There are a number of surprises and gotcha moments with traits and handicap cards. With the suggestions below, I hope to make things more easy to play and less confusing. Problem 1: Active traits are hard to see Right now, the cards are attached to the miniature, where they are easy to overlook. Several times now one of my PCs got hit by, say, an Ember Spray, and I get caught unaware that my Fire Starter doesn't trigger anymore because it got pushed out. Solution: In addition to attaching them to the figure, display the attached trait cards behind that PC's card hand. To visibly set them apart, they could be slightly greyed out. Like this: Code: +-------------+ +-------------+ | Firestarter | | Icy Block | +------------+ +------------+ +-------------+ | Flame Spit | | Dash | | Block | Firestarter and Icy Block are the attached traits, the other three are the card hand. Problem 2: Handicap cards that shouldn't be called traits Problem cards: Brain Burn, Cowardly, Demonic Revenge, Dropped Guard, Fumble, Loner, Obvious Maneuver, Ouch, Traveling Curse Trait (noun): a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person. As per the definition of the word "trait", you'd expect these cards to create an ongoing effect. Most trait cards do, but the list above are the exception. This is very confusing. Now, the reason why these are categorized as "traits" is that all traits need to be played when you draw them. That part makes sense for the cards above. The problem is that there is no effect after the initial drawback. Solution: Create a new category of cards, Fumble for all non-attached Trait cards in the list above. This can be a pure card text change. (However, I would prefer if the free card draw is also removed). There is no need to redo items. Problem 3: Handicap cards that should be traits / attachments but aren't Problem cards: Arcane Curse, Arcane Feedback, Demonic Miasma, Slowed, Unfortunate Surge To make matters more confusing, there are some handicap cards that do not use the trait mechanic, even though that would make sense. These are cards that have an ongoing effect when they are just revealed in your hand. This is very confusing! The initial expectation is that a card has no effect until it is played. (Legacy cards from before the implementation of traits?) I was really surprised when I had Slowed on my hand the first time. It reduces your move by one while it is revealed. Unlike a trait, it stays in your hand, so you can discard it if you have at least three cards left at the end of the round... With Arcane Curse, I have no idea how the card is supposed to work from looking at it. It's black, so I assume it's bad. It makes me discard a card. Sure. But it also has an attack? What for? This card would make so much more sense if it would be a trait that attaches itself to you. Solution: Create trait / handicap cards with similar effects. Create new versions of existing items with the new cards. Mark the old ones as legacy (no longer sold / dropped). Problem 4: Cards that should be fumbles but aren't Problem cards: Demonic Pain Demonic Pain is a bit weird: It deals 3 damage to your character and lets you draw a card. Unlike other handicaps, you're not forced to play it, though, so you can just keep it in your hand until you discard it, until you are hit with a discard effect, or until you feel like the PC should suffer a bit... Problem 5: Non-keep "Armor" cards that should be attached / traits Problem cards: Arcane Aura, Flight Aura, Frenzy Aura, Rushing Aura I'm mentioning these here because, as with the others, the mechanics are not intuitive. Again, since Card Hunter has a mechanic to attach cards to a figure, you'd expect all cards with ongoing effects to work that way. These feel like legacy cards that just weren't updated when card attachments were implemented. The worst about these is that the most important fact is not listed: These are armor cards where the word "Keep" is missing. Even worse, some of them have "Keep", but on the effect, not on the armor part! So I as a player sit there, see my "Rushing Aura" deflect one damage point from an attack, and disappear! WTF? For a veteran player, this may make sense, but as a newbie you just don't know what's happening. Solution: Create new cards with new names that are traits with the effects of the cards listed above. Create new items with the new cards. Keep the old cards and items as legacy, i.e. players who have them can keep them, but they are no longer dropped or sold in shops. (This is to avoid bugs with card changes) Note that Horned Plates, Ogre Gauntlets and Wizard's Hat also fall into this category (non-keep armors with ongoing effects). Unlike the above, they do make sense as armor cards. However, the missing "Keep" is still confusing. Solution: Add the text "Discard after successfully preventing damage" to all armor cards that don't have Keep. This includes Cloth Armor and Rusty Armor.
There's no point pulling a dictionary definition of trait. A Trait, in the games terms, refers to a specific mechanic, and in actuality it could have been called anything that tickled the devs fancy at the time. They could be called Qaeblie's, but that's highly unintuitive along with not being a real word. The current Card Hunter definition of Trait is "A card that must be played as soon as it's drawn, does not count towards the players card per turn limit and must be replaced with a new drawn card when played." And there are Drawback/Handicap traits that do stay attached. Squeamish, Wimpy, Fright, Trip, to name a few.
Problem #1: definitely a problem. I look forward to UI improvements in this department. Problem #2: semantics. I think the word "trait" is fine. Problem #3: I always thought that the fact that these aren't attachments was part of the balance of the cards. By the way, Slowed doesn't slow you while it's revealed—it slows you on a failed roll every time you move while it's in your hand. Problem #4: Demonic Pain is a little weird, it feels very trait-y (mechanically) but isn't actually. I think that's probably fine. It's basically a Demonic Revenge that you can choose not to play, or to play after using Nimbus. I don't think they need to change it. Maybe they should call it Demonic Inspiration.
