Card Game: First Edition Rules

Alright, in the last installment I promised that in the coming days (weeks, months, years? Who knows, I'm not really planning this out except for the fact that I'm currently interested in it, as always.) that I'd be working - live and on blogger - on developing a TCG-lite game that could be played with an ordinary deck of playing cards. As an intellectual exercise, if nothing else. But, hey, everyone needs a hobby, right?

And, keep in mind this little card game hobby is an exceptionally large and profitable one. One that has been, lately, anyways the province of companies whose goal is to maximize their profits. Sure there are "indie" games designed and published (Many of which, I'd wager, in an effort to attract attention from the more profitable designers) but what makes it to the mainstream marketplace is what comes out of the big production houses. This is, of course, a problem because as institutions grow they tend to ossify. They lose the flexibility and innovation that got them some measure of success in the first place as they grow more cautious and diversified to protect the success they have. What I'm getting at is that the tack I'm taking here is one that wouldn't exactly get an easy audience at your average card company - not in my experience, anyways. But, since it helps me to consider how other people will view this little product, so to speak, I'm thinking of this as though I'm making a pitch of a new and exciting card game to potential investors or to an audience at a tradeshow or the like. And, well, I don't mean to get so messianic but my idea is coming out of left-field, I think, for these people so I need to set the stage for it first. Because, if you'll remember from last installment, I'm trying to create a design that's for the mass market, not the niche market of those who buy and play TCGs already. The early adopters would be those who are already familiar with the format and are just looking for a different way of fulfilling their needs - the hardcore, in other words. So, if I can convince them I can convince a lot of people, I hope. So, brilliant, innovative idea, going to revolutionize the industry, look at the booth babes and/or prostitutes/strippers, have some free goodies and watch a demo, there's a vast untapped market here just waiting for us, have a powerpoint if you have the time blah blah blah. Okay, now here are the rules I've come up with so far. Consider it a design document, if you will:

Untitled Card Battling Game

You’ll need: Deck of playing cards, jokers removed.

• Shuffle deck.
• Split the deck equally in half – one half or 26 cards for each player - and shuffle.
• Each player deals two cards face down. These are the “land” cards. These are placed in the middle of the table between both players.
• Each player then deals themselves seven cards. These are their initial “hand” cards.
• Their remaining cards are placed to the side as their “draw pile”.
• From their hand the player plays face up one card to act as their “castle” (face cards Aces, Kings, Queens, and Jacks - may not be used as castles) and another as their “general”. These are placed in front of the player.
• The players then take turns playing a card from their hands as an “army” onto any land card to attack. This is done by placing the army card in front of the land card.
• If the land card is face down it is revealed after an army has invaded it.
• The other player then plays an army of their to defend that land.
• Battle: The player with the highest total wins the battle for that land. Undercut: Unless the defender plays a card in the same suit as the attacker in which case the lowest total wins. (Example: if you attack with a 9 and your opponent defends with a 5, then you win the battle. Unless you both play Hearts in which case your opponent wins.)
• In the event of a tie then the attacker wins.
• The player who was defending then takes their turn.
• After each turn a player draws one card from their draw pile to their hand to replace the card played.
• Numbered cards are worth their face value. Face cards are worth the following as armies: Kings, Queens – 11, Aces – 1, Jacks – 0. As land: Ace – 1, Kings, Queens, Jacks – 0. (Comment: This should prevent excessive stacking – see Stacking below - as well as encourage players to swap face cards out of the land – see Capture)
• Stacking: If a player’s card is the same suit or value as the land card then they add that card’s value to their own total. If a player’s general card is the same suit or value as their army card then they add that card’s value to their own total. And if a player’s castle card is the same suit or value as their general card they add the castle’s value to the knight’s value, if applicable. Face cards cannot be used in this way. (Example: if you have a 10 as castle, a 10 as general, a 10 as army and are attacking a 10 land card then your total attack value is 40. If, instead, you have a 5, 6, 7, and 8 of Hearts in your stack then your total value is 26. But if your castle 5 and general 6 are Clubs while your army 7 and the land 8 are Hearts then you only have a total value of 15.)
• After winning a battle for land that land becomes that player’s property and the player may do the following: Control: they may place both army cards played onto their discard pile and end their turn. Capture: or they may exchange either army card or their knight card for the land card and place both army cards onto the bottom of their draw pile.
• A player wins the game when meeting any of the following conditions: Dominance: all land cards become the property of the player. Conversion: the player creates a situation where every land card either has the same face value or the same suit. Attrition: the other player cannot play or draw a card.

