Freedom City: the CCG

[Cubist]

For those who weren't already aware: 'CCG' stands for 'collectible card game'. The first, and possibly most successful, CCG is Magic: the Gathering, but there have been dozens of others as well... and it occurred to me that the Freedom City campaign might make a good CCG. So here's a thread for discussion and brainstorming on the topic!

Basic premise: Hero vs Villain, of course. With superpowers.

A fair chunk of the game-mechanics for super-powers should be directly transferrable from MnM to a CCG; attacks and defenses-against-attacks are both pretty useable, no problem. Supersenses and sensory obscurement can be implemented in terms of "if you can't see/sense it, you can't do anything to, or about, it".

Types of cards: First are Character cards. One of these defines what-all its character is capable of just because. You need at least one of these in a deck.

Next, Power cards. Each Character card has the character's powers listed on it, of course, but if you also have Power cards, you can add new powers to characters, either temporarily (see also: power stunts) or permanently.

Third type of cards, Descriptors. As per MnM, Descriptors define what sort of power a power is. Each Character card has one or two Descriptors printed on it; each Power Card includes a list of all the Descriptors which can be applied to that power. If a character doesn't have any of the Descriptors listed on a Power card, you can't give that power to that character. The reason for allowing Descriptors to have cards unto themselves is, that way you can add Descriptors to their Character cards or Power cards, and thus allow characters to make use of powers they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Descriptor cards should be rare.

4th type of card, Combat Maneuvers. THese should be common. Every Character Card has a list of Maneuvers that the character can execute at any time, just because; play a CM card, and the character can use Maneuvers that aren't listed on their card.

Lastly, DEM (Deus Ex Machina) cards. We may end up changing the name, but they're basically 'GM Fiat' cards. One of these babies can make pretty much anything happen. Some DEM cards will be more powerful than others, and as a class, DEM cards are rare in direct proportion to how powerful they are.

Game setup

Each player has their own deck, and their own discard pile.

At the start of the game, each player picks a Character card out of their deck and plays it in front of themself. Each player then shuffles their own deck and deals themselves the top seven cards of their deck as their initial hand. Whenever you play a card, you can grab the next card off the top of your deck.

[Cubist]

More ponderings and musings...

---

Every major Character card will be either a Hero or a Villain -- we don't really want anti-heroes, or people with ambiguous morality. Am inclined to think the game should allow for the possibility of a Character switching sides; this could be due to Mind Control (a Power), or Blackmail (a GM Fiat), or yada yada yada.

---

The site's House Rules thread has a post about Descriptors. They are as follows:

Very Common -- Bludgeoning Damage (Lethal + Nonlethal), Divine, EM Energy/Radiation (Electricity, Gamma Rays, Infrared, Magnetism, Microwaves, Radio Waves, X-Rays, Ultraviolet, Visible Light, etc.), Life Energy, Magic (generic/nonspecific), Piercing Damage (Lethal + Nonlethal), Slashing Damage (Lethal + Nonlethal), Technology

Common -- Ballistic Damage (Bullets, Explosions), Cold, Electricity/Lightning, Fire/Heat, Impact Damage (Falling, Knockback, Slam Attacks), Light, Mental/Psychic, Metal, Plant, Radiation (Nuclear Force, Radioactive Materials), Sonic, Water, Weather (Not Including Lightning), Wood

Uncommon -- Acid, Blessed/Celestial/Holy, Chemical, Chi/Ki, Darkness/Shadow, Demonic/Hellfire/Infernal, Dimensional, Gas (Inhaled, Skin Contact), Gravity, Grue, Iron ("Cold" / "Pure"), Magic (specific, i.e. Necromancy or whatever), Magnetism, Silver ("Pure"), Temporal/Time

I'm not sure all of these Descriptors need to be in the cardgame... but it's a good list to start making cards with, and if it turns out that some of these Descriptors just don't show up anywhere, it'll be time enough to consider trimming the deadwood off of the list.

---

Whenever you play a card from your hand, you grab a card off the top of your deck to replenish your hand. Yes, we likes the idea of burning thru our deck quickly, we does.

Discarding one's entire hand, and drawing 7 new cards, should be a valid move on your turn.

---

The actual game mechanics should be simple; ideally, there should be no need of writing stuff down, or keeping track of physical tokens, or whatever else in that general line.

---

The game should revolve around the Character cards. During setup, you should be able to just pick a Character card out of your deck and play it before you. That Character determines whether you're on the side of Good or Evil (see also: "each Character is either a Hero or else a Villain") for the duration of the game, so choose wisely and well.

Hm. That kind of setup runs the risk of their being no Villains for the Heroes to vanquish. Not sure if there should be a special rule that requires at least one person to choose a villain -- why force someone to change their mind after they've made their choice? Okay... what if you start by choosing two Character cards, one of them a Hero and the other a Villain?

[Breella]

The old Sailor Moon CCG worked in a heroes vs villains setup, each player had a set of heroes and a set of villians out at the same time and they would attack the other respectively.