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Golden age super hero trading card game


batguy

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1 hour ago, batguy said:

How can I create my own golden age super hero trading card game?

 

Do you play CCGs, LCGs or deck-building games? Play those* extensively, learn how they work. Nobody here can give you the expertise to create such a game, after all. Once you have your experience, come up with an idea for a unique twist on one of those genres. Grab some index cards. Create your cards. Playtest the heck out of it. I think Drive Thru has a POD option for cards, so you might look into that when you're ready to publish. That's it in the nutshell.

 

*One you might want to check out: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102652/sentinels-multiverse

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1 hour ago, batguy said:

How can I create my own golden age super hero trading card game?

 

From my limited experience helping with the Shadowfist CCG (which eventually went to a Kickstarter model for expansions), the number one problem you're going to have is securing art and the associated rights.  Art direction can be challenging, since it involves managing some number of artists while maintaining a consistent look across the cards.  And 'Fist suffered from some serious entanglements with art rights, royalties, and reprints for certain artists.  (But not the Foglios, they were cool.)

 

The number two problem is playtesting.  There is only so much room on the card for text, so the challenge here is to come up with a set of rules that are simple yet strategically deep.  In particular, rules text from card to card must be as consistent as possible.  Shadowfist's initial few sets had some inconsistent and/or vague wording that eventually doubled the size of the rulebook just to handle all the edge cases.  Does this card "target" another card or not?  Is a "King" just a female "Queen"?  Is "Swordsman" the same as "Swordsmen"?  Personally if I were to create a CCG I'd try as hard as possible to make it work with icons on the cards rather than words, because English sucks.

 

And then of course you have to playtest for both the entire card pool, and limited card pools depending on your rarity and distribution schemes.  One feature of Shadowfist was that rarity had more to do with unique characters as opposed to card power, so it was a lot less pay-to-win than some other CCGs I've experienced. 

 

Lastly, good luck!

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If you can, get a couple of experienced, known external playtest teams, and don't be afraid to converse with them.  They can spot some show-stopping difficulties which your development team won't notice because they are too familiar with the target game concept.  Our regular group has playtested several TTRPGs (which were eventually published) over the decades, and maybe a CCG, though that would have been while I was out of town; I am not a CCG guy.

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