Visual explanation of Attack Duels, aimed at new players

[Busling]

With the intention of helping new players understand how the game works, I have created a visualisation (and example) of how Attack Duels are resolved. Please see the attachment. 

This is for players with less than 10 games under their belt. Hopefully it helps make it clear about what gets flipped when and gives them a rough idea of what factors into the outcomes. 

Try it out with your new players and let me know if it is useful. Constructive feedback is welcomed.

This is NOT meant to be comprehensive; there are way to many options to include all of them. This is NOT intended for experienced players.

AttackDuelsVisuallyExplained_v4.pdf

[Maniacal_cackle]

Hmm... nice attempt, but if I was new to a game and saw this, I'd probably give up. It looks quite overwhelming, as it is!

[fire5tone]

I think teaching people how duels work is quite easy, especially in a verbal format but all (or most) of the steps written like your explaining a fission reactor simply looks threatening, even to me now

[fire5tone]

ok, so, one thing that new players have a tendancy to do is that they are *notorious* for not using all the mathematically significant tools at their disposal, namely stones rarely get used until the player themselves decide it neccicary to learn how to use them, and not a moment before so we can fairly safely strike off the usage of stones on the diagram

and now: step by step

most of the information in the modify duels step is not that useful as its too simplified to be fully understood without needing to have the core rules open, or is simply too much clutter for some to even want to understand, so we can strike most of the blurbs except defender side "abilities" but add mention of "stat" vs "rst".

calculate duel totals is mostly good, absolutely keep cover *but* we can probobly change the order around a bit still, make it "flip cards" then have an offshoot for if you want to cheat or not and have both lead into "calculate duel total" and add a mention "cant cheat on a negative".

 for the action side of declare triggers i would make specific mention of "eg: immediately, or when resolving" and for diference in duel totals i would put the accuracy chart up for that.

once again i'd remove specific mentions of status's as largely speaking this is an overview but cover being re-applied here is inaccurate and it should be changed to concealment and along with that we should once again put cheat after flip cards and skip the bulky LOOKING cheated damage portion, maybe also put the damage chart here. (also mention "if any" under damage)

to make up for such a drastic loss of space we can level out the line from damage to damage reducing abilities, simply because of how eyes follow lines it looks far worse than it is to veer wildly off to the side and end the line at "reduced damage".

[Adran]

It appears to miss the steps to determine the winner, such as reaching the target number. 

Overall it makes it look very complex by including every single possible thing. I think only a certain type of new player would want something that detailed. 

[solkan]

Feedback on the diagrams:

• The labels in the black bars across the top of the diagram don't correspond to the duel steps.  
  • If you change "Modify Duel" to something talking about initial conditions, the cover box needs to be in that area.
  • "Calculate Duel Totals" should really be something like "Turn Over Cards" and stretch over to include the "Cheat in a Card" box.
  • Scrunch "Calculate Cheated Duel Total" down and rename it to something like "Calculate (Intermediate) Duel Total".
  • You need to find room to create another step "Final Duel Total"  and put the "Final Duel Total" box in that column.  You can probably just use the space you have for "Calculate Accuracy Modifier" for that.  
  • There really, really, should be black bar section for success or failure.  
• The diagram on page two appears to be mislabeled.  It should say "Resolve a damage flip."
  • The process flow for the damage flip is wrong.  What you should have is
    • Arrow from "Flip card(s)" to "Select card", and then a card next to "Select card" labeled "Cheat card".  Then arrow from those two cards to a box "result of damage flip".  From that box and the "triggers and abilities" box (damage modifiers) you'd go to "Damage" (you've got the modified damage total before damage reduction) about where you've put it on the right side of "Calculate Cheated Damage".  
  • Aside:  If you're diagraming something like this, you want the diagram to show that the first dual process is different than the damage flip process.  Because it is--one is an opposed duel (two flips), the other's a simple flip.  
• Why is the arrow drawn from "Damage" to "Abilities"?  It should be drawn from "Damage" to "Reduced Damage".
• There's a line going from "Reduced Damage" to "Soulstone" that needs to be removed.

