Author Topic: New card type: Kingdoms (Read 1875 times)

Josh · « **on:** February 15, 2013, 12:45:19 PM »

New card idea: Kingdoms

Kingdoms will be played to territory or set-aside area, just like fortresses. There will be good kingdoms and evil kingdoms. There may even be kingdoms that are dual good/evil kingdoms – these would be neutral for T2 deckbuilding. You can put any number of different kingdoms in your deck, but they are limited to 1 per deck each, no matter the size of the deck.

Physical kingdoms, which will usually be the reign of a king, will play to territory. Spiritual kingdoms will play to set-aside. Kingdoms of the World reprint anyone? New Jerusalem reprint anyone?

Kingdoms will all have a “size”, which will be denoted by a number after their name. The numbers will range from 1 to 5. These represent how many cards they can hold. Kingdoms in the Bible had different levels of wealth and power, and that is what the number will attempt to represent. Solomon’s Reign, for example, will be a 5, and probably the only 5 (except for maybe New Jerusalem). Solomon’s Reign will be the gold standard for all other kingdoms, since that is just about the one time period in history where the kingdom of Israel became everything that God intended them to be; the fullness of His blessing was no more evident than that time. Some Christians may not consider “wealth” and “economic strength/weakness” to be spiritual concepts, but the Bible makes it very clear that they are; Jesus talked about physical possessions and wealth more than all other subjects combined, and He even said in Luke to use your physical possessions to win friends and bring others to Christ. Kingdoms will attempt to represent a flow or store of “wealth” and “economic activity” that coincides with the spiritual battles for lost souls.

A kingdom’s “size”, as well as its “holds” ability, are defined by game rule, and therefore will not be on the kingdom cards themselves. This will leave room for other identifiers and special abilities. Kingdoms hold any number of cards, up to the kingdom’s size. All cards held in a kingdom will be considered in hand. Therefore, they are out of play, and can only be targeted by cards that target cards in hand. They are considered in hand, because if not, Mayhem would become even more broken. If a kingdom is discarded, all contents return to hand (because they were already in hand).

You might say, “Why would I want 5 of my cards in hand to be sitting in my Solomon’s Reign kingdom, where my opponent can see them, and I can only have at most 3 cards in my hand as well? I’d rather keep all 8 in my hand.” But hold on! Kingdoms will also increase your hand limit, just like Tables of the Law does. So you can have 5 cards in Solomon’s Reign and 8 more cards in hand. In fact, this is one of their primary purposes. However, be careful: the 16-card hand limit still applies. In this case, you already have 13 in hand.

Josh · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2013, 12:46:05 PM »

Cards in kingdoms cannot be played in battle like cards from hand. I don’t want everyone to think they have to put a kingdom in their deck so that they can have a 12-card-hand to compete with their opponent’s 13-card-hand.

Cards enter and exit kingdoms during prep phase only. You can exchange any number of cards from hand with any number of cards in your kingdom, or you can simply place cards from hand in kingdom or vice versa. Just remember that cards in kingdoms cannot be accessed during battle, unless an ability says so. I foresee cards targeting cards in kingdoms and adding them to battles in the future…

By game rule, you will only be able to have one kingdom in play or set-aside at a time. They will all be considered the same, in the same way that The Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, and Herod’s Temple are considered the same card. So if you have a good kingdom in play and you want to play another good kingdom, you can; you will discard the one already in play, transferring its contents to the new kingdom. If the new kingdom’s size is smaller, any cards not able to be transferred will go to your hand, unless you hit the 16-card hand limit; then they are discarded.

The identifiers and abilities of kingdoms would be almost limitless. Not only would they provide a way to hold more cards in hand, they could easily be unique protect forts (protecting certain contents, or even protecting cards in territory). They could provide counters to preblock ignore or splash offenses. They can help defensive decks by allowing more cards in hand. The interactions with kingdoms (via new special abilities targeting kingdoms or cards in kingdoms) could add a whole new layer of strategy to battles. Can you imagine David’s Reign holding an activated David’s Staff artifact (not yet printed) or King Manasseh’s Reign holding an activated Manasseh’s Altar artifact (also not yet printed)?

One more thing I was thinking about letting kingdoms do was move characters in your territory into your kingdom, and therefore back into hand. I wasn’t sure if this would be broken somehow, but it sure would be cool. Definitely would add some strategy as well (Job decks anyone?). This was the primary reason I didn’t want kingdoms to work in Discard phases; I don’t want people to attack with a hero, only to move the hero right back into a kingdom after battle.

...In fact, maybe the scripture reference for Kingdoms could be the part of the Bible when the kingdom existed. Then you could say that any characters with references in that scripture range can move to and from the Kingdom, and therefore back into hand if you want...

I need your input! Whether you love it or hate it, leave some feedback. I really want to come up with ideas for new card types that enrich the game – hence, spiritual sites and kingdoms. But cards like this need a lot of input from a lot of minds to get up and going in the right direction.

