TCG Game Design Document-David Fleming-

July-August 2011

Table of ContentsI. Overview..............................................................................................................3II. Basic Game Rules................................................................................................4

The Deck....................................................................................................................4The Hand....................................................................................................................4Spirit...........................................................................................................................4Card Types.................................................................................................................5

Minor Arcana........................................................................................................5 Major Arcana........................................................................................................5 Special Arcana.......................................................................................................5 Equipment............................................................................................................6 Arena.....................................................................................................................6 Trap.......................................................................................................................6

Beginning The Game..................................................................................................6The Turn.....................................................................................................................7

III. Advanced Game Rules........................................................................................8Keywords...................................................................................................................8

Target....................................................................................................................8 Armoured..............................................................................................................8 Regenerate............................................................................................................9 Guardian...............................................................................................................9 Shield....................................................................................................................9 Counter.................................................................................................................9

Status Effects...........................................................................................................10IV. Card Layouts.....................................................................................................11

Minor Arcana (and Common Features)...................................................................11Major Arcana...........................................................................................................14Special Arcana..........................................................................................................15Equipment...............................................................................................................15

V. Card Set.............................................................................................................16

I. OverviewGame_name is a TCG game designed for online multiplayer as well as offline AI play. It will

be free-to-play and will include microtransactions. The main elements of the game will be based around the idea of collecting cards and using them to play against AI opponents or other players, winning cards from other players or from AI opponents to expand the player's collection and deck-building options.

To start with, Game_name will include a base set of cards for the players to pick from, but will be designed to allow expansion by new releases of cards over time. This will promote purchase of new cards and continual collection and play of the game even if a player manages to collect all of the cards in a particular set. Certain cards will be defined as being available for free through playing against AI opponents, and other cards must be won from other players or purchased through booster packs. This will prevent players from simply playing single player offline games over and over again with a view to collecting all of the cards and will provide the primary monetization scheme for the game. Players will also be able to trade cards with other players; either with strangers before or after a game or with their friends at any time.

Leaderboards will provide a motivation for some players to continue playing the game. Player score will be based on victories, losses, collection size and collection 'value'. Collection value will be assessed based on card rarity and number of cards.

Gameplay will be based on fairly standard TCG principles along with elements of an RPG battle system: each player plays with a prebuilt deck made from their card collection, and draws cards from their deck into their hand, from which they can play them. Cards will be divided by their effects; the most important of which are 'minor arcana' and 'major arcana' which have special abilities that can be performed to cause damage to the opponents' creatures as well as various special effects. If at any time a player has no major arcana or minor arcana in play and no ability to play a minor arcana card, they lose the game. Gameplay rules and card types will be detailed in the 'Basic Game Rules' and 'Advanced Game Rules' sections.

II. Basic Game Rules

The DeckEach player plays with a prepared deck of exactly 40 cards. A deck can contain up to 4

copies of any single card for a minimum of 10 different types of card and a maximum of 40. Other than this rule the composition of card types within the deck is entirely up to the player and their collection of cards. 4 cards within the deck are set aside as 'prize cards'. These can be any 4 cards from the deck, chosen by the player who owns it. When the player starts the game they will always start with these 4 cards in their hand, along with 4 cards drawn from the top of the shuffled deck – if the player loses a competitive (non-casual) game, one of the prize cards is randomly chosen and taken by the winning player. The deck is shuffled at the beginning of each game, as well as at any time a card effect instructs that the deck must be shuffled.

The HandThe hand is a set of cards that the player can play from. These are generally kept hidden

from the opposing player. Each player starts the game with their 4 prize cards along with the 4 cards from the top of their shuffled deck. There is a maximum hand size of 8 cards; if the player has 8 cards in hand they do not draw a new card at the beginning of their turn. Players may discard a card from their hand into their discard pile to prevent a permanent 'clogging' of their hand. To play cards from the hand, the player will generally expend a certain amount of 'spirit'.

SpiritEach player has a spirit count. Spirit allows a player to play cards from their hand, activate

abilities of specific cards that require it and to protect their creatures in emergency situations. Each player starts the game with 3 spirit and gains 2 spirit at the beginning of each turn (before drawing a card – see “The Turn” for details on the turn process).

