[Suggestion] Simplify traits: Remove triggering from hand mechanic.

Good to know... So all start of the turn effects happen at the same time? Or traits in hand won't trigger in certain cases? Or damage effects from start of turn effects is done before card drawing from start of the turn effects?

 

After a ton of games facing MBR and with the recent change to 2x2 and terrain attachments, I really like to have all cards trigger from hand. The game moves much faster, more dangerous and the strategic shift favors ranged over melee. Plus triggering from hand makes it more poker-like and opens up the surprise play with a possible new mechanic: 'Untrait - You cannot play this card. This card only reveals when triggered.'

edit: found a better name than Untrait. So I'm suggesting Shroud - This card is unplayable. This card only reveals when triggered. Think I'll make a suggestion thread.

 

Curious. Why do you think it favors ranged over melee? On a side note, does melee need to be favored instead?

It would lead to more surprises, but I'd argue that those are less desirable. In poker, for instance, there is an interplay between you and the opponent where you tactically try to deceive or convince them of something. In CH if traits are triggering in hand it, instead, is oh I drew that card and you were unlucky enough to attack me so you die to! You can't control when you draw them and you can't hold them to try to bait your opponent into triggering them. There's just no interplay, it's only, well crap, they drew Festering Guts, I lose instead of win. Even if you know the card is in their deck you're still going to attack to kill them and it's just all about whether or not they drew the card that determines the game. Certainly this is only one example, and there may be counter examples, but triggering a card that will kill you, or having one of your characters killed and triggering Superstitious on one of your other characters before you even get to go doesn't seem like fun to me.

Long story short, I think it ends up adding more randomness to a game of tactics which undermines the tactics and becomes more a game of card draws.

As far as the Untrait mechanic, we already have cards that you can't play and only happen when triggered in cards like Toughness, armor and blocks.

 

Not going to reopen a debate which was alr done few posts back. You have a view that this game is all about visible tactics, I don't. End of story.

I'm well aware, thank you for stating the obvious. And obviously, I wouldn't have suggested it if I was referring to block or armors, right ?

 

Granted, but it doesn't seem like you've stated what your view on it even is, other than what you don't think it is. What do you mean by "Poker-like" and how does it benefit gameplay? Can't really have a discussion about "it's better this way" if we don't know what "this way" means to you.

 

This thread is about simplifying traits, not about my opinion. I do not wish to derail this thread. But if you are truly interested, feel free to search for the word 'poker'. There have been prior discussions.

 

I'll be happy to search, but it actually is about your opinions! For or against my suggestions, its all for the betterment of the game right?

 

Add Immovable to the list of ones that don't trigger from hand. I was able to Whirlwind Enemies Morvin on the second map of cockroaches.

 

Would it be feasible to change Trait cards so that they are automatically played immediately after being drawn? So that regardless of whose turn it is, if you draw a trait card, then that card must be revealed and attached to you before anything else happens. That way trait cards would never be in the player's hand at any time.

 

Complex in what way? The way I'm imagining it, the trait card would be played as soon as it is drawn regardless of when or how it is drawn. So if there are triggers which cause the player to draw a card which happens to be a trait card, then the trait card would be played there and then right away. And if the mere act of playing the trait card causes something else to happen, then that effect would happen to. (I can't think of any examples where playing a trait card would immediately make something happen, but I suppose it's possible.)

 

Well, there's the whole "draw another card" that's standard on traits, which can draw more traits. And some cause damage or discards when played. But that's still less complicated than some of the things that happen during attacks.

 

Pls don't implement auto-play traits. I want to choose which traits to play 1st when I get multiples in hand. Playing the wrong trait out of turn has me cost games before.

 

There is strategic advantage not allowing autoplay of traits.

For example there is a negative wizard trait that deals two damage to you for each magic spell card in your hand. Now imagine if I draw a trait along with it such as, firestarter? Which does the autoplay play first? Order of draw? Positive then negative trait?

If it plays my firestarter first, that is potentially an additional 2 damage. If I play my negative trait first, I have eliminated any chance for further damage.

Traits are among the few cards that offer advantages in the order in which they are played.

 

Surely you can't be serious about this. The bulk of the gameplay is about choosing which order to play ones cards. The order that cards are played almost always matters - and I'd even say that traits are generally the only cards for which the order often doesn't matter. For example, it doesn't matter if you play Talented Healer before Healing Spirit, or Defensive before Hover, or Impaler before Brawler. There may be some cases where the order of traits does matter, but for non-trait cards it almost always matters - and that's essentially what the whole game is about.

I think you mean there are gameplay advantages, in particular that there is a greater number of strategic decisions if traits are not automatically played.

Just to clarify my position on this: I have no comment about whether or not autoplaying traits would be good or bad for gameplay. I'm just suggesting it because I think it's a simple and fairly intuitive way to solve the inconsistencies that were being discussed in this thread. I don't really want to advocate for or against it.

For what I'm suggesting, the order of the draw would absolutely determine the order that traits are played.

I think that if this was a physical card game where the cards are dealt out by hand and so on, then the autoplaying of trait cards would be fairly natural and not confusing. But I guess that's beside the point. I can see it could definitely be confusing for new players if some trait card just comes flying out of nowhere (which is what it would probably look like given how fast the dealing of cards happens). I'm not sure what the best way to present it would be.

 

What that list tells me is that if you are going for consistency you must eliminate triggering from hand. Because changing the first three doesn't really alter much, but changing the second five can lead to dramatic unexpected events. And not in a good way.

Edit: I posted before reading the rest of the thread and I see it has been decided anyway.

 

If you have multiple traits, or are looking to place more attachments on the character or are even afraid that the opponent will place more attachments on you it certainly DOES matter what order traits are placed. An additional case is when you already have 3 traits attached, and one of the new traits to be played already exists on your attachments and will be replaced.

As you say, the bulk of the gameplay is about choosing the order of your cards, why would you want to change the convention and remove control for only this specific type of card?