The Dungeon of 1000 Blank White Cards

[mutex]

So, to kind of spur myself out of some writer's block, I put together this quick hack as a kind of tribute to an old board game version of D&D (Blue Box :D) a buddy of mine whipped up when we were kids.

The Dungeon of 1000 Blank White Cards

This is a game idea I had recently, based on the game 1000 Blank White Cards.  As this is really just a kind of quick sketch, I ripped off the 1kBWC Wikipedia entry quite liberally.

The Dungeon of 1000 Blank White Cards is a party game played with cards in which the deck is created as part of the game. Since the bulk of the rules are contained on the cards (rather than existing as all-encompassing rules or in a rule book), The Dungeon of 1000 Blank White Cards can be considered a sort of nomic, but not quite as much as 1000 Blank White Cards, as it pays traditional RPG dues. It is intended to be played with 3-6 players. The cards used are usually unlined index cards or simply sheets of A7 sized paper.  tDo1kBWC adds a handful of funny dice, fuzzy dice, coins, yarrow sticks or whatever randomizer a given card requests.

Contents

    * 1 Game
          o 1.1 Deck creation
          o 1.2 Play
          o 1.3 Epilogue
    * 2 Structure of a card
         o 2.1 Rooms
         o 2.2 Characters
         o 2.3 Equipment & Spells
         o 2.4 Treasures
         o 2.5 Monsters & Traps
    * 3 Suggested rules
    * 4 History


Deck creation

Though cards are created at all times throughout the game (except the epilogue), it is necessary to start with at least some cards pre-made. Depending on the desired duration of the game, a deck of 80 to 150 cards is usual, and of these approximately half will be created before the start of play. If a group doesn't already possess a partial deck they may choose to start with fewer cards and to create most of the deck during play.

Whether or not the group possesses a deck already (from previous games), they will usually want to add a few more cards, so the first phase of the game involves each player creating six or seven new cards to add to the deck. See structure of a card below.

When the deck is ready, all of the cards (including blanks, but excluding characters) are shuffled together and each player is dealt five cards. The remainder of the deck is placed in the centre of the table.

The character cards are shuffled separately, and each player randomly selects one.

Play

Play proceeds clockwise beginning with the player on the dealer's left. On each player's turn, he draws a card from the central deck and then plays a card from his hand.
He can then move one space in a valid direction (e.g., if a room has one door leading out of it, the player has to use the door...  unless he has a spell that would give him the ability to pass through the wall).

Cards can be played in different ways:

Rooms are laid down on the table adjacent to existing rooms so the doors/tunnels match up.
Characters are chosen before the game by each player, so they are not considered.
Equipment & Spells can be played on any valid target according to its description.  These cards are discarded after one use unless otherwise specified.
Treasures can be played on a room tile that has a picture of treasure drawn on it that has not yet had a treasure card played on it.  One treasure card per picture of treasure.  If the room has a picture of a treasure chest, play your treasure card face-down.
Monsters can be played on a room tile with a picture of a monster that has not yet had a monster card played on it.  They can also be played wherever a room has a doorway that opens up into "empty space"
Traps can be played on a room tile that has a picture of a trap or a picture of a treasure chest that has not yet had a trap card played on it.  Play the trap card face-down.

Cards with lasting effects, such as awarding gold or changing the game's rules, are kept on the table to remind players of those effects. Cards with no lasting effects, or cards that have been nullified, are placed in a discard pile.

Blank cards can be made into playable cards at any time simply by drawing on them (see structure of a card).

Play continues until there are no cards left in the central deck and no-one can play (for example because they have no cards that can be played in the current situation). The winner is the player with the most gold at the end of the game.

Epilogue

Since the cards created in any game may be used as the beginning of a deck for a future game, many players like to reduce the deck to a collection of their favourites. The epilogue is simply an opportunity for the players to collectively decide which cards to keep and which to discard.

Structure of a card

At its simplest, a card consists (usually) of a title, a picture and a description of its effect. The title should uniquely identify the card. The picture can be as simple as a stick figure, or as complex as the player likes. The description, or rule, is the part that affects the game. It can award or deny points, cause a player to miss a turn, change the direction of play, or do anything the player can think of. The rules written on cards in play make up the majority of the game's total ruleset.

