Cactus Game Design Message Boards

The "stealing" part I would not think is a good idea, as it will lead to confusion on who had what card, and losing a game will cripple you completely.

Otherwise, I'm up for looking into new ways to do closed decks, but what you described is basically Sealed Deck with cards brought in by the player.  I am not a fan of bringing outside cards into any closed category myself, but I'll wait to see what others think about that.

If the players use unique sleeves then in future games you'd be able to tell where your "stolen" card is in your deck and that might influence your game play which would technically be cheating. I don't really like the stealing idea and if anything I would think the loser should get to steal from the winner to even things out more. I've thought about playing with brought in cards before but I think it could be lop-sided towards the top players that have better cards to bring in when sealed deck is usually played because the decks are more evenly matched no matter who's playing. Now I realize 5 cards that can't be above rare shouldn't be too much of an issue but A. you have to make sure you know what's rare and what's not because the newer cards don't really have a specified rarity and B. I seem to like the randomness of the packs better anyway.

At the end of each round, the winner of the pair can "steal" 5 cards from the opponent that are not the cards that the player brought from outside the tournament. The player who lost the cards will receive them back at the end of the tournament.

Why give them back? You lose the game you lose the cards.

I feel like stealing of any kind (whether temporarily until the rounds end or permanently) goes against the basis of Redemption as a game for fun and fellowship.

Sure the idea worked in Yu-Gi-Oh! but I don't think it fits with Redemption.

I would propose the following modifications: Most tournament hosts have large boxes of common/uncommon/lesser rare cards that they don't use/just give away to players that would be interested in them. Players could then take up to 5-10 cards from that box/collection to add to their decks. I also don't like the "stealing" idea, but I could envision something along the lines of a "forced trade", similar to the game Presidents and [Something Else...I haven't heard of any other board-approved names for the game]. Basically, in that game the winner of the round gets to take 2 cards from the loser of the round, and must also give that player 2 cards of his choice (usually his not-so-good ones). I would also limit the "forced trades" to non-Starter deck cards (from the Boosters or the "free box") and either limit the value of the "traded" cards to a certain value, or enforce "retrades" after the tourney.

I think it would be an interesting experiment for experienced players, but I wouldn't try it with new/inexperienced players who might be turned off by the stealing/forced trades.

Just going to echo what was said earlier, that ante or anything like it resembles (or just is) gambling, and shouldn't be in Redemption.

Interesting concept, but I agree with some of the others on the "stealing". Not a fan of that. I could see this becoming really confusing/complicating for a host and taking too much time between rounds. He would basically have to recheck all the decks each time to make sure they are legal. Younger players would definitely not wakt to play this way. On the issue of gambling,  I can see some conflicts arising. However it is an interesting new version to look into.

Wait so loser gets a tat and has to rip a card?!?

 

So the loser gets a tat, has to rip a card, has to drink Big Red and the tournament host gets a dominate of his choice from the winners deck? I think that could work!