Another post on the MtG system. Here's a more fleshed write-up.
I really enjoy making cards. I think I have a problem.
Rules and play SequenceUnlike other arms race games, there really is no set amount of time that each turn represents. As this Arms Race is cast as a card game, there's really no need to conceptualize it beyond that.
In the beginning of the 'game' stage, each team draws seven cards at random from their deck. If a team does not like their starting hand, they may elect to take a mulligan and draw a new hand. The first such mulligan is without price, but each mulligan without price decreases the initial hand size by one. Thus, seven cards are drawn initially, seven for the first mulligan, six for the second, five for the third, and so on.
After both sides are happy with their starting hands, a coin is flipped to determine who goes first. The coin flip decides which team starts in the research stage, and which team starts in the play phase.
During the Play Phase teams decide how to deal with any attacks declared by the other team last turn, play lands and reset cards tapped last round, and then decides what to do with their main phase. During main, any number of creature, strategy, tactic, or reaction cards may be played, as long as the team has energy to support it. As a final step in the main phase, the team declares what creatures they intend to attack with, and any tactics or strategies they intend to play after the combat step.
During the Research Phase teams decide what to add to their decks going forwards. This can be changing an existing card, adding a new effect, or creating entirely new cards. Only one thing can be done at each research phase, so be wary.
Teams will alternate between research and play phases, responding to one another's actions in the play phases, and creating new cards to tilt the game in their favor during the research phase. This alternates until one team runs out of life as a result of actions in the main phase. When a team is killed, the opposing team gets a point, and the game cycle begins at start.
Importantly, before play begins, each team gets five special phases of pure research, during which they can do two things per turn instead of one.
Expanded Rules - Play PhaseSo, this game is modeled (roughly) off MtG played in EDH format. If you have know idea what that is, I'll explain. Each team starts the game with 20 life, a hero, and a deck of cards containing creatures, effect cards, and the energy pay for the previous two. At the end of the day, your objective is to either reduce your opponent to <=0 life, or to run your opponent entirely out of cards. You do this by building up energy, throwing out more powerful critters, and countering your opponent and putting them off balance using effect cards.
Your Cards and You Let's begin with a crash course in Magic, albeit modified for this game. The first thing to consider are the cards not in play. The hand, the graveyard, and the deck. Despite not being active yet (or not being active any more, in the case of the graveyard), these sets are still important.
The hand is the set of cards that you have ready to play. Normally, the opposing team cannot see your hand, but this rule is not inviolate. During your main phase, any number of cards from your hand can be played, assuming you have enough energy to cover the costs. Energy cards are the exception to this rule, as you can only play one energy card per play phase, and you play it immediately after drawing. A hand, to the friendly party, looks like...
The graveyard is not only home to friendly creatures destroyed in combat, it's also where spent effect cards (Strategies, Tactics, and reactions) go after they've been played- unless noted otherwise. The graveyard is of note for occasions when you have effect cards that pull from the graveyard, or when effects depend on cards in the graveyard. The graveyard is not a hidden set of cards, and either side is free to peruse its contents. Take an example graveyard,
The deck has the most mystique, and is hidden to all players. It's a set of 100 cards, which are drawn from without replacement during the start of the game, and at the beginning of each play phase. If it runs out, that player loses. The following is an example deck,
87 Cards Remain
Pristine Deck Composition:
Commander
Aki, Chief of the Secret Police
Creatures
Hired Thugs x10
Police Sniper x5
Police Lieutenant x3
Robotic Officer x5
Reactions
Weapon Scan X10
Hired Assassin x5
Tactics
Field Interrogation x5
Tap the Mind x5
Sanctioned Raid x10
Strategy
Crush the Sparks x2
Energy
20 Slum
20 Metropolis
Now, for cards in play, three are also (nicely) three major sets to contend with. The sideboard, the resource pool, and the active creatures and effects. All of these sets are publicly visible at all times. There are no secrets once a card is in play.
The sideboard, for EDH, is a solitary place. Primarily, it's for keeping your commander, a special creature card which defines your deck, when that card is not active. It's also used for storing exiled cards. Which are cards that aren't in play, but haven't been destroyed, and thus exist in bizarre limbo.
Commander
Exiled Cards The resource pool is the set of all resource cards you have available to you. Its sole job is to tell you how much of what you have available at any one time. As such, I don't really include the graphics for each card, since that just makes bookkeeping a bother.
The active creatures and effects is the set of all creatures that are actively in play, all of the effects currently attached to those creatures, and any other cards with lasting effects. If a creature card is depicted small, that means that it is currently tapped, and cannot block or attack. Cards untap at the beginning of your turn, right after you would play a resource card.
What to Do When It's Your TurnShort version, for reference.
