Creativity Sure is Hard.

Pretty much a duh statement. Started back up Skyrim for some New comp means adding every graphic mod possible. Yadda yadda not getting work done.

I do have a list of event resolution types, the stuff players have to check for. I have ideas for simple pay events (tap some number of energy to perform) and draw events (reveal top card of the player's deck and the resolution is based on that.

Other thing to do is add event assistance abilities to at least the common and uncommon cards. There shouldn't have to split a deck between in combat and out of combat abilities. Should also stay consistent so no one card is grabbed for only one ability.

The last bit is energy resolution attempts for events outside of the school. Outside of the school, events will become increasingly more random and will check varying types of energy, and a player may not have all the energy type required to complete it. This shouldn't auto-fail the event, however, since this would mean players can corner themselves with events they have no chance of completing. Rather those unprepared should still have a chance of completing an event, namely in the form of rolling for the energy needed. Another idea is to allow the energy cards be used as wild card energies. Need to decide on the dice to card ratio, and what kind of die is being rolled.

Finally getting something

Started jotting down event ideas for the board.

Thinking that all skill cards should have dual use for combat and non combat purposes. Stronger cards may be single utility.

Starting with school events. These should be simple to complete and are only good for common/uncommon skills.

Other locales will have more variety in energy requirements and resolution choices.

Original idea was that if you needed a different energy type to resolve an event, you could tap one other energy type to roll a d4 for a chance of the energy you wanted, or do a roll for a 5 up on a d6 to convert one energy to another. This is to facilitate single energy decks or other energy shortages. Need to decide if this should be a general rule or regulated to specific events.

Boy am I stuck.

I have absolutely no idea on where to go from here. Not a lot of inspiration to work on right now. I feel like I want to just make some cards and try playing the parts I got already. Might just go with that. See what I'm missing then.

Need to remember: Work first, play later.

So it's now November. 

I've been playing Guild Wars 2 really damn heavily the last month. Coupled with what was a pretty seasonal job, yea being really distracted here.

Course now that job is gone I can go back to procrastinating in other ways!

Anyway, did another rundown of the game and realized this game essentially has two phases, three with this current villain deck design, and that first phase, where the players are suppose to be going around collecting cards is COMPLETELY AIMLESS. As in the moment after you set up and decide who's going first, that player is going to go "where should I go first?" And the answer will be "I dunno," cause how are you suppose to know what you need to prepare for? Monsters don't show up till later (and should not show up until later) so that first turn is essentially aimless wandering. And aimless is a pretty detrimental goal to aim for.

So the solution is Episodes. These are goals or effects that can help the player build their deck. Goals would be like preparing for a sports festival, and to do that means gathering and fielding various fitness abilities. Reward could be an advanced card or the ability to swap the cards they gathered for other cards. Effects would be like "social event interactions cost less to perform" or "gain additional energy every time you obtain a skill card from this place." These can persist for a few turns before a new one is drawn.

The point here is to give that first turn something to aim for if they don't already have a goal in mind (like a particular deck build or theme). Because the villains don't show themselves until later, and given that's how that works in anime, I think this fills that gap between fights for something players to do.

Now that idea is down, need to really review what I already have down before moving on.

And going to try and post....maybe this Saturday.

Damn, it's Thursday already?

Annnnnd it's September

Man I did not keep up any kind of schedule at all. I was suppose to update at the minimum weekly and here we are, 3 weeks without a single update.

In any case, let's see where we are now. Started working again, now on a night shift. Been playing both Guild Wars 2 and Borderlands 2. Been still working on this villain deck, which is been really stuck in just details. Trying to have a respectable number of enemies. Have 9 major monsters planned, 6 of them created.  Getting sort of tedious at this point. Need to do something to come up with more mechanics.

Now what to do about this. Waiting for inspiration is probably not the best idea out there. So arguably I need to start setting time aside for this stuff. Which means working against distractions. Which is pretty hard considering I'm playing GW2 right now writing this post.

Well not worth rushing, so just gonna work on this as it comes up.

