ORC done for playtest

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snowdrop
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ORC done for playtest

Post by snowdrop » Sun Nov 06, 2016 13:37

ORC rules are finally done. Revised equipment, tokencreatures, top civilians, magic + mulligan, and a many clarifications. https://goo.gl/ruWUeP

Next step is wrapping up the first precon.

***

A summary of what's new, explained in greater depth in wiki link above:


Civilians are the top creature of each domain pile. They can defend and use abilities, but never strike back or attack. They are the only creature in a domain that can do this.

Mulligan Choose what to keep, but sacrifice two cards. Draw new ones until you get 7 again. Can be done once only.

Exhaust While in draw phase, if you are not happy with only getting 2 cards, you may choose to exhaust. Doing so lets you draw a 3:d card, but you have to sacrifice one card of your choosing and the top card of your deck to do so.

Magic Now cost no gold. It's depends on what's happening in the domains instead.

Token creatures Were already part of the game, but missed out on in the rules. Added section
dedicated to explain how they (don't) work. Basically, they're identical to the ones in MtG.

Deck size Changed from 60 --> 50, mainly because I agree with what ng set out to do with ACR by being restrictive.
ngoeminne
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Re: ORC done for playtest

Post by ngoeminne » Mon Nov 07, 2016 19:03

Hi Snowdrop,

Good job on the wrapping up of the ORC rules, they seem to become more and more consistent.
I like the way the 'top' of a domain pile works. And that you have limited access to the creatures there (the once below are not in play). Those not in play, and the domain division make them act like resources of different kinds (but then only for magic-type cards). So it's a bit of a mixture of resources and abilities.

For the ARC one could stack the residents of a city in a similar way, only allowing the top to use its abilities, it could be a nice variation.

The one thing that still is confusing (or rather I do not like it that much) is the loyalty - region deck building factions limitation. I'm still not sure how that works, what happens if a loose a region that supports faction A, and I have no other regions that allow for that faction, I have no way to ever play any of those cards again?

Have you ever thought of splitting the regions down to different domains.
you'd have three couples:

Region A / pile of civilians (region could have a discipline as well, as it was before in the ARC)
Region B / pile of civilians
Region C / pile of civilians

Kind regards,
Nico
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snowdrop
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Re: ORC done for playtest

Post by snowdrop » Mon Nov 07, 2016 20:09

ngoeminne wrote: Good job on the wrapping up of the ORC rules, they seem to become more and more consistent.
Thanks. They're lacking some polish, but it will come around. They're finally at a point where they are consistent enough to be able to playtest all of the "core ideas" of the ORC.
I like the way the 'top' of a domain pile works. And that you have limited access to the creatures there (the once below are not in play). Those not in play, and the domain division make them act like resources of different kinds (but then only for magic-type cards). So it's a bit of a mixture of resources and abilities.
I think it will hold in playtest, but we'll see. What I also like about it, except the minimalism, is that the top civilian always replaces the previous active one, so you as a player have to make a choice who to put on top and when, all depending on their abilities among other factors. If I put donald duck on top, then the ability of mickey mouse is suddenly gone from play :P

It is exactly as you summed it up. Basically the domains indirectly lead to what we call "movement", while their actual primary goal is not to create the movement itself. The domains are primarily there from a dev perspective and used as a:
  • advantage condition and synergy with region (win domain y and x on region card z happens)
  • win condition (getting VP if you control enough domains)
  • resource for magic cards
  • "reserve" defence
  • resource management vis á vis the army in the front, creating tension that player needs to handle and balance
For the ARC one could stack the residents of a city in a similar way, only allowing the top to use its abilities, it could be a nice variation.
Check it out and use if you want to - whatever works. I would recommend that you only have one way of doing it in the ARC rules though, because starting to spread a new game with different ways of playing is usually a bad idea as it fragments playerbase and creates confusion.

Personally I think limitations that are imposed on a player that forces him/her to do interesting choices can be a good thing, depending on how it's done of course. As for ARC, I see both working, but giving somewhat different end results. Please do tell if you try it out with your brother, would be cool to know your findings for ARC.

The one thing that still is confusing (or rather I do not like it that much) is the loyalty - region deck building factions limitation. I'm still not sure how that works, what happens if a loose a region that supports faction A, and I have no other regions that allow for that faction, I have no way to ever play any of those cards again?
Yes, if I have only one faction, say Gaian, and I have only House of Noble cards in my hand or deck, then I can't play the game any more, and will lose soon. That would be a very bad deck build that made no sense (kind of I build a white deck in magic, but put only red lands in it... totally equivalent, and fully possible in mtg)

We spoke on Skype earlier today, and I suggested a quick fix, a deck building rule that just says "All your regions in the region pile must support the same faction(s)".

That, or the great idea you came up with - to not have a hard limit like that but to tax the player with steeper gold price if the faction doesn't support what is played - would work. I'm considering your idea, as it's good indeed...
Have you ever thought of splitting the regions down to different domains.
you'd have three couples:
Nor sure I followed, but it sounded like I'd rather play ARC then ; )
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