(super rough concept)
Basics
I've had a concept for a game kicking around my head for a while. Basically, it's a 2-player game (30-60 minutes?) based around grid drafting. The idea is that you draft cards while playing the game. Priorities evolve based on the board state.
Each turn has two primary phases:
- draft phase (player A drafts, then player B drafts)
- play phase (player A plays, then player B plays)
Two hobos battle for control of an alleyway (read: 5-by-5 board).
Place the board between the two players. Players start with a few coins, no cards in hand, and a single creature in the center off their home row (the row of the board closest to them)
Mall Rat [some stats, to be discussed later]
Art: a rat standing behind a run-down wooden kiosk.
Rules text: At the beginning of each turn, you gain one coin.
Shuffle the deck of cards, and lay 9 of them in a 3 by 3 grid. Grid draft them. (Put the chosen cards into that player's hand, discard the rest). Enter the play phase. Whoever drafted first this turn plays first.
The play phase isn't super defined yet, but basically, I guess, kind of Hearthstony? (correct me if I'm wrong). You can play as many things as you can pay for. There would be some hand limit you have to discard down to. You play spells, move creatures and activate abilities in any order, then pass the turn. Once both players have done their turn, combat damage is assigned.
The card.
Each card is a square with a border around it. The top third has some art, and the bottom third some rules text.
Cost: coin cost to cast the spell, given in coins, between the art and the rules box.
Toughness: a number indicating how much damage a card can take before it's removed from the board.
Basic attacks: Creatures can potentially attack in 8 different directions. Mall rat, a basic creature, can only attack in front of it. There would be a damage icon with a (1) on the top center of the card, indicating it can do one damage to a creature or item in front of it. (damage is cumulative, uses damage counters)
Movement: In the rules text box, any movement abilities the creature has. Many creatures can't move. Some take money to be encouraged to move.
e.g.
: <-, -> or (rotate 90 degrees)
Placement
Unless stated otherwise, cards can be placed in a row containing a friendly unit, or in one of the 8 spaces surrounding a friendly unit. Units can be placed facing any direction.
Winning the Game
Uh... I don't really have this one figured out yet. Originally I thought there could be draftable win-conditions. Or maybe creatures on the opponent's side of the board can attack the opposing player's life-total. Maybe a mix.
E.g.
Bus Ticket [50 coins]
Take a bus out of town. You win the game.
Still trying to work this out.
The Dumpster
Cards discarded or removed from the board are placed in the dumpster. Cards in the dumpster are face-down. Many cards have this ability:
Dumpster Dive X:
Shuffle the dumpster, then look at the top X cards. Put one of these into your hand, and the rest back into the dumpster.
How to create dependencies
One of the most interesting things about Grid Drafting is that different players want different things. A card has more value to one player than another. This can be done mechanically (e.g. whenever you scry, do x.... or Humans you control get +1/+1...) or through something like color requirements.
I've been thinking about, what if creatures had different colors, and you have something like...
Dragonfly (a fly that kind of looks like a dragon)
Prerequisite: control 2 red permanents
or
Gold Digger [cost, 1 coin]
You cannot cast Gold Digger unless you have 20 or more coins.
Some rules text.
or
Snapcat [2 coins, 1 toughness, 1 attack front-center]
You may play Snapcat to any open square on the board. At the end of each turn, return Snapcat to your hand. (basically an alley-cat that serves as a re-usable burn spell. more effective on the turns where you go second, as the opponent can't set up to kill it)
Then you'd have different types of creatures. Spiders can rotate, some can tether (pull an object towards it)
Assorted
The would also be random inanimate objects like: a barrel fire, or "one-shot" items like a runaway shopping cart that deals damage to all creatures in a given column, or a skateboard that can give movement abilities to a creature that couldn't otherwise move. Economy cards, build-arounds, acts of god.
Ideally the game would be a good mix of strategic and tactical, with different kind of sub-strategies you could draft towards.