I should be doing something, but there's GW2.

Still working on Villains right now. Need to get out all the monsters with their abilities, then Lieutenants and then the ancillary spell cards. Course all work has been stupidly slow. If I'm not doing something I'm procrastinating. This all comes on the heels of GW2 launch in 2 days. Where I'm hoping its 1 for me for pre-ordering.

Coming up with interesting enemy abilities gets much harder once you have them down on paper and realize the amount of redundancy that can happen.

Well now I need to set and stick to a goal if I want to make any kind of serious progress. Which becomes kinda hard if I'm not staying vigilant. Or motivated.

Well try again this Friday, see if something sticks. Only one monster of 7 done. Need to do some research.

Posting later.

Oh hey, it's been a week.

Well it looks like its exactly 7 days since my last post. Been way too freaking busy doing stuff not related to this, and then too stupidly distracted playing games.

But I have a Villain deck more or less listed. 16 event cards, probably should be bumped to 20 or 30, 3 Lieutenants, which will be repeated, and 6 monsters, which should be like 8-10 maybe.

So right now posting for some sort of consistency. Going to see if I can get something concrete by Friday.

Another thing I got was watching the Extra Credits I took from it a message "What kind of message is your game telling." That is starting a game just from mechanics, or hook, or some other plain starting point the game will lose its direction without a consecutive message through the game. So I got thinking about what I wanted players to be thinking or noticing while they were playing, and I came up with "the evolution of the character." This I kinda had in mind, in the sense I wanted each archetype to be viable with any type of deck build, regardless of how their special works. The reasoning behind that would be a kind of life experience thing. Like a Yankee going Int would be the guy was always smart, but only now been able to properly express himself. Or the Princess going Fitness being able to act out more once she's with friends. So I want to say that the player should have a sense of the record of their character through their gameplay and how their final deck comes out to be.

So to that extent I want to remember to formulate gameplay around this idea. Which will need me to go back to my earlier ideas and do some scrutinizing. I think it'll all work, but eventually I'll have to go back so my ideas stay consistent.

Well back to thinking how my monsters will smash. And then see how well random numbers work.

Villain Deck Update, Other stuff.

Well it's been some 2 weeks since my last post, apparently. Temps got way up recently, so that kills motivation. Also staring at the release of Guild Wars 2 as well. Sooooo, yea.

Anyway, still getting some stuff down. Have some writing down. And getting some thoughts about the events as well.

Well gonna keep punching everything back on the notepad before pasting stuff here. Someone remind me to post again on Friday.

Out.

Villain Work Time

Alright so I feel like I pretty much hashed out what to do for player cards, so now I'm going to start working on the villain deck. Which means finalizing villain mechanics. So time for a ton of contemplating.

Current idea: Villains have a deck of their own cards. Each card is some sort of spell, monster, minion, or other effect that can be played on the board. Each card will have its own trigger conditions of when it will be played. These essentially occur on the villain turn, but some may trigger on other in town events.

For the most part villains progress their own villain track, done when their card events resolve. The initial idea is to have villains place down in town events that continually progress the track until it is disrupted and the monster within defeated. Defeated monsters add some way for the players to perform more actions. The villain track itself strengthens enemy monsters and improves the defenses on the in town villain events. After a certain trigger is hit, such as the villain track reaching a certain value, the final boss of the villains will show up and a final battle ensues. When this enemy is beaten the game is over.

So things I need to watch out for.
1. Trigger rate on villain spawns to progress the game.
2. Properly designing the villain AI. This is done between dice and the card trigger events. The idea is to not have to require a player play the villain. Other decks might change these mechanics, but right now I'm building for a PvE model.
3. Figure out scaling. As long as players can improve over the time of the game, so to should the enemy. This may mean having the villain track continually progress, or have a secondary track to follow how many events are played. There needs to be a risk of the enemy growing too strong, and for a way for the players to lose.

Alright, time to see if I keep these things in mind while I work this out.

Well Crap

So the plan right now is to transfer my card list over to a spreadsheet so I can keep a better track of all my cards, but that's been going way too slowly. The tedium of going over old data mixed with distractions.

