The Rules are done. Finished. Ready to be melted into gold. Bring out the chisels. Etc, etc..
Last weekend, we had 2 birthdays we needed to go to, but due to bad weather, we opted to held the “party” at our home (not very wise to take a 2.5 month old infant into the cold + rain just to get to a party), and since one of the persons getting a year older was Vicente, it was a very convenient way for us to be able to play test more on the Wuxia Pian card game.
I had already designed three different Demo decks, but due to low ink in my printer, we could only test 2 of them. Due to the increased graphical nature of the Demo decks, we actually felt like we were playing an almost finished product already. In the end of the play test, we even forgot about “testing” and were really trying to win the game, great!
The good:
The rules held up.. again. The only thing we changed was to change the way to decide who received Liú first. No rule questions came up, and no dead ends were noted, except this.
We actually had great fun playing just the Demo decks. Play was fast, we both went through a lot of cards and even found some nice combos.. with vanilla cards! Not to mention we really got the feeling we could win, even though it sometimes looked grim. The best out of 5 rule of Wuxia Pian is the best thing I came up with, I think, hahaha..
It was balanced. We both won 2 times with our decks, even after swapping. Great! Some cards were obviously good, but no card was over the top, and only a few cards felt far below the curve..
Due to the layout of the Demo decks, it was very easy to calculate each player’s Attack and Defense, and we never had to calculate beyond 15. I think this will be doable for each level of player who dives into the Wuxia Pian game.
The not so good:
Going first in the game was sometimes not so nice, and felt like a penalty most of the times. This made the player with the higher speed feel strange, because even though his or her warrior has a higher speed, it did not felt like an advantage. Luckily, this is easily solved by changing the rule for who begins first into:””The warrior with the highest speed decides which player receives Liú first this combat round.”” Problem solved. This way, a player can decide for himself if he or she wants to go first.
Reversing cards and Discarding cards were a bit overpowered, especially in the beginning of the game: I play 2 cards, you make me discard those and pound in my head. We will need to split these cards into special targets for Reverse and Discard. Example: “”Discard target 3 cost card””, “”Your opponent must choose and reverse one of his cards”” etc.. Making it more specific prevents the cards from getting too powerful (which we found out during the game)
Sustain. The sustain rule is golden, but because of the huge amount and easiness of Discarding and reversing combat cards, Vicente and I never really needed to follow the sustain rule. Only in one game it came up.. Solution: Reduce the sustain value on Warriors, but be careful NOT to increase the power of the Reverse and Discard cards through this reduction.. Needs more play test.
Since there were no combat cards in the Demo decks that handled speed, it was sometimes a very one way street game. More cards and abilities that target Speed are needed.
The Bad:
NONE! I just need to implement some minor changes in the Rules, change some cards in the Demo decks (split up Discard and Reverse effects, decrease sustain), and it’s good to go.
This really gets me exited. Now I know the rules hold up, it’s on to the best part of card game design: the real cards itself. Hopefully the Demo decks will be up this week, so we will get some feedback from players around the world.
Maybe I can begin to set up the website, with a message board, so players and designers can discuss the rules and provide insights and ideas for cards..
I have uploaded the new rulebook, version 1.8 you can download it on the right.
I want to Welcome and express my thanks for Cyrus from the
http://www.anarchycap.com/kingdom/
Card game for jumping in and helping me design the card templates. The first wip (work in progress) already looks great!
Last weekend, we had 2 birthdays we needed to go to, but due to bad weather, we opted to held the “party” at our home (not very wise to take a 2.5 month old infant into the cold + rain just to get to a party), and since one of the persons getting a year older was Vicente, it was a very convenient way for us to be able to play test more on the Wuxia Pian card game.
I had already designed three different Demo decks, but due to low ink in my printer, we could only test 2 of them. Due to the increased graphical nature of the Demo decks, we actually felt like we were playing an almost finished product already. In the end of the play test, we even forgot about “testing” and were really trying to win the game, great!
The good:
The rules held up.. again. The only thing we changed was to change the way to decide who received Liú first. No rule questions came up, and no dead ends were noted, except this.
