The Crusaders© Card Game

Crusaders as a game has suffered from many problems affecting the overall quality and balance of the game. Early on, the card pool was small and offered few options for varied deck design.

This was remedied by having nearly 150 cards to choose from, a notable feat for the small size of our development team.

Another issue was defining the exact turn and attack order to make attacking consistent and avoid conflicts.

A problem stretching from the early days until present day is balancing out certain characters against other characters. The goal was to make sure all characters have a fighting chance against all other characters in set one. That would be 10 characters to be balanced, a lofty goal. However, the process grows exponentially easier as each is balanced since each change adds to our lessons learned.

A solid issue emerged however.

Even given the best card pool and consistent rules left some games stalled out and taking as long as an hour. This is unacceptable in order to have the game be able to be played in organized play events.

We attempted to balance the game by playing a variant of the game where all damage from attacks is increased . This made the game faster but created a substantial rift between characters with higher HP and defensive abilities and those who did not.

It unbalanced the game in a way that we couldn’t lightly fix.

The solution would have to come from a new direction. The game at the time lacked any alternate means to win the game besides KO’ing the opponent. What could fix this?

Story.

Story is the reason we have a game and adding to the story element would allow our alternate means to win a game to feel natural.

Enter Heroic and Villainous Feats. An alternate but story driven means to win will change the game to be supremely better.

Stay tuned, Chaos’ dark heart will enter the game.

The game’s cards are in a nearly final state. The full list of cards to date are:

1. Potion
2. Power Potion
3. Bomb
4. Talisman
5. Fire Gauntlet
6. Life Medallion
7. Lava Medallion
8. Glacier Medallion
9. Tornado Medallion
10. Armor Medallion
11. Nazgar’s Death Medallion
12. Griffin Potion
13. Cobalt Potion
14. Dragon Potion
15. Flayer Sword
16. Exploding Arrows
17. Imbued Gauntlets
18. Cutlass
19. Shatter Tip Arrows
20. Chain Whip
21. Heavy Blade
22. Mineral Water
23. Troll Coin
24. Shredder
25. Mega Explosive Arrows
26. Morning Star
27. Double Throwing Axe
28. Stone Blade
29. Stake Gun
30. Diamond Powder
31. Earthquake Medallion
32. Ring of Faith
33. Sounder Helmet
34. Lion’s Mane Helmet
35. Torch
36. Infinity Bands
37. Rune Hammer
38. Iron Man Potion
39. Liquid Rage
40. Cake or Death
41. Shoulder Mounted Chain Guns
42. Scorpion Blade
43. Wrist Lock
44. Shoot Strafe
45. Hard to Kill
46. Crossbow
47. Prism Axe
48. Cunning
49. Cat O’ Nine Tails
50. Shuriken Gauntlet
51. The Dark Heart
52. Iron Rod Launcher
53. Glittering Spear
54. Tread Reading
55. Sickle
56. Gotcha!
57. Wisdom
58. Steely Resolve
59. The Skillful Thief
60. Last Minute Dodge
61. The Lion Heart
62. No Regrets
63. Ring of Corruption
64. Fiery Wrath
65. A Moment to Reload
66. Battle Hardened
67. Piercing Stare
68. Smoke Bomb
69. I Dare You!
70. Clever Dodge
71. Sterner Stuff
72. Extra Pocket
73. Master Strategist
74. The Gentle Spirit
75. Deadly Skill
76. Shrug Off
77. Always with You
78. Strike Back
79. Retaliation
80. It’s Not Over Yet
81. Burning Essence
82. Deep Fortitude
83. Fangs of the Jackal
84. Solemn Robe
85. Limit Breach
86. Dispelling Force
87. All the Strength I Need
88. Argon Blade
89. Resonant Harmony
90. Chant
91. The Burning Heart
92. Everything to Gain
93. Heel Dig
94. Battle Drunk
95. Learn to Focus
96. Earth Channeling
97. Plate Armor
98. Speck Axe
99. Brushfire Trap
100. Quick Recovery
101. The Love of Battle
102. Fortress Armor
103. Bear Trap
104. Villainous Strength
105. Broad Shield
106. White Gold Armor
107. Brawn
108. With This Blade
109. Fury
110. Food
111. Momentous Vision
112. Eyes of the Jackal
113. Quick Draw
114. Improvise
115. As Long as I Breathe
116. Eyes on You
117. Unkillable
118. Stalker
119. Unconquerable
120. Defeat
121. Don’t Corner Me
122. One Bullet
123. Prison of the Soul
124. Champion Armor
125. Trial of Soul
126. Valor
127. Unbeatable
128. Heroic Strength
129. Sense Strike
130. Breakthrough
131. Play Dead
132. Fistacuffs
133. Counter Attack
134. Grip
135. Focused Training
136. Fortitude
137. Sabotage
138. Calm in the Storm
139. Blackened Cursed Armor
140. Pendant
141. Amulet
142. Dragon Scale Armor
143. Desolation
144. Sheath
145. Goblin Gas Bomb
146. Scroll of Recall
147. Dragon Tooth Spear