Well, I got the basic list down already, now I just have to move the basic items over, and then give it a once over to check for any balance or weirdness issues. Then I have to get to making that villain deck. And then board events.

Well back to work.

Been working on Special Cards

Random reminder that I need to get to finishing the deck of special ability cards.

Transformation Choices.

Transformation Choices.

Red - Fire Theme - Uses a Burn system. Attack abilities add a stack of burn on the target. Targets with burn take damage equal to the number of tokens at the end of this player's turn. Tokens stack up to 2 per target.

Fit - Attack the target for 1 damage. Add 1 burn token to the target

Int - Detonate - Deal damage equal to the number of burn tokens on the target.

Social - Defend. Reduce the incoming damage to target player by 1. Play this as an interrupt. 

Special - Blaze Kick - 2FI - Attack a target for 3 damage. Apply 1 burn on the target. Any burn tokens added over the limit are used as additional damage to the target. 

Blue - Ice Theme - Frost system. Direct damage abilities grant the player 1 Frost token. The player can use 2 tokens whenever they damage an enemy to place an Ice Wall in front of that target. That target has to break through the wall before being able attack normally. The player can shatter these walls to damage the target. Additional applications strengthen the first wall to a maximum of 5. Max 6 tokens on the player

Fit - Shatter - Choose a target. Shatter deals damage equal to the HP of the ice wall and 1 damage for every 2 tokens on the target. 

Int - Ice Shard- Attack a target for 1 damage. Add one Frost token. 

Social - Ice Wall - Consume 3 Frost tokens, place a 1 HP wall in front of a player. 

Blizzard - Deal a total of 5 damage to all enemies, max 2 damage per enemy. 

Green - Wind Theme - Tailwind. After a successful ability, the next ability played allows the player to untap one energy card after that ability is resolved. 

Fit - Gust - Attack a target for 1 damage.

Int - Healing Wind - Heal target for 2 health.

Social - Initiate - Increase a player's initiative by 1 until the end of their turn. Play this as an interrupt. 

Special - Tornado - Deal 2 damage to a target and tap that target. 

Teal - Sound Theme - Shockwave - All abilities gain trample. If an ability defeats an enemy the remaining damage can be transfered to the next target. -1 damage for each transfer. Cannot be transfered unless the first target is defeated. 

Fit - Power Chord - Deal 1 damage to a target. 

Int - Ballad of Encouragement - Place a +1 damage token on one of your abilities. You can only have one out at a time. This counts as an enchantment.

Social - Healing Ballad- Heal 2 damage split among any targets you choose. 

Special - Sonic Blast - 1 Fit Int  - Deal 3 damage to a target. If you choose to discard 1 card from your hand, repeat this ability a second time. 

Yellow - Lightning Theme - Charging. Successful abilities grant a charge. Whenever the player activates an ability, the player can tap 1 action energy and consume all charges to increase the ability's power by the number of charges consumed. When this ability is used charges are not gained by that ability. Max 4 charges can be held at any time. 

Fit - Charge - Gain 2 charges.

Int - Bolt - Deal 1 damage to a target. 

Social - Bolster - Consume 1 charge, increase the power of an ally's ability by 1. 

Special - Deal 3 damage to the target, Gain 2 charges. 

Pink - Heart Theme - All attacks and abilities used heal the player for 1 hp. 

Fit - Quick Attack - Attack a target for 1 damage. First Strike.

Int - Charge your happiness. Gain 1 heart token.

Social - Place a 1 HP shield on an ally. 

Special -Heart Beam - Deal 3 damage to an enemy. If the player has a Heart token, deal another 4 damage. Consume the token afterwards. 

Now on to general abilities. 

Fail Post

Just a post to indicate I failed to meet my weekly goals Ended up being distracted by Pyromania and TF2 farming.

Got passives and basic abilities down for the 6 planned colors, slowly working through the special attacks. Well, gonna post those whenever those get done. Soon.

