Just a guess

[firesion]

It has been rumored that the game will use cards for resolution instead of dice. Now I will make the assumption that the rumored cards will be a standard 54 card deck. So here is how I would break down the basic mechanics.

Each player gets a custom 54 card deck. 52 cards are standard duce – ace with the 4 basic suits. The additional two cards are Jokers possible one black one red. Each deck would be shuffled during your opponents turn.

Character stats are based upon card suits with higher cards representing a greater chance of success. So a character may have a ranged attack score of King. When this character makes an attack the player would deal off the top card on his deck and compare it. If the card had a value that was lower then a king such as a Jack, duce, etc then the action was successful. To allow for some variance I would imagine some characters having the ability to “double down” this would allow them to deal a second card and take the new card as a way to stretch out the variability a little more.

My guess is that the basic suits will be used to ether grant bonuses such as the ability to double down or are used for damage calculations. Club would be one point of damage, Spade would be four points. This would allow you to deal out a “to-hit” card that would also show the damage done at the same time.

I think the color of the card red vs black will be used to decide anything that would be a 50/50 chance such as if a model is under some template and there is a disagreement between the players they cut a deck red card means they go one way black the other.

For hand to hand combat I would probably do something like this. Fighter A has a 7 in hand to hand combat and two attacks. Fighter B has a hand to hand def of 5 but also has the ability to double down. Fighter A is within melee range and wants to gruesomely end Fighter B. Fighter A has 2 attacks so he deals out 2 cards (one for each attack) and compares the cards to his stat and his opponent’s def stat. He would look for a card lower then his attack, but equal to or higher then the opponent’s hand to hand def score. So if Fighter A deals a 4 of clubs and a 6 of spades he would miss on one attack and hit on the other. The suit would determine how much additional damage he did to the defending player so if the weapon had a damage rating of 4 you would add that to 4(suit was spades) and the total damage done to Fighter B would be 8.

You would probably always need to hit something or “crit” so lets say you crit when you deal out a card on a test that exactly matches your stat. If you had a 2 in hand to hand attacks and you dealt a 2 you would then hit your target regardless if they had an ace in def.

I would also have character movement be based upon cards so all movement has a random quality. You character moves a number of inches equal to the number on the card dealt. Deal a 5 of diamonds and the character moves 5”. Deal a face card the character moves 10” Deal an Ace and you get 13” of movement.

What to do with Jokers. I would make a Joker wild so that the player could choose it to represent any card in the deck. Additional any time you draw a Joker something else should happen say give the opponent one free out of turn hand to hand or ranged attack.

Overall the interesting thing would be as you play your turn your odds of getting certain cards will change. So if you deal 4 kings for movement and you have a fighter with a king as its shooting stat you know he can no longer crit without the use of a Joker.

[Malebolgia]

This is cool to watch !! I'm not saying what we are using but I like to see what people come up with without having seen the rules (and thus enter the Malifaux arena "blank").

*keeps a close eye on this topic...*

[EricJ]

exactly right! ...ok, not quite exactly, but it is fun to see what people come up with! and you never know when some idea posted here might make it's way into the game

[firesion]

Well I have a little more time so I'll make another system guess. Will the system use static models or customizable models?

The weapons on the Wyrd models seem fairly easy to mod in some cases and difficult in other cases. Wyrd does sell some cool weapon sets that could be moded on to the models, but free range in this matter would be hard to balance and difficult to control. I can see someone giving all of Pandora and her woes giant battle axes just because they are that good at moding. So I think for the models we have seen so far what the model show’s will be what the weapon is.

However, I don’t really expect Wyrd to not allow any customization on the models so I will guess that the basing on the model will have a game effect. This would go inline with some of Wyrd’s new product offerings. Additionally it is a lot easier to make a base “style” then it is to get Pandora to hold that battle ax. So my guess will be that the base will add a bonus stat wise to the model based upon the “style”. Thus for each model you could have a different feel by simply having the model based in different terrain. Say Pandora was a spell caster she might be a better spell caster if based using some graveyard insert. Or if you wanted a faster Pandora say she gets an additional inch of movement if modeled with a light grass base. Using this mechanic would allow for two Pandora skirmish groups to have distinctly different feels.

[firesion]

Some days I swear these meetings will never end.

