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Thursday 19 July 2012

PBeM website

I've started creating a new website for Nine Worlds as a PBeM. I hope to create different versions of 9W over the years - ideally to eventually appear as a physical board game.

For now, I am returning to my roots and running a little PBeM for fun. Join us on Facebook or the website and get involved.

Sunday 22 January 2012

Card stats

A number of attributes and stats have been name-dropped in previous articles. Here, I will attempt to consolidate them all into an example card.

Everyone's favourite card - a creature.

Creatures fall into two categories:
  • Minion
  • Warrior
Minions are support creatures. They are tend to be terrible in combat, although they can enter a fight. Their abilities provide bonuses or options outside the combat of the game, such as additional element gathering and spell casting.

Warriors are destined for combat.

Each creature has statistics:
  • Attack
  • Defence
  • Endurance
  • Health
  • Speed
Attack is the offensive capability of the creature in combat. This is compared to enemy defence values when attempting to deal damage. Each fire token on a creature increases its attack by 1 point.

Defence is the resistance a creature has in combat. This can simply be armour or perhaps a high prowess to avoid or parry an attack. Defence is compared to an attacker's attack value when calculating damage. Each frost token on a creature increases its defence by 1 point. If a creature has both fire and frost tokens, it suffers 1 point loss of speed per 'paired' tokens.

Endurance is a barrier against fatigue. A creature can resist fatigue points up to its endurance value. Any point above this value is added to the damage total during combat to check exhaustion.

Health is a creatures ability to absorb fatigue and damage. If a creature is dealt damage (plus fatigue > endurance) totalling equal or more than its health, it s exhausted and turned on its side.

Speed determines how fast a creature can act. Faster creatures fight first in combat and can avoid certain abilities.

List of attributes to date:
  • Champion: may fight in a challenge.
  • Multi-attack (x): may perform up to x additional attacks during a cycle of combat.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Combat calculation

Within the combat procedure, a number of quick calculations take place.

First, the cards act in order of speed. The fastest card performs its first attack. This is calculated by comparing its attack value to the targeted defending card's defence value. Not all cards are able to hurt others, but by simply being involved in the fight, the enemy has to exert itself to overcome you, thus exhausting itself.
  • If the attack value is greater, a point of damage is applied.
  • If the values are the same, the slow combatant is at advantage. This means if you are attacking a card that has yet to perform, it is not hit. If you are attacking a card that has already performed, it is hit.
  • If the attack value is lower, no damage is applied.
In all cases, a point of fatigue is added to the attacker and defender, unless the defender has 0 defence value.

This process is repeated for each card in order of speed until all cards have acted once. Any cards with abilities, such as multi-attack, can attack again afterwards, within the same cycle. Defenders do not gain fatigue points for additional attacks made against them.

If any card has a total fatigue plus damage count higher than its health, then it is exhausted, turned on its side and removed from combat.

This concludes a cycle of combat. If both sides wish to remain in combat and there's at least 1 card active on both sides, morale is checked.

Morale simply decides if both sides are willing to continue fighting - irrespective of the player's decision.

To check morale, count the number of exhausts on each side. The player with more exhausts is subject to the check. Total the total difference between exhausts, add 1 to the total if the player~(s) have humility, or deduct 1 if they player(s) have pride. If this total exceeds the number of cards remaining in the fight on that player's side, they must withdraw.


Friday 20 January 2012

Card combat system

Nine Worlds runs combat by way of exhaustion rather than elimination. During combat, opposing forces fight to overwhelm each other, exhausting cards that are beaten. Combat is as much a test of endurance as it is martial prowess.

When two players/sides perform combat, the cards involved in the fight are placed together on an area of the table, facing each other. This helps separate active cards from those outside the combat.

To determine which cards are involved, the attacking player(s) first puts their cards forward. The defender(s) then responds by putting forward their defending cards. Once combatants are set, the attacking player chooses whether to fight a skirmish or pose a challenge.

In order to pose a challenge, the attacker(s) must nominate either a creature with the attribute champion or an Avatar to fight the challenge. The defending player(s) can accept or decline the challenge. If accepting, a single champion or Avatar must be nominated. If declining the challenge, a single champion or Avatar must be marked with humility.

A challenge takes place before the main combat. The two cards involved in the duel are placed face-to-face and a combat cycle is performed between them. The winner of the duel is marked with pride.

Combat procedure
The defender(s) chooses to place their cards against the attacking cards. More than one card may defend against an attacking card, but any attacking card left without a defender can then be assigned against a defender. Ganging-up works both ways.

Once all cards are placed in such a way that they can fight, a combat cycle is performed.

A combat cycle involves a single run of calculations. Each grouping of cards is addressed once per cycle. Each card can receive temporary exhaustion during combat, falling into two subsets: fatigue and damage.

