Paragons Of Steel, Shadow, & Sorcery [I]
Lets talk Collectible Card Games, because it’s been floating around my noggin for a bit now. Collectible Card Games or Trading Card Games are card games where two or more people come together to play a card game using decks they’ve built from their collection. This means that each deck in play can be entirely unique or absolutely similar. A TCG you may have heard of is Magic: The Gathering, by Wizards Of The Coast, owned by Hasbro.
The Name Of The Game
The M:TG TCG has been around for quite a long time and has an incredible death grip like hold on the market. In fact in North America alone the estimated (total TCG) sales are above $800 million in 2008, with M:TG holding a estimated 50-80% of the market. While the list of collectible card games is indeed quite large, Magic: The Gathering has always been top dog, in the way a European Mastiff is top dog compared to Chihuahua. Other TCGs have flourished in the last decade due to the small rise in popularity among the younger generation and the aging of the previous generation. Such examples include:
- Yu-Gi-Oh, by Konami
- Pokemon, originally by Wizards Of The Coast, then by Nintendo
- World Of Warcraft CCG, by Upper Deck Entertainment
- Legend Of The Five Rings, by AEG
- Warlord, by AEG
A Little Experience
Previously I had played a significant amount of Magic: The Gathering, Warlord, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Spycraft. I had decks, I spent tremendous amounts of money on them, and I went to organized play events. For me they were a very compelling way to spend my time organizing and optimizing. It would keep my mind churning well into the night. Luckily I had two good friends, Brandon Glorioso and Joseph Rice, who helped me into the world of Magic: The Gathering. It was one of those “life long friends” situations.
What has me thinking about trading card games? Well recently another friend of mine, William Chapple, managed to toss me back into Magic: The Gathering. This time however, I had a critical eye and a few years of experience on my shoulders. My UI/UX part of my brain woke up and started over analyzing each part of the game. Not only was I instantly able to get back into the game, but I considered improvements. The life of a critic.
Analyzing From A New Perspective.
One of my favorite games was Warlord, since it had a heavy tie to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game that I had grown up on. Going over the rules again (as a refresher) I realized that a lot of the mechanics were quite spectacular in many ways, even divorced from the game. I started to then think about other TCGs I had played, like Spycraft, Legend Of The Five Rings, and this one Marvel one. I started to form the early stages of a game in my mind and talked to others about it. Here’s the bullet point I presented them with:
- Each player (min 2) has 4 cards at the start of the game. These cards are Adventurers, all level 1. They have classes and races.
- There are missions in the middle of the table that can be completed, and contested, for experience.
- Other cards include magic items, companions, beasts, and other heroes.
- Each hero is unique and has 3 tiers: Adventurer, Paragon, & Scion.
- Each hero has levels, and can be replaced with the Paragon (or scion) version of themselves after certain levels (marked by counters).
- You win when you’ve completed a number of adventurers/collected certain relics from adventures.
Of course as interest gained I managed to pump a few more ideas out, but I’ll save that for the next post. Along with graphs, diagrams, and possibly some sample work.
