Firefly Online CCG

POSTED BY: rklenseth
UPDATED: Thursday, June 10, 2004 02:46
VIEWED: 8252
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KURUKAMI

Friday, January 30, 2004 8:01 PM

Whoa, that's a lot of startup cash. I admittedly hadn't quite thought that far ahead...

Still, I think the idea has real potential. I'm going to do some more investigating.

History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it merely shouts "Weren't you listening the first time?!?" and lets fly with a club.

GUNRUNNER

Monday, February 2, 2004 6:27 PM

Just thoght I bump this.

Any progress on the rules?

I've still been working on some cards, and I'll post them soon.

HEDGEMON

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 8:55 PM

Hi, new to this thread, not so new to CCGs, (Magic beta player, Star Trek limited player, so overall about 10 years now.)

I've been hashing out rules, and have been in discussion with Barclay and Gunrunner. The game I have in mind has four factions: The Independents, the Alliance, the Blue Sun Corporation, and the Reavers. Each faction has its own way to win, which add to the two universal victory conditions.

I've got the pregame phase about down, and, barring changes to it by my playtesting posse (I may play Deadlands too much,) and changes implemented by Barclay and Gunrunner, I'll be posting them onto this board for input. For actual gameplay, I'm working on blending the ideas expressed in this thread, and the other. Drop me a line at YIM: magehedgemon if you're interested in helping us.

And about market release: we're going on an eBay jag here in NM, trying to raise funds. I'm also talking to a friend of mine about building an unofficial Firefly CCG webpage with it's own domain name. www.fireflyccg.com, or something. As soon as we get that, we'll be posting a PayPal donation thing. If you want to help, and you got some cash burning a hole in your hull, we will need it! After we get the rules and the demo decks(and the rights to do this in the first place... ), my posse and I will talk to GAMA and the GenCon guys. I'm thinking that we'll need about 250 decks, and 250,000 promo cards. What do y'all think?

No, this must be what going mad feels like

HEDGEMON

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 9:09 PM

GAMEPLAY FEEL FOR THE DIFFERENT FACTIONS:

Independents: Very much what you guys have started developing. The smuggling, everything.

Alliance: The jackbooted, authoritarian feel. With big guns.

Blue Sun: Mysterious. We want their player to feel powerful without giving them a license to win.

Reavers: Rape, eat, pillage, destroy. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Any ideas?

No, this must be what going mad feels like

GUNRUNNER

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 10:17 PM

Hi Hedgeman, I've joined the Yahoo group and I'm hoping everyone else does too.

I'm thinking that the Reaver "Character" cards will be diffrent that the others, since we never see a 'real' Reaver they should have no picture on them and look all tattered, riped up and bloody.

What should Reaver characters be named? Maybe they should have names like the Maggog on Andromeda, Blood Mist, Red Plauge and such.

The Firefly CCG Web Site:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/Bllm119/firefly_ccg_web_site.htm
My Other Site:
http://www.geocities.com/billds9/

BARCLAY

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 11:19 PM

My (brief?) thoughts on the whole mess... note, a lot of my ideas come from the (various) thread(s), and serve as a summary in some cases. Of course, a bit of my own personal bias is thrown in as well. I'll also be using Star Trek First Edition terminology fairly generously here, just ask if you want to know anything you're not understanding.

Basic card types:
Locations
Characters
Ships
Items (could include Cargo as a subtype)
Jobs
For you Star Trek First Edition players, we're also looking at events/interrupts, essentially. I've noticed some discussion on more than just those two, but something "long lasting" and something "short term" is probably wis,e and keeping it simple as that.

You start the game with a ship and X credits worth of crew (each crewmember has a credit COST). Say some items if you want to substitute them in for Crew? The costing system will have to be worked out.

Also, to be determined: location layout. My personal thought is to have 2 "spacelines," "Core" and "Rim." You can use your "Range" value to move that number of locations within your "spaceline" or all your Range to move to the other "spaceline."

Now, time for one of my thoughts

It would appear that we haven't really hit on determining how many credits each player gets a turn. I've considered having a "Resource value" on characters, ships, and some items. The number of credits you get to spend, are the resources these people generate from you. Also, when you complete a Job, you get a temporary boost in resources (for the next turn). You can use Resources you don't spend during your "Play Cards Phase" to then draw cards (which you may or may not want to do generously, because...)

Drawing cards will gain you greater opportunities in cards to play, etc. However, if your draw deck runs out, you lose (conceptually, if you're out of resources, you're, well... Out of Gas). So using all your resources in a turn not might be the best thing to do, but, part of the strategy of the game.

While we're on the topic of winning: You also win by accumulating either 10 or 20 points of reputation. Reputation is earned by completing Jobs successfully, or having certain characters in play with a Reputation Value (ex. Niska or Mal, no more than 1 point each - much like A Game of Thrones CCG "Renown" characteristic).

Eac Job has a reputaiton value on it. That's the value you get for completing it... or lsoe if you don't complete it. Some Jobs will have a requirement of turns you have to complete it in, others you might scrap yourself (a rule based mechanic: "Discard one card from hand to terminate current Job. Lose reputation value.")

How about a bit more strategy... let your opponent steal your Jobs. Each player can only have one active Job on the table to play another, you have to terminate your current job). But, any Job on the table, can have its requirements fulfilled by ANY player. If an opponent completes it, they get the positive reuptation, and you LOSE the reputation, making the Job twice as costly for you if your opponent completes it. Which is the incentive to go after your opponent's Jobs.

Jobs are this wonderful tool than can be used to manipulate player interaction. For example, "Requirements: Take one Item off an Alliance vessel." Now, the rules on how you'd get aboard an Alliance vessel would have to be worked out, but you get my drift.

Speaking of moving places, I briefly mentioned my "Core"/"Rim" idea. The question is, how do these locations get into play? I'm thinking with my Resources for Cost mechanic, you need to make sure things don't get inflated too quickly. That's why I think you should stock the majority of your locations in your draw deck. They'll play out for free, but you have to draw into them. Which leads to an interesting question... do you draw like amd to get locations, and risk exhausting your deck, or do you wait, and make a late run with lots of resources? Ah, the strategy. You'll, of course, start out the game with 2 locations, I'm thinking, say, one in the Core, and one in the Rim. I'm

HAPLO721

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 11:58 PM

If you folks want a veteran CCG player/budding designer on board, count me in. Just be aware that my ideas may not mesh 100% with everyone else's because the first rule of CCGs is "Make a good game first" IE, sometimes you have to sacrifice trueness to the source in order to make the game play well.

Somebody should create a yahoo group for this so we can keep from clogging up the boards here.

Early: You ever been raped, Kaylee?
Kaylee: You know, it's funny you should mention that... ever heard of the Fox network?

BARCLAY

Thursday, June 10, 2004 2:46 AM

We'd be glad to have you, or anyone else who's interested aboard. We've moved to a Yahoo Group to avoid cluttering the board. Here's the URL:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FFCCG/

Hope to see you, and other interested Browncoats there.

On your point of "Make a great game first." I agree completely. However, with most things, you need to strike a balance. If you have a great game, and call it "Firefly" but it doesn't feel like Firefly, then no one will be interested. What I loved most about Star Trek First Edition was that not only was it a great game, but you felt like you were in an episode of Star Trek while you were playing it. The revised Second Edition feels much less like the show, and it's now on life support (but that discussion is for a Star Trek bashing thread).

I think, though, that your perspective of finding mechanics that are the best, will help counteract us canon-hounds. The key, of course, is finding mechanics that feel like Firefly, have a great reply value, and make for an excellent game.

Hopefully, we'll be able to continue this on the group.

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