural disasters, or localised predators. This can be directed at players or can come into play affecting all players. Various state-based effects for given creatures can cause them to evolve (become more/less powerful). Dual creatures can exist which can be chosen in one of two territories (ie amphibians might be either sea or jungle, snakes might be both jungle and desert etc.)

The idea is that from a central deck of cards, one card is drawn initially as a global card. If the card is an event card it affects all players. If the card is a creature card, one of the players can use a summon card to place the card in his/her power. Then a second card is drawn by the player to form part of his/her hand. A card is then played out of the hand which can be to put a creature into the game, place an experience counter on a controlled creature, a cripple card on an opponents creature, direct a nasty event like a cyclone at the opponents flying creatures etc... Then there is an attack round where a creature can attack an opponents creature to move it to the graveyard. A more powerful creature will win the conflict with the opponent relying on a dice roll to see if the creature managed to run away without being killed. An even match up will require both players to roll against each other. Termporary andrenalin cards can be played during combat to even up a match or turn the tables on a predator.

Alot of the concepts are still swimming around in my head, but I've started test-playing the concept with my partner to see how the mechanisms work. After the first game, quite a few of the concepts were rewritten.

The game could be open to quite a few expansion opportunities including the adding of new regions (and therefore more creatures) and the adding of new mechanics. For example, the creatures that evolve might be part of an expansion pack, using mating cards to create offspring from two of the same creatures, creatures that follow a specific lifecycle (eg start with power 0 and add a counter each turn to signify reaching full maturity and then losing a counter each turn to signify age until the creature is removed altogether).

Anyway - alot of options there. I'm inclined to continue discussing both the MTG deck and the Survival of the Fittest game in this blog - because, well why not?

Posted by caleb72 @ 10:00 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Looking for a new Evolution

I had one of those light bulb moments when using the word evolution that led to me wanting to create a Magic The Gathering set of cards. Not surprisingly, the set would be called Evolution.

The concept of this set is that certain states in a given game will cause creatures with an evolutionary-type mechanic to semi-permanently alter. To achieve this effect, these cards will have flipsides - one for pre-evolution, one for post-evolution.

So far, my idea for the individual mechanics are:

Competition X: When a certain number of creatures are in play with the given creature, it forces the evolution of that creature. The number of creatures can be general or specific. Eg. a flying creature might have Competition 3 where the effect will take place when 3 other flyers are in play. In this case, it may be that the increased competition of flyers force the flyer to evolve into a land creature. This could be seen as a disadvantage of course, but there could be many examples where the result could be more positive. For example, a smaller creature could become larger or gain special abilities making it more powerful.

Mutation X: When a certain number of sorceries are cast while the given creature is in play, the creature mutates. The number of sorceries that have been cast can be kept track of by "mutation" counters.

Transcend X: When a certain number of enchantments are in play, the given creature transcends its current station.

Spoil X: When a certain number of creatures are put into the graveyard, this will drive the effect on the given creature. This could be kept track of via "spoil" counters.

Trauma X: When a certain number of instants are played while the creature is in play, the effect on the given creature is triggered. This could be kept track of via "trauma" counters.

Of course there are all sorts of possibilities for sorceries and instants involving adding more than one counter at a time, removing counters, forcing a de-evolution, speeding up competition by creating temporary token creatures etc...

And of course there could be enchantments like prevention of evolution on a given creature while enchanted, or instant evolution while enchanted.

There is alot of scope here for an interesting set.

Posted by caleb72 @ 3:29 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments