Creating vs. Curating in Trickster


Trickster is an odd blend of tactical take-that, a sliver of push-your-luck, and a fondant icing of theme holding the whole thing together. I've been actively developing Trickster: Fantasy and several other Trickster decks for a while now. The core game is a very nice canvas on which to play all sorts of little mechanical effects.


Creating
In the development process, I brainstormed a big list of powers on this live doc. Most of those were developed in the absence of theme per se. They're mainly just shaking out the possible permutations of moving a card:
  • from (your/opponent's/anyone's/the) (hand/collection/discard/trick/deck) 
  • to (your/opponent's/anyone's/the) (hand/collection/discard/trick/deck)
Plus some miscellaneous card effects that might be fun form a purely mechanical standpoint. This was all a very rote process without much inspiring "story" behind the powers.

The strength of the Fantasy deck is that each hero's power just makes sense to most players. Of course the Mage makes cards vanish to the discard pile. Of course the Rogue sneaks in cards from one player's collection to another. Of course the Druid makes cards "grow" to double their normal size.

I don't want each Trickster deck to just be a hodgepodge of seven poorly considered card effects. I want each to be its own entirely valid set of seven mutually interactive powers, with unique emergent complexity. I expect each Trickster deck to be its own possible gateway to the entire franchise. Each should stand up to that task.

This is where curating comes in.



Curating
That's where assessing each deck's art on its own terms has been very necessary. I have to look at the art, assess the first impressions that each character gives players, and build powers around those first impressions. Let's take a look at a few characters from the Symbiosis deck. (Steve Sanders was very generous to let me use art from his world in this deck, so first I want to thank him for that.)


Playtesters first thought, absent of any other cues, was that character appears to have some remote control drone. She should be able to deliver information secretly from one place to another? That might be best mechanically represented as passing a card from one hand to another. A modified, slightly more aggressive version of the Bard's power from the Fantasy deck.

Again, in the absence of other cues, playtesters thought this little creature was some kind of speeder bike and this character was a traveler of some kind. They thought she might be good at speeding up the game a bit, emptying hands that much faster. When you play this card, you must play another legal card. That could be a tactical maneuver to force yourself to take the trick or to just empty your hand.

Things just get a little weirder from here, but it's around this point when I realize I should have a stronger emphasis on the concept of symbiosis. Perhaps other effects are modified by how many of that same character you have in your collection, Guildhall style? It's worth exploring, and might further solidify the connection between the Symbiosis universe and these cards.

But that's the difference between brainstorming and curating here. Coming up with all sorts of powers is easy enough, but cutting them down to a set of seven mutually supporting and thematically related powers is the tricky thing. It's fun, though! Certainly the most fun I've had developing a game in a long time. I look forward to sharing more. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more