 

[Busling]

21 hours ago, fire5tone said:

ok, so, one thing that new players have a tendancy to do is that they are *notorious* for not using all the mathematically significant tools at their disposal, namely stones rarely get used until the player themselves decide it neccicary to learn how to use them, and not a moment before so we can fairly safely strike off the usage of stones on the diagram

and now: step by step

most of the information in the modify duels step is not that useful as its too simplified to be fully understood without needing to have the core rules open, or is simply too much clutter for some to even want to understand, so we can strike most of the blurbs except defender side "abilities" but add mention of "stat" vs "rst".

calculate duel totals is mostly good, absolutely keep cover *but* we can probobly change the order around a bit still, make it "flip cards" then have an offshoot for if you want to cheat or not and have both lead into "calculate duel total" and add a mention "cant cheat on a negative".

 for the action side of declare triggers i would make specific mention of "eg: immediately, or when resolving" and for diference in duel totals i would put the accuracy chart up for that.

once again i'd remove specific mentions of status's as largely speaking this is an overview but cover being re-applied here is inaccurate and it should be changed to concealment and along with that we should once again put cheat after flip cards and skip the bulky LOOKING cheated damage portion, maybe also put the damage chart here. (also mention "if any" under damage)

to make up for such a drastic loss of space we can level out the line from damage to damage reducing abilities, simply because of how eyes follow lines it looks far worse than it is to veer wildly off to the side and end the line at "reduced damage".

Thank you for the constructive feedback, I have incorporated a lot of it into v5 which I will attach shortly.

[Busling]

19 hours ago, Adran said:

It appears to miss the steps to determine the winner, such as reaching the target number. 

Overall it makes it look very complex by including every single possible thing. I think only a certain type of new player would want something that detailed. 

Thank you for the constructive feedback. I have incorporated checking for winner/TN in v5 which I will attach shortly.

[Busling]

Here is version 5.

I am yet to consider/included Solkans feedback. 

AttackDuelsVisuallyExplained_v5.pdf

[Busling]

Through the feedback I have come to realise that perhaps new players would most benefit from something as simple as this attached diagram

[Maniacal_cackle]

27 minutes ago, Busling said:

Through the feedback I have come to realise that perhaps new players would most benefit from something as simple as this attached diagram

Wowza, this looks SO much better at a glance! Someone else will have to check it for accuracy, but huge leap forward I reckon!

[solkan]

13 hours ago, Busling said:

Through the feedback I have come to realise that perhaps new players would most benefit from something as simple as this attached diagram

That’s pretty good.  But definitely move the “Optional cheated cards” label for “Duel - Conflict” so that it’s not overlapping the thick grey arrow.

 

[fire5tone]

I would also still put "can't cheat on negatives" here aswell, it's something that I see tons of new players asking about or just not noticing

[Busling]

Here is version 6 including the high level summary diagram

AttackDuelsVisuallyExplained_v6.pdf

[Adran]

That still feels complex, and yet also seems incomplete. 

I haven't got the fancy art skills but I would consider something like this

Opposed Duel 

Modify duel -> Flip Card(s)-> Put cards into conflict->Calculate Duel total-> Cheat fate -> Calculate Duel Total-> Declare triggers->Calculate winner

Notes

Modify Duel - use abilities like Focus, Intimidating authority and Soulstones to add ,and/or suits.

Flip cards -Each player in the duel flips at least 1 card from the top of the deck. andcancel each other out until no more than 1 type remains. Each or means you flip an extra card up to 4cards maximum 

Put cards in the conflict -If on a card of your choice from those flipped, if on a lowest value card, if value tied your choice from the cards with the lowest value.  All others are discarded.

Calculate Duel total - Add stat plus card in conflict. Remember to include suits.

Cheat fate- Starting with the person with the lowest total (The defender if it’s a tie), each player may choose to replace the card in the conflict with one from hand. This can not be done if they were on a modifier.

Calculate Duel total - as before

Declare Triggers-Starting with the attacker, each player may declare up to 1 trigger that they have the suits for in their total. Resolve "Immediately" triggers now. 

Decide winner-If attacker has an equal or higher total than the defender and has equalled or surpassed the target number includign suits (if required) the attack succeeds. Otherwise the attack fails.