The Dungeon of 1000 Blank White Cards introduces the following categories to constrain gameplay:

Rooms:  The entire card face is a drawing of the room.  Any doors or tunnels out are drawn to touch the edges.  Players can add drawings of treasure, monsters, traps.
Characters: This card consists of a drawing of the player character, their strength number, and a description of their special ability.
Equipment & Spells:  This card consists of a drawing of the equipment or spell and a description of its effect.
Treasures: This card consists of a drawing of the treasure and its gold value.
Monsters: This card consists of a drawing of the monster, its strength number, and a description of their special ability.
Traps:  This card consists of a drawing of the trap, its strength number, and a description of its effect.

Suggested rules:

Basic Die Resolution:  In the most basic contest, e.g. fighting a monster, roll 1D6 + strength for each side.  Highest wins, ties reroll.  Bonuses for weapons or enchantments or whatever.  Loser loses one strength point, then the turn ends.

Everyone draws up to 5 cards at the end of his/her turn. Whenever anyone gets a card, they always want to read it and this slows the game down. Also, this lets people who play a lot of cards (for whatever reason) get back up to 5 instead of having to stay with fewer than 5 for the rest of the game

History

The game 1000 Blank White Cards was originally created by Nathan McQuillan of Madison, Wisconsin.

This is just a quick hack based on that game.

[mutex]

So, my idea is that the main difference between games and play is meaningful constraint.  The rules inform both the direction and purpose.  So, there is a meaningful difference between LARPing, improv theatre, and playing in a sandbox.

My question here is that given a situation like this game or the card game on which it is based, "Can this be a real game?"  I mean everyone in the game could make unbeatable monsters or equipment.  They could give themselves huge amounts of gold.  The only real restraints are social contract and the fact that your opponents can all do the same thing.  Even worse, if you create a powerful monster and put it in the deck, your opponent could draw it and use it against you.

So, assuming this is a PvP game bordering on Nar, is the mechanical constraint in this game meaningful enough to make the game fair?  Is the social constraint enough?

[Adam Dray]

Aren't you just asking, Does System Matter?  Yes, it does.

Is social contract enough to make game play "fair" in a Gamist context? I don't think the question is meaningful. Where are the player's tools to Step On Up without constraint? Isn't Gamist "fairness" a function of structure? Fairness requires that every player be treated equally. I think the game does this (since every player has the same options) but it seems that the first player to draw has a great advantage if he can throw anything he wants at a competing player. There's not really any challenge in that, though, so it doesn't seem Gamist to me. It's freeform with game design bolted onto the gameplay. Without sufficient System, I don't see how your game can support any Creative Agenda.

[mutex]

Cool, excellent.

Um, one "suggested rule" I was considering was that the blank white cards be distributed evenly, and anyone could create new cards with them, but the cards they created went to a pile that got shuffled up after the main deck had, um, "expired".  That way, anyone can create any kind of card, but they run the risk of their opponent taking advantage of it too much if it's too powerful.

Anyway, thanks for the response.  I'm feeling a little less rusty now.  Will try to come up with something new :D

[daMoose_Neo]

I would almost suggest:

A) A point value- you earn points through play (GP?) that are used to make the cards
B) Make the cards first, THEN shuffle and play.

[mutex]

A) A point value- you earn points through play (GP?) that are used to make the cards

I was thinking about "charging" for the number of words used to make the card, vaguely similar to the way spells are created in Donjon.

B) Make the cards first, THEN shuffle and play.

Yeah.  The only problem with that would be the initial long handling time.  So, for that approach, it'd be more like everyone makes their cards well in advance, like starting a week before the game session.  Or have one game session dedicated to making the cards, and the next dedicated to playing.  Not entirely satisfactory either way, but the game is more of a thought-experiment, anyway.

[daMoose_Neo]

I've still got a card/Nar RP system on the back burner (Look around for "Hunters: The Lost Colonies", some old posts floating about), and the best way to regulate things I'm looking at are either

A) Room cards defining how many "items" of one type or another are allowed, and take turns on placing them or
B) A typical point cost system, this time earning them by allowing difficult things to happen to the heroes to allow the players to introduce cool things.

If you had some pre-made rooms and then had the players design that content on the fly based on restrictions within the room, that may satisfy the needs somewhat.