Trading Card Game - Ideas

Genetix

Member
I am working on a Trading Card Game, and need some clever ideas for more cards. I'll share some examples to give you an idea of how the cards work.

For the most part the game's theme is Fantasy/Medieval, however I'm open to more futuristic, or tech based themes - or about anything if it is interesting!

Each card has a few basic features: Name, Cost (how much energy to cast on the field), attack (how much damage it does), magic (how much magic it generates each turn, needed to cast spell cards), Health (how much damage it can take before dying), ability (Special abilities - i'll go over these.), and finally a Type (Human, Beast, Structure, Weapon, Relic,Spell, etc.)

Card Examples:

Name Attack Magic Life Ability Cost Type

Windmill 0 0 3 Energy +2 per turn 2 Structure
Farmland 0 0 5 Energy +3 per turn 4 Structure
Peasant 1 0 2 Energy +1 per turn 1 Human
Mage Apprentice 1 2 3 4 Human
White Mage 0 2 3 Player Life +1 per turn 4 Human
Young Squire 2 0 3 3 Human
Stone Fortification 0 0 8 Barricade 4 Structure
Catapult 3 0 4 5 Weapon
Shield Baron 1 0 4 Barricade 4 Human
Field Captain 1 0 3 Ally Humans +1 Attack 4 Human
Chained Dragon 3 0 6 7 Beast
Agile Swordsman 2 0 3 Swift 4 Human
Swamp Thing 2 0 4 4 Beast
Fire Ball 0 0 0 3 Damage 2 Spell
Beast Tamer 1 0 3 Ally Beasts +1 Attack 4 Human
Shrine 0 3 4 4 Structure
Healing Herb 0 0 0 Unit HP +2 1 Spell
Angry Goblin 2 0 1 Final Strike 1 Beast
Night Howler 1 0 2 Swift 2 Beast
Jaded Ninja 2 0 2 Kamikaze 3 Human
Rampant Thorns 0 0 3 Menace 5 Nature
Valiant Skirmisher 3 0 4 Final Strike 5 Human
Battering Ram 5 0 3 8 Weapon
Leech 0 0 0 3 Damage, Player Life +3 3 Spell

Here is what some of the existing abilities do:
- Barricade: Blocks direct damage to player (like Taunt in hearthstone)
- Swift: Allows unit to attack the turn they are played (Like Charge or Haste in hearthstone and magic)
- Final Strike: Deals 1 damage to opponent upon death
- Kamikaze: Deals 1 damage to all units on field upon death
- Menace: Gain +1 Attack each turn

Anyone have a great idea for a card or ability?

If it helps I can explain the flow of the game in detail also!

 
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Electros

Member
Just looking over, I think the types are where you could really push the interesting combinations and plays with various synergies. Boosting certain types, in some cases perhaps specialists only able to target certain types

-Druid apothacary: Heal all beast cards in play for +1 at the end of the turn
-Fallen commander: Choose a human ally to sacrifice, add their attack and health to your own
-Mortar team: Can only target structures (high damage)
...etc

Although this rather depends on your game and how it plays!
 

Genetix

Member
Great ideas, exactly what I am looking for. The card 'Type' will be where synergy & strategy really comes to play. Great stuff!

for another example, I just created a new card:
Rabbid dog, atk 1, mgk 0, health, 1, with ability Swift (Can attack immediately)

Any other ideas for cards or even new abilities?
 
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Genetix

Member
That is a damn good idea! There is a similar mechanic in Hearthstone where if their life falls to a certain point they get perks. A chance of transforming into aa stronger creature is great!
 

Electros

Member
Other ones along these lines could be:

Armoury: Summon a random weapon (or a version with weakened stats if too powerful)
Arcane Mage: Large stat boost to mage apprentices

I guess a lot of these are along the Hearthstone lines, which is fine (I play it daily!), but the really interesting bit would be how your game forges a distinct track that Hearthstone couldn't / wouldn't follow. Could you have character alignments (e.g good / neutral / evil) and cards that affect those? How is your game board setup, are there extra strategy layers there?