Time for another week

Alright new plan for this week. This time finish 5 transformations, which includes 3 basic skills, a special attack, and a passive that work with the different cards and skills.

Current Work.

Red - Fire Theme - Uses a Burn system. Attacks add a stack of burn on the target. Targets with burn take damage equal to the number of tokens every time they attempt to perform an action. Tokens stack up to 3. Burn can be consumed to deal damage equal to x2 of the number of tokens on the target. 

Fit - Attack the target for 1 damage. Add 1 burn token to the target

Int - Detonate the target. Deal damage equal to x2 the number of burn tokens on the target.

Social - Defend. Reduce the incoming damage to target player by 1. 

Special - 

Blue - Ice Theme - Frost system. 

Green - Wind Theme - Tailwind. Abilities following a successful attack gain a bonus modifier to their effect. 

Teal - Sound Theme - 

Yellow - Lightning Theme - Charging. Successful abilities grant a charge. At 3 or 5 charges, the player can increase the damage on the next ability, reduce the cost of the next spell by 1, or directly deal 2 damage to a target. 

Pink - Heart Theme - 

Week Done. Initial Character List

Well did not get into transformations this week. Character balance with a bunch of other distractions took up most of the time. Of course these numbers have to check out against the rest of the game, so will need to get to the rest of the game together now.

Characters:

All Characters start with 3 Action cards on the field.

Yankee - Fitness based character. Ability: Use 2 Fitness energy cards to gain 1 Int energy. (Cannot use energy gained from non basic energy cards).

Starting deck

5 Fitness energy

1 Int energy

2 Social energy

2 Bulk Up.

2 Draw A Card

2 Intimidate

Otaku - Intelligence based character: Ability: I've seen this before: Once Per Turn: Tap, Discard a card: Draw two cards from your deck. Place one in your hand, discard the other to your graveyard. 

1 Fitness

5 Int

2 Social

2 Useless Knowledge

2 Exploit Weakness

2 Hold It!

Idol - Social based character. Ability: Social Prowess: Tap, All Social events cost 1 less Social energy to perform in the player's district for all players. Passive: All social abilities cost 1 less to play to the field. 

1 Fit

2 Int

5 Social

2 Switch Out

2 Inspire

2 Once More

Princess - A social/int based character. Ability: Money - Whenever she goes home to sleep, you may take 1 wealth card and place it in your field. 

1 Fit

3 Int

3 Social

3 Wealth

3 Friend's List

1 Butler

Transfer Student - Int/Fit character. Ability: Discard a card, reduce the cost of the next ability card you play from your hand by 1. 

3 Fit

3 Int

2 Social

1 Rally

3 Idea

2 Opportunity

Goals for this week

In an effort to get my ass in some sort of gear, I'm going to start setting up weekly goals to meet. I need some sort of timetable to start getting things done.

So for this week I'm going to
1. Finish character designs, and get at least 8 different starting decks made.
2. Finish transformations.

Stuff I need to post

Characters and Transformations

Characters determine the player's starting deck and play towards a particular theme as well as granting a specific trait that can be used throughout the game.


Current Ideas
Yankee - Fitness themed character. His special ability is to tap two fitness energy to gain 1 int energy. His deck starts with high Fit but low Int and Social.

Otaku - Int based character. Passive: TBD. High Int, low Social and Fit

Idol - Social based character. Passive: Inspire Something that can affect other players.

Princess - OK Fit, Good Int, OK Social. Starts with money. Passive: gain money whenever you go home to sleep.

Transformations:
These dictate the player's combat style and adds an extra effect to spells and abilities.
Each Transformation has three basic skills that use 1 of each energy type, a more expensive special attack, and passives that interact with other spell and ability cards.

Current Ideas:
Fire Themed Red
Lightning Themed Yellow
Heart Themed Pink
Wind Themed Green
Ice Themed Blue
Sound Themed Teal - Miku based transformation.

Character Modifications
These are additional changes that can occur in the game. There will be specific events that players can run into that will add an additional card to their character with new abilities.