Platinum_Angel · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2013, 03:17:11 PM »

Im always up for new card types. Lots and lots and lots...and lots and lots of play testing. I like a good challenge just like everyone else.

jbeers285 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 15, 2013, 04:51:06 PM »

This thread has ideas for neutreal charcters in it that are pretty interesting and sknce new card type ideas are out there i thought i might give this thread a push back into the conversation.
http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/new-card-ideas/neutral-character-class/

As for kingdoms cards, I really like this idea. For instance you do something

Egyptian Empire (Holds 3 cards from hand unless Moses or Aaron are in play)
SA protect Egyptian drawing abilities from being restricted and/or negated.
Search deck for Pharoahs Throne Room and put it in play.

Babylonian Empire (Holds 3 cards from hand, 2 if opponent has 3 Green prophets in play)
SA Search abilities can not be restricted, If a Babylonian is discarded you may capture one of your OT hero to opponents LoB. Search deck for Head Quarters of Riblah(sp?)

Prof Underwood · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2013, 04:54:03 PM »

I think this has the potential to provide variety even if playing a deck that uses the same brigades as yours. Kind of like a person currently could be playing an OT Purple Royalty offense with a NT Emporers Grey defense against a NT Purple Disciples offense with a NT Pharisee Grey defense.

If these kingdoms were unique enough, it could provide a 3rd layer of differentiation of offense and defense. I also like the idea of being able to move characters who lived during the reign of a kingdom to go back to your hand. That would certainly be a new strategy to the game. Of course it would be a challenge to balance kingdoms based on great reigns like Solomon or Nebuchadnezzar with puny reigns like Zimri or Otho.

Redoubter · « **Reply #5 on:** February 15, 2013, 10:13:04 PM »

Very interesting concept, would like to see some examples of abilities. You'll want to avoid making them unbalanced, of course, and handle whether cards that target Forts can target Kingdoms. Also, I'm not entirely clear what happens with Mayhem, can you clarify?

On a side note, an evil 'earthly' kingdom with a high value might go to someone like Herod the Great. His temple was even more magnificent than Solomon's, and he built a big old fortresses for himself out in the middle of nowhere just cause. Otherwise, a 5 should definitely go to either (or both?) Rome or New Babylon (the center of the world in Revelation).

Josh · « **Reply #6 on:** February 16, 2013, 11:17:50 AM »

Quote from: Redoubter on February 15, 2013, 10:13:04 PM

Also, I'm not entirely clear what happens with Mayhem, can you clarify?

Mayhem shuffles all cards in hand, which by definition includes all the cards in Kingdoms. Otherwise Player A puts down a Kingdom, fills it to reduce his hand to Mayhem, and then plays it, while keeping all those cards in the Kingdom.

Oh, and Kingdoms will be their own card type, like artifact, site, etc. So a card that targets fortresses cannot target a Kingdom.

The idea would definitely take a lot of time and playtesting to make sure it integrates into the game properly. I haven't had time to come up with some ideas, I just wanted to throw the idea out there first. I'll try and get some created soon.

Josh · « **Reply #7 on:** September 18, 2013, 01:06:07 PM »

Ok, it's 7 months later, but here is my first (brief) installment of kingdoms. Just in making these, I've become aware of the near-limitless potential of Kingdoms. Hopefully you feel the same.

Quick note: I've introduced the term "garrisoned" in the abilities below. "Garrisoned" refers to any characters held in a kingdom; they are considered "garrisoned". The number after the name is the hand modifier, and therefore how many cards the kingdom can hold.

Kingdoms of the World (5)
Kingdom (evil)
(plays to set-aside)
Matthew 4:8
“Evil brigades of your garrisoned evil characters cannot be ignored. Protect evil characters in play and hands from choose the blocker abilities.”

Reign of Herods (3)
Kingdom (evil)
Matthew 2:22
“Each time an ability withdraws any number of opponents’ heroes, you may draw 1 or discard the top card of opponent’s draw pile. If your Herod is in battle, you may do that action two more times.”

Darius’ Reign (4)
Kingdom (evil)
Daniel 6:1-2
“Once per upkeep, if an opponent has a hero in set-aside and your Persian is garrisoned, you may draw 2 or discard an opponent's character in set-aside area.”

Redoubter · « **Reply #8 on:** September 27, 2013, 09:18:31 PM »

I really like the KotW, since I'm always a fan of ways to stop pre-block ignore, though that may be powerful enough on its own. The CTB stopping all players is a good touch, if it is included, however.

While I like Reign of Herods, getting a D3 or discard 3 every time you you use a withdraw ability (which is easy considering there is a Herod to do that, let alone the new dom or enhancements to do it) is a bit over the top IMO. I would recommend having it read:

“Each time an ability withdraws any number of opponents’ heroes, you may draw 1 or discard the top card of opponent’s draw pile. If your Herod is in battle, you may do both.”

Darius's Reign also works against an ability I would like to see more counters to, so of course I love it. And the way the ability is handled, not just discarding everyone but causing mutual benefit or limited discard, that is fantastic. My only concern is the lack of Persians, and without them, this card won't see much use sadly.

Good samples so far

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Author Topic: New card type: Kingdoms (Read 1875 times)

Josh

New card type: Kingdoms

Josh

Re: New card type: Kingdoms

Platinum_Angel

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jbeers285

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Prof Underwood

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Redoubter

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Josh

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Josh

Re: New card type: Kingdoms

Redoubter

Re: New card type: Kingdoms