Guild Wars 2

Here I’ll post now as I’ve announced it my personal concept for a CCM, which I think would be a great enrichment for the Game of Guild Wars 2.

I do call this project concept for now Fusion – Trinity of Fate, but Anet may naturally be toal free to rename it for claiming sort of copy rights and you all know the problems, why they will have to do this, but anyways, here the reason why I named it so:

The whole name of the card game should show, that its a card game, that gets played by all the more intelligent (playable) races of Tyria and this card game should be some kind of a symbol for their made pact of being one union now, that has fusionized together, whose great three orders of Tyria became also the leading symbols for this new unified Tyria and last but not least they are all fighting towards one and the same goal – fighting together against their fate of battling against the elder dragons.
I just wanted to have a name for it, that symbollifies with 3 words perfectly what Tyria stands for now and that by this name the card game becomes something, with that everybody, be it Human, Charr, Norn, Asura or Sylvari can identify themself into (and what may follow later for other races)…

Gameplay:
From the Gameplay aspect of this Concept, Fusion: ToF should be very similar to CCM’s like Magic: The Gathering, Triple Triad, Yu Gi Oh and Tetra Master to describe a bit the way how it should functionate..mostly being an homage to Magic: The Gathering, as it was

1. The very first Collectable Card Game ever
2. Guild Wars’ basically reason for existance, as Guild Wars was build up based on this card game, so it would be only reasonable, that a CCM in GW2 should have some similarities to its basically forefather MTG.
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The Basics

How big is the Card Field(s) and how do you play on them?
Fusion: ToF gets played on a field of a 5×4 pattern, so there are 20 fields
Fusion is played with either 2 Players or Player vs. NPC

So this:

….ooooo
YXXXXX
YXXXXXY
YXXXXXY
..XXXXXY
….ooooo

This field is the so called “Battlefield”
Each player has in front of the Battllefield space for maximum 5 Hexes or Enchants, so Magic Spells that aid in the Battlefield., this will be shown you by o’s
Each side has also space for up to 3 Artifacts, shown as Y’s
Hexes and Enchants can be turned into Artifacts.
Hexes and Enchants can either have effects on the battlefield a round later, or they can work as preparations with weak effects over time becoming after a few rounds then much stronger Artifacts with permanent effects as long the other player finds no way to destroy the enemie’s Artifacts to stop their effects.

What kind of cards does it give?

These kind of cards will exist in Fusion: ToF …

• Creatures
  Creature Soul Cards are Soul Cards from Monsters of all over Tyria to be found.
  Creature Cards can be used on the Battlefield to summon the corresponding Monster on there to fight against cards of the enemy player on the Battlefield.

• Military
  Military Soul Cards are also Soul Cards, but from NPC’s, Items (Siege Weapons) and so on.
  They are stronger than Creature Cards, but you can use them only slower and Military Cards are restricted. Every player can only have up to maximum 3 Military Cards on the Battlefield. Military Cards are basically comparable with Triple Triad’s Character Cards, which were there also the best cards based on their traits.

• Hexes and Enchants
  These are Soul Cards with included Magic Spells in them, which help to buff or debuff fields (Area Effect) on the Battlefield or directly own cards or enemy cards on the battlefield. They work basically also as “Traps” because they player can decide, if they lay their effects open as Buffs or Debuffs, that should work 1 round later directly, or
  they can lay them with their effects being invisible to the other player onto a field, where their effects become reactive in regard of what happpens on the battlefield.

• Artifacts
  These are Soul Cards with permanent Buff or Debuff effects as long as the game is running. Their use is also restricted to a maximum of 3, but outside of the battlefield.
  To get these cards to use, the player has to use preparative Hexes or Enchants first and to endure their duration, until those Hex/Enchant Cards can be turned into an Artifact Card

• Runes
  These are Soul Cards, which can perform spontanous Magic Spells instantly.
  This can be anything from Healing to Damage something directly.
  Using a Rune is a mighty move and it will instantly end the round of the player, who uses them.
  Unless using a Rune Card, players have the option free to make up to 3 moves per round. So any player can draw/use up to 3 cards per round either, or 1 Rune Card.

continued

Gameplay

Every player starts the Game with a Card Deck of 10 Cards which ared mixed up.
Every player has to bring into the game 25 Hex/Enchant Cards, which get mixed together with those of the enemy player making up for a mixed Hex/Enchant Pool of 50 Cards from which the players can draw cards.
The Starthand Deck of the 10 Cards will be chosen manually by each plyer before the game starts, when players play with the Basic Rules.

But there will be also other Playstyle Rules like:

Randomous – The System automatically gives both sides randomous 10 cards of their card decks

Chosen – Each side has to choose 7 cards for the enemy out of an invisible deck with 3 preset Military Cards for both, that the players choose out themself

Sudden Death –
There will be a running game, until 1 side finally wins. No drawns.

