#wandsmyth

[gabes-games]

Let's talk Duels and Direction

After my friend J suggested some kind of duel, I can't get the idea out of my head. This post is going to be pretty rambling and jump from idea to idea as they come to me. Navigate at your own risk.

What Duels ought to accomplish for the gameplay/experience: They should make the game a bit more of a party game: faster, less serious, joy and excitement in loss as well as victory. I don't think this is dumbing it down or trying to appeal to the masses or whatever- I just think the game should be fun and I don't find losing by huge margins in a very "serious" game to be very fun. Hence Duels-as-catchup-mechanic.

An idea for some other time: Some way of playing with more than 2 players? 4+ person brackets? Free for all? How do resources change, etc.? Or is it brackets with two simultaneous games in parallel?

What's the format of the Duel?

For all of these, I'm imagining 3 different kinds of hit dice with better outcomes for the better-made wands.

1: Roll all the die at once, winner is the one with more hits. Perhaps it's a big team brawl in the arena?

Maybe it isn't just about more hits, but landing 3 hits on your opponent before they do the same to you? I like this. More like fencing.

2: Roll one wand vs. one wand at a time, as the caster can only use one at a time, after all.

3: Choose the best 2 wands and equip your caster, roll.

For all of the above: I like the idea of there being two components to winning: wand quality (like the old scoring system) and Duel outcome. That way you can still feel like you "won" a bit, etc.

4 (Wacky Idea Alert): What if you're crafting LIVE at the Duel?? I kinda love the image that you're on the sidelines of a dusty arena whittling away a fresh wand for your caster and tossing it to them as soon as it's finished. Ridiculous and kinda fun. It's also a new (to me) take on magic and wands- they aren't permanent, they're more like single-use magical blunderbusses.

4.1 Every time you complete a wand, you get to roll a die and zap your opponent. First to 5 hits wins, etc.

4.2 There is a crafting phase and a fighting phase, roughly?

Maybe Live Arena mode is an optional/alternative way to play? You can just play the crafting game or the live zapping version?

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Ok now that all of that is out there, let's process and refine.

It's a big shift, but I think the Live Zapathon (4.1) is my current favorite idea. It breaks up what could be a long crafting phase with intermittent blasts of arcane power, and just increases the pace/stakes overall. The way things would work now is:

1. Gather resources etc.

2. At the end of a round* if you have a playable wand, you may play it and roll the corresponding hit die (better faces on the "pure" wand dice, eg)

3. First player to land 3 hits on their opponent wins!

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Next steps?

I'm going to take ideas 1 & 4.1 into some rounds of playtesting to start. Will print out some new cards and wrangle make dinner as a bribe for my girlfriend, as well as asking my virtual pals for a few runs of it. I'll keep ya posted!

[gabes-games]

A Quick Hello

Hello!

Seriously though-- here's the quick summary of this blog so you know what you're in for:

About the game:

It is tentatively titled "Wandsmyths"

You and one friend rival take on the roles of the town's wandsmyths, sending your agents to gather from the Forest and Cave, and to haggle in the Marketplace for materials so you can build the best possible wands.

The crafting culminates in a spell-slinging battle between the Witches/Wizards/Casters you've armed to see who deserves the title of "Town Wandsmyth"

About the Gabe:

My name is Gabe and I'm making a card game.

I really like tabletop games and wanted to document my thought process so that I can reflect and learn from it for future projects.

I struggle quite a bit with executive function, so I figured blogging about my progress would help keep me motivated and accountable.

It's rare that I actually follow through on my project ideas- but I like the concept of this game and don't want it to fizzle out (ask me about rotary phone jukeboxes, 3d printed espresso cups, or making a desk, to name a few).

About the blog:

I'll post updates, pictures, screenshots, and ideas here as an ever-so-slightly more coherent version of the physical notebook I use.

In an effort to avoid paralysis-by-perfectionism, I'm not treating this blog as a portfolio, store page, highlight reel, or anything with an emphasis on polish. This is just a different platform for me to lay my ideas out and, through reflection as I type them up, discover new things.

