Here is the list of cards for Virtual Set #1 (V1) so far decided, along with some notes. The notes will hopefully be updated as we fill out more of the details of the set.
Code Card NotesV1*R01
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring not too universal that it makes others obsolete
V1GA02
Gandalf, The Grey Wizard flagship character
V1DW03
Gimli, Dwarf of Erebor V1RO04
Sigewulf, Brave Volunteer or Aldor valiant companions and/or
discard
V1GF05
Days Growing Dark discarding Sméagol
V1SH06
Fearing the Worst fighting Hobbits?
V1EL07
Lightfootedness something for the Náith?
V1GO08
Strength of Kings unbound rangers or knights? (RotK)
V1WA09
The Witch-King, Deathless Lord flagship character
V1MO10
Goblin Archer archery and/or corruption
V1RA11
Desert Lancers Southron site control
V1IS12
Alive and Unspoiled search cards and/or corruption
V1SA13
The Weight of a LegacyV1DU14
Leaping Blaze discard? playing during skirmish phase?
V1GS15
Master Broke His PromiseBEAR IN MIND that this list is unlikely to remain completely unchanged. It may be that for individual card design reasons, or whole set design reasons that the list will have to be modified. I'm just making this clear now so that it isn't a problem when it happens.
GoalsVirtual Set #1 aims to:
• Make new cards aimed at different deck-types, formats and players
• Fill out old and lacking strategies
• Get old cards out of the boxes and trade folders and into decks
• "Upgrade" older cards to modern design standards, but in no way to replace those cards
The Rules of Virtual DesignA couple of things are worth mentioning here, just to be super clear. There are some things we can change and some things we can't. First, what we
can change:
• Attributes
(strength, vitality etc.)• Game text
• Lore text
(though this may cause legal issues, which we'll have to know about)• Collector's info
(the virtual version is a different card, so has different rarity (V) and other collector's info)Now, what we
can't change:
• Title or sub-title
• Twilight cost
• Culture
• Picture
• Template
And this is what I think we
shouldn't change in the 1st set:
• Type and sub-type
• Type/sub-type bar
(eg. artifact --> possession or vice versa)So we are making cards that:
• connect in flavour to the card's title and culture
• work for balance with the given twilight cost
• fulfil the aims set out above
A note on rarity: Rarity is only an issue insofar as availability of the physical card matters. So we can probably make virtual cards of rares slightly higher on the power curve because they'll be marginally less available. But nevertheless, we have to both be aware that the V rarity should both feel different and interesting as well as not be too much of a problem that normally a collectible card game fixes by availability, because anyone is free to download and use as many V cards as they like.
Set Themes & TitleThis is of course completely up for debate. I think a theme will be useful in narrowing down our card designs (as Mark Rosewater would say: "Restrictions breed creativity"), and a title could be useful in advertising the appeal of the set. As I mentioned in the other thread, I like picking out the idea of Gandalf vs. the Witch-King, which led in my mind to the idea of resistance vs. corruption. With that in mind, I think a nice title/tagline would be Light & Shadow, or something similar. We should think about this further in this thread, I think.
The ProcessThis is how I envisage this design process working.
• We will deal with, as much as possible, 1 card at a time. From the experience of trying to deal with too many cards at once with too many people, it becomes very confusing and very difficult to keep up. Someone on the Dream Team will update the thread title to keep track of which card we are talking about at any given time.
• Perhaps let's try and follow the following order:
1) Take suggestions for the card's text/flavour/any other notes
2) Comment on the suggestions, and PLAY WITH THEM! More notes about this below.
3) Refine the submitted cards and take another round of suggestions and comments
4) Vote on the final competing versions, if necessary
5) Move onto the next card and repeat.
• Playtesting is basically the most valuable thing we can all do when designing cards: unless you play with them, you have no idea whether they are fun, good, useless or annoying. You may have an inkling, but the only true test is to playtest, playtest, playtest. Maybe we'll try to make some draft slips and distribute them amongst the team (only), then play against each other. Get as many people as you possibly can to play against the cards we're designing, and play as many games as you can possibly fit in. I can't reiterate how completely VITAL this is! Try the cards individually as well as with other V cards as we go on. During this stage of design, we're not so worried about the card rules or power level, but the design value of how they play.
• If at any point we end up having individual designs that conflict with holistic design issues, then we may have to go back and refine an older card. We should probably do this at the end, once we've gone through all the cards in the set. Similarly, should one or more of the cards need to change original at a later date, we may also backtrack afterward.
• After we have gone through each individual card, then we will try and deal with any holistic issues that remain.
• Then we shall move onto development playtesting. Maybe here we'll distribute some "beta" slips to a wider group of playtesters, who will again play with the designed cards as much as possible. During this stage of playtesting, we need to pay special attention to power level and balance much more than their design potential.
• Once development playtests are done satisfactorily and any necessary changes made, we'll go through everything one last time.
• Then we'll work on releasing the cards on GCCG and real life! My vision here is promotion at tournaments. Maybe everyone who plays gets a
RR (V) before anyone else, and winners get Gandalf and/or the WK.
I think I've said quite enough. When I'm writing this, I certainly don't mean to try and take control of everything. Of course we all need to input as much as we can, and I usually want people to disagree with me more than to agree! I just thought I'd lay down my thoughts upfront for others to critique (and please, please do!).
So, let the discussions commence! I think we should probably deal with all this preamble for a few days before getting onto designing the cards.
Thran