Ok what to do about terrain. The main use of terrain in most games is to mitigate ranged damage. So keeping with this I don’t see terrain keeping you from taking one in the face in close combat. However, being in cover should help from getting you head shot off. I would go back to the card mechanism and simply classify each terrain item when placed as being of one of the four card suits (Clubs =1, Diamonds =2, Hearts =3, Spades 4). So if you are in terrain and get shot you reduce the damage done by the card type of the terrain. Exsample, get shot with an ace of Spades by a guy with a large caliber pistol. The damage would be the pistol (say it’s ranked at 6) and the suite of the card so the total damage done to the person being shot would be 6+4 or 10. Since the person who got shot was in terrain ranked at the beginning of the game as Hearts he would subtract 3 and then record the remaining 7 points of damage.

I would also allow anyone who had a movement card dealt that matched the terrain type to move through the terrain at full speed. So if you get a 10 of clubs for movement then you get 10” of movement through no terrain, 5” of movement through terrain that was not designated as clubs at the beginning of the game, and 10” of movement through any near by terrain that was designated as clubs at the beginning of the game.

[EricJ]

It's fun to watch guesses! In fact some of the things you're writing about haven't even been resolved yet (that's what playtesting is for!).

[firesion]

Since its fun here is my final guess for the work day.

Now what to do about damage? First I spend a lot of time painting miniatures and really don’t like to see them leave the field before their time has come. Also considering the fluff that was in the e-zine most things in the Wyrd world can take a beating like no other. So the damage system should play to the theme created in the fluff. Above I used a 4 point random damage system. If you added in the ability to double down for damage, then it could go as high as 8 points. So keeping that as the random factor of the damage equation then a character should be able to survive at least to power 8 shots + weapon damage. That would put the average character at having about 20 wounds. That would be the simple way to do things.

Now lets say they want to get creative and give the game a Euro flavor. Lets say you don’t want to give each mini 20 wounds, but want the option to keep some stuff around for a long time. Let the player discard cards from their deck to absorb the damage that is not reduced by cover, armor, or some other ability. So Pandora could have 7 wounds. She takes 13 damage and her magic reduces it to 11. In this instance she would be dead. However Pandora’s player could toss out the top 5 cards from his deck. This would leave her with 1 point of damage and still in the game. However, now you have a player who is running out of cards. Which could greatly influence his ability to make actions next turn.

[Rorik36]

One of the ways I have thought of a card system working was a bit more tactical.

During your attack phase each player is dealt one card per model/unit's attack. They can now place them, face down, next to the model that will be making their attack. The number on the card is the attack value + skills + modifiers. Either take out the face cards or make them something special like critical hit/miss, weapon jam/break, etc. This way you can see what values you will get at the beginning of the round and will be able to balance where your bad luck (low cards) go.

Just another off the wall shot.

[firesion]

Ok maybe I was wrong with the cards being a standard playing deck. So I was thinking of the other statistical probability generating card systems and came up with the following

First for comparison the 52 deck with jokers

Each draw contains the following random information on each draw from a fresh deck

50% color red/black

24% suite (club, spade, diamond, heart) or 4 % Joker

27% chance of face card or 73% of numerical value 1-10(depending on where you place the ace)

You can also add a 50% chance orientation depending upon the deck.

The main advantage is that the standard playing card deck is easy to find and cheap to buy.

Lets say they get weird and use the other common deck of cards Tarot

Total cards 78

28% chance of face card 72% chance of suit card

Face cards are all specific and contain a number of different aspects making each one unique. It would be likely that they would share certain colors and symbology. However, due to the sheer number of different decks it would be hard to standardize the major arcane on anything other then card name. The 56 minor arcane cards would each contain.

25% chance of suite

50% chance of orientation

71% chance of numerical value or 29% chance of face card

The Tarot has more statistical significance based upon how the deck is designed then a standard playing deck. As such it would allow a greater variance in the differences between outcome calculations. It would also look a lot cooler

They could completely throw all of this out the window and use Uno cards as everyone already has at least one deck lying around. Think about the possibility of using 'skip' cards or 'reverse' cards to really get that strategic edge!

I was also thinking they could have you use the cards from Monopoly. This got me thinking that we might see a system that uses cards but does not need a specific type of card as long as the card delivers a random value of some sort.