Basics
I've had a concept for a game kicking around my head for a while. Basically, it's a 2-player game (30-60 minutes?) based around grid drafting. The idea is that you draft cards while playing the game. Priorities evolve based on the board state.
Each turn has two primary phases:
- draft phase (player A drafts, then player B drafts)
- play phase (player A plays, then player B plays)
Two hobos battle for control of an alleyway (read: 5-by-5 board).
Place the board between the two players. Players start with a few coins, no cards in hand, and a single creature in the center off their home row (the row of the board closest to them)
Mall Rat [some stats, to be discussed later]
Art: a rat standing behind a run-down wooden kiosk.
Rules text: At the beginning of each turn, you gain one coin.
Shuffle the deck of cards, and lay 9 of them in a 3 by 3 grid. Grid draft them. (Put the chosen cards into that player's hand, discard the rest). Enter the play phase. Whoever drafted first this turn plays first.
The play phase isn't super defined yet, but basically, I guess, kind of Hearthstony? (correct me if I'm wrong). You can play as many things as you can pay for. There would be some hand limit you have to discard down to. You play spells, move creatures and activate abilities in any order, then pass the turn. Once both players have done their turn, combat damage is assigned.
The card.
Each card is a square with a border around it. The top third has some art, and the bottom third some rules text.
Cost: coin cost to cast the spell, given in coins, between the art and the rules box.
Toughness: a number indicating how much damage a card can take before it's removed from the board.
Basic attacks: Creatures can potentially attack in 8 different directions. Mall rat, a basic creature, can only attack in front of it. There would be a damage icon with a (1) on the top center of the card, indicating it can do one damage to a creature or item in front of it. (damage is cumulative, uses damage counters)
Movement: In the rules text box, any movement abilities the creature has. Many creatures can't move. Some take money to be encouraged to move.
e.g.
: <-, -> or (rotate 90 degrees)Placement
Unless stated otherwise, cards can be placed in a row containing a friendly unit, or in one of the 8 spaces surrounding a friendly unit. Units can be placed facing any direction.
Winning the Game
Uh... I don't really have this one figured out yet. Originally I thought there could be draftable win-conditions. Or maybe creatures on the opponent's side of the board can attack the opposing player's life-total. Maybe a mix.
E.g.
Bus Ticket [50 coins]
Take a bus out of town. You win the game.
Still trying to work this out.
The Dumpster
Cards discarded or removed from the board are placed in the dumpster. Cards in the dumpster are face-down. Many cards have this ability:
Dumpster Dive X:
Shuffle the dumpster, then look at the top X cards. Put one of these into your hand, and the rest back into the dumpster.
How to create dependencies
One of the most interesting things about Grid Drafting is that different players want different things. A card has more value to one player than another. This can be done mechanically (e.g. whenever you scry, do x.... or Humans you control get +1/+1...) or through something like color requirements.
I've been thinking about, what if creatures had different colors, and you have something like...
Dragonfly (a fly that kind of looks like a dragon)
Prerequisite: control 2 red permanents
or
Gold Digger [cost, 1 coin]
You cannot cast Gold Digger unless you have 20 or more coins.
Some rules text.
or
Snapcat [2 coins, 1 toughness, 1 attack front-center]
You may play Snapcat to any open square on the board. At the end of each turn, return Snapcat to your hand. (basically an alley-cat that serves as a re-usable burn spell. more effective on the turns where you go second, as the opponent can't set up to kill it)
Then you'd have different types of creatures. Spiders can rotate, some can tether (pull an object towards it)
Assorted
The would also be random inanimate objects like: a barrel fire, or "one-shot" items like a runaway shopping cart that deals damage to all creatures in a given column, or a skateboard that can give movement abilities to a creature that couldn't otherwise move. Economy cards, build-arounds, acts of god.
Ideally the game would be a good mix of strategic and tactical, with different kind of sub-strategies you could draft towards.