I'm thinking about 3 stats. Hit Point, Action Point and Attack. HP is for survive, AP is for spending a card cost (Recover every turn) and ATK for damage.
This is how I planned, will post more if I'm more free.
Sorry for my absence, got caught up in other projects and kinda lost interest in this for awhile.
Anyway, I have some more proposed rules that came about after talking to Airtew, and him showing me a really cool super hero card game that for the life of me I can't remember the name of.
One thing we discussed was having two decks, a Player deck, and a Enemy deck.
Player decks will be comprised of 41 cards, including the Character Card, which will be kept on the table. The 40 other cards will be action and item cards. Decks may be customized as a player wishes and can be used to create your own character, or you can use a preset deck like Airtew's Aika character deck.
There are no rules for what action/item cards you can put into a deck, so if you want you could make a completely overpowered deck, but wheres the challenge in that.
Enemy decks will 60 cards (+15 for each additional player) 2/3rds of which will be minion cards, minion cards can be anything from lowly cannon fodder henchwomen, to elite mech-warriors, so choose wisely what sort of foes you want to face. The other 1/3rd will be event cards, these cards simulate various tactics used by the enemy. or situations that occur during a battle.
Below is a character card sample, in this case the character being a simple minion.
All character cards will look and work the same way, and here is a general breakdown of a character card.
Name: Self explanatory, all players/boss characters should have a name. Minions with personalized names are optional. Role: There are 3 general roles a character will fall into, Player, Boss, or Minion. Minions will have 3 sub-roles though, Minion (cannon fodder), Special Minions (Minions with certain rules or benefits that give them an edge over your simple minion), and Elite Minions (Think sub-bosses, these minions should be used sparingly) Hitpoints: How much damage a character can take before being defeated, Players knocked to 0 hitpoints are still technically in the game, but can take no action until they regain hitpoints, but if their knocked below 0 hitpoints, then they have fought their last battle. Bosses knocked to 0 hitpoints are considered unconscious, and if they are not able to regain health in 3 rounds, then the players have won the game. Bosses knocked to -1 or below are instantly defeated. Minions reduced to 0 hitpoints or less are placed in the discard pile at the end of the round, and are reshuffled into the enemy deck when need be. Attack: Mostly reserved for enemy characters, as player attacks will depend on what card they are using. This is the amount of hitpoint damage a player takes during the Minion Phase. In multiplayer games, when a minion is drawn, it must be assigned to one player, and during every Minion Phase inflict whatever number of damage they do to their assigned player. (Note: Players may attack enemies not assigned to them) Bosses in singleplayer games follow the same rules as minions, but in multiplayer games Bosses may be fought two ways, the player group may fight him/her together, in which case damage will be split evenly, or a player may have them assigned to them, leaving his/her comrades a chance to take out other enemies or buy enough time for a strong attack.
(Ex. Combat Maid is assigned to player 1, and inflicts 3 points of damage to him every minion phase) Defense: Again mostly used for enemies, as player's attack and defense will be dictated by what cards they use. Defense is the amount of damage negated, and both bosses and minions follow the same rules for defense.
(Ex. Combat Maid is hit by Player 1's Throat Kick attack, dealing 3 damage. Because Combat Maid has 0 defense, she is reduced to 0 hitpoints, knocking her unconscious. If she had 1 defense, the attack would have only done 2 points of damage, allowing her to fight another round.) Special Abilities: Players will generally have 1 or 2 special abilities/rules that will either benefit or hinder them, or what item(s) they can use in any given turn . For enemies, this section will show what weapon they use, which should look like WEAPON NAME (DAMAGE TYPE) (MELEE OR RANGED) ex. Sub-Machine Gun (Ballistics) (Ranged). Bosses should generally have at least one special ability to spice up a game, along with minions that are meant to represent stronger foes. Flavor Text: Have fun with this, use to give a short little description of a character,action,item, etc. Maybe put a little narrative with an action, or a quick summary of a minion. Whatever you want. This is optional.
Also, I'm having a bit of trouble with posting decks as an attachment, so any help on what I'm messing up on would be appreciated.
Hello all,
I recently decided to give this thread another look, and now I'm finding the idea of a zako-themed card game pretty interesting!
I agree with the general direction this is going, but I do have some thoughts and observations that might be worth discussing.
1. Stats:
How many do we really want/need? Too many might make the game overly complicated, and too few would make it simplistic and boring. I think the three stats NNin proposed (Hit Point, Action Points, and Attack) would work well, along with the "Special Abilities" that Servi proposed. That way each character/boss/minion will have hit points, a base attack, action points (for using special cards), and default special abilities they can use even without drawing special cards.