You want a standard game use a standard playing card deck.

You want a less random game use an Uno deck.

You want a crazy completely off the wall game use your kids yu-gi-oh cards etc.

[EricJ]

haha, yu-gi-oh cards! that's funny...although I think we might get sued

[Rorik36]

I like the idea of using the Uno deck. Then I can use my Simpsons Uno Deck.

[firesion]

After further research I can add to some more unofficial rumors to the batch.

- The game will not use tape measures for checking distance. You will use the short side on the card to determine tight combat. The long edge will be used to determine loose combat. Ranged distances will be determined by a number of revolutions of a card.

- Their will be a range of models completely based around dogs. Think AKC gone Wyrd. You will see a dog handler who can be used with a selection of dogs. Including a Great Dane, English bulldog, and a Basset. Fear the Basset it has dynamite strapped to it!

- Their will be an MMO due out in 2013

- The Wyrd RPG will utilize a modified version of the FATE system

[witchfire]

i realy hope the card thing is a hoax because i truly want to play this game

but i hate using cards

you'll never take my dices from me

[goblyn13]

After further research I can add to some more unofficial rumors to the batch.

- The game will not use tape measures for checking distance. You will use the short side on the card to determine tight combat. The long edge will be used to determine loose combat. Ranged distances will be determined by a number of revolutions of a card.

- Their will be a range of models completely based around dogs. Think AKC gone Wyrd. You will see a dog handler who can be used with a selection of dogs. Including a Great Dane, English bulldog, and a Basset. Fear the Basset it has dynamite strapped to it!

- Their will be an MMO due out in 2013

- The Wyrd RPG will utilize a modified version of the FATE system

No you got it wrong, Range will be determined by actually throwing the card, if you hit the mini with the card, then you hit, if you miss, then you miss.

And as for the dogs, chihuahua, the deadliest of all animals, with it super sonic incessant yapping, you will bow in submission.

[Nathan Caroland]

Card isn't a hoax, we've stated that since day one. No dice.

[witchfire]

Card isn't a hoax, we've stated that since day one. No dice.

Dang !

i realy wanted to play malifaux:banghead:

i guess i'll just buy the minis then :dong:

[diehard]

I would think it's a little premature to rule out playing the game simply based on a lack of the die mechanism. Personally I have high hopes that this new card mechanic proves superior to the clunky, overused, inadequate die method. At the very least I'll give a good test run and the benefit of the doubt.

[witchfire]

I would think it's a little premature to rule out playing the game simply based on a lack of the die mechanism. .

it's not the lack of dice , it's the use of cards that puts me off

i truely hate any games that uses cards (except stat cards)

i'm still gonna buy the minis because they're awesome

[Travis Syxx]

Both are just forms of randomization. The deck will be set I would imagine rather then collectible. A deck like a roll of the dice has different outcomes and using both as tools of randomization is fairly common. I don't know why, using a deck instead of dice, would turn someone off without knowing how it was going to be used.

Could you elaborate a bit more. Sorry if this comes off wrong I am truly curious as to what the difference is.

Thanks

Travis Syxx

[witchfire]

the difference is that dice don't bring back bad memories like cards does

on some very very personal reasons

[firesion]

I am a little late for my guess this week. I am currently expecting that model size will play a fairly standard role. However, looking at the fluff again makes me anticipate some sort of larger then 50mm model.

I am going to guess that this would be in resin or plastic as I know nothing about how to make these things other then that the big ones tend to be made of those materials.

Personally I would rather they contract one of the guys from World Works and have him design the stuff in Card Stock. That way the big guns could really be BIG and not cost prohibitive.

[firesion]

I was thinking about army construction and was wondering if it would somehow relate to the card system. Assuming the system uses a standard deck of playing cards each model could be assigned a card type to represent it basic cost. Such as making a valuable model an 'Ace' and your basic grunt a duce. Then they could require an army be composed of so many of each type of card. Basically allowing you to have in a max game 4 models of each type.

Additionally you could then breakdown the game into skirmish poker hands. So playing a royal flush game where each player takes one selection from their top 5 ranks.

Also if you look at all the battle groups they have exactly 5 models each the same number as cards in a poker hand.