- Resolve Enemy Attacks
- Draw a Card
- Untap all cards, unless specified otherwise
- Play an additional land
- Play effect cards
- Plan reactions and attack
When your turn comes up, there's one thing you need to take care of before you get to actually enter your main phase, and that's resolving the opposing team's attacks. Your opponent will likely have finished their turn by attacking you with one or more creatures, and thus you will need to use your own creatures or reaction cards to defend yourself. It's important to remember that this phase is still your opponent's turn, so you can't use strategies or tactics, only reactions and creatures already in play (unless the creature's text says otherwise). Every creature you control can block only one enemy creature (unless specified otherwise on the card's text), but multiple creatures can block the same attacker. Using a creature to block does not cause it to tap. I'll discuss the nitty gritty of combat in a bit, but any unblocked creature will go on to deal damage equal to its power directly to your health.
After that's dealt with, and you're still alive, the real fun starts. A new card will have been added to your hand, all your tapped cards (resources and creatures) will be untapped, and you're free to plan the assault of your own.
The last bit is the important part, and it's the biggest change from MtG. In Magic, instant cards can be used on a rapid basis as players react to situations emerging, and the effects of sorceries can be resolved one by one. Not so here. If you play tactics, they will activate in the order you declare, but you won't be able to tell, in real time, exactly what they do. Likewise, if you think it likely the enemy will use a certain tactic and want to counter it with a reaction, you can't do that as the card is played. Instead, you have to plan your turn as a block, laying in a sequence of actions and reactions for your turn.
Most every non-energy card has an associated cost, shown in the upper right. That cost is the number of resource cards you have to tap in order to bring that card into play. A colored dot indicates that a specific kind of energy is required, and multiple colored dots indicate that multiple specific energies must be tapped. A grey circle with a number inside just denotes an energy cost to pay that can be drawn from any kind of energy. So, from the above example of a sideboard, Aki takes one white, one black, and two of any energy in order to be brought into play. Energy cards that are tapped will remain tapped and unusable until the beginning of your next turn.
A special caveat to creatures brought into play: Unless a creature's text says otherwise, or another card gives them haste, a creature cannot attack immediately after being brought in. They can defend against the next attack, but they have to wait a turn to attack.
Again, differing from standard MtG, you cannot designate non-instant (non-reaction) effect cards to resolve after combat. This is limiting, but primarily in place to prevent turn planning from becoming a complete and utter mess, since the resolution of combat is done on the opposing team's turn. Thus, the last event of any given turn will be attacking with creatures.
In order to attack at all, you need at least one untapped creature card. For our example, we're going to have the two active card boards below.
Creatures
Strategies[None]
We have three creatures, nicely untapped, to our enemy's two- with one tapped. We can choose to attack with any number of them, but it's important to understand how damage and toughness works. When two creatures engage, they deal damage to one another equal to their power (the first number on their X/Y in the lower right)
simultaneously, unless dictated otherwise by their card. If damage would reduce a card's toughness to 0 or below, that card is destroyed. Thus, we attack with our police lieutenant (2/2), the enemy can block with their brawler (3/1), and both cards will be destroyed. Unless we're trying to force a trade, it's smarter to attack with the Hired Thugs (1/1), which are much less valuable troops, but can still kill the brawler. Of course, the enemy can simply opt not to block, choosing to tank the measly one damage in exchange for keeping their front line alive. As explained below in keywords, the
Slick modifier basically replaces flying from MtG, and means that the creature can't be blocked except by other creatures with slick- so we can attack with impunity with our police sniper, since the Freelancer is tapped and the Brawler isn't Slick.
After each card attacks, it's moved to the graveyard if destroyed, or tapped if it survived combat. Tapped cards cannot be used for your next blocking phase, which makes attacking a careful decision. An all-out assault leaves you vulnerable, but failing to pressure your foe enough gives them time to gather their forces. For example, if we choose to attack with our hired thugs and our police sniper, we can potentially deal 4 damage, if the enemy chooses not to block. However, then next round the enemy can attack with both the Freelancer (which can't be blocked since our sniper will be tapped), and the Brawler. That either forces us to block with the Lieutenant (losing a good card) and take 2 damage, or preserve the lieutenant and take five damage instead. Either way, the trade is ambiguous, which is why you should endeavor to use your reaction cards to put contingencies in place. For example, you can use the Gun Scan card to either safely use the Lieutenant as a blocker, or to attack with her and not fear destruction.
Expanded Rules - Play PhaseThe research phase has two important components, making/modifying cards, and hot-swapping those cards into your deck.
Making and modifying cards works almost like a normal arms race. Making a new card is a simple as coming up with a name (and giving me an image if you're feeling nice), and brainstorming what you want it to do. In general, you can be pretty specific about what you want-
except for cost and rarity. Cost and rarity are my control factors, so you can't really specify those directly when making a new card.
Xenomorph RushColor: Green
ArtType: Tactic
Effect: Creatures with the Xenomorph descriptor gain +2/+2 and trample until end of turn.
Flavor Text: KEKEKEKEKE!
Armored WalkerColor: White
ArtType: Creature, Construct, Mech
Effect: Armored I: Comes into play with an armor token. If the Armored Walker would be moved into the graveyard, remove the token and regenerate Armored Walker.