Cards typically cost anywhere from 0 to 16 spirit to play from the hand, and the spirit cost to play a card is shown on the card itself. Once the spirit cost has been paid and the card is 'in play', no further spirit cost is generally required to keep the card in play except where specified by the card itself.

Some abilities shown on cards will have a spirit cost associated with them. This means that to use those abilities you must expend the requested amount of spirit. If you do not have adequate spirit, you cannot use the ability.

If any of your creatures are about to take damage from any source, you can interrupt the damage by expending spirit. For every 1 point of spirit spent, 1 point of damage is prevented. If you do not have any spirit, you cannot prevent damage in this way.

Spirit can be gained from other sources including card abilities.

Card Types

Minor Arcana

Minor Arcana are basic 'creature' cards. They have a spirit cost, life total and text describing the rules of the card including any active abilities (e.g target abilities that cause damage), passive abilities (e.g 'Armoured [1] – whenever this arcana takes damage, it is reduced by 1). When an arcana receives damage from a source, its life total is reduced by this amount of damage. If an arcana is reduced to 0 or less life, they are destroyed and they and all cards 'attached' to them (see 'Special Arcana' and 'Equipment') are put into the discard pile.

Active arcana abilities require focus to use. Focus is similar to Spirit but for arcana; each turn, every arcana in play under the active player's control gains 1 Focus point, and focus is expended when they use their abilities. Some abilities may require Spirit instead, others may require both Spirit and Focus to use. Focus is carried through turns.

Passive arcana abilities are always active as long as the arcana itself is in play. They do not have a cost unless specified by the ability text itself.

Major Arcana

Major Arcana are very powerful fusions of minor arcana. A major arcana will have two prerequisite cards that must be in play before you can pay its spirit cost and put it in play. A major arcana represents two or more minor arcana fusing to become one large, powerful arcana. As such, when a major arcana is played, both of its prerequisite cards are put into the discard pile. Note that this does not count as them being 'destroyed' for the purposes of abilities that take action when an arcana is destroyed. Other than these rules, major arcana typically play the same way as minor arcana do; they have the same kinds of active and passive abilities and text as well as a life total and the same rules for being destroyed. A major arcana starts with its complete life total and 0 focus, even if the minor arcana that were fused to allow it to be played had been damaged or had focus reserved.

Special Arcana

Special Arcana cover a broad category of cards that either have a one-shot or ongoing effect, but are not 'creature' type cards. These tend to provide enhancements to the player's own arcana, damage or handicap the opponent's arcana, provide long term effects while in play such as granting the owning player an extra spirit point each turn or even destroy other special arcana that are in play. These do not have life totals or focus and cannot be destroyed by targeting with damaging abilities; they can, however, be destroyed directly with abilities that 'destroy target arcana'. A special arcana remains in play until its rules text instructs for it to be destroyed or discarded; one-shot special arcana contain the text 'discard after use'. Some special arcana cards are attachment cards; this will be denoted in their rules text (e.g 'attach this arcana to a minor or major arcana') – this means that when played they must be attached to another arcana and their described effect will be applied to that arcana. When that arcana is destroyed or otherwise discarded from play (including through fusion into a major arcana), the special arcana card is discarded as well.

Equipment

Equipment cards are attachment cards. When their spirit cost is paid and they are played, they are attached to either a minor arcana or a major arcana and will have an effect on that arcana depending on the card text. They can be attached to either an arcana the player owns or an arcana the opponent owns. When that arcana is destroyed or otherwise discarded from play (including through fusion into a major arcana), the equipment card is discarded as well. Note that since equipment cards are not a type of arcana, they cannot be directly destroyed by abilities or effects that would normally destroy an arcana, though destroying the arcana they are attached to will cause them to be discarded. If there is no arcana to attach the equipment to when it is played, it is discarded.