Thanks for visiting. I love talking to other game fans, as well as artists, storytellers, etc, so feel free to reach out.

Bye!

[gabes-games]

Playtest_2 Recap and Thoughts! (exciting new ideas!) (not click-bait!)

Last night I had the good fortune of (for what I think is the first time in my life!) watching two of my friends play a "game" I had designed. I've made up all sorts of games in the past, but always made them up so I could play in them with my friends- this is the first time I really got to just watch two people experience a ruleset of my own! J & K joined me on Tabletop and gave it a go. It's not polished of course, but what a pleasant and informative experience!

I'll summarize some of the issues that arose and the solutions we brainstormed in the moment. I'll also include a few random ideas that were tossed out and conclude with one BIG idea (that is really growing on me).

Problem 1: Market is a bottleneck

Every wand needs an accessory from the Market, and the only way to get the one you want is to wait for it to pop up in the daily refresh, or go on a shopping spree hoping it turns up. This really slows down wand-making.

Solution(?): Pay one card to bribe the merchant to "restock" one of the card slots- putting it on the bottom of its deck and drawing a new one. As K put it "You slip 'em some coin and say 'Show me what you've got in the back'" To balance this (to be confirmed by testing ofc), I proposed that you can only bribe with a card that actually has a type- so no rocks or twigs. I think this should really speed up finding the pieces from the market that you want, as well as help players make pure wands.

Problem 2: Can I play 4 wands?

J had two wands assembled and was last to go in a round. He had enough components to make 2 wands right then, while K only had two in front of her with no means of getting more resources. Should J be allowed to make a fourth wand? Does the game end hard at three?

Solution(?): See the big idea below for more on this- but it is clear that we need some kind of rebuttal/catch-up mechanic for someone in K's position. Noted.

Problem 3: Why am I making wands and why do I stop at 3?

Problem 4: The scoring isn't balanced for different playstyles (we think).

The "different playstyles" being fast+furious (churn out wands ASAP) vs. slow+steady (really try to make pure wands/all wild wands)

Solutions(?): Hate to say it again, but see the big idea below for an answer!

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Question 1: Can I choose to place my agent in the second slot of a location, even if the first is open?

J asked this and it's a good question. Particularly in the Market, this could allow you to choose to go second in hopes that the other player buys some stuff and refreshes the offerings.

My instinct: Negative. For simplicity, I'm going to stand by the idea that when you assign them, they start walking to that location- so the first person sent to the Forest will get there first. The bribe/restock mechanic that K suggested earlier also mitigates the need for trying to use your opponent to refresh the Market.

Question 2: Do I get some kind of combo or bonus if I send both of my agents to the same location?

My instinct: Gosh this makes me sound like I just hate my friends' ideas, but this is also a no from me. Not because I think it's a bad idea, but because I'm really attached to keeping the mechanics streamlined. I think (for right now, and so I can focus on larger balance and gameplay goals) it's better to have each agent's effect be independent. I also like this from a story perspective: casting the Brawn and Brain as two people who don't exactly work "together", just for the same person.

Question 3: Wait do these get shuffled into the deck or put on the bottom?

There are 3 ways for cards to return to their decks- sold at the market, refreshing the market each day, and the Brain looking at 3 and putting 2 back (and now a fourth: bribing the merchant). How exactly do those cards rejoin their decks? Previously I was thinking some kind of inconsistent "They go on the bottom, but I guess when we refresh the shop they get shuffled, but also shuffling that often kinda sucks right so maybe not...?"

Talking it over with J & K, I think we agreed that a discard pile for each location would be best. Cards accumulate there until it's time to draw one and you can't, at which point you shuffle the discard pile and resume. I'm still not 100% sure about the ramifications of this method mechanically (could end up with all the twigs in the discard pile, for instance) and gameplay-wise (multiple piles like that may be confusing?), but I generally like it!

Question 4: Can you make it easier to read these cards?

