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[flame99]

I've been working on a CCG mainly out of boredom, and due to a combination of me not being sure where to take the game and me just being bored, I decided to post the game here.

The game focuses around a number of not-fully-decided factions, locked in a war for conquest, glory, and on rare occasion, morals. The races that I've tentatively decided on so far are the Humans, Elves, Ratmen, Fey, and Druids. The goal of the game is to kill your opponent's hero, which has a varying set of stats such as Damage and Health. They also have their own unique abilities, which can take a range of forms.

Cards are played with two currencies: Gold and Faction Influence. Gold is a simple representation of money, while Influence represents favors, connections, and general good standing within the given faction. Gold is produced in small amounts per turn by heroes (Usually one/turn, but some produce more) with no cap on them. However, most of your gold is going to be produced by other sources, such as cards or buildings. There is no limit on the amount of gold you can have. Influence works a little differently. Heroes will get 1 influence with their faction, but unlike gold, this does not compound over multiple turns; instead, at the end of each turn your Influence is set to 0, and you then receive influence according to what cards you have in play. Both are spent in order to play cards. You can spend two influence for one gold, or two gold for one influence.

Humans are fairly standard, though they have a fairly strong early game and weak late game. They command units such as Cannons, Riflemen, Knights, and Horsemen. They also produce gold and influence well, with several of their creatures, such as Guarded Caravan, producing it.

Elves have powerful Skills, but their creatures tend to be frail, though they have high damage output. In addition, they can play creatures to increase the power of their Skills. They aren't fully fleshed out, so I can't give a sample creature list.

Ratmen use a combination of large, cheap hordes, and a few expensive warmachines. They can produce gold very well, but tend to be poor at generating Influence. To offset this, one of their heroes lowers the cost of all cards by -1 ratmen Influence, making some of their weaker, swarmier cards only cost gold. (The other focuses on warmachines)

The Fey and Druids aren't really fleshed out yet, but in broad terms, the Fey specialize in debuffs, while the druids use powerful beasts bolstered with magic.


One of the major things that I've been unable to decide on is whether to have it take place on a grid, similar to Mage Wars (If you haven't seen that game before, I recommend you try it out.), or in a more abstracted format, similar to Magic: The Gathering. Care to give your thoughts?

[flame99]

Alright, I've decided to settle for a hybrid style between the two. Essentially, gameplay takes place in two play areas: The Offence Zone and the Defense Zone. Creatures in the Offence Zone can choose to either directly attack the opponent's Hero, or attack one of the opponent's creatures in the Offence Zone. If a creature attacks the opponent's Hero, then the defending player may choose a non-exhausted creature in the Defense Zone to take the hit instead, with all damage being diverted to it instead of the Hero. This cannot, however, be done to block an attack directed at a creature in the Offence Zone.

If you're interested, you can read the WiP unabridged rules here.

[flame99]

Alright, I've updated the rules document, and it should cover pretty much everything (Save the glossary; that's going to be in a state of flux until I get all the cards designed). Feel free to point out anything you think might be a loophole, or something missed by the rules.

I'll go ahead and post some of the work I've done on the setting, though it's still largely conceptual right now. Essentially, millennia ago, there was a planet-spanning massively advanced civilization, consisting of only humans. Despite their technological advancements, they never made much progress in magic. This ended up bringing about the fall of their civilization, since their attempts to learn the magical arts resulted in them accidentally summoning an Arcanum Demon, which managed to open more rifts and overwhelm them. Eventually, the Arcanum Demons either fled the Mortal Realm, or their essence dissipated, fixing the Arcanum Rifts that allowed them into the realm in the first place.

This also caused several humans to undergo dramatic mutation, charging them magically and creating the Elves, Ratmen, and Fey Races. In time, the survivor's of the Demon's attack managed to rebuild and form a new society, though most of the lore, history, culture, and technology of the Old World was lost. On occasion, the more brave or foolhardy will find and use machines, automatons, and other pieces of technology that were buried deep underground during the attack. This has largely become the domain of the Ratmen, but seeing the odd Warmachine in the hands of the Humans or Elves isn't a rare sight.

Also, a quick note on how magic works in the setting: Essentially, the world consists of two plains: The Mortal Realm, and the Arcanum Realm. The Mortal Realm is fairly self-explanatory, and it's where the events take place. The Arcanum Realm is one of absolute chaos and energy, inhabited only by the Arcanum Demons in their natural ethereal forms. Magic works by breaking the Great Barrier, which separates the two, in a certain way so that the energy can be tapped. Opening it with too small of a break results in nothing or very little happening, while opening it with too large of a break can have a number of consequences, such as having the caster being devoured by the break, summoning an Arcanum Demon (Note that this isn't intrinsically cataclysmic; most are too weak to break the Great Barrier in their physical forms, and so can't summon more demons or open Arcanum Rifts), or the caster could open an Arcanum Rift, a massive vortex which spews forth magical energy and Arcanum Demons. Only two Arcanum Rifts have been opened since the fall of the Old World; both times, the entire world was put into jeopardy, and caused the factions to form a rare alliance to defeat the Demons and seal the Rift.

EDIT: Also, I've decided on the working title Arcanum & Machina. This is likely to change at some point, but it's better than nothing.