Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Battle For Souls - A Cardgame


This blog is to provide information on a new card game I am developing called Battle For Souls.

In the game, 2 or 4 players will choose the side of heaven, or the side of hell.

Each side will battle for 21 souls, which are worth victory points. Players add holy or unholy points on the souls in play based on how they use temptation, virtue, sin, intercession, holy relic, unholy relic, angel and devil cards.

Earn enough holy points, and when the soul is reaped it goes to heaven, earning the side of good victory points. Earn enough unholy points, and when the soul is reaped it goes to hell, earning the side of evil victory points.

If a soul does not earn enough holy or unholy points and is reaped it goes to purgatory where its victory points are not counted.

Guiding a soul to complete purity or complete darkness before death and final judgment adds a new archangel or prince of hell to a player's arsenal. Each of the 7 archangels and 7 princes of hell have special abilities that will allow a player to gain souls more quickly, and each one gained adds additional victory points to your final tally.

Many strategic decisions impact play. Strategies include focusing on gaining more help from heaven or hell to increase your power, working to reap souls quickly from the start with little intervention from the angelic and demonic hordes, or balancing your play to ensure victory.

Sin, Intercession and Relic cards can be purchased for beneficial effects at the cost of holy and unholy points. These help to make for deep gameplay and excellent risk/reward scenarios. Invest in these cards to strengthen your position.

204 Battle For Souls initial prototype cards are complete and I will provide updates on the progress of the game here.

If Battle For Souls sounds interesting to you, please leave a comment. I will be providing free print and play versions of the game and sending out free physical prototypes at my expense to those who can commit to providing feedback. The goal is to make the game mechanics and balance rock solid before moving to graphic design.

Let me know if you are interested.

Robert

Artwork in the public domain:
"Portrait of Pontus Fürstenberg" by Ernst Josephson - 1883

4 comments:

  1. BGGer here. I love your theme and the art work on your blog is just what I hoped to see. Because of the availabilityof all that artwork, I am disappointed to see that it is not going to be a boardgame.

    I belong to several game groups in Houston and one in Reno (and do frequent both.) I'm working on several prototypes myself and best Reno friend just sold a game to Gryphon. I'd love to be one of your playtesters.

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  2. Thanks Sam!

    I will be posting more cards here, as well as rules as they come into being. As soon as we have a ruleset that we are comfortable with I'll get you a copy! Please chime in with ANY thoughts you have as I post here. And who knows, maybe it will evolve into a board game.

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  3. I initially agreed with the BoardGameGeek concern of a runaway leader who earns new archangels or princes of hell. But it's possible to make the time it takes to guide a soul to complete purity or darkness hindrance enough.

    Take Pandemic, for example, where eradicating a disease certainly provides benefits. It often isn't the correct path to victory when pursuing eradication allows other outbreaks to occur.

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  4. I think getting the number of points required is challenging enough to deserve a special reward, and to do go for it will leave other souls open. Of course I have no idea how it will actually work until we play it and see. We will be playing Tuesday for the first time.

    I'll post how it goes here.

    Any ideas?

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