My instinct: Oh boy my designer is gonna be pissed about this one. Don't tell them, but I went into Illustrator and made each card completely it's location color (all brown, purple, or gold) with the little icons in the corners still, so that it's faster to look down and see what components you have already. J pointed out that he was having to glance up and down the cards in his hand to confirm that, say, that red one was a gem and that wild was an accessory, etc.

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Ok time for the big idea! (credit to J for this seed!)

====DUELS====

Once you've crafted all these beautiful wands- what happens to them? Well what if there was still a chance, however slim, to win in K's position earlier- down 2 wands to J's 3-4?

Here's the first way I thought of to make Duels work: A sporting sparring match between mages/witches/wizards/warlocks/casters. You sponsor and equip a contender and they fight. Different hit die for pure/impure wands mean both fast and slow strategies are viable and neither player is guaranteed their win (or loss) just because of how many wands they completed.

On the surface, this seems like a great answer to several questions that have bubbled up: Why are we making wands? Who uses them? Why does it matter for it to be pure/impure? How can I implement a catch-up mechanic? I'm eager to dig deeper into this idea. Just in the process of recounting this brainstorm, I've had several ideas regarding duels that warrant their own post!

I'll wrap up here with a hearty thank you to my friends J & K for their time, insight, and support :) Next post is all about Duels and my direction/feel for the game overall.

[gabes-games]

Mini Tabletop Update:

Added the locations (as boards with little circles, rather than tents) and the agents as little tokens. Also added some snap points so the decks have a place to go and the agent tokens snap to the board.

That's all for now! Hoping to play a few rounds with friends this week.

Until then :)

[gabes-games]

Welcome to the digital age! (ft. another expensive dichromatic commission for the back designs)

I went back to the spreadsheet of the card types and noticed that I had made it impossible to build a mono-blue or mono-green wand, as well as the mono-wild mistake I noticed last night. With those fixed (please welcome Bamboo, Sapphire, and Mition Sap!), I exported the cards and pulled them into Tabletop Simulator! The resolution isn't where I want it, but then again neither is the art or even the cards themselves.

The TTS deckbuilding tool is very straightforward, which is nice! Highly recommend it if you're trying to digitize your game assets (at least cards, haven't tried dice, boards, etc. yet).

Once I make stand-ins for the B&B and the 3 locations, I can get to accosting asking my board/card game friends to give it a whirl with me! This is a huge step for the playtesting, as I usually play games with a group of people spread throughout the states, and I value their insights!

Taking a bit of a break for Thanksgiving, but very happy with this step.

[gabes-games]

Playtest_1 complete! Some questions arose:

Here's that Playtest_1 reflection I promised. My girlfriend and I played a quick round with the rough rules outlined in the last post- just to get the questions flowing. Also earlier I said "Make first, ask questions later." I should've said "Make first, then ask questions, but don't worry about answering them until later", but that concise and elegant quotable only just came to me. I think questions are immensely valuable, but I don't want to bog myself down by trying to find all of the answers just yet.

I'm (somewhat arbitrarily) categorizing questions into: Scoring/Objective, Mechanics, and Lore

Scoring/Objective

Sydney felt like the points-based scoring lacked motivation (and she would be right). This gets into Lore, but why are we making wands? What makes a wand good? Why do we stop at 3?

This opened up some questions about alternative objectives: What if we were given (the same? different?) schematics of wands that customers requested? You then set out to find those parts (throwing aside the matching colors from pt_1 rules for now) to collect on those contracts. So maybe three tokens are drawn from a bag (say we draw Red, Red, Blue) and the goal becomes to make a wand with that satisfies that request. First smtyh to complete X of these contracts wins?

While I'm not sold on this contract idea, I do think I want something spicier than the pt_1 point system.

Mechanics

Are the current Brawn/Brain abilities correct? Didn't seem problematic in one test, but worth looking into.

What about trading? I completely forgot that I mentioned it in a previous post, but I do think it has a place. Maybe just an open exchange? Or is it limited to a certain phase of the round? Do you have to each have an agent at the same location? Can you trade unequal amounts of cards? Do you have to tell the truth? Do you have to follow through?