However, I don't think having defense as a separate stat would be a good idea, because having a high defense would make a character completely invincible against certain enemies. Alternately, defense could be reduced by attacks (just like hit points) instead of reducing the amount of damage each attack does, but then why not just give a "defensive" character a higher number of hit points?
If armor is included as a special item, it would probably need to work the same way (absorbing a certain amount of damage before failing rather than reducing damage from all attacks, or else low-attack minions would be completely worthless against armored characters).
2. I like the idea of different decks for different characters, as well as different themed decks for different antagonists, complete with their own minions, bosses, and events. This seems to add a lot of variety and replayability to the game.
3. Dead vs Unconscious vs Messy Death: I like Servi's idea of basing the fate of minions/characters on how far below zero their hitpoints fall...but I think it might need some tweaking. For example, consider if we have a character "Hercules" with a base attack of 2 due to his strong and brutal punches. If he is facing a bunch of minions with 3 hit points each, he will end up killing all of them even if he wants to just knock some of them unconscious (2 attacks = 2+2 = 4, leaving each minion with -1 hitpoints, which is "clean kill" in Servi's proposal). Then, let's say "Hercules" picks up a sword that gives him a base attack of 3. Now he can knock out all of the minions with 3 hit points instead of killing them (seems strange since he now has a more lethal weapon than before). But let's say he now fights some minions with 4 hitpoints...now all of these minions will survive his first attack only to suffer a "messy death" from his second attack. Hercules cannot do a knockout or a clean kill on these minions!
I think this could be fixed by adjusting the fates based on hit points (perhaps 0 to -1 would be knocked out, -2 to -3 would be clean kill, -4 to -5 would be messy kill, etc). Or perhaps characters/minions could choose to "hold back" during an attack to only inflict a portion of the damage if they so choose. Or perhaps both?
4. I like Stuelpner_Karl's idea of including cards for defeated minions, even if they serve no purpose in-game. However, it would be even cooler if there were some in-game purpose to those cards. For example, characters could search a defeated minion as a standard action, or, if the minion is just unconscious rather than killed, characters could try to heal the minion just to the point of consciousness and then interrogate them as a standard action.
Or, if navigation were to become part of the game (as if it were played on a game board), then the defeated minion cards could become useful in other ways. Lost in the villain's base and need to find your way out? Just follow the trail of defeated minions! Need to avoid getting caught? Hide the defeated minions somewhere they won't be found. Need a distraction? Put the defeated minions somewhere they will be found!
Ok, the navigation/game board stuff is kind of random from the top of my head, and it might overly complicate things, but it could be an interesting optional addition.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, because it has become more and more interesting! Hopefully I can present some sample cards of my own soon.
Maybe it's too big? Or the format isn't supported? I once had some problems with big file and some file types as well.
In my planned system, I will give normal minion only 0-1 Action Point, so they can't use much of action card.
Though I think Servi's simple way of control zako is good, just leave them there and they will do their action every turn. This won't leave us with too much info to track.
If more skilled zako can defense, maybe we can have an action card that can be used only with elite zako.
Ok, I threw these together using Magic Set Editor. I'm afraid that's the only card editing software I know how to use right now.
This would be for a Double Dragon themed deck. Most of these illustrations are from the manual of the NES version of Double Dragon.
The number at the top right would be action points. On the bottom right, the first number would be attack, and the second number would be hit points. I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but this is a first attempt.
First, some hero characters and a few attack cards for them:
Next, some minions. Obviously the "Linda" zako are the main focus here, and I included several different artworks of the "Linda" zako. But to keep the feel of Double Dragon I included some male baddies and kept the bosses as males also. Might change that later on.
Some special attacks and events for the baddies, of course focusing again on the "Linda" zako:
And last but not least, the baddie boss. I guess a story line could be that he and Abobo and a few of the "Williams" types are defending an illegal operation from Billy and Jimmy, and they are using a large contingent of "Linda" zakos as cannon fodder to keep the heroes off their trail.
I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but like I said, Magic Set Editor is the only card software I'm familiar with.
I found that you had to put it into a zip file to upload it to the site directly. It won't take the deck format.
Also, NNin and I were discussing the game and came up with the idea of having waves of enemies or working out levels. It has been a while since we talked though so I can't remember the specifics.
If anyone finishes a game design and can gather the assets (IE. the card art / game rule text + any flavor text) I can do the actual card designs and release in .pdf formats. No need for card editor software.
Hey guys we need some more organization here. This is what I am suggesting:
1) Everyone picks a side scroller hero and builds that hero's card plus 1-? cards unique for that hero.
2) Everyone builds 2-? minion cards and a few event cards for them
3) Everyone builds 1 boss, mini-boss, or elite minion card
We divide this into teams.
Ponyexpress if you would like to make a template based on what we have come up with so far that would be good. NNin you said your friend would be willing to do more petal art for a deck so she could assist in the graphics department. Cards should aim for some semblance of balance at least. Kimblis, NNin, Servi, I and anyone with cards they would like to see should submit individual card ideas to compare and contrast.