Arena

Arena cards will have a profound effect on the play rules that are currently in action whilst in play. Only one arena card can ever be in play at once; they represent the battle area where the arcana and the players summoning them are fighting. If an arena card is already in play when another arena card is played, the arena card that is already in play is discarded to make way for the new one.

Trap

Trap cards are cards which have an effect that triggers when a particular event happens in the game. For a trap card to have an effect it must be in play just like any other type of card – this means it has to have had its spirit cost paid and it must've been put in play from the player's hand before the trigger effect has happened. Any number of traps can be in play at any given time, and multiple triggers can activate from a single event (e.g if there are multiple copies of the same trap in play). Once a trap's trigger is activated, the effect described by the trap takes place and the trap is discarded.

Beginning The GameAt the beginning of the game, the player who is to take the first turn is decided randomly.

Both players are given 3 spirit to start with. Then both decks are shuffled and each player draws the top 4 cards of their deck, adding them to the 4 'prize cards' each player has set aside to create their starting hand. If a player's starting hand has no playable minor arcana in it (playable meaning a spirit cost of 3 or less), they put the 4 non-prize cards in their hand to the bottom of their deck and draw the next 4 cards. This process is repeated until the player has at least one minor arcana in hand that they can play, then the deck is shuffled again. Note that a player may not 'mulligan' in this way by choice, but only if they do not have any playable minor arcana in hand – if they have at least one playable minor arcana (including in the prize cards), they must keep their hand.

Each player then chooses a minor arcana from their hand and puts it into play, paying its spirit cost as they normally would. Players keep any remaining spirit after this process. The player who is to go first then begins their first turn.

The TurnBeginning Of Your Turn

The turn begins with the beginning of your turn. You gain 2 spirit at the beginning of your turn and all of the major arcana and minor arcana that are in play under your control gain 1 focus. Any effects that take place at the beginning of your turn occur here. You may discard cards from your hand here.

Draw A Card

You can discard cards from your hand here if you wish. Then, if you have less than 8 cards in your hand, you draw a card from the top of your deck. If your deck is empty, you cannot draw a card. You may then discard cards from your hand again (after drawing a card).

Active Phase

During your active phase you can play cards from your hand, use abilities from arcana or discard further cards from your hand. You can do these in any order, mixing and matching these actions as you please until you either cannot or do not wish to do any more.

End Of Your Turn

Any effects that take place at the end of your turn occur here. You may discard cards from your hand for one last time before the next players' turn begins. If you do not have any major arcana or minor arcana in play at this point, you lose the game.

III. Advanced Game RulesThis section contains information about specific rules related to the cards used in the game.

Cards will contain rules text that includes various keywords – these are listed and explained here. In some cases modifications to these rules will apply on a per-card basis. The text on the card acts as the authority on any rule; even if the text on the card is in direct contradiction to the rules listed here, the text on the card is always correct and should be considered an exception to the rules listed here. This section will also document status effects and other game rules.

Keywords

Target

In many cases, a card's ability will require that the player selects a target. An example would be the following:

[ex. 1] Remove 1 Focus from target arcana

Except where specified, a target may be any card of the type given in the text that is in play – this includes both the player's cards and opponent's cards. If no card type is specified as in the following example, any card that is in play can be selected:

[ex. 2] If target has a spirit cost of 3 or less, destroy it

Unless instructed otherwise, an ability cannot be used if it cannot target as instructed. In [ex. 2] above, a target must be chosen for the ability to be used, and if it has a spirit cost of 3 or less, the targeted card is destroyed. The target can have any spirit cost; if its spirit cost is greater than 3 then this effect will do nothing, but a target must be selected. If the only available targets are owned by the player using the ability, they must choose one of their own cards as the target.

'Becoming the target' of an ability happens as soon as a card is chosen as the target of an ability. For example, with the following effect –

[ex. 3] If this card becomes the target of an ability, you gain 1 Spirit

you will gain 1 spirit as soon as the active player chooses the card as a target, even before the ability being used takes effect.

Note that even abilities that do not specify any effect and simply cause damage are considered targeted abilities; you still select a target as with any ability that specifically mentions a target, so [ex. 3] would apply even for an ability that does not have special rules text (ie a standard damaging ability).