What's the correct assortment of resource card types? How many should I have that are just red vs. blue and green vs. wild, etc etc.?

The following didn't directly arise from the test, but I should write them down somewhere.

Different function of agents? What if there were dice for each location (2 sides each of blank, One, and Two, eg) that determined how many you drew and the B&B affected the roll outcomes differently?

Here's a big one: is this a two-player game only? Can it scale and, if so, what changes about the rules, turns, scoring, etc?

Lore

Ok lots to unpack here. While I can picture the town this is taking place in, I'm not settled on a lot of the details of this world.

I'm still wondering: What's the role of magic in this world? Is it revered, ordinary, feared, clandestine, on the rise, declining, ...??What's the function of a wand? Are they luxury items, commonplace, or exist on a spectrum like clothes or cars? Who buys these wands (and, I suppose, are they even being bought/sold? or perhaps they're custom-made at the behest of a powerful witch or warlock and the smyths are compelled to craft them?)? Does everyone need one (like Harry Potter) or are they only used by a small in-group of casters?

I had the thought early on that each player represents one of two rival smyths in town (one is old and established and the other is a young hot-shot prodigy etc.). I still kinda like this idea- but literally just as I was typing that, I had another idea: multiple different playable smyths with different effects, abilities, goals, etc. Maybe there are 5-6 of them and you pick/are assigned one to play as. That could be fun!

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Think I'll cap this one here so I can get some sleep. Obviously a lot to iron out (like how I didn't make/print any wild cards in the Merchant category and spent the game looking for one to complete an all-wild wand. Oops.), but I feel really good about how it played. Don't think it needs to be burnt to the ground just yet- which is comforting :) Also the act of typing this out is helping me cement my past discoveries and make new ones, which is pretty sweet!

Calling it a (successful) night and returning to Illustrator to make those damn wild Merchant cards tomorrow.

p.s. I did win- but I swear it's not because I made the game and the rules. We talked through the scoring and rules very clearly I promise. Sydney is also a good sport, which helps.

[gabes-games]

Playtest_1 Rules

Here are the rules we used for Playtest_1 (as cogently as I can type them before I go to sleep). This should be good practice for trying to write instructions in the future, as well as working on how to think about rules/structures going forwards.

Objective: Score more points than your opponent by gathering materials and using them to craft the best wands. We played with a point system that you tally once one player reaches 3 completed wands.

5 points/wand

+5 for a wand purely of one type, +10 for a purely wild-card wand

5 points for reaching 3 wands first.

Making a wand: A wand consists of a piece of wood, a crystal, and an accessory (from the Forest, Cave, and Market, respectively). These materials must all have the same color symbol in the corner (green, red, blue). A wild card (square) may be substituted for any or all of their corresponding wand parts. [So a completed wand could look like: Wood (Green/Red) + Crystal (Wild) + Accessory (Red).]

A note on hand size: No more than 8 cards in hand at once. If you have 7 cards in hand and are about to draw 2, you have to play 3 cards down to make a wand, if possible (even if you don't want to!). If you can't play a wand to make space, then you just draw up to 8. You cannot voluntarily discard cards.

A round of play is comprised of the following phases:

0: Refresh the Market's offerings

(Place the previous Market offerings on the bottom of their decks.) Take one resource card from each deck (Forest, Cave, Market) and place it face up. This is the Market for this round. You can only buy from the Market by sending an agent there.

1. Assign agents

Take turns placing agents (your Brawn and Brain) at a location. We determined the first placement by coin flip, but alternated who went first each round after that. The agent cards physically "hook" over the location cards, so you can see the order they were placed from left to right- this is important for resolving resource gathering.

The Brain is discerning, but can't carry very much- placing them at the Forest or Cave means you'll look at the top 3 cards of that deck and choose one (the other two go on the bottom).