It's a tricky line as you don't want to baffle the player, but I would love to see the killer differences and uniqueness in your game. Of course if you already have these, keep them safe and wow your target audience when you release / market your game. :)

Plus I also really like the idea of futuristic or tech TCGs / CCGs. :)
 

Genetix

Member
Here is an updated screen of the game, it is a bit hard to make out the specific details - I need to refine my screenshot process. (Capturing in OBS then clipping from a print screen of that.) The cards & text look much better when actually playing.

I've started adding more classes into the game such as 'Sprite' and 'Undead' - as well as a number of new cards and abilities... I'll create a new thread on the forums to share more about this project - but always glad to hear more ideas for cards & abilities.

The game does play quite a bit like a hybrid of MGT, Hearthstone, and also has some elements of Ascension in it - although I am still locking down exactly how all of the mechanics work.

The core game play is relatively simple, but the amount of strategy & tactics are increasing everyday as I make progress on it. The game itself will not only be cards, you will walk around in an old school looking RPG world and talk to NPC's, travel to other villages, and use your cards as the primary 'battle' system. It will be setup kind of like a Pokemon/Earthbound type of game in some ways.

 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Not really a concrete idea, but how about a card that DRAINS magic each turn instead of generating it, and if you don't have enough energy to sustain it, either drains your health instead or destroys itself? It would be a really powerful card (either via stats or ability) to compensate for the drawbacks, and destroying high energy generators to screw with the player controlling the card instead of attacking it directly would add a new layer of strategy to the game. If you add in things like type synergies and stuff it could get even more interesting.

Another idea for synergies... cards that generates energy/magic/health based on the number of your active cards of that Type. If there's risks or penalties associated by losing cards or being locked out of strategy because you have too many active cards, this could be another interesting thing to play around with.

And another interesting idea... a Necromancer card that will revive any of your cards that die instantly at 1 HP as long as it's active. (This effect should not stack with itself so that 2 necromancers can be used to totally break the game by reviving each other... unless monsters dying also damages the player controlling them). The effect could also be exclusive to one type, e.g. only Undead cards get revived by the Necromancer card, only Structures get revived by the Worker Union card, and so on.
 

Electros

Member
Thanks for sharing more info - I quite like the hybrid systems, much like Puzzle Quest combining Match 3 for the battles with RPG style gaming.

I guess the board positions will play a part, so you could have structures that buff / protect the minions either side (e.g. Sentry Post) and others e.g. Ramparts that could do the lot whilst alive?

In any case, looks promising!
 

Genetix

Member
Yeah - board position is another thing that I am thinking about working. It wouldn't be to hard or add to much complexity to the system or game play, great idea. Hopefully not continuing this in the wrong place, as soon as I have a more completed version of the game i'll post it in the work in progress section (or where appropriate).

This thread has been a great resource for ideas, and a bit of feedback so far!
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Oooh, the idea about position synergies gave me another fun idea... a card that gets boosted if the enemy slot opposite of it is empty, or possibly the three slots in front of it [or ANY of the three slots as opposed to ALL of them, and so on]. It'd be a bit situational, but could be a good way to profit on an enemy's move to use their positioning to their advantage. If they play a card that gets boosted if the two slots to its sides are empty (e.g. a Harmfully Loud Noise Ballista or Camouflaged Ninja something like that), put your card opposite to either of those slots and they'll have to deal with either losing their boost or you keeping yours.
 
C

ConsolCWBY

Guest
Without knowing any of the mechanics or card design details besides the cool screenies, this is just to help OP generate ideas more than implementation of any one card:
Code:
Name:Defender Of The First Age
Cost : 5
attack : 0/*
magic: */*
Health: 12*
ability: Barricade, Special
Type: Relic (Robotic looking, arcana-punkish)

Special: When Defender is played, place a token each turn it does not take damage and reduce health by 1. At any time, the owning player
  may take all tokens and add it to their magic pool. When Defender is destroyed, reduce owning player health by the number of
  tokens remaining on Defender or 7 points, which ever was larger. This card does not tap.

