Basic Decks, Dunzo

Alright the basic decks are dunzo, and ready to be printed, cut, and tested out!  Against what?  I don't know, that's the next step!  So now, lets take these decks and start playing around with different Big Bad concepts we think up and see what happens!  Think gimmicky, think story, think how each Big Bad deck could behave TOTALLY differently from the last.  Do the German Elemental Lich!

I made a second tab on the spreadsheet to track each of the decks.  I made a r00d tab and an elzar tab.  Feel free to play around with the numbers or whatever in yours, I'll do the same in mine but I'll leave the OG up for reference.  Make a new tab with your big bad concept in it, I'll do the same.

Hybrid or Multi-Class Support Roles

Had an idea for expansion hybrid support classes. They could be more advanced cards that are more difficult to play, but potentially more rewarding. So instead of filling out your support deck with 4 classes, you could exchange 2 standard classes for 1 hybrid class. So, take out the CLERIC and TANK classes and swap in a DRUID class. It could have cards that act as somewhere inbetween two other classes. You'd lose something because its not specialized, but maybe it excels in unexpected areas. Also, maybe it would be more challenging and rewarding to succeed with a smaller support deck tricked out with some funky classes. Paladins, Rogue Demon Hunters, Bards!

Spreadsheet update

Added a bunch of spells/gear for the Magic DPS. I don't know what our breakdown should be yet for gear vs single target attacks vs defensive spells, etc, but added some basic stuff for Magic DPS that fit the theme. Also added a couple of bow-related equipment for the Ranged DPS.

Re-Thinking Less Than 5 Players.

So, my original solo play plan was to have ALL the character roles be present in a single deck, but with all the hero cards in play - so 5 cards, 1 deck.  The single deck used stripped down versions of each role deck, but were combined so that the player could use all the roles for a balanced 'run' and have a fun experience.  The 'support deck variant' for sotm is a pretty fun way to play that game solo, but you still have to manage two heroes. Rudy drew attention to the sotm variant, and it suddenly got me thinking that it could fit, or be a central piece, of the less than 5 player experience, which I assume MOST games of TPK will be.

I don't think it varies much from my original concept of using the most powerful and sort of essential cards from each role deck and combining them into a single deck for soloing.  The downside was that in that plan the 'low and slow' building sort of abilities were going to be cut in favor of the more straight forward abilities "heal for 5", "attack for 10", and so on.

Using the idea of a support deck, means you use at least two decks every game, where one deck is the full character experience, and then the support deck is the paired back version of all the other roles you chose not to play with. 1 player, = 1 role deck, and 1 deck with 4 other roles combined.  2 players = each with one deck, and 1 deck with 3 other roles combined, etc.  The problem with then be with 4 players, the 5th deck is just a full deck sitting there.

Or maybe the support deck has NOTHING to do with the existing role decks?  Those decks always will be complete decks, and the support deck is pulled from a totally different set of cards, depending on how many players, and what roles, are in play.  Hmmmm, I think I like that idea even better....

Boss Idea - Elemental - 4 stages

I was thinking of a way to do a multi-stage boss and thought an "Elemental Boss" could be fairly straight forward. Elemental in German translated as "natürlich" which is rad, because NATURE and LICH, hell yeah. His main character card can be split in two on both sides, with STAGES 1-4 represented by the different elements. He starts at STAGE 1 in Wind form. After the heroes defeat that stage, the card is rotated to STAGE 2 - Water. STAGE 3 will be on the backside of the card, Earth. Then rotate that for the final form, STAGE 4 - Fire. The different stages/forms of the boss would have different hit points. There could possibly also be a "resting round" in between every stage as the boss transforms, letting the heroes heal up. The other twist that could be fun for this boss and his deck of minions/spells/attacks could be: All the cards have a general effect like "Rocklings deal 5 melee damage to the character who has aggro", but then they can also have a secondary effect like "If BOSS is in Earth stage, then all characters take an additional 2 HP damage". I can imagine that the boss is just spouting out minions and havoc which could explain Rock Monsters followed immediately by Water Monsters - but then if they happen to come out at the appropriate stage, the monsters would be deadlier.

HP Wrinkle

So, if the difference in deck cost and some pre-determined number = each characters hit points, then what about games with less than 5 players?  How do you account for the cost of a deck with 2 or 3 characters in it?  Hmmmm, smart guy?

Re-thinking Threat

So I think the original threat mechanic meant to have the most recent attack card placed on the target to see what the current threat was and compare future attacks against that card to see if the target is then pulled to the most recent attacker.  I think this is a bit tough to manage as a regular rule, and would be better suited for special cards.  I think the normal rule should be a threat number right on the target card itself and would work like this:

First attack on any target in the queue would result in a pull.

Subsequent attacks on the target must have a high enough threat to meet or beat printed value on card to see if the card is then pulled by the new attacker.

Some attack cards would actually be placed on the target to either raise or lower the threat of the card.

I was trying to think through how, for example, you would handle an AoE attack.  Let's say you  AoE all the enemy cards in the queue (that are currently not pulled by any player).  You end up pulling 3 of them.  Do you then somehow place your AoE card on all three enemy cards?  Arrange them in a column under each attack card that pulled them?  Seems messy.  Maybe having a printed value will eliminate that potential ugliness.

Something to consider for further design discussions.