I think there is a point in pulling a dictionary definition. It's the same reason why people complain if you have to push "Start" to shut down Windows or "Stop" to start a car. If stuff doesn't do what it says on the button, you get confused. The problem is that "traits" probably started out in the development process as what you'd expect, attached cards. And as you rightly point out, about half of the trait cards do stay attached. These are fine. The problem then is that the developers then used the first half of the trait game mechanic, that these cards are auto-played at the start of your turn, for one-time fumble effects. It's very confusing for new players if some "traits" are attached cards and some don't. All I'm asking for is a change of card description that follows the logic of the English language. Just call the 9 cards I mentioned something else, like "Fumble".
Problem 3: Well, the whole point of those cards is that you can't use up all the other cards in your hand if you want to get rid of those particular handicap cards. (Or in the case of Arcane Curse, you can also use it as a weak attack if you get close enough). Not every handicap needs to be a "wait for X turns for the attachment to wear off" type of card, having to actually make use of the end of turn discard is a good idea!
Problem #1: This solution can only show attachments on your characters, which is messy since you still have to check attachments on your opponent's characters anyway. This solution can't be applied on your opponent's characters because (1) in MP you will most likely have to show the attachments upside down and (2) in SP, one hand is shared between many figure. And if you don't remember the effect of each card, you will still have to enlarge the cards to view their effects anyway. Problem #2: The Trait is just their wording, which will be explained if you move your cursor above it. If they want, they can change it to Ribbit and it still make sense since it's their own definition. Problem #3 and #4: Those cards are fine. The game is not a 5-years-old game so it don't need to be that simple. Those cards maybe confusing for a newbie but they don't appear early in the game so when you have them, you will most likely to understand them anyway. Problem #5: Aura can ward off damage, it is not new. The armor part is needed so the cards can be discarded easily by your opponent since they would be too powerful if allowed to be keep for a too long period. The dual-type cards maybe confusing at first but they are easy to understand after several uses.
Well, as far as Arcane Curse goes, the reason it's useful is that it's an attack card that you Keep after using it, so it's useful as a guaranteed attack that you will have every round.
No, it's discarded after you attack with it (I've got a couple in my grinding party, so I see it a lot). The Keep only applies to the part that discards your oldest card.
Huh? I've never used the card, but how would Keep apply to it then? On the Wiki, Keep: "Return this card to hand or re-attach after it triggers." This card is not discarded when used according to the instructions that include Keep. Keep causes a card to return to a character's hand rather than discarding after using it. If a card has more than one set of instructions, Keep must be specified separately for each use. A card is Kept only when used according to the relevant instructions; Keep does not prevent the card from being discarded during a forced discard or at the end of a round. I'm not trying to argue or anything, I'm just really confused at to how Keep works on this card then, when the card says to discard other than this card? Isn't there a mechanic for, "discard your oldest card other than this," that's separate from the Keep mechanic?
If Arcane Curse is the only card in your hand at the start of round, it doesn't discard itself after proccing and returns back to hand. Without the 'keep', Arcane Curse would proc only once and then be discarded. The best way to understand all cards is to use it. Try it out in SP ! Hope it helps.
Cards are discarded after they (successfully) activate unless they have the Keep keyword. But aside from Blocks, nearly everything that reacts from your hand has Keep. Have you ever used Unstable Bolt? That's discarded if you move and fail the saving roll. PS. Today I learned that if you have two Arcane Curses in your hand, the first will discard the second.
I don't want to keep going off-topic in this thread, so this will be my last post off-topic. It just seems to me that having Keep after it specifically states that you discard other cards is redundant and would have no effect in regards to the previous text of "discard your oldest card other than this." It makes perfect sense to have Keep attached if the card simply says, "discard your oldest card." The way the mechanics are applied just confuses me, and yes I will try to get this card and play it. Some of these mechanics are hard to understand lol. EDIT: I guess I'm just used to extremely detailed explanations of card mechanics from playing a lot of Magic The Gathering, as each mechanic they have basically has an essay detailing how it's applied and can be used. Mechanics in CH seem to require much trial and error (and asking around) to fully understand how they work.
Actually, from the OP: so I think this part of the discussion is entirely on-topic. I know I was surprised by a couple of the examples given in part 5 of the OP.
I honestly don't think there are as many "gotchas" as it seems. All it takes is paying a bit of attention to how mechanics interact with each other. When the trigger condition is met ("At the start of each round"), an effect takes place ("Discard your oldest card other than this"), and then the card attempts to discard itself because it's effect has been used; But "Keep" puts it back. Compare with Unstable Bolt, which lacks keep, and also gets discarded when the trigger is met (Playing a move card and failing a 3+ Saving Throw). Heck, compare it with Reliable Mail; The trigger is receiving damage, the effect is reducing the damage by 2, and then it attempts to discard itself but returns because of Keep. The only difference is, the keyword "Armor" describes a trigger and effect simultaneously. All cards with Armor imply a trigger of "Taking damage". In regards to OP's "Problem 5", it's the exact same concept. Aura cards have two triggers, and each trigger has an effect. They even have their own separate boxes on the card, to show they're to distinct effects of the same card. The Armor effect frequently (But not always; see Arcane Shell) does not have Keep, so it will be discarded if damage is taken. But the secondary trigger and effect DOES have Keep, so you can keep triggering it as many times as you want. It really mystifies me why he wants Frenzy Aura to be a trait and Horned Plates to stay how it is, when they're virtually the exact same card. Also, inregards to this; If Arcane Curse happens to be the oldest card in that characters hand, the phrase "oldest card other than this" is used to cause it to discard the second oldest card instead. Or in the case of it being the only card in your hand, the phrase stops the card from discarding itself. "Keep" keyword only stops cards from being discarded as the natural conclusion to having being triggered or played, but Keep won't stop card effects that discard cards such as from Perplexing Ray.