Alright, that’s pretty lengthy (and great size is an indication of poor design) but as it’s a set of rules it has to be pretty specific so that there’s little ambiguity. By omitting the details it can be boiled down to the following: “From a standard deck of cards players are dealt their hands and set up two character/base cards, players then take turns attacking and defending land cards with cards from their hands. Cards of the same face value or suit as others in play have their values combined. The player with the highest value on their card wins and gets control of the land unless the defender plays a card from the same suit in which case the lowest value wins. Play goes on until one player or the other runs out of cards or controls all the land cards.” Still not the most compact but try and explain poker – in detail - in a paragraph and see what you get.

If I’m right then it has a bit of strategic depth that allows for the moves and countermoves of a metagame – like bluffing or raising and calling in poker. Carefully judging which cards to play on which lands all the while risking having a huge stack being toppled by a lowball card, players have to make decisions and juggle risks on the fly with too many situations for any one play (ie “always play the highest card you have”) to be correct in all of them. All while still being simple enough to pick up and play readily. There’s a little math involved but I’d hope most people can add up to 40 (which is the theoretical limit for a stack of four 10s.) without too much difficulty. And beyond that it’s just a matter of telling which number is higher than the other. And, hey, if this is an online game then it’s not even an issue. Just about everything I’d want in a new card game.

Now, at this point I’m probably going to be getting some pointed questions in any pitch meeting. The card game companies would want to know where, exactly, are they going to be making money from this? Everyone has a pack of cards, as I’ve gone to lengths to point out, so all we’d really be selling is the manual (and maybe a fancy pack of cards to go with it). Which, as I’ve gone to lengths to keep it simple and concise isn’t much larger than a pamphlet. That’s cheap to print, sure, but it’s also going to be easy for someone to learn the game and then take a pack of cards and teach it to someone else. We sell a few copies of the rules and that’s all the money we’d ever see once people start copying and learning and playing, no matter how successful it is. It might or might not be a great game but there’s absolutely no reason to develop it further or even to market it because there’s absolutely no money to be made selling it. Not compared to the traditional TCG.

And, well, they’re utterly and completely wrong. I’m just not quite sure how to explain it yet. I’m not even talking about the fact that there are other kinds of profits beyond those with a dollar sign. No, I think there’s definitely a way of making actual, hard currency from an idea like this. I don’t know how to go about it just yet, exactly, but it starts with this: What I’ve created so far is the base ruleset. Once that’s out there it can disseminate rapidly, true, and the costs involved are so low that it can wind up in the hands of anyone who can get a pack of cards, understand the rules, and wants to play the game. That can create a huge market for the next step: expansion packs. Once people play the basic game they can be sold improvements and refinements on that game. So far I’ve hardly touched face cards and card suits but there are definite possibilities for game mechanics there. Treat each face card as a “class” with its own special attributes and each suit as a “race” with its own inherent bonus and the game can be expanded considerably in complexity. Even with just the four suits and four face cards. Which, of course, everyone else also has as long as they have a pack of cards. But what they don’t have are the new suits like Staves, Cups, Wands, Swords, Stars, Purple Hearts, Green Clovers, and Rainbows that can be given their own unique flavors. Print out a set of the 13 of them (2 through 9 plus A,K,Q,J) that can be slipped into any deck in place of the base suits and you’ll have a game that will play differently even though the rules are similar. The same thing can be done for any of the face cards (Especially if you’re already printing fancy decks of cards that will be standardized with your custom cards). Then, since you control the ever expanding rulebook I’ll be able to release new and revised versions which will need to be purchased for people to play the latest version of the game. Optional rules. Variants. Conflicting special abilities. The only one who can settle any disputes is me because I'm the one who owns and controls the official rules. People can make their own but I'm the one who should know them best, especially if I listen to the general consensus of my customers and the team that I'll build around me. In so many words: Yes, I’m not planning on selling the cards, I’m planning on selling the rules.

What I end up won’t be anything like what I have here – it’s already changed from when I first dreamt it up – but that core idea shouldn’t be all that different: a quick, cheap card game that’s easy for anyone to get into – especially at conventions or tournaments where people play TCGs and are looking for a quick break between things, perhaps – but has a lot of depth for people to explore the more and more they play and invest. I call it a “gateway drug”. I just need some time (and resources) to come up with a stable first release. Try different things with the various cards and rules. Figure out the special mechanics for each special ability. Playtest. Get feedback. Market research (I’m horrible at names. You want to make this a magical duel or a fight between cyborg ninjas or playing the stock market or something? Switch the names around, I don’t care, but I bet the people marketing it would.). Set up a printing facility to start with a small run of custom made cards but which can expand to higher volumes. Graphics for the manual and all that.

Since I can hardly balance my checkbook it’s a good thing I’m not doing any of that. This is just a fun little hobby for me and something I’m going to tinker with for a bit. But, then, Apple and D&D both started out as someone’s hobby and so have dozens of other businesses. In someone’s basement or garage or attic, all it takes is that one good idea and a lot of hard work – and not a little bit of luck – to make it pay off. So who knows just how far I’ll go with this little hobby of mine.