Current Ideas

Neko-mimi - Obtained in the Neighborhood. You were just zapped by the local mad scientist's experimental laser and have transformed into a catboy/girl. Instantly gains fitness energy on the field, discards an int and social energy. Catty - New instincts take over. Remove one Int and one Social energy from the field into your discard pile. Kitty Power - Action, Tap, Discard a card from your hand. Gain 2 Fit energy.Pounce - Action, Tap , 2 Fit Fit. Attack a target with +2 damage. This attack gains first strike. 

Tiny God - Obtained at the Shrine - A strange feeling washes over you. You have now become a minor deity. Reborn - Discard your hand, draw 7 new cards. Special passive Mobile Prayer - Other players may now gain blessings by praying to the player instead of at the shrine. Praying costs 1 action energy and discarding a card from their hand. Special ability Blessed- Tap, Discard one energy card of any type from your field, pass one roll check.Special ability Divine Intervention - Tap, Discard one card from your hand. Prevent one damage that would be dealt to you. 
Vampire  - You meet a strange little girl at the shrine. She finds you interesting and turns you into a vampire. Creepy - Remove 2 Social cards from the field and place them in your discard pileSpecial Ability Noble Blood - Tap, Action, Discard card from hand - Gain two social energy. Special Ability Drain - Tap, 2 Int Int  Action - You sap a target, dealing 4 damage. For each damage dealt, you heal 1 HP and gain a +1 damage token for your next ability. Tokens are discarded on use or at the end of the turn.
Android/Cyborg - The Scientist accidentally transfered your mind into the body of an experimental android. Recalibrating - Discard 2 fitness energy from your field. Cybernetic intelligence - Action, Tap - Gain two Int energyRocket Punch - Action, 1 Fit Fit, Tap - Attack a target for +3 damage. 


I think I'm going to finish designing characters before getting into the cards that make up the decks. 


Posting more ideas when they come. 

Action cards, Combat, and the Board.

Just had this idea: Move/Action energy is required to perform certain attacks, or possibly all attacks, along with activating events and other board interactions.

For combat possibly special attacks will require action energy, like the unique ability of each transformation, as well as special equipment usage. Basic attacks won't require actions but will have their own limitations. The default attacks on the transformation will still be limited once per turn for their cost, for example.

While in combat players can't use action cards to interact with the board. Originally I wanted to move the action cards to energy cards to give the idea that transforming made the player stronger, and removed their ability to play the board, but this design makes the action cards more valuable in combat, and a flat rule works just as well.

Still designing the stuff the cards can do, trying to make each one using each energy card unique while performing a similar function.

Board Design v.1

Alright this is going to be the initial board design. And here's the rundown of how the areas are going to work.

All areas allow for event draws by tapping one action energy. Doing so allows the player to draw an event card from their respective area.

Event resolutions will vary on the difficulty and the rewards. Simple events can be resolved by paying the proper energy cards OR by rolling dice of some sort, considering players might not have the kind of necessary energy required to resolve these events early game. Harder ones will require both a roll and energy. The hardest will require discarding cards from the field or hand into the player's discard pile.

School: Primary purpose here is to collect basic Fitness, Intelligence, and Social energy cards for the player's decks. Events here grant basic skills

Residential:
Home - Players return here to sleep, which lets them shuffle their discard deck into the draw pile
Neighborhood - Events here grant advanced social skills and special conditions. One of the ideas is to have a mad scientist's lab that will bestow race changes to the player. The lab was going to be really random on the benefits and losses to the player, but grants access to some of the better rewards in the game.
Fortune Teller - This would be the place for players to trade in cards they don't need, namely skill cards. Still deciding how this should work. It might be just a take a card, leave a card kind of place. Events here would act like the neighborhood but for magical situations.

(Hum, originally I wanted the shrine to be used for magical events, but if I can fold those situations into the Fortune teller, that means one less place to on the board to fill.)

Shopping District: Where players earn money and buy equipment, and meet companions. Events here are on the harder end.

Board Layout

3 Possible zones

School - This area is for gaining Fitness energy and Intelligence energy. 

