SW/LotR Design - The Adventure Path.

[menace64]

To start, let me say that I'm actually kind of happy that sites won the last vote. Sites are only partially developed in my mind, and getting it taken care of now will open up a lot of design space as I progress through this project.

So what have I come up with so far?

Unlike their SWCCG counterparts, locations in the LotR TCG engine are under a broader scope, which is to say that most sites are planets. Rather than hone in on places like the Dune Sea, Mos Eisley, or the infamous Cantina, I will try incorporating all the flavor of the planet into a single card. By no means will this be easy, and I foresee slow-going through site design. (As a quick aside, some of the more "major" locales from the Star Wars mythology will likely be sites - the Death Star II throne room, for example.)

Site keywords will also be getting an overhaul. Not only will there be more site keywords here than in LotR TCG, but some of them may take on loaded abilities, and many cards throughout other cultures will rely on specific site keywords on the current site (take, for instance, the Creature culture to debut later).

Obviously, designing a site will be an evolutionary process - I know in advance that my first take on a given card will be far-off from its finished form. That's why reviews will be more important here than in any other aspect of this design. If you think a site doesn't encapsulate the planet it's representing, let me know first, then offer a suggestion second. I think sites are going to wind up being more of a group effort.

Let's go ahead and get started... with a planet everybody here will be familiar with.

Tatooine
Outer. Desert. The twilight cost of each card played at Tatooine is +1 (except cards with the desert habitat).

Oooh! Now there's a few things here that warrant an explanation. Hehe.

Originally, I was going to base the twilight cost of sites off of their respective planets' proximity to the center of the galaxy. But I knew off the bat that doing so would tip the scale of balance within game text. I tried my hand at something different and came to this: Outer, Inner, and Core. One of these three keywords is found on every site, and collectively these keywords are called 'rims'. Quite simply, if you move from one rim to another rim, you add an extra to the twilight pool. Moving from Tatooine to, say, Coruscant, will cost you a little extra! Rim movement cost is in addition to the normal region costs, along with any other movement costs.

And then we come to habitats. Habitat keywords show up on cards like this: "Habitat:Desert", and generally find themselves only on characters. Further, the majority of habitat keywords fall into the Creature culture - a collection of the various bugs, beetles, and carnivorous man-eaters in the galaxy. There's nothing loaded with habitat keywords, but you can bet safely that a character with a habitat keyword will rack up some other sweet bonuses for being at his/her/its habitat.

What do you think?

[Thranduil]

My problem with the outer/inner/core mechanic is that it changes the whole balance of the game by adding twilight and never removing. Could you perhaps have something like:

• Moving to the Outer rim adds
• Moving to the Inner rim adds
• Moving to the Core removes

Or moving to an adjacent rim adds nothing, moving to the opposite rim adds and moving to the same removes ?

Thranduil

[Elessar's Socks]

- Any ideas on how to incorporate on-planet locales? Reason I'm bringing it up now is because they might affect site text, perhaps to the point of rendering some unnecessary.

- Maybe more divisions can be added like the Mid Rim and the Unknown Regions, depending on your plans for them. Speaking of, perhaps use a keyword other than "rim," since the Core isn't a proper rim?

- Creating more than one version of a site could make the distillation process easier and open up some more gameplay. In that case subtitles could be added to set them apart.

[sickofpalantirs]

now if you had 5 divisions, Thrans idea would be useful....that would work quite well I think.

[menace64]

I'll work the 'rim' keywords through my head a bit more. What I want more than faithfulness to the galaxy map is simpler gameplay. What I don't want is "moving to x site adds , moving from [y] site removes , moving from [z] site to [a] site adds , etc.". I think finding a better name for 'rim' and then making Core, Mid, Outer, Wild, and some better term for 'Unknown'.

In the meantime, here's a site that provides a bit of a preview for what's in store for the Mandalorian culture.

Manda'yaim
Outer. Forest. Each time your minion wins a skirmish, you may make another minion strength +2 until the end of that minion's skirmish.

Manda'yaim is the local name for the planet Mandalore. Since Mandalore is also a character name, I went with this more archaic title to differentiate between the two. I'm not going to divulge too much into how this site will work with Mandalorians, but keep in mind two things: First, that Mandalorians live or die from their strength in a skirmish (more-so than any other culture, LotR or SW-LotR); and Second, that Manda'yaim is the capital of the Mandalorian people.

[sickofpalantirs]

forest? otherwise seems fine...

[Elessar's Socks]

Manda'yaim
Outer. Forest. Each time your minion wins a skirmish, you may make another minion strength +2 until the end of that minion's skirmish.

Oya! Kandosii!

Looked through the other cards using "until the end of that skirmish" and "that skirmish" has always conveniently referred to the current one. So if a fierce minion receives this bonus after its first skirmish has already ended, do you intend for the bonus to carry over to the second? (I believe Decipher had to clarify a similar situation with the RoR being worn during the regroup phase, noting when to take it off.) Or would "until the regroup phase" be overpowered?

Fits with their culture. They're going to be crazy at skirmishing.

[DáinIronfoot]

Looks good to me, dude.

[menace64]

Well, it's good to get thumbs up reviews  .

Onto the next site!

Kessel
Outer. Each time you discard a card from hand, you may draw a card (limit once per phase).

Being a barren wasteland of a small, difficult-to-reach planetoid, Kessel has no 'terrain' keywords that most other sites sport. As such, no card will ever get a habitat bonus from being at Kessel (with the exception of the energy spider). Beyond that, I think Kessel is a solid mining site, geared to reward any player who digs deep enough into the rocky surface. I put the cost at because I'm pretty sure the Dark Side could abuse this site more than the Light Side player.

[MR. Lurtzy]

Needs a limit (discarding during the archery phase!) of maybe 2 or 3. Looks good!

[menace64]

Yeah, but how best should that kind of wording be written? "Limit once per phase"? Hmm. lol. Well that worked easy enough. Does that sound good?

[MR. Lurtzy]

Yes, that sounds about right.

[menace64]

Okay, so these are a lot less difficult than I thought at first. I'll be posting more than 1 each update.

Here's another two.

Fondor
Core. Urban. At the start of the regroup phase, each player may discard 2 cards from hand to play a starship from his or her discard pile.

Fondor is, like Kuat, a massive ship-construction depot. Fondor worked on many projects, but is most-famous for its secret handling of the project to built Vader's enormous super star destroyer, the Executor.

Yavin IV
Outer. Forest. When the alliance moves to Yavin IV, add for each Dark Side culture.

I like the simplicity of this site, and how well it ties into the storyline of A New Hope. Yavin IV is hidden from the Empire, which is represented by the cost. But if you have too many 'eyes' looking at you, you're bound to get followed to the base and wiped out.

[Thranduil]

Fondor
Core. Urban. At the start of the regroup phase, each player may discard 2 cards from hand to play a starship from his or her discard pile.

Regroup recursion is always dangerous (Steadfast Champion and Keeper of the Watchwood, Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor and Leaving forever etc.) At the start of the regroup phase, it's probably fine.

Yavin IV
Outer. Forest. When the alliance moves to Yavin IV, add for each Dark Side culture.

Nice one!

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

botha re great! its nice to see menace making SW DC"s again. gold to you.