The next stage in development is to alter something that has felt complete for longer than most parts of the game, the platmat. 

The Crusaders game has had the playmat set for a long period now. It felt functional and well resolved but major additions have been added since. The game now incorporates a larger and easier to use stat tracker and the newly added Feats tracker. In order to save table space and make the experience more streamlined, the playmat will become the center with the other elements. 

Details to follow

As the rules of the game change to become complete, we will see some areas that never had any clarification take shape. Case in point, the exact nature and timing of attacking had to be defined. It now appears as follows:

Attack / Use Skills / Use Items

• You may choose to attack your opponent.   • Choose an attack from your Attack List. 

• If any Abilities or cards in play affect your                    Courage and MP costs, apply them before                        you pay the Courage costs of the attack                    you’ve chosen. 

• Your opponent may then play cards  or                other effects here that would increase or                decrease your Courage and MP costs.

• Pay any Courage and MP (Magic Points) 

                You may use Skill cards at any time during                      this step.

• Use any Abilities or other effects in play                that require a cost to pay and pay any costs                for these. 

• Make any calculations affecting final dam                -age including any Weapons, Armor, Ac                cessories or Medallions in play. 

Any and all calculations are done in the following order:  

Multiply, divide, add and subtract.

Crusaders is one of several related projects I have using Crusaders material. One of those is Let Me Tell You a Story where Crusaders is featured as a card game played in a dramatic / parodied manner, much like the Yugioh series. More installments are on the way but two are already completed.

https://youtu.be/f84M86wQA3s
https://youtu.be/hBIa95JVLlg

Crusaders is going to see a major change in the near future. This change should have been built into earlier versions of the game but better now, before it’s released. 

Play testing has yielded inconsistencies in battles. Some are very short and seem one sided. Others are so long that they are sometimes not even finished at all. 

A solution is badly needed to get the game to be  balanced. 

Enter my own past in other card and board games. Multiple options to win a game is something that is common enough but was not included prior. an opportunity to fill this gap  get games consistent, and add a bigger dash of story into the battles had to appear. 

Enter Herioc and Villainous Feats. These are a list of actions and situations that occur in a game, unique to each character, that score points. When a player has achieved a certain amount of points, he or shw can win the game without KO’ing your opponent. 

This alternate means will allow long games to meet a natural conclusion and not stall out. Characters who are a bad match up against other characters will allow them an alternative means to claim victory. 

Details to follow!!!

The last card to get it’s  artwork is Desolation. It will grant villain decks new card draw and fits a very specific llay style. It represents a villains moment of gloating over a weakned hero. The villain even pulls his punch just to let the hero contemplate what will follow. It will allow villains to gain and keep momentum for continued assaults and break stalemates from cards placed in play. This will make a strong utility card to fit and villains ego . 

One of the very last cards to receive it’s artwork is The Dragon Scale Armor. It’s a potent and indispensable part of decks for players with lower HP. Harder hits are reduced to lower levels and can even force an opponent to change strategies and withhold larger attacks and rely on ones with smaller damage attached. A late addition but a strong one. 

https://youtu.be/f84M86wQA3s

Crusaders is being utilized in a creative effort aside from the card game itself. An on going series on YouTube centers around the game and (melo)dramatic battles ensue. 

Finally , the hero’s answer to the Cursed Blackened Armor. It will allow heros to maintain their efforts and take advantage of lulls in battle.The HP recovery is powerful but the Armor’s damage reduction will let the recovery of health go even further.