First prototypes have been shipped

The two prototypes of Battle for Souls I ordered have finally been completed by the printer and have been shipped. Hopefully, I will get them before Wednesday so I can bring it to my game group for its first play test!

I think I will buy some small white label stickers, this way I can change card text directly on the cards as we play and discover issues.

Unholy Relic - The Devil's Wheel

Relics

Relics will add another layer of strategy for players of Battle For Souls. Each side will have a stack of 10 unholy/holy relics that they can purchase at random for the cost of 3 unholy/holy points.

Each relic acquired will be worth 2 victory points and will provide another special ability for the player. Once purchased, a relic card is placed face up on the player's tableau. A relic card can be played every turn for the rest of the game, but only one relic card per turn. So a choice must be made once multiple relics are in play.

In the case of the holy relic Selaphiel's Thurible, the power to add an extra holy point to any soul with the heavenly virtue of patience is dependent on the player having the angel Selaphiel in play. So while the card has two dependencies (angel and soul), if these are fulfilled, the card will make it difficult for darkness to capture a patient soul.

The unholy relic The Book Of Vices is limited to two uses per game that can be tracked with the "Uses" tracker that is on the face of the card.

This card allows the side of evil to draw three more temptation cards into their hand, greatly increasing the chance of having a good hand to play on the current turn. As with all unholy/holy relic cards, it is also worth 2 victory points.

The cost of 3 unholy/holy points to add a relic is significant, but the extra power and victory points will make them a viable strategy.

I will be very curious to see in playtesting whether people choose to go for relics when they have the points, or if they choose to keep risk on by passing up a relic on their way to gaining a new angel/devil card.

From a design perspective, the balance will need to be perfect to make either decision viable. My thought (and hope) is that players will get relics early in order to build up their arsenal to a point where new angel/devil cards are easier to acquire.

First Prototypes Ordered

Still waiting on two copies of prototype cards to arrive. They are now #54 in the Gamecrafter production queue.

As you can see, prototypes are rather expensive, but I would rather pay to have good quality prototypes than trying to print and cut them myself. I've never been much of a print and play kinda guy.

I will need to figure out how to get them in an easily printable file once we move to wider playtesting so that the game can be shared easily.

Barachiel - The Angel of Blessing

Barachiel is the Angel of Blessing and is usually depicted holding roses or a bread basket to represent the distribution of favors from heaven. He is one of the four ruling seraphim and is chief of the guardian angels.

His power in Battle For Souls is to magnify the blessings that a holy relic brings, or nullify the evil that an unholy relic can bring.

In cases like Barachiel, where an ability can be used only once per game I will not use a scoring track as it will be easy to track when a single use ability is used up. Once you use it, your opponent is not apt to forget.

Holy and Unholy relics are cards that can be purchased at random for the cost of 3 holy/unholy points and can be used for the remainder of the game once purchased. They are not as powerful as angel and devil cards, but their special abilities in addition to their value of 2 victory points will make them very tempting for player to incorportate. Owning Barachiel will make them even more appealing for the side of heaven to invest in. I'll be listing them here for your feedback!

Please keep letting me know what you think and please share the blog. Those who jump in will be helping to make Battle For Souls a great experience and you will be rewarded when we expand playtesting!

Azrael - The Angel Of Death

There are 7 archangel cards in Battle For Souls. Right now the plan is to have a player start with a single angel or devil card chosen at random. From there, players can earn another angel card by guiding a soul to sainthood.

This is the preliminary prototype card for Azrael, the angel of death (click to enlarge). Each angel card is worth 3 victory points and can add 1 holy point each turn to any soul that shares the same heavenly virtue color - in this case yellow as shown in the +1 circle in the top left of the card.

In addition, each angel has some special power they bring to the table. In some cases, the power is limited to certain amount of uses per game, as is the case with Azrael. If a card has limited uses a marker track is provided on the card to ensure no confusion about how many times a power has been used.

Angel and devil cards offer decent advantages, but where they can tip the balance of power too far, we limit them. I'm sure the power and number of uses for each will change as we playtest in order to get the balance just right.

In Azrael's case, the angel can reap a soul in play without a reap card. This will allow the player to score victory points by reaping souls that are neutral to holy, or Azrael can deny the devil a soul that he has been working on bringing to hell.

This is a pretty powerful card that is essentially worth 9 points. But even more, those who play the devil will hate this card as it will force them to spread unholy points evenly across souls as spending too many unholy points on one soul will just be lost to Azrael. If we find this is too powerful, we can reduce the purgatory power to only souls with a single unholy point, reduce the total number of uses, or remove the purgatory power all together.

Temptation and Virtue Cards

A good chunk of gameplay in Battle For Souls will take place with Temptation and Virtue cards, which are drawn and played by the side of evil and good respectively.

Each player will have a deck that consists of 45 temptation/virtue cards -- 6 cards of 7 different colors that correspond to the 7 deadly sins, or 7 holy virtues, and 3 wild cards. In addition, each player will have 5 reaper cards in their deck, and 2 victory point cards for a total of 52 cards.

These cards will be shuffled and a 5 card hand drawn. We will have to see how it plays, but the idea is that holy/unholy points can be added to souls based on what you play from your hand.

For example:

3 cards all of a different color = 1 holy/unholy point added to any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the colors played

4 cards all of a different color = 1 holy/unholy point added to any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the colors played OR 1 holy/unholy point subtracted from any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the colors played.

5 cards all of a different color = 2 holy/unholy points added to any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the colors played

3 of a kind = 1 holy/unholy point added to any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness of the same color

Full House = 1 holy/unholy point added to any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the played colors OR 1 holy/unholy point subtracted from any soul that has a heavenly virtue / mortal weakness in common with one of the colors played

4 of a kind = 1 holy/unholy points added to any soul

5 of a kind = 2 holy/unholy points added to any soul AND a victory point card to your discard pile if you so choose

If you use cards on your turn you keep what is left in your hand and draw back up to 5 on your next turn.

A player may also discard any amount of cards if they cannot play, or choose not to.

In addition, a player can buy a victory point card at the end of their turn at the cost of 1 holy/unholy point from any soul they control. This victory point card must however, be placed on top of the player's deck, effectively reducing their next hand to 4 cards.

All cards including any victory point cards purchased or won, must be reshuffled once the deck is played through.

This is how will will begin playtesting anyway. I will update here once we see how it works out.

What do you think of this mechanic?