WEAPON DESIGN AND SYSTEMS
So if you read POST 2 than you will see that cards have gotten a slight redesign. Not only that but the types of weapons has been reduced and keywords have been changed. The main goal was to make sure every weapon felt “different”. My main problem was I did not feel like A dagger was entirely different feeling than a hammer, even though in real life they are drastically different things! So I adjusted how they roll dice, how their counters can play out, and making more unique keywords to set them apart. Lets get into it!
STARTING WEAPONS
Curently there are 4 weapon types, dagger, sword, staff, hammer. I think there will be room for more and honestly they dont have to be one of these categories, it really just is a visual aid so you know what tyle of keywords on the weapon. So I’ll break down each one and what they specialize in.
Side note: on Post 2 I mentioned something called Residual Damage. This has been changed to BLEED since it is shorter and fits within the keyword styling.
DAGGERS
The main draw of this weapon in the Backstab & Throw keyword.
Backstab - when you attack an enemy in a matching weak spot, your bleed damage is doubled.
Throw 3 - This weapon gains Range 3 but rolls half the attack dice (rounded down)
This weapon rolls the least amount of dice and has a weaker attack but it is more accurate. On top of that Backstab will allow you still to do some serious damage when positioned correctly. And if that wasnt enough you can actually activate this weapon twice! A little more costly but hey thats pretty cool. They mostly will give out black artifact slots which mainly deal with maneuvering. Daggers are also extremely light so getting plenty of Dodges out is gonna happen. There Counter though is a bit weaker as this is a smaller weapon after all.
SWORDS
Swords are the balanced weapon which is always common in video games.
Crit 8 - when an attack dice result is an 8, roll 1 extra dice.
Peek 1 - If you attack an enemy in a matching weak spot, revealthe top card of their attack deck and put it back on top or bottom of the deck.
Crit on a weapon is insanely fun. Every roll becomes a gamble of excitement to me! And the peek ability is certainly a nice bonus to this weapon. Being able to see what card is coming up, who it will target is valuable info for player positioning. Swords are slightly harder to get successful hits compared to daggers and they weigh more, so thats something to consider when you are making a build out.
STAFFS
Staffs are the wizard build of the game. The lowest damage but lots of slots for Artifacts to fit into.
MP 2 - When you attack an enemy in a matching weak spot, gain 2 MP.
This MP boost can help you casting more spells throughout battle. Not to mention it also gives a MP boost and a shield to start the battle with. So the main thing is this is less about rolling attack dice by itself and moreso about boosting everything else for yoiu and other players. Its still fairly light so it helps with dodging also.
HAMMERS
Hammers are the big beefy boys of the weapon family, focusing mainly on rolling lots of dice.
Weakness 2 - When you attack an enemy in a matching weak spot, roll +2 attack dice.
These weapons have less slots for artifacts and are the heaviest of the bunch. But they make up for those shortcomings by maximizing your damage output naturally. The Rock mallet rolls 5 attack dice and 4 on its counter without any kind of manipulation from a keyword or other card. You can easily roll more by adding some stuff but the main point is that these are simple chunky DPS machines. The heavy wweight actually benefits this weapon as Counters will be more frequent.
I am still not totally set on just these 4 weapon styles, or even that they categorized in the way they are. I had an idea that instead of it being categorized as “sword” it would categorize as “medium” or a hammer would be replaced with “heavy”. That way it still gives you an idea of what that weapons stats would be like, but also I would not be relegated to just creating images of hammers. I will have to think on that.
STARTING ARTIFACTS AND ITEMS
These are the introductory cards you get at the beginning of the game. Each one introduces a different kind of mechanic in the game which helps ease you into knowing the rules.
MR. QUICHE
This dilectable little egg is part of the Memory Artifacts. These artifacts deal mainly with boosting stats. This one in particular will help another player with their Counter actions. There is no limit to how many times this one can be used and costs nothing to activate, nice! It requires 1 empty blue slot to be equipped so will most likely be combined with the unpolished wand.
FLARE
Flare is the most basic of magical spells. It has some great range and skips the entire dice rolling for determining damage. It does damage based on the current boss level. This spell is really expensive but that is the way it is when it comes to starting gear.
VANISH
At the bottom of this card is a cube symbol followed by a number. This is know as a Skill Cube and the number represents how many of these you place on the card at the bgeinning of battle. If you read Post 11 than you saw one option during attack was to Focus. Focus allows you to gain a skill cube and therefore able to perform this card action again! Vanish allows you to roll 1 dice and move that amount of spaces. It also has the JUMP keyword which means you can move through enemies.
MYSTERIOUS JUICE
Mysterious Juice is an Item, which means it has a limited time of uses per battle or per game. Once it is gone, you will have to purchase a new one. If any of the Artifacts did not take your fancy you can always a take the old faihtful health potion out to battle.
STARTING FEET AND ARMS
This is the part where you will really notice where all the rules of the game are. Instead looking over at your character sheet or a rule book to see basic action, I opted to have them all on cards. Even the simple action of movement has been regulated to gear. As long as you have some shoes equipped you will be able to get around, and luckily you start the game off with a pair.
WHITE MONKS
These shoes can be activated 3 times on your turn, with each time costing 1 AP and allowing 1 movement per activation. This is the most basic of movement sets so upgrading these would be greatly beneficial but its a good starting point!
TATTERED WRAPS
Arms gear mostly effects attacks or anything that is, well, arm related.
Grip 1 - After you attack with a weapon, you may re-roll 1 attack dice.
This is a simple action to help you get those hits in. The idea being you are getting a better grip on your weapon as you swing it.
Everything i’ve shown off today is still in early development. Anything is subject to change, be expanded upon or just deleted all together.