"The ancients were as astonished as their enemies of the power of the divine sigils."
Take what you can use, discard any you can't :) May have more ideas later though...
 

Genetix

Member
Thanks, and great idea for a card!

Here is a bit more information about the games mechanics if it helps: (Or if anyone has an idea to improve upon)
- Each turn you draw a card from your deck
- Cards cost 'Energy' to play onto the field
- You gain +2 Energy each turn, and save it up between turns.
- Some cards help you generate additional Energy each turn.
- When you play a card to the field, its 'Attack' value is added to your total attack. (Most cards have to wait a turn before their attack value is counted.)
- Each turn your Total Attack is equal to the sum of each cards attack value, and doesn't accumulate like Energy.
- Individual cards do not battle, you use your total attack value to do single increments of damage to your opponent, or one of their cards.
- If a cards Health is lowered to 0 it dies, and leaves the field.
- Cards that have Magic points do a similar thing, each turn they add up to your total Magic value.
- Spells are cast using Magic points instead of energy points.
- Spells do not sit on the field, they are used on a specific target and then leave the game.
- The goal is to get your opponents life down to 0.

Thanks again for all of the great ideas and advice so far, this has been a really fun project to work on - will hopefully have a playable build available soon. Nothing set in stone, but I am thinking of calling it "Final Star".
 
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Genetix

Member
I've got the first 40 cards implemented into the game now and am working on the next set of 40 - wanted to say thanks to everyone that helped out earlier! I've also got an early screenshot of the games world, i've decided that the game will be set sometime in the 1990's you play as a teenager who becomes addicted (along with his friends) to a new trading card game called Final Star. You will walk around your city meeting other players, battling, trading cards, earning money to buy booster packs from the card shop, and ultimately attempt to earn a spot in the big championship. Still working a lot of things out, but in theory it is coming together well! @Yal would you recommend me moving this or creating a new topic in the WIP section or somewhere? I am still looking for design ideas & feedback.



 
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Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
@Yal would you recommend me moving this or creating a new topic in the WIP section or somewhere? I am still looking for design ideas & feedback.
IMO you kinda answered your own question there - as long as you need ideas, this topic has a purpose. I'd say you should make a game topic different from this, and have it be focused on feedback. (You'd probably mostly get feedback on things like overworld graphics and gameplay UX there, anyway)
 

Yokcos

Member
So Rogue Harvest is a card game now? :p

Some interesting ideas:
Something that shrinks the play area so you can't have as many cards in play at once.
Something that swaps you with another player currently playing the game (they join your game, you join theirs, you get their creatures, cards, etc. for that game)

A creature that, on death, drops an egg or some such that after a few turns hatches into the original creature.
A creature that kills the creature to its left every turn. (yes, it's annihilating your own forces. It should obviously be super powerful to be worth it, or maybe you can just place it on the far left.)
A creature that, when you kill something with it on the field, gives you a copy of that card. If it kills a Slice of Toast, you get a Slice of Toast card.
A creature with a huge reservoir of HP, but any time any of them in any game take damage, they all do in real time (i.e. if I hit one, then all of mine take damage, all of yours take damage, if anyone else is playing the game, theirs also take damage)
A creature that drains all of your energy, but allows you to attack +1 time per turn while it is on the field.

A spell that switches your energy and mana values.

Why "Final Star"?
 
M

MishMash

Guest
I'd love a trading card game that breaks the meta of knowledge being the most useful skill. Something that is instantly intuitive, simple goals, though with interesting ways to reach those goals. One thing I really hate is how so many TCGs require you to basically just learn what cards do what, and until then, you are kind of boned. I find these really hard to get into.

Obviously knowledge is fine later on, you will naturally learn what things work well, what strategies work well, though I wish there was a game where just being a bit smarter at the start could allow you to atleast have an edge over other players who are new/simple AI.