I like this, I think we'll get more done this way.
I can do minion cards, I was working on a minion deck centered around this guys comic series on Pixiv ?????????????????[pixiv(????)] that I'll post when I'm done.
I'll also post some miscellaneous enemy cards I was working on too on the side. Some need so reworking for balance, but I figure I'll just post it if anyone is interested. View attachment Assorted Minions Pack.zip
Well, I'm back working on this. I've spent a good year playing a lot of different tabletop games, so I wanted to reopen this idea, and have been toying with some ideas.
Here is what I've got so far:
Combat will be very simple and quick.
All characters (Heroes, Minions, Bosses, etc.) all go in a initiative order, and roll to attack based on their to hit number. So for example, if a hero's to hit roll was 4, he would need to roll a 4 or higher on their attack to hit.
If they are able to hit a target, you must then roll for damage and try to roll higher than the target's toughness, Player's can also choose to "Go Easy" on an enemy, and halve their damage roll.
If you roll equal to toughness, that enemy is Stunned. A stunned enemy takes no action during their next turn. Stunned enemies are often open to a lot of card attacks, such as finishers like a Neck Snap, or being used as a Human Shield. Stunned Enemies that are Stunned again, are KO'd
If you roll 1 higher than an enemy's toughness, then they are KO'd. A KO'd enemy is technically out of the game, but certain event cards can bring them back up, so some players may opt to just kill enemies, however on the other hand, a number of cards allow for players to get more points with KO'd enemies than dead ones.
If you roll 2 higher than the enemy's toughness, than she is Killed. That enemy is permanently out of the game, and goes immediately to the player's victory pile.
Rolling 3 higher is a Messy Kill, which does the same as a regular kill, but some cards will activate from more gory kills, cards like Terrify, which will stun a number of zakos after seeing on of their own getting torn/blown/slashed to bits.
Players begin by selecting a hero and building their Hero Deck
The game will have 4 decks, a player, enemy, event, and location deck.
Player Deck: Player Decks represent the "Hero" the player is controlling, and are built to the player's design based on a point system.
Here are some examples of the type of cards a Player Deck would have:
The main goal I have for the Player Deck, is to allow the player a lot of customization in their play style and taste.
Now a quick explanation on what the numbers on each card mean
The number on the top left is the cost of the card to put in your deck. You have a max of 30 cards in your deck, but you cannot exceed 20 points, hence why some cards are worth 0 points. As you would probably guess, higher point cards are more powerful and helpful than lower cost ones.
The little tags below the name are identifiers. The one on the left side states what kind of card it is (Attack/Defense/Support), the right states what kind of characters are able to use it. For example, a card that says General, can be used by anyone. But, Devour can only be used by Heroes that have the monster tag.
Enemy Deck: The Enemy Deck is comprised of the foes the heroes will fight. They are split into three groups, Minions, Bosses, and Final Bosses
Minions are the dime a dozen zakos you love, and I plan on making a number of different fan favorites, but for now I kinda stuck with stroking my ego a bit.
Minions go down very easy, and tend to do very little to the players, only being dangerous in groups. They attack as a team, so say there are 5 Pricom Thugs on the table, you would roll 5 dice for their attack.
Bosses and Final Bosses are the tougher enemies you'll fight. Unlike minions, who go down in one hit, you'll need to do 3 damage to bosses to take them down. They generally also have abilities that will hurt the players more.
Event Deck: Events are little scenarios that take place during a battle, things like a late new recruit running into battle, or maybe the cowardly zakos breaking into a desperate retreat. How they are drawn is dependent on the location
Location Deck: This deck builds the map essentially, and will basically be the games stages. Players will have to fight through 5 randomly selected locations to get to the final stage, and fight the final boss
It's really late where I'm at, and I'm really tired, so I'm sure this is really jumbled and makes no sense, but I just really wanted to get my idea out.
If anyone has any ideas or questions, I'd be more than happy to hear them. Some of these cards, like New Recruit, I need to edit a bit since I made them before I kinda remade the rules.
Servi noted me some days ago this proyect as a commission for the illustrations of the cards, and I see you have done some very fun examples using some of my pics already!
I got some similar ideas about event card and location card. Sometime there is an reinforcement for zako (event). Sometime you must fight in a stage with hazard and get a good healing item after beating everyone in the [location].
Need time to make this clearer though. Maybe I can tell you more laters.
Hey, if you have a design document or something I'd like to be able to help you out with some ideas. I'm helping a couple sets of people with other games, mainly LARPs and I have gotten a LARP rule set completely off the ground and ran it for a few sessions.
PM me if you want and I can get you my e-mail address.
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