  • Fatigue is applied when a card attacks. Some cards can attack multiple times within a cycle, each applying fatigue.
  • Damage is applied when a card is successfully hit.
If a card receives a combined fatigue and damage total that meets or exceed its health, it is exhausted. The card is turned on its side and removed from combat.

Combat cycles are repeated until one side withdraws or has exhausted all its cards. Challenges are only ever fought once, before main combat.

Combat attack calculation will receive its own article, as it is likely to evolve as it is tested.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Elements, tokens, creatures

Element tokens are a measure of power. The tokens are obtained through spells, conquest, events, sacrifice and gathering. There are four elements, as described here.

When element tokens are gained, they are placed in front of the owning player in a pool. They can be spent directly from this pool to empower cards.

In the Replenish phase of a turn, the active player can return tokens to their pool that have been placed on other cards. After this, they may be distributed again. This process can be performed every turn, but only in the Replenish phase.

What tokens actually do is defined, uniquely, on each card if relevant. Element tokens can be placed on a card if it has no effect listed on the card, as it will gain a default bonus regardless.

Default bonuses for element tokens on creatures:

Fire tokens focus the aggression of a creature. The creature's attack is increased by the number of fire tokens placed on it.

Air tokens increase the speed of a creature by one point per token.

Rain tokens can absorb damage dealt to a creature. Each token removed can prevent a point of damage.

Frost tokens increase the resilience of a creature. The creature's deference is increased by the number of frost tokens placed on it.

When an element token is spent, it is removed from play, not returned to a player's pool.


Wednesday 18 January 2012

Cards costs and empowering

All cards are free to place into the void. However, when they resolve, certain costs and requirements must be adhered to if present on the card.

Empower is an attribute that allows a resolving card to be boosted. To empower a card, one or more element tokens can be placed onto the card. This may increase the damage of a spell, or increase the strength of a warrior as it enters play.

Sacrifice allows existing creatures to be killed in order to boost a resolving card. For example, a summoning ritual may allow stronger elementals to come into play if creatures are sacrificed to boost the ritual.

Replace requires a certain card to already be in play. If a suitable card is available to replace, that card is spent. For an example, an existing village is required in order to play a town or an occupied village. Some replace cards override the spent effect of the replaced card. In the above examples, a town card may return a village card to its owners hand if it is empowered.





Tuesday 17 January 2012

How do I play cards and use decks?

As an introduction to this topic, check out the elements, card type and play procedure topics first.

To recap:

Most of the objects involved in Nine Worlds are cards. Some other props are required to record values and primaries - counters, dice and models are perfect for this. Whatever players are happy to make us of. The emphasis of the game is on the cards.

Cards that are not in play start in a deck. Decks placed on the table are referred to as libraries. Players do not own or control libraries, they are common pools of cards that can be drawn from by any player when a procedure allows it.

There are several types of card, with each super-type belonging in its own library. Some libraries are used at game creation and then removed, such as the Avatars. Others remain in the game for its duration - everything else.

Libraries can be interacted with in a few ways:
  • Draw one or more cards: each time a card is drawn, the top card of the pile is taken by the player.
  • Search for a card: Pick up the library and look through it for the desired card. Then shuffle the library.
  • Shuffle library.
  • Place into library: Place the card(s) on top / on the bottom of the library, as specified.
  • Shuffle into library: Place the card(s) on top of the library and then shuffle the library.
Cards can exist in other places:
  • A player's hand is one or more cards held by the player, hidden from other players. They are not in-play, but can be drawn from when allowed to play a card.
  • A world (or realm) is part of the play area that permanent cards are placed into. Cards in play areas can be interacted with, although various restrictions apply, such as the requirement to be in the same world (of which there may be up to nine!).
  • The void, or Ginnungagap, is a temporary place that cards are placed when attempting to play them. This area is used to allow other players to respond to the play attempt. Once the card is resolved, it is taken from the void and put into play.
As such, cards have a number of states:
  • In a library
  • In a hand
  • Within the void
  • In play
  • Spent
Spent cards are those that have expired, been destroyed, or a one-off effect that's concluded. Spent cards are placed next to their parent library, face-up and are shuffled into the library when no more cards can be drawn from it (empty).

Some spent cards override this procedure and will be placed somewhere else, such as certain creatures that are instead placed in Hel or Valhalla when killed.

Playing cards
To play a card, it is either taken from a player's hand and placed into the void, or is drawn from a library and placed into the void. When in the void, the card is usually placed face-up (there are exceptions) for all players to see.

Once placed in the void, initiative is temporarily given to another player, to whoever is sat clockwise from the active player. That player may chose to respond and play a single card into the void, potentially targeting cards in the void, as long as the card has the attribute: fast.