P/T: 2/4
Flavor Text: "You know what we call infantry? Crunchies."
If you're strictly modifying cards, then all you have to do is give them the same name as an existing card, and you can be a bit more vague about what you want the modification to do. You can even try for things like cheaper and less rare, though cheapening will always by very difficult to do unless you reduce the card in some way- or unless it was a shitty card to begin with. If you increase the power/effect of a card, or an add an ability to a creature, you will likely incur at least a cost bump, if not a rarity bump. Because of this, there a certain rules for when you can and cannot modify a card.
- You CANNOT modify a card that is in play
- You CANNOT modify a card that is in exile
- You CAN modify a card that is in your graveyard, BUT it will be the unmodified version if it is raised from your graveyard.
- You CAN modify a card that is in your hand
Now, this ties in somewhat with the second big part of the research phase. Hot-swapping. Each research phase, you can make one one-to-many swap into your deck. That is, you can take one name of card, and replace any number of existing cards in your deck with that card as long as you don't exceed the new card's rarity limit. There is a limitation to this, however. Only unknown cards can be replaced. If you have peeked at the top X cards of your deck, none of the cards you know about can be replaced in this manner.
Rolling, whether for a modification or a new card, is down using a single normalized d6. Low and High rolls are both fairly rare, and their impact is fairly minor. This is primarily a game about tactics and deck building, not trying to get a couple of OP cards.
Result 1: Card is worse than desired, effects may be weakened, rarity increased, cost bumped, etc. [6.25% Chance]
Result 2: Card is a bit worse than desired, particularly if ambitious. [18.75%]
Result 3: Card will function (mostly) as written, at normal cost. [25% chance]
Result 4: Card will function (mostly) as written, at normal cost. [25% chance]
Result 5: Card may be slightly better than expected, particularly if ambitious. [18.75%]
Result 6: Card is better than expected. [6.25% Chance]
DefinitionsCommander: A deck defining card, kept on the sideboard when not in play. The commander can always be played from the sideboard (for its modified cost), and can always be moved back to the sideboard (though this counts as killing it). Despite being a creature, the commander cannot actually be killed. Destroying the commander merely sends it back to sideboard, and increases its cost by 2 colorless energy.
Strategies: If you've played MtG, strategies are enchantments. Strategies, once played, stay in play and have some kind of effect until canceled by another Tactic or Reaction. Enchantments can not have triggers attached.
Tactics: If you've played MtG, tactics are sorceries. They're one-shot abilities that resolve immediately unless countered by an enemy reaction. Once played, they go into your graveyard. That can get complicated. Like Enchantments, sorceries cannot have triggers attached.
Reactions: If you've played MtG, reactions are sorta-instants. They're one-shots, like sorceries, but have the important caveat that you can set them to play only under certain circumstances. For instance, if X creature would be killed, or if the opposing team plays a damaging sorcery.
Boilerplate from the other arms race games, pretty much. At this point I'm not sure who I'm copying; ES or Sensei. There will be a winning side, and there will be a losing side, but one shouldn't get too worked up about which is you. It's a game. Winning is fun. These are the Dwarf Fortress forums. Losing is Fun.
Take it in stride, be chill, and keep to the rules.
1. Don't be salty! If you are salty, please strip butt-naked and throw yourself into an animal pasture. That salt can be very necessary in their diet, and it will save local farmers money. If at any time you find yourself having an urge to mouth off at another player, step away from the keyboard, go outside, and take a breath. Seriously. Players who repeatedly get angry or passive aggressive will be asked to leave. If you have an issue with the way the game is being run, DO NOT expect a tantrum to get you what you want.
2. Keep in mind that I am a magic veteran, winner of 278 annual tournaments, Hero of the Multiverse, and am personally a planeswalker defending Earth. There will be no mistakes, and if you think you've seen a mistake I will react with mocking derision if you bring it up. If some card is unbalanced, I might consider changing it if you bring it up once -AND ONLY ONCE- and politely state your argument. However, I will err on the side of consistency with my own game, I do not like to go back and change things. Sometimes it is more important to simply keep the game running smoothly than other concerns. That, and your pitiful whining only serves to make my god-complex boner harder.
3. You may accuse me of being biased. I won't care. If you don't want to play because you think I'm biased, that's okay too. I'll do my best to remain objective, but it's possible I'll have a mid-turn aneurysm and write up a truly horrific card. I acknowledge this, and will try to keep it to a minimum. See the rule above about politely stating an argument. Just bear in mind that it's quite possible I won't respond. Like any good Christian, I aspire to be like God, and that means being a strangely absent father at the best of times.
4. Do not spy on the other team's private thread. Trust me, playing fair is more fun for everyone! If you suffer from a lack of self-control and cannot stop yourself from spying, keep it to yourself. Do not use it to metagame. And do not post what you saw in the central thread.
Violations of the rules may lead to me PUNCHING YOU IN THE MOTHERFUCKING SOUL.
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Topic: Arms Race/Design Bureau Hub/General OOC (Got a Discord Channel now) (Read 110868 times)