Character development ideas, or How Many Parts Make a Hero?

The Spiky Hammer of Litigation would fall very heavily and quickly, I think.

 

Oh dear. That doesn't sound good for my item ideas.

See this post for my response.

 

It was good enough for Wizardry, goldangit!

 

As a law student, I wish this was a real thing so much.

I don't imagine there is a resource system (beyond life) just due to the CCG-like nature of the game we have seen so far. Although, I do guess that MtG did have mana, and a mana-like resource could be a possible way to limit stringing a lot of high-powered cards in a row or overloading on deck manipulation to only play your best cards. Yet on the flip side, the card suites and their drawback cards already appear to be capable of pretty smart balancing. Also, there is always a catch with martial characters and what resource should limit them--do fighters get to run wild, or invent some idea of "energy" or "combo points" to try to slow Conan down.

 

I'm putting my money on this guy:

 

I'm fairly sure there are no resources as far as card playing, but there could be for deck building, as in this interview with RPS:

Supposing that's still the plan, are the points you have connected to experience levels?

A) So my party has reached Lvl 20, and I have some time to kill so I go looking for a quick PvP bout. It's off peak and the only other person looking at that moment is LvL 3. Then we each have a chance to build our decks at the Lvl 3 point mark. I'll presumably have collected "better" items with "better" cards, but I won't be able to use more than one or two of them - and use worse items in other slots to offset the points. I'll more likely dust off all my old equipment instead and fight on roughly similar terms. It encourages me to look for strategic potential in every suite, not just piling on the super cards. That said, experience and a broad collection are still going to be big advantages. Sir Lvl 3, consider this a free lesson...

B) Jon talks about this specifically in terms of "competitive mode," but I think it could extend to single and co-op play as well. A module designed for Lvl 10-13 will allow a stronger overall deck than one for Lvl 3-6. It could (depending on player's personality) encourage deck experimentation and replay: I've only got 30 Deck Points to work with, how many different ways can I beat Tvericus the Giant Skeleton? And I can just see the chat messages flying back and forth as a co-op group argues which suites will serve best against a troop of Zombie Lizardmen commanded by a Cyclops Shaman.

 

My thought about your Lvl 20 vs Lvl 3 PvP would be that be retrograding your gear down to offset the lower mark might not be possible - are we thinking that you will keep all of your gear forever? That is, your old Trusty Sword gets put in a cupboard once you get Black Razor and that gets put away when Stormbringer arrives, but you can still select/wear/equip them at any point in the future.

You'd also have an advantage of Sir Three in terms of HP, won't you?

 

I think we keep all our old gear, like how someone keeps commons in a CCG even after they get new rares. Otherwise, I figure there will be a market for items where we could buy new things and sell duplicates, so you can probably either hang on to your favorite low-level gear, or repurchase it in a pinch.

The HP issue is something else, though. Maybe items confer HP bonuses and not levels? Or your character could just scale down to level 3 for the fight, as it does not immediately appear that characters have any personal stats (STR, DEX, CON, etc.) to put points into when you level up.

 

If you really wanted a level playing field for the PvP side of Card Hunter, the best way I've seen such a situation handled would be in an old Neverwinter Nights module that was set up as a CTF style game. In that module everyone started with a level 12 character stripped of all gear. You then talked to an NPC who let you choose from set kits of gear. That way everyone playing had access to exactly the same characters and gear, but there was still great variety between characters.

That said, I think Card Hunter PvP would probably be fine without a super-competitive mode, just let people use the cards they've gained through adventures.

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, that Neverwinter Nights setup was simply to force everyone to select from pre-made "decks" (metaphorically). I can't call that "the best way"; that's just another standard way. More importantly, it's basically the opposite of what everyone wants from a CCG: the fun of individualizing decks. I could see it being done as a special challenge, but not the norm.

 

I agree with A Bear, I expect we can keep our old gear - if not all of it, then at least enough for the occasional retrograde match. And we should always have access to the default item set, yes?

I honestly hadn't considered how HP is an advantage. Jon's talked about stripping the stats off the character and putting all abilities onto the cards. This is the only stat left, how does it work in a stat-less game?

Maybe HP is simply constant. Our characters start with, say, 12 HP in every fight. It's not so much a stat to be improved with experience as it is a score counter: lose your HP first and you lose the battle. Easy and hard opponents have their HP scaled as part of the difficulty, but in PvP everyone comes to the fight as equals.

 

Sir Knight, I meant that in order to make it truly balanced, you have to give up any individualization you've gained through grinding, else whoever has spent more time accumulating items will have more options to pick from and thus the potential to build a stronger deck.

My main point however, is that this is NOT something Card Hunter should try to strive for. I don't see Card Hunter being played at the Major Gaming League Finals on some big stage in front of a cheering crowd while pro shoutcasters call the plays. That'd be awesome, but I don't really think that's what Blue Manchu are striving for and it's not why I want to play the game.

 

Thanks for the info, Jon.

I honestly expected you to stay far, far away from this thread even if we asked something for which you have an answer. There are a lot wild speculations hiding in the hedges, and you wouldn't want to fall into the Pit Trap of Impossible Expectations.

 

The DC check on those can be brutal, especially with all the rampant speculation some of us like to throw around.

 

My God-like dexterity means I have a major modifier to that roll.

 

Snazzy.

On-off-topic, let me just say that I keep Float cast on my party for such an occasion.

 

Hm, looking at the snazzy backgrounds over in the gallery shows three different melee-looking characters: a Dwarf with an axe, a Paladin with a shield, and some sort of heavily-armored guy with a two-handed sword. Foreshadowing of race and class choices, or just a nice looking picture?