Once the player with initiative either passes or has played a card, the cycle is repeated until the active player regains initiative. The active player may then play one further card before resolving the void.

Each card played into the void must be placed on top of the previous card. When cards have stopped being played, each card in the void pile is resolved one at a time, from the most recent to the first played.

Monday 16 January 2012

Game procedures and goal

Caveat: I am approaching topics quite randomly, depending on what I feel like posting on the day, so apologies if I jump out of sequence.

So I've gone into vague detail about some of the elements and features of the game, but you may be wondering "How do I play?" and "What is the goal of the game?". That is today's topic.

Playing Nine Worlds follows a common sequence not unlike many other card games.

Each player has a turn in which he will replenish his existing cards in play, draw one ore more cards, perform some actions, play cards and then conclude his turn. These procedures will be detailed in later articles, but here's a few concepts to begin with:

Upon game creation, a starting player is randomly determined, unless you are playing a special scenario that insists otherwise.

The starting player has Initiative. They may also referred to as the Active player, but there is an important difference. Another player will not become the active player until the previous player concludes his turn, but players can steal the initiative temporarily. Some cards and abilities can be used to gain initiative and thus perform another action. Upon resolving that action, the active player regains initiative.

When a player becomes the active player, or the game begins, that player performs his turn, in a number of phases:

1. Replenish
2. Gather
2. Action
4. Conclude

Note that Gather and Action are both marked sequence 2. They can be performed in any order, but Replenish is always first and Conclude is always last.

A summary of phases

Replenish
Replenish is the first phase of a turn. This phase refreshes all cards and elements a player control, before continuing with the turn to perform new actions.

Gather
The Gather phase allows a player to obtain new cards, new elements and other objects.

Action
The Action phase is used to play cards and abilities on existing cards in play.

Conclude
The final phase of a turn is Conclude. This phase cleans up any effects that only last for the duration.

These will all be discussed in much more detail in further posts.

What is the goal of the game?
Norse mythology, like many others, deals with cyclic destruction and resurrection. Armageddon, the battle of the end times.

In Nine Worlds, Ragnarok is the end of the world, followed its rebirth. At its most basic, this mirrors the end of the game, followed by the start of a new one. The goal of every player is to survive or circumvent Ragnarok. Only one player can win the game, so preventing the final battle is only worthwhile if you have a means to remove your opponents instead.

Nine Worlds is set in a more advanced culture than the typical Norse environment. Ragnarok is long overdue, surpressed by the Svartálfar, whom are a major antagonist to the players. These dark dwarves wield terrible magics and technology that is said to rival the gods and titans.

Sunday 15 January 2012

A look into the cards of Nine Worlds

Nine Worlds can be broken down into a number of objects: cards, counters, miniatures.

Most things are present in the game as a card. All cards are organised into a number of categories, defined by the back of the card. Each card back has its own deck pile during the game - they should not be mixed. Card backs may have additional symbols to mark which expansion they are from, but they should still be placed into a deck with same-type, ignoring the expansion symbol.

The card categories are:
  • Avatar
  • Event
  • Instance
Avatars represent a player in the game. He is the leader, master, saviour or fool of your realm. Avatars are, like most things, cards. Avatar cards have their own backs and sit in their own deck when not in use.
Once selected, your Avatar can not be changed for the duration of the game. Depending on the game type, it may be chosen or generated randomly. Your Avatar is placed face-up in your play area during the game. It should never leave your play area, unless you lose the game.

Events occur when the season changes. Upon season change, the active player draws a card from the Event deck. Event sub-types include:
  • Rituals are retained by the drawing player, who may play it later in the game.
If a Ritual card is drawn, the player retains the card, placing it into their hand.

Generic Event cards are placed in view of all players when drawn. Once all players are aware of the event, the event's procedure is followed.

Instances are drawn when an avatar enters a site, but can also be drawn through other means, such as the procedure of an event. The player draws one card from Instance deck and reviews the card. Instance sub-types include:
  • Encounter
  • Creature
  • Site
If the card is an Encounter, the player must place the card in view of all players to see and then follow the encounter's procedure.
Site and Creature cards are retained by the player, placed into their hand.

Creatures
With the exception of Avatars, all created beings are creatures. Creature cards can be brought into play through many means - summoning, recruitment, encounters, events.

Saturday 14 January 2012

The Nine Worlds' elemental theme

The Nine Worlds are part of Norse mythology, with each world being the habitat of a certain species and flavour. Our world, that is the realm of mankind, is the world of Midgard - 'middle enclosure', the centre of of it all.

The Nine World game works on this idea, each world is a place that hosts its own adventures and danger, offering a variety of obstacles to overcome and allies to befriend. Certain species and items are empowered in their home realms.