Another huge flaw with TCGs is the luck element, I guess this is a little hypocritical, as I love Poker, but that's for reasons where you expect luck a certain amount of the time and can use logic to still make the best possible play.
 
Do you actually plan to get a multiplayer function running, or is it only going to be against computer opponents? Coz those two may have a slightly different approach in design, kind of how in heartstone there is a difference in balance between play mode (versus humans, where everything goes) and adventure mode (versus computers, where both decks are sometimes fixed)
 

spe

Member
I hate to sound like I'm copying the idea, but I've also been working on an RPG/TCG hybrid for a little while. :p However, mine has more of a
sci-fi/time-travel setting, so hopefully they don't end up too similar. Anyways, I've always loved TCG games, I'm excited to try this when it's finished!
 

Genetix

Member
Do you actually plan to get a multiplayer function running, or is it only going to be against computer opponents? Coz those two may have a slightly different approach in design, kind of how in heartstone there is a difference in balance between play mode (versus humans, where everything goes) and adventure mode (versus computers, where both decks are sometimes fixed)
I have actually worked on building a simple infrastructure for an online TCG in the past - and have been designing Final Star from the ground up to hopefully implement online multiplayer in the future - but alas, that is a steep challenge and not something I am focusing on right now. It is important to consider it though, and make sure that the engine could support it down the road without major changes - I actually have toyed with online play in my game Rogue Harvest, and have got it to somewhat work, although not quite stable or bug free enough for actual consumer use. Definitely something to keep in mind and build around for now though!

I hate to sound like I'm copying the idea, but I've also been working on an RPG/TCG hybrid for a little while. :p However, mine has more of a
sci-fi/time-travel setting, so hopefully they don't end up too similar. Anyways, I've always loved TCG games, I'm excited to try this when it's finished!
Not at all! I think that the mash-up genre could become very popular - and I am sure our projects are pretty unique in many ways. The game play for my actual card game has a lot of similar elements to other card games, but many mechanics - especially how mana/energy works is quite a bit different.

I like the concept you are going with! I am trying to make Final Star have an almost Earth Bound feel. Walking around a small town set in the early 90's and exploring - going to a convenience store, mall, school, cafe, card shop, and all sorts of locations in between. A lot of the game won't just be playing cards - but role playing as a teen growing up and becoming hooked on this new concept of 'Trading Card Games' with his friends - it will have a lot of RPG elements also.

One of the coolest ideas I have right now is to be able to go to an Arcade and actually play a number of mini games - you will have to use your in game cash to play, but can win prizes back such as special cards or booster packs. At the card shop, you can buy individual cards that are very rare, but expensive - and the player will also be able to buy booster packs of random cards. I also plan to let you trade cards with other NPC's around the world. Collecting & Trading will be just as much of a focus as the actual battling is in some ways. Ultimately the player has to earn enough experience and money to enter the Grand Challenge (name pending ;) ) and try to win it all to become the best Final Star player in the region!
 

spe

Member
That actually sounds really awesome! Reminds me of my own childhood haha. I was pretty young in the 90's, but it was maybe around the early 2000's that I started playing all sorts of card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as some more obscure ones that probably don't exist anymore. Eventually we just started making up our own card game, and that was my source of inspiration for the game I'm working on now.
Anyways, this thread isn't about me. I've got my own thread on my game concept if you want to check it out. I'll keep an eye on your project as well, it sounds really exciting :)
 
A

abfg616

Guest
I have an idea for an ability.

Necromancy- revive one troop every five turns

Idea for an incredibly over powered card.

agroth the superior-5-2-1-necromancy-8 energy-spellcaster
also, if you arent going to make spellcaster a type, you could just change that to human.
 

Genetix

Member
Great ideas, I haven't touched that project in awhile but it was really coming together well. May have to run it back up and keep at it. It is my 3rd legitimate attempt at developing a TCG and by far the best one yet. (Didn't help at the time I was juggling almost 10 different active projects).
 
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