Armoured

Armoured is a special passive keyword ability that represents an arcana with an especially armoured body. The ability will be written in the form

[ex. 1] Armoured (x)

where the x in brackets represents the extent to which the arcana is armoured. Whenever the armoured arcana takes damage from any source, that damage is reduced by the value of x. For example, an arcana with Armoured (1) automatically reduces all damage it takes by 1.

Regenerate

Regenerate is a passive keyword ability that grants an arcana the ability to regenerate damage each turn. At the beginning of the turn, the arcana with this ability gains life up to its total life value as displayed on the card. To do this, remove damage from it at the beginning of the turn. The amount of life gained (or damage removed) is specified by the ability as follows;

[ex. 1] Regenerate (x)

where the x in brackets is an amount of life to be gained each turn – for example, an arcana with Regenerate (2) automatically regenerates 2 damage at the beginning of each turn.

Guardian

An arcana with the guardian ability can defend against the opponent's abilities. This is one of few actions that can be taken during the opponent's turn. When the opponent targets one of the defending player's arcana with an ability or effect, the defending player can opt to have any arcana with the guardian ability become the target of that ability or effect instead. Note that the original target is considered to have never been a target for the purpose of 'becoming a target' – instead, the guarding arcana has 'become the target' of the effect. An arcana with guardian can be used in this way as many times as the player likes as long as it is still in play – if guarding would cause the arcana to be destroyed, it is destroyed in the normal way.

Shield

Shield is a passive ability that causes damage to be optionally negated as long as the arcana with the ability has Focus. If the arcana with the shield ability is about to take damage, the player who controls it can choose to use the Shield ability – if they do so, the damage is ignored and all Focus is removed from the arcana. If the arcana has no Focus, it cannot use its Shield ability. The arcana is still considered to have become a target and all other effects of the ability that targeted them still happen; only the damage is ignored. Effects that destroy arcana instantly are not considered to be damage and thus are not affected by the shield ability.

Counter

An arcana with the counter ability will counter attack and cause damage when it takes damage from an opponent's arcana. If the arcana is killed by the damage taken or destroyed as a result of the ability's effect, no counter attack takes place. The amount of damage dealt by the counter attack is listed with the ability as follows;

[ex. 1] Counter (x)

the x in brackets indicates the amount of damage the attacking arcana takes from the counter attack. For example, if the defending arcana has Counter (4) and is not destroyed by the attacking arcana's ability, the attacking arcana will take 4 damage.

Status EffectsArcana can be inflicted with status effects. Once a status effect is inflicted on an arcana (eg

by an ability or effect of a card) it will only be removed if the arcana is destroyed or if another ability or effect removes it.

Poison

An arcana that is poisoned loses life at the beginning of the turn until it is removed. It takes 1 damage per turn.

Fatigue

An arcana with fatigue does not gain focus until the fatigue is removed. Its passive abilities still take effect.

Paralysis

An arcana that is paralysed cannot use any abilities until the paralysis is removed. Its passive abilities still take effect and it still gains Focus.

Weakness

An arcana who is afflicted with weakness causes half damage, rounded down, from all their abilities. For example, a weakness-afflicted arcana with an ability that would normally do 5 damage uses this ability and it only does 2 damage.

IV. Card LayoutsThis section contains a diagram of a card layout for each type of card. Note that art is place-

holder art and is not intended to be used commercially or in the final product, thus art found from a google search has been used and the original authors have not been credited on the card. This is to save time while making example cards for this document. Note that while the functional design of the cards is final here, the visual design elements may change before the final card set is produced.

Minor Arcana (and Common Features)

Card Name (Common to all card types)

The name of the card. This is used to identify a specific card; if a card is referred to by name by itself it means “this card”, whereas if a card is referred to by name by another card it generally will mean “any instance of that card in play”. This will usually be denoted by rules text anyway, but in cases where it is not it is good to bear in mind. Exceptions will always be noted; for example, “Whenever any Forest Ranger in play takes x action” instead of “Whenever Forest Ranger takes x action”.