Same –
Under this playstyle Rule can’t use both sides the same Creature, nor Military Cards
If it happens, that one side has a same creature in the deck as one other player has already played out the same card on the battlefield, then the side with the same unplayed card has in this Playstyle Rule the option to “Sacrifice” that same card.
Sacrificing a same card will perform a randomous Rune Card Effect.

Strategic –
The Battlefield will come with already layed out randomous Hex/Enchant Effects, when starting a game and both players have from begin on 1 randomous Artifact.
———-

Rarity Levels of Cards

All Cards in Fusion: Tof have a rarity level range of 10 levels

Level 1: Extreme Popular
Level 2: Very Popular
Level 3: Popular
Level 4: Common
Level 5: Well Known
Level 6: Known
Level 7: Uncommon
Level 8: Rare
Level 9: Very Rare
Level 10: Extreme Rare

So rarer the Cards, so more powerful and valuable are they naturally, but that doesn’t mean, that cards that aren’t rare become quickly junk that isn’t worth it to be played with.
Each Card can have a kind of unique Side Effect, which can trigger, if the Card is used under certain conditions, what can make even weaker cards in certain situations very helpful.

The Collector Level
The Collector Level is an achievement, which is being ranked and is also bound to the Rarity Level of the Cards, because to be able to use a certain card of a certain rarity, the player must have earned first the corresponding Collector’s Level for them to receive the official “Card Gamer’s License” to be allowed to use these cards in a game.

There are exactly 20 Ranks

1) Beginner – Everybody starts with this, able to use Rank 1 Cards
2) Novice
3) Casual Gamer – unlocks Rank 2 Cards
4) Sport Fan
5) Gamer – unlocks Rank 3 Cards
6) Analytist
7) Gambler – unlocks Rank 4 Cards
8) Virtuoso
9) Adviser – unlocks Rank 5 Cards
10) Coach
11) Veteran – unlocks Rank 6 Cards
12) Champion
13) Freak – unlocks Rank 7 Cards
14) Expert Gambler
15) Card Professional – unlocks Rank 8 Cards
16) Card Adept
17) Card Master – unlocks Rank 9 Cards
18) Card Grand Master
19) Fusion Nerd – unlocks Rank 10 Cards
20) Ace of Aces – Achievement Title – Sage of Cards

Licenses have to be bought for Gold, so theres also a Money Sink, the higher the License, so more you have to pay for them.

continued

How to obtain cards?
Fusion Cards for this Minigame can be obtained in various different ways:

Creatures:
Can be either obtained by killing the corresponding enemies. So more you kill enemies of a certain species, so higher becomes the chance to obtain by them their Soul Cards.
Or you can win them from playing with other Players/NPC’s as the winner of a match can always receive from the deck of the loser a card.
This card reward can be basically in regard of the chosen rules either 1 card, 1 randomous + 1 chosen card or the whole starthand deck of the loser, if some players like to have more risk….

Military: These cards can be only won by playing the game with the corresponding NPC’s, or obtained as rewards from WvW or received by Karma/ Laurels for exchange

Hexes/ Enchants: These cards can be found basically everywhere in the game, out of chests, bag items and so on, or naturally be won by playing Fusion.

Artifacts: These Cards can be only crafted by the armory/weaponry crafting jobs, or be received via the mystic forge in return for Hex/Enchant Cards or otherwise won …

Rune Cards: These Cards can’t be found normally in the game, they are only findable in the Black Lion’s Chests randomly out of* “Deck Sets”*, which are consumeable items that give out multiple randomous cards of each section and 1 randomous Rune Card..
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Other usages for Soul Cards?

Soul Cards will be also usable as Upgrade Items.
Creature Cards will be PvE Only Effects
Military Cards will be WvW Only Effects
Hexes/Enchants will be PvE and SPvP Only Effects
Artifacts will be usable everywhere with their Effects
Runes are the only cards, that can’t be used as Upgrades.

Trading Soul Cards?
Soul Cards should be tradeable. Every big Main City would have Card Collector-NPC’s which will trade your cards that you give them for various kinds of items.

Example:
You give the Card Collector the Hex Card X in the amount of Y and you’ll receive from that NPC in exchange like 10 Orihalcum Bars

You trade in that very rare Card X and in exchange you receive something, that can be used for creating a legendary weapon ..and so on …

continued

How do you win? Whats the goal of the game?

Both Players start with a Health Pool of 5000 HP
The player, who brings down the HP of the other player down to 0 wins the match.
If at a round get both players at the same time to 0, due to traps, artifact effects ect., its a Drawn and the match has to be replayed. At Sudden Death another round starts then with both players having a HP of 2500, so long, until 1 side finally wins.
The Health Pool of the enemy can be attacked either directly, or indirectly.
Whenever there is no creature or military on the battlefield to defend their “leader”, the gamer, enemy attacks will hit the leader directly, what will result in a direct full loss of health.
As long as there are units on the battlefield, the leader can’t be attacked directly.
Units on the Battlefield have 3 different modes.