The Norse influence continues. Primary elements feature heavily in Norse mythology. In fact the universe is a constant balance between the primordial fire and ice of Muspell and Niflheim respectively. The clashing of these elemental realms provides an eternal cycle of life and destruction. They also inspire the basic elements of the game:
  • Frost
  • Rain
  • Wind
  • Fire
You will notice the classic element, Earth, absent from the list. This is intentional as the Earth is a solid place, making up many of the worlds. The four elements are manipulative elements, used to shape and control the Earth, rather than directly controlling the Earth itself.
  • Frost chills Earth, preventing life from growing.
  • Rain shapes the earth, helps life flourish and provides habitat to some species in bodies of water.
  • Wind helps spread life and can be a catalyst for good or bad.
  • Fire scorches earth, destroying life and can melt Frost.
Some elements overpower others when equally applied:

Frost > Rain
Rain > Fire
Fire > Frost
Wind can both hamper or augment Fire.

Elements affect the game in a number of ways. Schools of magic revolve around the elements, primordial beings are comprised of the elements, seasons strengthen and weaken the elements, but most importantly, many cards belong to one or more element.

Cards can trace their source to one or more elements. In the absence of an element present on a card, it is assumed to be drawn from Earth. The elements shown on a card mark it as a potential target (or exception) from effects. For example, a card may deal extra damage to cards of a elemental Frost nature. Another card may be empowered by every Fire card in play. Another may only be able to affect cards of a Rain nature, and so on.

Friday 13 January 2012

Game Concept for Nine Worlds

Before I begin defining what I have planned for Nine Worlds, there's a little preface to how I got here.

After further research and an attempt to normalise the sheer quantity of ideas I've been trying to squeeze into 9W, I am going to split the project into halves. I don't intend to develop both simultaneously, but would like to pick up latter half in the future to pursue those ideas.

I've been toying with 2 game types as a hybrid, but feel the overall composition of it all will be too unwieldy. Games require a certain simplicity to make them accessible, repayable and versatile. I admit, I struggle to keep it simple!

So that I'm not talking in vagueness throughout, here's a synopsis of the '2 games'.

There are two major ideas I wanted to incorporate into the game, which I now think clash.

The first is a dynamic map. A hex map built from tiles. The map would grow by placing of tiles, first at game creation and then as players explore and events happen. This should create a unique map to play on every game and invites a very strategic board game with physical locations, positions and movement. This would be boosted by counters, props, miniatures et al.

The second is a 'living card game' style system. Several types of card exist, covering topics such as magic, items, creatures, events, characters. Players draw from each deck at game start and continually through out the game as they gain awards, discover items, recruit troops and so on.

The problem here is two distinct game platforms to play on. A card system that covers all manner of items and a physical map with its own props. I think this builds too much complexity, and inevitably cost, to put into a single game.

My heart is set on the Nine Worlds theme foremost and I have chosen the card game over the hex-map game for now. It feels like a burden has been lifted by dropping that idea!

So, how will nine worlds work? That's my next topic.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Nine Worlds as a Living Card Game (LCG)

I'll have to check with Fantasy Flight Games whether I can use that term should the game reach finality.

What is a Living Card Game? The concept is adapted from Collectable Card Game - which is a game played using cards. Those cards are purchased, generally in non-fixed and often random packages. New expansions bring new cards and rules to the game. A LCG changes this formula by providing a definite set of purchasable cards, with similarly fixed expansions. Essentially, there's less emphasis on purchasing to collect them all, as you can acquire complete set in a single purchase.

Why LCG over CCG? Simply, I don't want to create another CCG. There's a lot out there. They are very good, I play them and I can't see room for competition outside of piggy-backing a franchise. I want Nine Worlds to be a complete set, with any potential expansions being whole sets too.

Perhaps, if I am successful, I will be audacious enough to define my own acronym!


Wednesday 11 January 2012

New direction

Having failed to bring the Nine Worlds online game to a playable state (which I attribute to lack of interest from all parties), I am making use of the ideas and theme for a board game. I love designing games, so much that I seem to jump to designing a new game before I actually bring anything to a testing stage. This leads to a whole lot of concepts on paper, but nothing that can be played!

I particularly love board games because they are very social and can allow several players to participate. Being a wargamer, I often only enjoy 1-on-1 battles. A boardgame allows a much wider scope, a campaign in one sitting. A never passes by without me having some thoughts towards creating something I can play. Perhaps the fantasy I create in my mind is the appeal, feeding my appetite, but I lack the stomach to see it through.

That is my challenge. A challenge I have set and want to see through - a playable game. I am determined and have set my goal - bringing a demo to the Games Expo in 2013. Let's see how it goes.