Cactus Game Design Message Boards

First of all, I create homemade starter decks from each brigade.  They each have 8 GC, 12 GE, 8 EC, 12 EE, 7 LS, SoG, AotL, and 1 site.  I have all of these in a box and I let people tell me their favorite colors and put together an offense and defense that go with those colors.  So when they first learn the game there are only 7 types of cards (GC,GE,EC,EE,LS,Dom,Site) to remember, and all their enhs can be played on all their characters.  I also fill the deck mainly with cards that either have no special ability or have very simple ones (ie. draw a card, band a character, etc.).  I try to put a variety of characters in the deck from small to medium, and I try to pick characters who are more well known from the Bible so that players will recognize them.

I have also built decks of varying degrees of difficulty (1-5), based on the typical progression that people go through when they learn the game.

       Level 1 is a deck without a single special ability written on any card.  It is based on the idea that people have when they first start playing that to win they need to be bigger than their opponent.  So it is full of the biggest characters and enhancements without any SA.
       Level 2 is a deck with all tiny characters and all battle winner enhs.  It is based on the next idea people have which is that they don't need big people as long as they have a card that kills there opponent's character and as long as they have init.
       Level 3 is a deck with all FBN.  It is based on the next idea people have which is that it doesn't matter what battle winners their opponent has as long as they negate everything so that they don't work.
       Level 4 (I actually have 2 of these decks).  They are based on the idea of picking a single color on offense and defense and putting in the best cards for each.  So they combine elements of the first 3 decks.  There are some big characters, some small characters, some battle winners, and some negates.
       Level 5 are my tournament decks.

As they begin to advance in their skill and increase the power of their deck, I introduce the other 6 card types to them slowly (Covs/Arts/Curses/Forts/WC enh/TC enh).  I also play against them with my leveled decks.  When they beat a deck, then they advance to the next one.  That way I am always playing a deck that is only slightly better than theirs and it makes an attainable goal.

Could you message me a couple of examples of the lvl 1 deck? I've been wanting to build a deck like that for my kids but have a lack of time to really sit down and focus on it. Thanks

Hey,

Could you message me a couple of examples of the lvl 1 deck? I've been wanting to build a deck like that for my kids but have a lack of time to really sit down and focus on it. Thanks

I'd write out the deck lists I have for lvl 1 decks....if I hadn't left them in Twin Cities   If you bug Nathan Voigt enough he might write them out for you, I think they ended up at his house.

My version of Level 1 decks only have five card types (Heroes, Good Enhancements, Evil Characters, Evil Enhancements, and Lost Souls).  They each have two good and two evil brigades.  I intentionally tried to use cards that had weird numbers (i.e. not a whole bunch of 2/2s) and tried to make sure the total strength and toughness on good cards in each deck were almost exactly the same from deck to deck and slightly higher than the total strength and toughness on evil cards.  The goal was to isolate the basics concepts of (1) the steps/progression of a turn, (2) initiative and the four states of battle (the strange numbers help to make sure that all four states of battle occur and make sure that it doesn't always end up with initiative passing back and forth), and (3) card types and brigade matching.

I started writing a rulebook that covered all of the rules needed for Level 1 decks and none of the other rules, but never finished it.

The drawbacks to level 1 decks are that players that have already been exposed to the more interesting cards don't like the idea of going back to the more boring cards (even though they don't understand how to use the interesting cards correctly) and that some players get bored of level 1 decks quickly.

Mark, I'm curious how you used sites in introductory decks that only have one good brigade.  I've found that sites in starter decks/beginner decks/simple decks tend to end up either completely pointless or excessively frustrating.

Tschow,

Tim "Sir Nobody" Maly

Good advice, what tier system would you recommend for people who are already accustomed to CCG's/Nerdy things?

Well, they're starting of with mostly Gift Tin, and the occasional starter deck pack solo.

Do you follow normal Type 1 deck rules?

That makes quite a bit of sense.

They already complain that my deck is far too OP'd.  (Egyptian/Site lockout)  I keep telling them, one Journey to Egypt, and I'm dead.

I'll sell it to any of them.  Now, they need to learn how to use it.