1. Attack Mode
2. Defend Mode
3. Support Mode

Whenever a Unit on the battlefield gets defeated, the leader will lose some Health too, but naturally much lesser, as taking a direct hit without any defense at the borderline.

Every Creature and military Card as units on the battlefield have for these Modes Stats.

Attack, Defense and for Support has each card its unique Side Effects.
Handling the Attack and Defense Stats between cards is simple Math ..the card with the higher stat in somethign wins over the card with a lesser stat.
If both cards have in a stat the same number, then both units tage damage.
Due to Support Mode having no Stats, if cardsmeet on each other, that are both in Support Mode, then both sides will always take some damage based on 1/20th of the maximum Health Pool.

How do you move on the battlefield with your cards
Every Creature and Military Card will have its own pattern of how you can move them.

There will be these kinds of patterns how you can move cards:

• Everywhere: (E)
  Cards with this pattern can be just placed everywhere on the battlefield without restriction and can be moved per round by 1 field into any direction.

• Line of Sight (L)
  Card with this pattern can be placed onto into a certain line of the battlefield and be moved on this line up and down

• Jumper (J)
  Cards with this pattern can only be places in diagonal directions. So no upwards, backwards, or sideways…

• Frontliner (F)
  Cards, which can be only placed and your upper half of the battlefield at the frontline.

• Backliner (B)
  The opposite of the Frontliner.

These movement patterns increase the strategic placement of your cards and give the game a bit of “Chess” too, so that not everything in Fusion will be only all bout Stats, but having also naturally a stategy with your cards.
But there could be naturally also a Playstyle Rule like “Conqueror”, where all cards will have just the pattern of “Everywhere”

This is a bit too complicated, why did you mention Triple Triad is similar? Cause it’s not at all. You will never see such a complex minigame be added in GW2, because MTG is not a minigame, it’s a full fledged game of its own.

FYI, this is Triple Triad:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Triple_Triad

A Game with Fields, where you have Monster Cards with Stats.
Same will have Fusion… Creature/Military Cards with Stats.

The difference in TT is only, that the “battling” between cards was simpler, by just turning the cards, if your cards had better stats. The goal to win in TT was just simple only to turn all cards to your color.
But I want Fusion to be complex, to be more strategetic, what doesn’t mean that Fusion can’t have playstyle rules, that make the battles as easy like in TT, where you simple win, when you turn all enemy units via Stats and not by getting the health of your enemy down to 0. Anet would change certain things anyways if something like this concept would ever get implemented.

TT is surely also used only by many people as comparison, because its so well known as a simple Card Game, that exists inside of a Game.
Also playstyle is not everything in a concept.. I also used more from TT the concept of the “Field Effects” for Hexes/Enchants, as they were there used as “Elements” either buffing or debuffing cards corresponding to if they were strong or weak towards the element on the field als also too the concept about trading cards in for other objects, like you could do in FF8 with the cards giving away the cards to get something else useful for them …

Getting new cards as rewards for winning. That is also a part of the TT concept I’ve integrated here, so please don’t tell me my Fusion wouldn’t have anything about TT yeah!
This is NOT the case.

PS:

Feel free to make suggestions for improving this concept ^^
I’ve posted now everything of the basics of this card game concept thats like a hybrid between MTG, TT, Tetra Master, Yugioh and Chess having of everything conceptually something.

PS. I’d really like especially to hear from a content designer here, what they think of this idea, if one of them should ever read this concept here.
Just an opinion like, if something like this would be really too complex for them to make or so, just to have a better impression of how I could maybe improve that concept

I would flippin’ love to see a CCG-like minigame added to GW2. The card games (and rewards) were a huge part of why I liked FF8 and loved FF9.

Plus, it could tie into the Gem Store as a moneymaker for ANet (not that I want it to, but if they need a monetary incentive…) – let people earn points towards booster packs by winning games against people (with a limit on the number of points you can get against the same person), but also allow purchasing booster packs (limited per day to avoid pay-to-win?).

Yeah, I know what Triple Triad is, I played all FF games, and it was cool, I also played MTG so I know that as well. The reason why I think Triple Triad and the card game in FF IX worked in those games was because they were actually really simple (they were actual minigames). Basically it was just monster cards with numbers, you placed them down and the higher numbers win, it was really simple, with a few advanced mathematical combos, but that was essentially it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, I love the idea and can’t wait to see something like this in GW2, but it definitely needs to be more like Triple Triad and less like MTG.

Also, don’t get me wrong, MTG is an insanely awesome card game which I love (or at least used to love), but even though you and me who might have played it for years understand how it might actually be really simple once you get the hang of it, it’s still a hard learning curve for beginners, because it’s a full fledged game, not a mini game. Stuff like that might be overwhelming to people that want a fun distraction from combat.

Your enthusiasm for designing the card game is great, but try to keep it more simple, without these line of sight movement rules and attack modes and such. Keep in mind that we want a card game in GW2 that everyone can play, not just those advance MTG players that play a lot of other board and card games that are used to soaking in new complex rules on a daily basis.