Residential - For sleeping, which lets you reshuffle your deck, gaining social energy, and some random events. Two key features would be an old couple you help out and the secret science lab, where the crazy scientist will occasionally "recruit" players to help with experiments. 

Commercial District - This is where most of the shopping will happen for equipment. This is also where you can work to earn money and social energy as well.

Places to be included

• Old Couple's Home - Gather social energy
• Home Base - Where players go to when disabled, reshuffle their decks, at home situations.
• Mad Scientist Lab - Gather special technology items and other random positive/negative events. Main purpose is to be able to introduce cat girl transformations and other fictional features.
• Family Restaurant - Work here to gain social energy and money. 
• Shopping Center - Buy items and gain social skills. 
• Classroom - Gain int energy and skills
• Field - Gain fitness energy and skills.
• Fortune Tellers house - Trade in unwanted skills for other items or energy. Also a place to get magical items.
• Shrine - Lab for magical themed items. Gain Vampire from here and other magical effects. 

Each zone will have one deck with events for all the areas and a street area. The street area are free events, but they are mostly negative or non consequential, with a few good events, such as running into strangers that become companions. 

Villain's Deck

So what's a game without an opponent, and in this case its going to be different decks of enemies. Each deck should play somewhat differently based on the type of enemies that they portray.

So the idea is each villain deck plays with a 6 card "hand" in which certain events get triggered when certain cards are in the "hand." Some are instant that occur the moment they're drawn, other bigger events need a certain combination of cards to occur, and then some are designed to just sit in the hand until they're triggered.

The idea is that each villain deck portrays a different theme, such as a Sailor Moon type which is an evil entity in another dimension that invade the world through fronts that steal energy from the locals, in which players have to first uncover the conspiracy before invading and ousting the controllers and defeating the subsequent monster. This is the one I want to work on first, get all their possible cards fleshed out before attempting other themes. So far I can think of something like Precure, which is more on just dropping monsters into the town and are just engaged, or a Madoka one which is similar but also introduces the concept of perma death. Losing a fight right now just throws you into home for like 2 turns, clears your field and reshuffles your deck and hand.

So for my Sailor Moon themed deck, I'm thinking of incorporating the following:
Lieutenant cards - These are the masterminds behind events, Each one is unique and adds additional conditions to the event to complete.
Conspiracies - These are the store fronts and such that get played on the field. On these cards are what they do to progress the doom track, how they are to be discovered, and what they add to the monster to the end fight to close it. Conspiracies require a  Lieutenant to run it and a monster to maintain it.
Monsters - these are the entities that maintain the conspiracy. They have their own stats which will also be modded by the doom track,
Minions - These are small monsters that can appear whenever to hinder the players.
Instants - These cards get played either immediately or with a trigger that affects the players fields, hands, or stats.
Persistent effects - These are constant conditions played on the field. These require a  Lieutenant to run. There can be only one persistent card played at a time.

Victory Conditions - So each deck will have its own victory conditions and how to reach it. For this deck after a certain number of closed conspiracies and monster kills you can enter their dimension and take out the leader in one large boss fight. The boss is modded by the state of the doom track Defeat her and you win the game.

Card Types

Energy Cards

• Fitness 
• Intelligence
• Social
• Movement

Skill Cards

• Actions
• Magic/Tech Abilities
• Support/Socials

Passives

• Equipment that take Fitness to carry around
• Equipment that takes Int to carry around
• Companions that require social to activate. 

Board Layout

• Residential area - Has your house, Secret Lab, Old Couple's house. This area is mostly for building social stats and skills. 
• School - Gym, Classroom, Clubs. This area is for building both fitness and intelligence stats and some skills
• Commercial District - General Store, Work. This area is for buying equipment, earning money, and going out social events. 
• Shrine Area - Woods, shrine, the fortune teller's house. This area may not be necessary, as bits can be folded into the other regions. The woods themselves can be a special area. This area was for mostly magical gear and special skills. 

