First of all, I'm kinda new to this, so if the game seems like it's less role-play and more TCG-based, don't hesitate to tell me.

I'm trying to build a game similar to Arkham Horror, the Call of Cthulu tabletop game. However, I'm trying to flip around the mechanics. The goal is to kill everyone else's Hero and have yours be the last one alive. Here's how the game starts...

Each player draws a Hero card randomly from all of the Hero cards. Each Hero is an example of a clasic Dungeons and Dragons class and race. For example, a human Paladin, an elven Wizard, and a halfling Rogue. There are 11 Hero cards I'm working on now, and I don't think I'll make more than 20. Each Hero has Life Points and Mana Points; Heroes without spells have Endurance points. Heroes also have statistics like their Combat score, Defense, and any special abilities. They are also ranked from 1 to 11, 1 being the weakest, and 11 being the strongest. Each player then gets a 20-card deck called the Hero Deck, there is a unique deck for each hero.

Next, each player randomly selects 40 cards from the Villain pile. Each type of villain card has a specific color background, so you can choose what kind you want, but not the specific cards themselves. The player with the Hero with the lowest Value chooses first, then the next lowest, and so on.

Villain cards are divided into 6 kinds, Necrotic, Bestial, Demonic, Aberrant, Mercenary, and Trap. There are 60 cards for each category.

Now, the character with the lowest Hero value randomly selects the first Dungeon Location, and the game begins.

Each player draws 3 cards each turn. They can be any combination of cards from his Hero and Villain decks. The player with the lowest Hero value goes first, playing a card from his hand. Play continues clockwise until all players pass their turns.

There are 2 types of most Villain cards. Monsters are creatures that try to kill characters in the partly. You can only play monsters on your turn. You assign each one to a Hero; that is who they fight. In the combat phase, they attack the Hero and he attacks them back, until one side or the other is dead. Necrotic creatures are usually undead and they specialize in coming back from the dead to continue attacking players, Bestial types are, well, beasts that fight with sheer strength, Demonic types are demons and other evil outsiders and flame creatures that are aggressive but not very defensive, Aberrant types are your classic Lovecraftian tentacle-covered gibbering monstrosities with sanity-destroying powers, and Mercenary monsters are "normal" people and human-like races with standard attacks. Trap cards don't have monsters in them.

Effect cards try to indirectly weaken Heroes or strengthen Monsters. necrotic effects generally resurrect weak Necrotic monsters and reduce a Hero's Combat values, Bestial effects usually increase the Combat or Defense values of their own monsters, Demonic cards generally do direct Life Point damage, Aberrant cards generally do direct Mana or Endurance damage, and Trap cards do a variety of functions, usually messing with the Location. Mercenary cards have no Effects in them.

Dungeon Location cards change every turn. Each location has an effect that boosts certain Villain cards. For example, the Sunken Tomb location raises the combat pool of all Undead-type monsters to a minimum of 3. The Dark Doorway might make all Aberrant monsters have +1 Combat and all Bestial monsters have -1 Defense. Using Traps and other cards to change the location can be a devastating bonus to your own side. I'm planning out making 36 different locations, 6 for each Villain type.

Hero cards you draw from the Hero deck function like Effects. Each one is generally unique to a hero, and it gives them a definite boost in a fight. For example, the Paladin's Turn Undead card lets him destroy an undead with less Defense than his Combat score, while the Wizard's Fireball card lets her deal significant damage to all enemies facing her. Generally, these are few and far between, since you only have 20, and you only draw 3 total card per turn.

I've referenced Combat and Defense scores a lot, so this is how they work: you roll a six-sided die (d6) and add your score to that. When you are attacking an enemy, you roll Combat and he rolls Defense, and vice versa. Scores for monsters range from 0 to 5, on heroes, they are usually ranked 2 to 7. In a combat phase, Monsters always attack first, then the Hero. There is only one exchange of attacks each round. If a Hero beast a monster's defense, the monster is destroyed. If a monster beast a Hero's defense, the Hero take 1 point of Life point damage. Aberrant creatures generally deal Mana or Endurance points instead, and some Necrotic effects deal that kind of damage too.

Basically, Heroes start out pretty strong, but they take damage more and more over time as the odds are stacked against them. The goal of the game is to balance attacking other people's Heroes while defending your own. It's also a social game, since you can form alliances to take out the weaker (or stronger) players.

What do you think?

Chronologist

I like the idea, but I think you're right about the TCG-bias. In fact, I'm not seeing how role-playing fits into the scheme of play. Can you clarify how, or even if it does?

Sorry about the ambiguity, I probably should have specified what I was looking for.