Spirit Cost (Common to all card types)

The spirit cost of a card is the amount of Spirit that is required and spent to play the card. See “Spirit” in “Basic Game Rules” for more details.

Card Name Spirit Cost

Artwork

Arcana HP

Card Type

Passive Ability

Damaging AbilityPower

Active AbilityFocus Cost

Active Ability

Rarity Symbol Card Number Art Credit

Artwork (Common to all card types)

The artwork shows an image representation of the card. This helps players to visually recognise and identify the card.

Card Type (Common to all card types)

This text line details the card type. Special Arcana, Equipment, Arena and Trap cards have simple types that simply say exactly what the card is. Minor and Major Arcana will have a descriptive type to classify the arcana for the use of abilities and rules text. For example, some cards may apply an effect to all Warrior arcana – this means that the effect described applies to any arcana displaying the word “Warrior” in its type text. The type text for a Major or Minor Arcana will always take the form:

[Major/Minor] [Descriptive Type] Arcana

A card only has one descriptive type.

Arcana HP

This shows the arcana's HP. If an arcana is reduced to 0 HP (or has taken damage equal to or greater than its HP) it is destroyed.

Passive Ability (Common to all card types)

Not all cards have passive abilities. Passive abilities are abilities that have an ongoing or 'passive' effect and do not require Focus to be spent to activate their effects. See “Minor Arcana” within “Card Types” for more details about passive abilities. All card types can have passive abilities.

Active Ability Focus Cost

This indicates the amount of Focus that needs to be spent in order to use this active ability. Only Major and Minor Arcana cards have active abilities that use Focus.

Active Ability

This is the name and description of the active ability. There are two distinct types of active ability - “damaging abilities” and “non-damaging abilities”. Damaging abilities cause damage, and the amount of damage is listed next to the ability. They can also have non-damaging effects. For an ability to be a “damaging ability”, it must have an associated power. Abilities with no power listed are classed as “non-damaging abilities”, even if their effect causes them to deal damage to creatures or destroy other cards.

Damaging Ability Power

Only damaging active abilities have an associated power. The power shows how much damage the ability causes under normal circumstances (base damage). Abilities or effects may modify this damage value, including the effect of the associated ability itself. Generally if the

associated ability changes the power of the ability, the power will be listed with a “+”, “-” or “?”. Abilities that have a power of “?” are still considered as having power and are thus damaging abilities. Other factors that may affect damage include modifiers from passive abilities on the target arcana, global effects, the 'Weakness' status effect or effects that apply to arcana of the card using the ability's type or the type of the target arcana.

Rarity Symbol

The rarity symbol is for collector's use. It indicates how rare the card is, falling under one of 4 categories and having one of these corresponding icons:

See the “Card Set” section for details about rarities and their exact meaning in the context of the card collection.

Card Number

The card number organises the cards in a specific collection order. The order and number system is outlined in the “Card Set” section. This also shows the total number of cards in the set, and has space to name the set the card belongs to. Note that there is no set name here as this card is a prototype design.

Art Credit

This line indicates who created the art displayed on the card. For the prototype cards, no meaningful art credit is listed but in the final set all artists will be credited here for their work.

Star Rare

Rare

Uncommon

Common

Major Arcana

The major arcana card is very similar to the minor arcana except that it lists “Major Fusion” - the prerequisite arcana that need to be discarded in order to play the major arcana card. Included in the major fusion section of the card are the names and art previews for the two prerequisite cards. In this example, the “Grand Dragon” major arcana would be fused from the following two cards:

The art preview provides a visual indication (50% of the size of the original card art for the two minor arcana) of the cards that must be fused to produce the major arcana card.

Special ArcanaTo be done

Equipment

Equipment cards, similar to Special Arcana, do not have ability names for their rules text. Their ability acts like a passive ability and typically effects the “Equipped arcana” - the arcana which the card is attached to. They also contain the reminder text “If the equipped arcana is destroyed, this equipment is also destroyed”. This text may be omitted in later card sets.

V. Card SetThis section contains details about the card set featured in the game, such as set metrics,

rarity and card type division and contents of booster packs.