Extra Bit - Deck Shuffling

At any time you can go home and sleep. When you do, you can choose to discard your current hand, and then shuffle your discard pile into your deck. If you discarded your hand, you draw 5 new cards afterwards. You are now stuck at home for the next turn while you rest.

Initial Character Creation

Alright, I think I got something down for the game's character creation and basic stats down. I figured out how to make this energy card system work in terms of board interactions. So here's going to be v1 of my character creation concept

Character Creation
Each player character is made up of 5 stats: Fitness, Intelligence, Social, Movement, and Health/Vitality

1. Fitness is used for physical attacks and activities. This is going to be Red energy.
2. Intelligence is used for the magic attacks and for thinking activities. This is going to be Blue energy.
3. Social is used for group activities and support abilities. This is going to be Green energy.
4. Movement is for general purpose energy. This energy is used for moving around the board and drawing event cards from each location. I'm not too set on using the energy to move as well as card draw. Or use move for special movements that take you someplace other than the major hubs. This can also be considered "Time" energy, since in a way it represents what you can get done in a single turn.
5. Health is just the number of Hit Points a player has before they get knocked out. 

 Each character type will have a certain amount of base stats and a special character ability according to their archetype.

After that they draw their transformations. Each transformation will have a theme, something that will alter abilities and additional stats to the player during combat. Like a fire themed character will say work off a burn counter on the enemy, which the player can consume for bonus damage. Or a support type class that grant benefits to the other players on certain moves.

For one I would like to create a Miku transformation based on sound abilities.

Each player has a starting deck for their character, and then starting abilities for their transformations.

Hum, maybe the energy cards should also be shuffled in, and you play them like you would in MtG.
And as a way to prevent power creep have certain events or abilities that would require them to discard energy cards to be reshuffled into the deck.
As well as saying "discard an energy card, grant automatic 1 pass count to an event" so if you really wanted to you would have to cut into your stats in order to gain potential bonuses for later in the game.

Well next up will be character building and then some thinking into how turns work.

But first, stare at the TERA buy screen some more.

Combat Mechanics

Well time to get something new down.

Right now I'm thinking of some way to make the combat more interesting than dice rolling against stats, and so far the was thinking of using a deck building concept for personal actions. But that has the problem of how do you merge it into the board game side of the game.

So I was thinking all your actions are instead based off of resource management. Each turn you have to tap movement energy to move around the board, and various stat energies to perform actions at these locations. Turns aren't really set until everyone has tapped everything they want to, in which then the global move for villains happen and everything resets for the next turn. This way combat can occur for each player without require the other players to have to wait for it to resolve, since I also want combat to allow for other players to jump in to assist. Since magical girl teams work best in groups I want to encourage a certain degree of grouping benefit.

Course then this needs to somehow play into how you gather cards, and my plan was using an Arkham Horror location based random event deck for players to advance their characters and encounter the enemy. To complete these events you would expend the right energy cards in certain stats to complete, with appropriate neutral values allowed for certain things.

But then if I want players to build stats up, it means they have more energy to do certain things, so at some point encounters have to scale as well. Which doesn't play well to the random encounter style gameplay. Or else I have some way for players to complete harder encounters and a chance or cost by having them roll the remaining costs in die. Although this will still be naturally limited by movement if I require players to remain on a spot to use an encounter, still limiting an encounter to once per round.

Well getting this down now, thinking of it more later.

This is a start

Alright. I want to get into game design, so this is a plan to try and get that started. I have a design in writing right now, and am going to use this blog as a way to keep myself on track and junk.

So my plan is to have an Arkham Horror style game with a bit more on individual character building and more elaborate combat, set to the theme of magical girls. Characters are going to be built something like Munchkin characters, where your base stats are made up of different parts with separate themes, which then influence the skills and weapons you pick up and level up your character. You explore a town rooting out evil eventually culminating in a fight against a final boss.

I still need to think about how I want the combat to work out to something that's not purely reliant on dice roll but still makes sense in a board game setting. Deck building was something that sounded interesting, but how to acquire cards has to makes sense.

Anyway, first post, back to storming.