Light card adventure game?

Light card adventure game?

maka 1233601597|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm toying with a simple design that occurred to me when reading about a seemingly cool game called Quest for the Faysylwood (which btw I quickly ordered). First I wanted to make a more complex game, but it's pretty hard to make a more complex thematic card game without special cards, so in the end I simplified everything a lot. What remains is a very simple push your luck card game…

I'm still playtesting and changing the game as I go along, but the basics so far (if anyone wants to try it) are these. Please, if you read the rules or try the game out, let me know how it went and any suggestions you might have… Thanks in advance :)

Note: This is just a quick write up of the rules. I hope to make them clearer as the game gets finished and I create a wiki page for it…

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Material: Extended decktet, 1d6

Setup:

Each player takes an ace (randomly) and places it in front of him/her. This is the character's basic power. The rest of the aces will not be used.

Shuffle the decktet (with pawns and excuse) and deal 5 cards to each player.

Gameplay:

On their turn, a player may optionally play a card (see challenges below) and also may attempt to complete a challenge (before or after playing the card). Instead of playing a card, the player may discard as many cards as they want and draw as many as they discarded. Then, at the end of their turn, if they have less than 5 cards, they draw one card.

Cards represent amongs other things, life, so if at any point a player has zero cards in their hand, they're out of the game.

The goal of the game is to complete 5 challenges. When a player manages to complete 5 challenges the game is over and points are tallied.

Cards can be either used to place a challenge on another player (including oneself) or as extra effort used to complete a challenge. If a challenge is attempted but the player fails, cards will also be discarded as damage is received.

A challenge card is a numbered card of a crown card (value 10). The value of the card represents how hard the challenge is, and the suit/s what type of challenge. Challenge cards are played face up next to the player's power card or last completed challenge but side wise (to mean an uncompleted challenge). When completed, it's turned straight up.

When playing a challenge on another player, the value of the challenge card cannot exceed the sum of all the cards in front of that player plus 3. So on a starting player, the maximum challenge can be of value 4.

If a player already has an uncompleted challenge in front of him/her, no more can be placed on that player until it is completed.

When a player attempts to complete a challenge (an optional action) they roll the die and sum the number of suits from their own power card and any completed challenge in front of them that match suits from the attempted challenge card. This way, each card can potentially provide a bonus of 2 points maximum.

If the total number equals or exceeds the number on the attempted challenge card, it is completed and its card turned upright (to be used as power for future challenges). If the number is less than the value of the challenge card, the player must pay using suits from their own hand. If they can reach the target number by using suits from their own card matching any of the suits in the challenge card, the challenge is completed too (and those cards used are discarded, reducing the size of the player hand). The player completes the challenge but is damaged in the process.

Note that 3 suits of that don't match the suits on the challenge card can be used as one of the necessary suit. These suits can be on one card or spread over more than once. Any left overs (if you discard 2 cards for 4 suits) are lost.

If the player can't even complete the challenge this way (or doesn't want to) then they must discard a number of cards equal to the difference between the total number they got (the die roll plus any suits used from their hand) and the target number. As some cards may have two matching suits, it's better to use those cards for the suits before applying damage…

When a player completes 5 challenges (they have 6 cards upright in front of them) the game is over. Each player totals the scores for the challenges they managed to complete and the winner is the player with the biggest score. Crowns score 12 points because having only one suit makes them harder than regular number cards.

Maybe I should include some bonus points for the first player, but I'm not sure…

Extended Decktet

Pawns are special because they can't be used as challenges, only as effort cards when attempting a challenge.

When the excuse is drawn, the discard pile and the remaining draw pile are shuffled together and a new draw pile is created.

Re: Light card adventure game?

pmagnus 1234046066|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Cristyn and I tried this and had enough fun that we played two hands.

I had a good lead in the first game. I had completed four challenges for a total of 25 points. The she played the Crown of Leaves on me as a challenge, and it was the End. (Ha!) Since I had few Leaves in my challenge pile, I had to build up a good hand before I could attempt it. Even then, I needed a good roll. I had two shots at it and failed.

While I was churning through cards in an attempt to find Leaves, she was looking for challenges big enough that she could outscore me. If I had been more strategic, I would have played small challenges on her so that she would have completed her fifth challenge without matching my score.

In the first game, she had rolled several 1s. In the second, mindful of her bad luck, she was very cautious and only attempted challenges when she knew should could beat them. Taking some chances, I rolled my way through five challenges and so to victory.

She was frustrated by the amount of luck involved, but maybe it's that kind of game.

I was struck by how powerful it could be to play a challenge on your opponent. Once they have completed a couple of challenges, you can play a Crown on them. If you have a Crown that doesn't match the challenges they've completed, there is very little they can do about it. If they make an attempt and roll poorly— even with a good hand— it might kill them.