We actually had great fun playing just the Demo decks. Play was fast, we both went through a lot of cards and even found some nice combos.. with vanilla cards! Not to mention we really got the feeling we could win, even though it sometimes looked grim. The best out of 5 rule of Wuxia Pian is the best thing I came up with, I think, hahaha..
It was balanced. We both won 2 times with our decks, even after swapping. Great! Some cards were obviously good, but no card was over the top, and only a few cards felt far below the curve..
Due to the layout of the Demo decks, it was very easy to calculate each player’s Attack and Defense, and we never had to calculate beyond 15. I think this will be doable for each level of player who dives into the Wuxia Pian game.
The not so good:
Going first in the game was sometimes not so nice, and felt like a penalty most of the times. This made the player with the higher speed feel strange, because even though his or her warrior has a higher speed, it did not felt like an advantage. Luckily, this is easily solved by changing the rule for who begins first into:””The warrior with the highest speed decides which player receives Liú first this combat round.”” Problem solved. This way, a player can decide for himself if he or she wants to go first.
Reversing cards and Discarding cards were a bit overpowered, especially in the beginning of the game: I play 2 cards, you make me discard those and pound in my head. We will need to split these cards into special targets for Reverse and Discard. Example: “”Discard target 3 cost card””, “”Your opponent must choose and reverse one of his cards”” etc.. Making it more specific prevents the cards from getting too powerful (which we found out during the game)
Sustain. The sustain rule is golden, but because of the huge amount and easiness of Discarding and reversing combat cards, Vicente and I never really needed to follow the sustain rule. Only in one game it came up.. Solution: Reduce the sustain value on Warriors, but be careful NOT to increase the power of the Reverse and Discard cards through this reduction.. Needs more play test.
Since there were no combat cards in the Demo decks that handled speed, it was sometimes a very one way street game. More cards and abilities that target Speed are needed.
The Bad:
NONE! I just need to implement some minor changes in the Rules, change some cards in the Demo decks (split up Discard and Reverse effects, decrease sustain), and it’s good to go.
This really gets me exited. Now I know the rules hold up, it’s on to the best part of card game design: the real cards itself. Hopefully the Demo decks will be up this week, so we will get some feedback from players around the world.
Maybe I can begin to set up the website, with a message board, so players and designers can discuss the rules and provide insights and ideas for cards..
I have uploaded the new rulebook, version 1.8 you can download it on the right.
I want to Welcome and express my thanks for Cyrus from thehttp://www.anarchycap.com/kingdom/
Card game for jumping in and helping me design the card templates. The first wip (work in progress) already looks great!
During the last few months, work on Wuxia Pian really went to an all time high, and I must say, I am very happy how it is becoming.
During play testing, there were moments when I was not too happy about some cards I had in my hand, because they could not help me at that time, or I faced a grim outlook with the cards my opponent had in play. In most card games, this means game over or a very tedious game, where you are forced to play, but unable to get back in. Not in Wuxia Pian. I just shrugged it off and prepared for combat # 2… I do not want to boast, but not often you find a game where you get 5 opportunities to get into the game and win.. In Wuxia Pian, you can! The rule where your opponent is forced to play his Warrior first if he won a victory point, works like a charm, because I get to choose a warrior who can defeat that warrior (e.g. has an advantage over) more easily, bringing me back into the game, but not automatically, since I still need to win that combat…
What to do next? A checklist:
• Finish making revisions on the rules and let someone (native English) proof read it.
• Finalise the Demo decks and put them online
• Start working on the Website
• Finalise the Demo rules sheet
• Begin work on the final cards for the first set
• Determine the size of the first set
• Supervise the creation of the card templates.
• Start working on pictures from the movies to include
• create a big list of names from the movies, plus possible card names
• Combine the Final templates with the rulebook and finalise it
• Investigate into a stand alone application for online play…
• Play, play and play the game.
So first on my list: Finish the Demo decks and put it online.
Expect to see a big post coming up this week about the Demo decks!
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