AGCG rules thread.

[Axlotl]

This will be the rules thread for my new CCG project, the Anything Goes Card Game. I will post rules sections here as I write them up. First up, is the section on the card types.

[Axlotl]

1: Card Types
A: Character

Power, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Special are the 4 character attributes. Each corresponds to a color. Your deck must contain no more or less cards of that attribute type. (For example, Tetsuo’s deck must contain exactly 10 Power cards, 4 Intelligence cards, 12 Dexterity cards, and 24 Special cards, for a total of 50 cards.)

Traits identify certain flavorful characteristics of cards. Often these traits will be referenced by other cards. The first trait listed on a character is always Alignment. The alignments are Evil, Neutral, and Good. A character may also be Lawful or Chaotic. The 2nd listed trait is the character’s Race. Alignment and Race cannot be removed or altered except by cards specifically altering race or alignment.

Characters may have both passive and active game text. Passive game text is either always active, or triggered by fulfilling a certain condition, as is the case with Tetsuo. Active game text will always take the form of an Action. The 3 Action types are Major Action, Minor Action, and Reaction.

B: Condition

Card Types tells you what kind of card it is. Serenity is a Condition Asset. Condition tells you how to play and use the card. Conditions are placed into play, their passive text always applies and their actions may be used when appropriate. Asset tells you that it is a card that stays in play. Intelligence tells you what attribute type the card is, for deckbuilding.
Traits tell you flavorful information about the card, and may be referenced by other cards. Serenity is an advanced space ship, so it has both the Technology and Ship traits.

C: Item

Nunchaku is an Item Asset – Dexterity. Since it is an Asset it stays in play. Dexterity tells you what attribute type the card is. Item means that in order to use the card, it must be declared Active. Items are declared active as part of the Preparation phase. You may only have 1 item of each Item Trait active at the same time. While an item is Active, you may use its actions and game text.

The first trait listed on an item is always the Item Trait, which tells you specifically what category of item it is. Nunchaku is a Weapon, so if you decide to activate Nunchaku, you cannot activate another Weapon. After the Item Trait, other regular traits are listed. Item Traits cannot normally be removed or altered, except in very rare circumstances specifically referring to Item Traits.

D: Action


Actions come in 3 flavors: Major Action, Minor Action, and Reaction, along with an attribute type for deck-building. Each type of Action card corresponds precisely to an Action type, which is the appropriate time to play the card. (A Major Action card can only be played as a Major Action action type.)

Actions are resolved and then discarded, unless the action is a Buff or Debuff. Buffs are attached to the character that played the action, and Debuffs are attached to the enemy targeted by the action. Text following the word Buff or Debuff in the text box is applied for the rest of the battle to the character it is attached to.

Some Actions have a momentum modifier. A card with an upward pointing arrow provides momentum. When the card resolves, place it into your momentum pile. A card with a downward pointing arrow costs momentum. In order to play the action you must discard an amount of momentum equal to that number. If you discard a card providing more momentum than the cost of the card you are paying for, the extra is lost. All momentum costs and gains are also printed in the card’s text box.

Action traits have no special rules.

EXAMPLE OF A DEBUFF:

So when this card is played, it deals 3 damage immediately, then it continues to have a Debuff effect applied to its target for the rest of battle.

[Axlotl]

2. Deckbuilding

To build a draw deck you must first choose your character. Your character’s attributes will determine the amount of each type of card (Power, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Special) you include in your deck. Character cards are never a part of your draw deck. These attributes will normally total to 50. You may play up to 3 copies of a card. The exception to this are cards with Unique written in their text box. You may only have 1 copy of a unique card in a draw deck.

3. Gameplay

A. Starting the game.
I. The players reveal their character card, shuffle their deck, then the players decide randomly who goes first. Each player draws a starting hand of 5 cards. On the first turn, a player cannot start a battle. The player whos turn it is is the active player.

B. Phases of a turn.
I. Upkeep Phase. Each player untaps all cards in play. Then, the active player draws a card.

II. Deployment Phase. First, the active player plays Assets from hand. If they play a Condition with the same name as a condition they already have in play, the old copy of the condition is discarded. Second, they declare which items they control, if any, are Active. You may only have 1 item of each type of item trait active. (One Weapon, one Body, one Tool.) This effect can be overridden, however. (For example, Batman can have 3 tools active.) Finally, they decide to declare a battle or pass. If they pass, they head to the clean-up phase.

III. Battle Phase.
a. First each player sets the top 3 cards of the deck aside, one at a time, stacked one on top of another, face down. These are the AP cards. AP cards track how many actions you have in a battle. You may not normally look at these face-down cards.
b. The active player takes the first Action Round. They may perform any amount of Minor Actions. Whenever any type of action is performed using a condition, item, or character card, that card is tapped. A card must be untapped to use its ability.
c. Once the active player is done performing minor actions, they may play ONE Major Action. This can be a Major Action card from hand, or an action from a character card, an Active item or a condition. Most major actions will deal damage. The target of an action dealing damage loses that much life. Any player can also use their major action to perform a Desperation Attack. To perform a desperation attack, discard a card from your hand. The desperation attack does 1 physical damage, but cannot be prevented or modified. A player may also pass their action, but if both players pass consecutively, the battle ends. Lastly, if you performed a Major Action (that is, if you didn’t pass) you draw the top AP card. Then it is the opponent’s Action Round (They do steps B and C). Continue steps B and C until both players pass or run out of AP cards.