If these seem like problems, both concerns might be addressed by lessening the penalty for running out of cards. Perhaps: When a player loses all their cards facing a challenge, they discard the uncompleted challenge in front of them and their turn ends immediately; they don't draw another card until next turn.

This will not stop the alternate strategy of throwing low point challenges in front of your opponent once you have a lead. I would need to play it more to know if that's really a problem. If so, maybe a bonus for the player who completes five challenges?

Instead of playing a card, the player may discard as many cards as they want and draw as many as they discarded. … if at any point a player has zero cards in their hand, they're out of the game.

We played so that you could discard all of your cards and draw replacements, but maybe this creates a moment at which you have zero cards. Is the "cards as hit points" rule meant to require you to keep one when discarding?

Re: Light card adventure game?

maka 1234057843|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thanks for trying it out :) I agree that luck does play an important part in the game although my intention was to give options to the players to mitigate it… An option to reduce the luck factor could be to roll a 4 sided dice and add 2 to the result, that way you've got a smaller range of results (from 3-6). At first I used cards to resolve challenges but found that the range was too big, that's why I decided to use dice…

After a few plays the other day, I was starting to think that the limit I placed on the number for a challenge you place on your opponent was to big. I was thinking of removing the "+3" in the rules, so you can only place a card on them as big as the sum of the cards in front of them. That way, the king is not as devastating…

About the hit points rule, I'm not sure, It is pretty definitive and does mean you've got to think well about the risk involved in each roll, and if playing with more than 2 players means a player is out of the game, but the game is pretty short too, so it doesn't seem that bad… Anyway, I'll give it a try and at the least, it could be a variant… but I think it'd be better if the player after losing all the cards to the fight, still gets to draw a card at the end of the turn, otherwise he can't do anything for 2 turns after (one where he doesn't have any cards, and then one where he does have one card, but can't play it). Maybe instead of discarding the challenge, they have to place it face down and will count as zero points towards victory, but will still count as a challenge for the 5 challenge limit to end the game…

Edit: Now that I think about it, this could create a situation where if you're ahead and your opponent plays a king on you, you know that if you try the challenge, no matter if you win or lose the challenge, you still win the game… That doesn't seem so right… Another solution is to place if face down in front of you and it has some negative value (-1 or -2) but it doesn't count as one of the 5 challenges to end the game… This seems like a better solution…

BTW, you're right that the rule on discards can be read that way, but my intention was to let players replace their whole hand. Will have to think about the wording :)

last edited on 1234058158|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by maka + show more

Re: Light card adventure game?

pmagnus 1234064447|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You might be right about the threat of death. This is a quick game, after all.

I was thinking of removing the "+3" in the rules, so you can only place a card on them as big as the sum of the cards in front of them.

I just realized that we were playing this wrong. We played the "sum+3" as a limit for a challenge even if a player played the challenge on themself.

Even so, I am not sure that it stops the vicious Crown— When she played the Crown of Leaves on me in our game, I had already completed a Crown challenge. So it wasn't that I hadn't completed challenges. It was that those challenges didn't help me much in Leaves. Since she had a bunch of the Leaves in front of her as completed challenges, there weren't that many left in the deck for me to draw.

What if there were a way to escape a challenge without attempting it, possibly at some cost? Or to swap challenges with another player?

Re: Light card adventure game?

maka 1234117456|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I just realized that we were playing this wrong. We played the "sum+3" as a limit for a challenge even if a player played the challenge on themself.

I have to rewrite the rules and be more clear :D I wrote them down in a hurry… not so good :)

Even so, I am not sure that it stops the vicious Crown— When she played the Crown of Leaves on me in our game, I had already completed a Crown challenge. So it wasn't that I hadn't completed challenges. It was that those challenges didn't help me much in Leaves. Since she had a bunch of the Leaves in front of her as completed challenges, there weren't that many left in the deck for me to draw.

He he, completing a crown too soon is also dangerous :) I'm not sure if it was your case, but I've found myself in a position where I completed a crown too soon (and after all it only gives one bonus) and this gave my gf the chance of putting another one in front of me which I had no chance to complete :) It also looks like she did play well there, limiting your leaves and then playing that crown…

Well, I want to try the possibility of removing elimination from the game, so if that works, you can always try the challenge, die, and start with a 1 card hand and a penalty in points. This is quite harsh though…

Maybe, another possibility could be to allow swapping a challenge with a card from your hand that matches either the number, a suit or both suits… I have to look at the distribution of cards, and see what option is best…

Re: Light card adventure game?

maka 1235834008|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I've added the game to the database with some slight changes. I've decided not to allow players to "cheat" death, but added a way to change the difficulty of their current challange.

See: Fifth Challenge