Orion's Arm Card Game
v. 0.10
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Orion's Arm Card Gamev. 0.10 |
Each player is a SI:1 being with a coterie of 10 or so baselines they need to shepherd through the troubles of life. You win either by having the last surviving baseline(s) (either by careful play or by wiping out the other guys' baselines) or by reaching a higher singularity level.
1) K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid. Minimal rules, no heavy math. Everything should fit into less than 10 rules, preferably 4 or less, with exceptions detailed on the cards themselves and all hierarchies clearly worked out.
Rules:
Remember - the cards themselves carry exceptions to the base rules. The rules could be (for the protect-the-baseline game):
2) No counters
3) Should be playable by 2 players, or more.
4) Use card types to simplify the rules - i.e, people, biology, chemistry, CS, etc - and apply families of rules to each.
5) Good graphics.
You start play with .... say, at least 4 baselines out in front of you, up to 7. You have in your hand 7 cards, less one for every baseline in play above 4. That is - 6 cards for 5 baselines, 5 cards for 6 baselines, and 4 cards for 7 baselines in play.
You draw a card, and may play any number of cards that make sense. i.e. if your opponent has 1 baseline and you have 3, you probably wouldn't want to play a 'plague' card that destroys one of the baselines controlled by the player with the most baselines...
If you end up with more than, say, 8 cards in your hand, you have to get rid of one of them, to maintain no more than 8 cards at a time.
Cards can be played that either 1) affect you, 2) affect your opponent(s), 3) affect a specific opponent, 4) affect all baselines, 5) affect all baselines of a given opponent, 6) affect a specific number of baseline(s), 7) act as technologies, 8) affect technologies in play, or 9) rarely, some combination thereof. Each card needs to be labelled with what it can affect.
I would avoid the creation of "no you didn't" cards- ones which prevent another player's action. Instead, there should be cards which remove other cards from the game, but they have to be played on your turn. Some should be automatic, but most should be taking a chance.
A thought on the baselines:
Each baseline would have between one and three 'descriptors'. These descriptors can be anything from "brave" to "researcher" to "sneaky". It is suggested there be between 8 and 12 descriptors. These descriptors could be used to 'buy' technologies, either from stealing or war or research or what-have-you, and technologies can be used to protect your baselines and/or boost 'yourself' towards the next singularity...
In M:tG terms, think of lands. In StarTrek CCG, descriptors beating the traps. etc...
Some tech would require multiple versions of the descriptors. For instance, 'TeslaAI' could have the 'inventor' and two 'electrical' descriptors...
Here's a first draft for the baseline descriptors:
The ways to 'steal' technology � Business � Stealth � Combat � Research The ways to 'develop' technology � Power (as in power source & delivery) � Mechanical � Biology � Chemistry � Computer � Medicine � Sensors A bit of both � Memetics
The technologies are divided into 3 kinds - Personal, Private, and Public. Personal are used to augment or penalize a single baseline. Private tech works on all of a specific player's baselines, again either augment or penalize. And Public affects all baselines.
Note that some technologies may also affect the player's personas...
Note also that, as this is currently targeted as a collectible Card Game, I'm aiming at lots of neat cards which need specific ranges of previously-played, lower-powered cards to exist. i.e. - picotech ain't gonna be until the player has nanotech. Similarly, nanotech rod logic is going to exist (probably - something to debate) before nanotech electrical computing.
Some sample baselines:
Grunt (Combat)
Ninja (Stealth)
Mid-Level Manager (Business)
"Gil Bates" (Business x2, Research)
Politician (Memetics)
Pusher (Stealth, Chemistry)
Cashiered Medic (Combat, Medicine)
Nuclear Physicist (Power OR Sensors, once per turn)
Jingle Writer (Memetics x2)
Madvert designer (Memetics, Infotech)
Librarian (Research)
Hacker (Software)
Repairman (Computer Hardware)
Computer Nerd (Infotech, Computer Hardware)
KIBO (Infotech, Computer Hardware, Stealth)
Ribophreak (Infotech and Biology)
Wetware Meistro (Infotech, Biology and Computer Hardware)
Architect (Mechanical)
Surveyor (Sensors)
Research Nurse (Medicine, Biology)
SI Pet (SI:1 etiquette x 2)
Eroticist (hedonics)
Mage (hermetics)
Yogi (meditation)
Archailectologian (nootech)
Archeoxenologist (alien artifacts)
Exobiologist (non-terragen biology)
Of course, those with 2 will be 'level 2' cards and those with 3 will be 'level 3' or higher cards.
Card levels: Cards will be rated by how common they are. Level 1's are, say, 75%, level 2's are 20%, level 3's are 4% and level 4's are 1% of a given run, as a case in point.
The descriptors for the baselines are the resources you need to protect and improve your baselines, to protect and upgrade your technology, and to detrimentally affect your opponent, their baselines, and their technologies. That is - they're the different types of 'batteries' you use to charge up your new devices.
in terms of SI:<1 versus SI:1, the SI:1 has a massive bonus, but the SI:<1 still has a chance, just not much of one. Imagine the joy when Joe Schmoe managed to pull the plug on Vindictive-9....
Regarding ships, there would be a requirement for a piece of tech called 'spaceship' in that you must have at least one 'combat' and one each of 'power', 'electrical', 'mechanical', 'biology', and 'medical' descriptors to bring it into play.