IV. Clean-Up Phase.
a. Discard any remaining AP cards.
b. Discard any debuffs. Some debuffs have effects that trigger when discarded. Debuff actions triggered by debuffs being discarded are applied simultaneously, so if lethal damage is dealt to both players by discarded debuffs, the game is a draw. A debuff trigger at this point won’t modify other debuff triggers, and since debuffs are no longer attached, they don’t modify the actions triggered by discarded debuffs.
c. If the active player did not declare a battle, they MUST discard a card from hand and then draw a card.
d. Proceed to the next turn. Start over on step I with the next player as the active player.

C. Winning the game.
I. A player loses the game if their life is reduced to zero or less.
II. A player also loses if they cannot draw a card because their deck has run out. (Note that this does NOT include activating AP cards. If you cannot activate 3 AP cards, activate as many as possible.)
III. Some cards may cause you to win the game. (7 Star Dragon Ball will cause you to win if you have the other 6 dragon balls.)

[Axlotl]

Other rules:

Activate AP: This is the action of placing a card face down on top of your AP pile.

Bin: Removed from the game pile. Cards in here cannot normally be recovered.

Cancel: Canceling an action prevents all parts of the action. None of the game text associated with the action (other than costs) happens. You can cancel unpreventable damage.

Control: Cards you may use are those under your control. You can sometimes take control of the opponents cards. Control is different than own.

Counters: Counters are markers placed on a card to track a number. They often have a specific type of counter tied to them. You can use dice or coins or bones or something.

Create: This is the act of placing a minion token into play.

Damage Types: Physical, Energy, Supernatural.

Destroy: Place into the discard pile.

Disabled: A disabled card is turned face down and tapped. When the card is no longer disabled flip it face up, but keep it tapped. Disabling an item does not stop it from being active, but a disabled item cannot be made active. A disabled card cannot use its game text or be used as a requirement for a card. If you play a new copy of a disabled condition you still must discard 1 of the copies, and may discard the disabled copy.

Discard pile. Cards discarded from anywhere go here. You may NOT change the order of your discard pile.

End the battle. Card effects can end the battle prematurely. If they are played go immediately to the clean-up step on resolution.

Faction: You may only have a single faction in play.

Heal X: You gain X life, but you may not exceed your starting life total.

Minion: These are represented by tokens (A coin, or dice, or family pet, or something). Minions may be tapped as a minor action to deal damage, and may be attacked. A minion normally deals 1 physical damage and has 1 life. If a card does not list the damage/life of a minion, it is assumed to be 1. Minions cannot be healed. Minions are created by various card effects.

Minor Action bonuses: The gameplay effects from minor action last until the end of the current round of battle.

Momentum Pile: Cards that provide momentum MUST be sent here and can only be remove from this pile when they are used to pay for something or discarded by a card or ability.

Own: Cards you own are part of your deck or starting cards. Even if you control an opposing card you do not own it.

Prevent: Preventing damage only stops the damage portion of an action; all other effects of the action still apply. You can prevent damage from actions that cannot be canceled.

Requires: If an action or a card requires a trait or card you do not control, it cannot be used or played.

Search: if you search your deck, it is assumed you must shuffle it afterwards, as part of the search.

Tapped: A tapped card is turned sideways and a tapped card’s printed actions cannot be used.

[Axlotl]

Deckbuilding and gameplay sections are up. Just need to add a section now for other rules.

[Iceman]

First, this looks pretty cool.
Props for getting a game idea together beyond the point most of us have ever got to - a few good ideas in head or on paper and that's it.

Second, a thought about dealing with anything simultaneously....
Unless it seems to stack things ridiculously in favor of the acting player, I would recommend resolving the removal of debuffs one at a time, starting with the active player and going back and forth one at a time.

Cheers.
-VIC

[Axlotl]

Yeah, the simultaneous resolution is in there because i don't want someone to lose what should be a tie simply because they have to clear a lethal debuff first. If it ends up being to complicated in practice there are other options available, like lethal not triggering until the end of the clean-up phase, although that also gets a little odd.

[Axlotl]

Added an other rules/glossary section.

This should be every thing someone needs to make decks and play the game. If any one wants to try it out and give me feedback, feel free. let me know if you notice any areas in the rules doc that seem to be poorly explained or confusing. If you do play, let me know if you run into any odd situations or if it seems like i forgot something...

[Axlotl]

Rules change to fix a balance issue: You can only play one Asset during the Deployment phase.

This resolves the horribly broken Defense/Dragonball decks, as they can't spam dragonballs, armor, and healing assets any more. If I make more cards at any point, targeted hosers can take care of any remaining balance issues.

This also makes the Deployment phase more strategic, as you need to consider which Assets you need the most, and also adds a sense of increasing strategy and board presence over the course of the game, which was missing do to the lack of any major resource system.