Working on overhauling the Item cards in Crusaders has led to a great stat. The Item card type only had 17(?!) Total in the previous version. There is now 40.
The Game, It Is Progressing!
The rules and cards are being renewed. The card pool is being overhauled to a crazy extent. More to follow!
Without a Story..
Crusaders represents about 20 years of writing for me. I started out writing the story in notebooks in largely finished it many years ago. But it was written by a kid and needed a lot of work if it was going to become what it needed to me. I spent the last few years building up the 1st book in the series and am preparing it for becoming an E book online. This is the 1st manuscript I delivered for editing. When the editing is done you’ll be seeing this online and ready for each person to share in the story.
Black and White
I am a firm believer in describing good guys and bad guys, good and evil in black and white terms. Writers who spend so much time making every character shades of gray stump me. Stories that set up heroes to be heroes and vice versa for villains are the most intriguing to me personally.
Quote from the book
Late in the Crusaders books, we have a character introduced, Mezik. He is an undead assassin. Upon being resurrected, he made an observation of his new existence.
“I can no longer see darkness”
The shadows cannot hide his prey from his new vision.
The Decks, the Decks For Each One
It’s finally time to work on the dynamics of each set one Warrior and fine tune them. But that can’t happen without decks. We are now building the custom decks for each. It makes play testing go infinitely faster
TO BEGIN
We have been hard at work on Crusaders in the long lull.
We found that he structure for drawing, the idea of using separate decks with different costs is going to stay part of the game.
However, the way we began a game from the old to new version was no longer compatible. There was balancing issues and several cards will have to be rebuilt as they only work in an older version of the game.
…
For your viewing pleasure, here is the first draft of the start of the game under the new structure:
TO BEGIN A GAME
Players roll a six-sided die. The players with the highest number chooses which player goes first.
The player that goes first rolls 1 six-sided die.
He or she will draw cards according to the amount of the roll:
*1-2 – Draw 1 card.
*3-4 – Draw 2 cards.
*5-6 – Draw 3 cards.
The player draws 1 card from any of the
Six Supply Piles but no more than 1 from any 1 Supply Pile. The first player then rolls for the Strength
Gathering Strength Step and then plays Weapons, Items, Accessories, etc.
The first player cannot Attack during this first turn.
The player that goes second rolls 1 six-sided die.
He or she will draw cards according to the amount of the roll:
*1-2 – Draw 1 card.
*3-4 – Draw 2 cards.
*5-6 – Draw 3 cards.
The player draws 1 card from any of the
Six Supply Piles but no more than 1 from any 1 Supply Pile. If the second player draws less total cards than the first player, the second players places +5 Courage during this turn’s Strength Gathering Step.
The second player then rolls for his or her’s Strength Gathering Step.
The second player can Attack during this first turn.
Product Tie In
The opening to my video show about Crusaders
Change comes to all
The play testing for Crusaders had that nagging feeling that the game lacked something, a greater strategic capability in battle.
I came to the conclusion that separating the deck into the 6 types of cards, Weapon, Item, etc would add greatly add to the strategy players could employ.
Each card type now carries an individual cost to draw. This means you’ll have access to all card types through out but won’t be able to draw them without a greater plan to pay for it.
The current values are only placeholders and may need to be adjusted as time goes on.
The six spaces to the right will be each card type pile. The spaces to the left will be the ones used to show cards in play.
The former space for the main deck is now the space for cards removed the game.
Play testing is on going but this change added needed complexity and strategy for a story driven battle.
To Fix a Game
I should explain why the following changes would be implemented. In all the play testing for Crusaders, a common issue plagued most battles. Randomness. Not the kind that comes from dice rolls or the like. It was that certain characters require or at least greatly benefit from certain types of cards making their way into a game. Phrases like:
“I never drew a potion all game.”
“I never did get a Weapon out to use X’s abilities.”
This sort of thing weakens a players feeling of being in the driver’s seat of their Warrior. I would even go so far that having the “luck of the draw” was becoming too important of a win factor.
The solution to me was as radical as it was simple.
“Reduce the randomness to a manageable level and allow for more strategy for players. But don’t break the game.”
Shortly I’ll post the an image that will show what the changes I propose.
Stay tuned.
The Crusaders© Card Game 