Deckbuilder - Littlefingers
Be the shadow behind the throne. Manipulate the empire, helping it grow and become efficient. Tear your hair out when the king or other advisors in the court mismanage it.
You and the other players will shape this kingdom, for better or for worse.
I have two concepts of where to take this theme:
Concept 1: Autonomous Kingdoms
Simplified inspiration: Imperial + Dogs of war + Star Realms + Dominion
A deck building game where each deck represents a different autonomous nation with its own economy, armies, political favor, and unique cards.
Throughout the game players may purchase cards to place into a nation's deck to strengthen (or bloat) it, and purchase political favor with one of the factions. The player with the highest investment in each kingdom controls what it does with the hand it draws each turn.
At the end of each round the decks will go to war and influence one another.
At the end of the game, players cash out their political favor against how well that empire performed.
Thoughts:
- 3-5 Kingdom decks. Start near symmetrical in the style of most deckbuilders.
- Players begin with a little political favor with one or two.
- Each Kingdom acts: drawing a 5 card hand and playing it simultaneously.
- Army cards are played into the field, to await battle
- Economy cards are divided up among the players who share political favor in that kingdom
- By % share. Ignore uneven remainder.
- Adam and Billy hold 3 and 2 Political Favor respectively in the Red Kingdom. Red Kingdom generates 11 gold on its turn. Adam gets 6 and Billy gets 4 from the bank.
- Alternate: Pay each player 1 gold starting with the player with fewest shares, looping as many times as needed
- Adam has 2 shares, Bill has 1. 5 gold is distributed. Adam gets 2, Bill gets 3
- Tactics cards take effect immediately, doing what is described on the card.
- Then, each Kingdom's court takes a turn.
- Starting with Lead Kingdom (Lead kingdom passes around the table each round) and going in ascending order, in order of held Political Favor in that kingdom, each player may take one action:
- Buy new cards for that Kingdom from the market, placed into that Kingdom's discard pile.
- Purchase research upgrades for the kingdom.
- Larger hand size, deck thinning, ongoing effects etc.
- Buy more political favor from that kingdom
- Perhaps in the form of putting coin cards back into its deck? Making over-invested kingdoms less efficient? Potential ideas for that:
- A: Each time a player invests, put a 1 coin card into that kingdom's deck.
- B: Sliding scale - First is 1, second is 2, third is 3 one dollar coins...
- C: The full amount of a sliding scale cost to invest (like Imperial's) is placed into the discard pile.
- Players with 0 political favor can buy favor after all other invested players.
- After each Kingdom's court has taken a turn, it's time to for war!
- Need to come up with a strong combat mechanic
- Initial concept: Each kingdom randomly goes to war with one other each round. Which Kingdoms square off is decided by random card draw before the round begins. Similar to how Dogs of War handles it.
- Each kingdom does damage to each other based on troop strength, must loose troops to withstand damage or discard cards from top of deck.
- Some armies synergize with others, or combo based on the context of the fight
- Potential concept: troops can be wounded (discarded) or die (out of game)
- Victorious nations that do well in combat get Kingdom Points
At the end of the game, players multiply their political favor against each Kingdom's points. Whoever has the most points wins!
I've always felt that most deckbuilders don't see you making many decisions, rather just optimizing what you draw and running the engine you get.
Given that, why not let the deck run itself? If it draws combo pieces, they just hit the field and resolve immediately. Do all the terraforming mars stuff, but without having to pretend luck of the draw is strategically meaningful. Instead player agency is moved to a higher level - deciding where to invest capital and how to build multiple decks so they play off eachother in the way you want, knowing everyone else is doing the same.
Potential Kinds of card:
- Army
- Each army has a Strength Value
- Perhaps also weakness for a Rock Paper Scissors type dynamic
- Once played, remain in play until skirmish phase.
- If still alive at end of skirmish, stay in play for next round.
- May have special effects - destroy empire card, remove economic card from discard, etc.
- Maybe effects that are good for the enemy? Help players figure out their portfolio.
- Ex: Army, costs 2 in market. Provides 4 strength. The enemy Kingdom removes one economic card from their discard if able.
- Strong and cheap, but might help thin the enemy making them more efficient in the future.
- May combo off of other armies by same kingdom, other armies by other kingdoms, or have effects to change the battle
- Economic
- Provide more money to the invested players when drawn. Dominion style.
- Empire
- Infrastructure combo pieces. Once in play have ongoing effects.
- Tactics
- Event style cards. When played, do thing described.
Potential card ideas:
- Tactic: Player with the most favor may take one standing army from this kingdom into his own hand. Once, after they take an action they may add that army to the kingdom they just interacted with. (Allowing a player to yoink and move an army to another kingdom.
Concept 2: One single kingdom
Similar to above, but only one Kingdom. Everyone is trying to manipulate it for their own personal gain.
Inspiration:
I've always been annoyed by how non-interactive deckbuilders are. Everyone creates their own little engine and then the game just ends. It's multiplayer solitaire where the market is the only point of strategic interaction, but even that is light - and it tends to be random when or if you can contest people for needed cards. Timing is key, but timing is never up to you.
- Some games have tried, and failed at adding interaction to the traditional Dominion formula -
- Take That! cards that clog up enemy decks which just makes playing unfun
- Combat a la star realms, which is generally unfair due incredibly swingy late game based on luck of the draw, both for purchasing and for hands.
- Bluffing a la arctic scavengers, which is neat, but a rarely more than a gimmick
- Multiplayer co-op, where players talk grand strategy between them. This is hampered by the lack of any strategic choices offered by traditional deckbuilding. There’s always a best move to make, and everyone just needs to play out their hand in the clearly optimal manner. No coordination needed.