The game is, in the below format, designed for single-session adventuring. A short, 1 to 2 hour long dungeon crawl of sorts. The game format, like Arkham Horror, is not designed for long-term play. I'm looking for help in devising a way of increasing the power of Hero and Villain cards. I honestly have no idea how to do this, so I'm seeing if the Forge community has any ideas.

Seriously, any ideas would help. If no-one can figure out how to make this into a long-term RPG, then I'll keep it in its TCG format.

Thanks for the post,

Chronology

Chronologist wrote: Seriously, any ideas would help. If no-one can figure out how to make this into a long-term RPG, then I'll keep it in its TCG format.

Chronologist wrote:
Seriously, any ideas would help. If no-one can figure out how to make this into a long-term RPG, then I'll keep it in its TCG format.

The Wyld Hunt sounds pretty cool, but I'm more looking for a casual, one-time session game. That Arcadia game sounds like it's more for the long haul.

I haven't gone to Storygames yet, what is it? (I apologize in advance for my ignorance).

Mostly, it's supposed to be a fun, chaotic game you could finish in about 2 hours or less, something to do before or after a normal RPG session. I have no desire for an extended play system.

Chronology

Story-games is a forum-based hobby site like the Forge dedicated to discussing RPGs, particularly "story oriented" games, play and design.

Like many CCGs, Arcadia: the Wyld Hunt was actually designed for single session play (the campaign play we preferred was actually an optional method of play).

Each player would devise a hero according to a set number of points, then purchase merits and abilities using those points, or purchasing a couple of flaws to gain some extra points to play with. Two or more players could go head to head with 10pt characters for a quick game, 15pt characters for a medium length game, 20pts for a long game, etc. Each player would choose a simple quest that might be "visit X number of lands", "kill a number of opponent's worth a total of X points", or "steal X number of items from your opponents", completing that quest would earn you victory points, in addition to gaining points from meeting challenges that were hidden around the land that you explore. Games would continue until one of the players reached a number of points equal to the point score indicated at the start of play...(ie. the first of the 20pt characters to reach 20 victory points is considered the winner).

I realise that I might sound like I'm harping on about this game, when there might be a lot of other potential options around, but I think it was a highly under-rated game that deserved a better run. If I remember correctly, it also ran off a simple system of d6+stat versus d6+difficulty (or d6+stat vs d6+stat when players went head to head). Challenges would have specific stats that needed to be used in order for confrontation to occur, physical, mental or social...(you might need mental to evade a random trap that gets revealed, you might need social to convince a travelling merchant to give you an item, etc.)

Some advantages would give you stat bonus in certain circumstances, or when facing specific types of enemies.

You can probably start to see why your ideas are reminding me of that game.

Not exactly the same, but certainly enough that it's worth looking at things that game got right or wrong...

I'll stop my rant now, and let you get back to your own game design... :)

V

Arcadia: The Wyld Hunt sounds great, actually. I just have a couple of questions:

1. Is the game quick to set up and play? I want a game that can start up in less that 10 minutes,

2. Are the players usually playing against the field or other players? I definitely want a game where players try to kill each other in addition to questing.

3. Does it require a lot of cards? My game has about 360 Villain cards in 6 piles, plus 220 Hero cards in 11 piles, and the 11 Heroes themselves (probably 4 by 6 inches). I figure, with nearly 600 cards, every game will be very different than the last, so there's practically no need for expansions, plus, since they all have different backs, they won't be that difficult to sort after the game. It seems like the Wyld Hunt requires a LOT of packs of cards, and I'm trying for a simpler approach. Is there a "core" set I can find, one that doesn't require any expansion cards?

4. Where can I buy it?

Chronology

Cronologist:

Essentially, what you have described is a sort of mashup of Hero Quest and old-style Illuminati (before the TCG). Is that about right?

Chronologist wrote:
1. Is the game quick to set up and play? I want a game that can start up in less that 10 minutes,

2. Are the players usually playing against the field or other players? I definitely want a game where players try to kill each other in addition to questing.

3. Does it require a lot of cards? My game has about 360 Villain cards in 6 piles, plus 220 Hero cards in 11 piles, and the 11 Heroes themselves (probably 4 by 6 inches). I figure, with nearly 600 cards, every game will be very different than the last, so there's practically no need for expansions, plus, since they all have different backs, they won't be that difficult to sort after the game. It seems like the Wyld Hunt requires a LOT of packs of cards, and I'm trying for a simpler approach. Is there a "core" set I can find, one that doesn't require any expansion cards?

4. Where can I buy it?

Thanks for all of your support, I think I'm going to just tinker with it for a while. It certainly isn't ready for playtesting yet. Thank you again for your opinions and the reference to Arcadia, I'll try and find some of those cards.