The Brawn is stronger, but doesn't know a ruby from a rock- placing them at the Forest or Cave means you'll draw 2 cards from that deck.

2. Gather Resources

Working left->right, the first agent at the Forest acts, followed by the next (at the Forest or, if they were the only one at the Forest, the first agent at the Cave, etc.) I'll take this time to explain how the Market works.

The Market is comprised of stalls selling items from each location, as well as Market-exclusive accessories (like Raven's Feathers and Copper Wire!) that are necessary to complete a wand. After buying something from the window, its slot refreshes with a new card from the corresponding deck.

The Brain knows a good deal when they see one, and they aren't afraid to haggle- placing them at the Market allows you to exchange just 2 of your cards (including twigs and rocks!) for one of the materials in the window.

The Brawn can push to the front of the line, but easily fall for dodgy merchant tricks- placing them at the Market when your opponent placed the Brain will let you go first when it comes time to buy- but everything will cost 3 cards (again, including twigs and rocks) for you.

Spent cards go to the bottom of their decks and you may spend Market cards. Since the Market's stalls refill as you buy, you are entitled to buy as many cards as you can afford during your turn before passing to the next player or ending. Sometimes saving up cards to go on a shopping spree is a good way to get that last piece!

3. Repeat

Until one smyth completes their 3rd wand. Both players can then complete any wands they can with the remaining cards in hand before tallying the score.

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Aaaaaaand I think that's everything that governed our play for the first test! Simultaneously longer/shorter than I expected this write-up to be. I think there are lots of little rules that come up and seem obvious (inside my brain) and I need put extra effort into spelling them out. I'm sure I missed something here- to say nothing of if these rules are "good". See the next post for a recap of the first lil' playtest and some questions that arose to guide next stages of development!

[gabes-games]

Oh yeah- it's MVP (minimum viable product) time.

Mocked up a rough template in Illustrator (which I have very little experience in, so this has been a good learning experience!) of the resource cards. Cut out and taped onto an old deck of playing cards (Theory11's Blue Monarchs, for those curious). 32 cards currently, and will be adding a few more for a rough playtest later today.

small eureka moment: By taping these to playing cards, I had an idea that I don't think I would have otherwise: can I get the whole game to fit in a card box? Now I have no idea if it will in the end, but it's a fun thought to consider when designing other components.

Something I've learned from past worldbuilding (for games, in games like D&D and Microscope, and through theatre) is to just throw something out there as if it's already part of the world. I don't know what an Ullir is, exactly, but I know it has teeth. Just making up a name+parameter gives me a seed to craft the world from. Trying to give this "Make first, ask questions later" method more room to breathe in the early stages of a project.

Convinced my girlfriend to help with a little playtest tonight which should produce all sorts of new questions!

[gabes-games]

Oh- what's the premise of the game?

Got ahead of myself and shared those expensive prints before bothering to explain the game they're for.

Tentatively titled "Wandsmyth" (maybe plural?), the aim of the game is to gather resources and craft the best wands in the land. While competing with the town's other smyth for resources and fancy imports at the market, you can also propose mutually beneficial trades with them.

How do I gather materials? You have two agents working for you- the Brawn and the Brain. Each has their own strengths when it comes to gathering resources and haggling for items. (The Brain is more discerning and knows a good item when they see it. The Brawn can carry a lot more stuff and trusts you to pick from the pile they dump on your workbench)

How do I make a wand? Each wand is comprised of three parts: a wooden body, a crystal endcap, and some kind of accessory. The wood acts as a vessel, the crystal a kind of capacitor for power, and the accessory tints/flavors/colors/determines the wand's effect by charging up the crystal.

[gabes-games]

Shelled out a lot of money to get these dichromatic demo prints of dyed ink on wood pulp.

We’ve got 3 regions (Cave, Market, Forest) and each has a resources (crystals, accessories, wood, respectively) that go into making a wand.

You can gather resources by sending one of your two agents to a given location (the strong one or the smart one)- each has their own advantages at resource gathering. You can also trade excess materials at the market for specific components.