[OB] I made an Alethi card game!

[parchmentEngineer]

First off, does anyone know the name of the game that 

Spoiler

was played by the Singers when they captured Kaladin?

I don't think that the name was mentioned at any point.

Secondly, I made a game! It's based off of a game that was played in Oathbringer, and other than who was playing it, it has no spoilers. Anyways, I based it off of playing cards down next to each other (esp. wooden cards). The battlefield starts with 4 cards laid out in a 2x2 pattern, with each player having 2 squires. The rest of the cards are placed in your hand (your barracks), giving each player 10 cards. Starting with the first player, each player alternates placing cards down adjacent to an already placed card. Each card has an health value and an attack value. If the health value of the card is less than or equal to the combined attack of all enemy cards touching it (diagonally adjacent is not touching), then you flip that card face down, capturing it. The game ends when either both players run out of cards, one player loses all their cards on the field, or one player loses their king. If it's one of the last 2, then the player whose cards were captured loses, otherwise the player with the most uncaptured cards on the field wins.

The Cards:

(5x) Squire: 3 Health, 1 Attack

(2x) Knight: 5 Health, 2 Attack

(1x) Tower: 8 Health, 3 Attack

(1x) Scout: 3 Health, 1 Attack, You may reposition this card to any legal space after you place your card.

(1x) Soulcaster: 3 Health, 1 Attack, Before you place a card, you may soulcast: Pick an adjacent enemy, if you have that card in your hand, you remove the opponent's card from the game and replace it with your card of the same rank.

(1x) General: 6 Health, 3 Attack, All adjacent allies gain +1 Attack while the general is uncaptured.

(1x) King: 10 Health, 5 Attack, This card is immune to the soulcaster, If this card is captured, you lose.

Note: All the glyphs were created using the alphabet in one of the pictures in book 3.

[Graulas]

Hi!

Well i know this post is pretty old, but when i saw it i said naww, did someone really cared about creating this? Stormlight is a real good series, and the idea was really good so, i tried to take it a little further.

Using your game, your stats and your rules, i searched for some more accurate glyphs, and made this. Tower and king are the glyphs from dalinar's banner, squire and knight are nan and sas (nothing special), soulcaster is transformation glyph, general is some strange-named one that means "high" and scout the one that means "storm". Also, i inverted the position of attack/life stats (it really just came out like that) and give them that wooden theme that makes them look like the in-world game is supposed to look. I wanted to share it cause i loved the idea and i just had to take them higher, and once i did i didn't want them to just stay in there.

This is my first post, and i'm not that good at english, so sorry for that. Hope you enjoy... and play

 

Edit: so i just realized i made a terrible mistake, colors! i painted the cards, so if someone wants to print them, they can play easily. I would like to post the images in their original size (5cmx7cm i think) so it doesn't affect the resoultion, but i don't want to be banned away  . I'm new and i don't actually know if the size (and resolution) that is shown in the post is the one that is saved when you download it, anyways if that happens just ask me for my e-mail and i'll send you the originals.

Also, i will be working on some back stuff (i don't know how it's named, i'm spanish). I was thinking about something like the windrunners logo (something that everybody recognizes) but maybe i'll look a little further for something more "global" (maybe).

Edited December 2, 2018 by Graulas

[Graulas]

Hello again, i made another post because for some reason the site didn't let me edit the last one. I made the back cover (or back side?) for the cards. I chose Jezrien's Honorblade for the glyph and i gave the game a very simple name (Alethi Cards). Also, i gave credits to parchmentEngineer for the very first idea, to me for the design and obviously to sanderson for that wonderful series.

If you are going to print these cards, and you want them to have a rear side, please don´t take our names from it, after all we made it for free  . Hope you enjoy playing this game, because i did. Also, if you have an idea to improve it or change it please post it, i will gladly read you.

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

Two things

1. Both attack at the same time or just one at a time. 

2. What about that thing about squires capturing?

Also, add a way to keep track of damage.

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by Bridge_Four

[Graulas]

Hello! Thank you for asking, maybe it's not that clear. I'll answer your third question first:

On 27/11/2017 at 8:41 PM, parchmentEngineer said:

If the health value of the card is less than or equal to the combined attack of all enemy cards touching it (diagonally adjacent is not touching), then you flip that card face down, capturing it.

There's no need of counting the damage. When a card is placed, you count the defense points of the defender's card, and the attack points of all the attackers (cards placed next to de defender) if the attacker wins, then the defender is captured, if they don't there's no damage dealt, the enemy card will stay there until you add another adjacent card and beat it's defense points. For example, you need to deal 10 damage to a king to capture him, but you can't count the attack dealt on more than a round, you have to attack him when your attack is higher than 10. You can do this by placing next to him your king, a tower and a general, or a tower, a general and two knights, you can also boost your soldiers attack with the general card.

About the first question, the player that plays the card attacks, and the other one defends himself, unless your attack isn't enough to capture his card, and his attack actually beats your defense. In that case, your card is captured, but you could interpretate that like "when it becomes the oponent's turn, and i become the defender, my card is inmediatly captured".

Well, let's go into some in-book stuff now.

Spoiler

The singer that played this game dind't know well if squires can capture or not, but Kaladin later tells him that squires are not strong enough to capture by their own, but they can if they recieve help from a stronger card. (The values make this possible, there's no need for an explicit rule for it)

I hope this answers your questions, once again, sorry for the bad english. And thank you for taking the time to try it!

Edited December 9, 2018 by Graulas

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

Thank you for making this game and explaining the rules to me. 

I plan on making four copies and giving three away to friends and family for Christmas!

I will, of course, keep your names on there.

One last question about printing. Should I print these out on cardstock, or something else?

 

[Arkelao]

You can buy blank cards and print on them.

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

A few extra questions:

1. Does the soulcaster ability count as playing a card?

On 12/6/2018 at 11:39 AM, Graulas said:

About the first question, the player that draws the card attacks, and the other one defends himself, unless your attack isn't enough to capture his card, and his attack actually beats your defense. In that case, your card is captured, but you could interpretate that like "when it becomes the oponent's turn, and i become the defender, my card is inmediatly captured".

2. By this you mean if I attack and fail, they capture the attacking cards??

3. If so, do I have to make an attack every turn?

4. Can you do multiple attacks in a turn, One attack per turn, or each card can attack once per turn?

Edited December 8, 2018 by Rashek of Bridge Four

[Graulas]

Well, i'm actually working on a little rulebook, but it could take me a couple days. Meanwhile, i'll gladly answer your questions.

1- No, soulcasting takes place before throwing cards (it's like the 1st phase of a turn, while the 2nd is throwing and the 3rd scouting)

2- Every time you throw a card, you are attacking (you can throw a card that has no possible battles, but i mean, if they can battle they do) if you throw a general next to an enemy squire, the squire will automatically be captured, there's no need to  say "i will attack". So, if you play a card that losses to an adjacent one (the only time you should to this is to attack another adjacent that you need to take out) your card will be captured, but the enemy card will be captured first. For example, you play a general in the middle of a squire, a tower and a king (from the enemy), the enemy squire will be the first one to be captured (because your card attacks first) and then the tower and the king will capture your general, so a move like that will end with a squire and a general captured. As i said in the last post, you could interpretate this like "i capture this squire now, and my oponent automatically captures my general at the start of his turn" and that's the same thing.

3- No, there's no need to attack, soulcast or scout every turn. You have to play a card every turn (if you have one in your barracks) and if that card can attack, it has to, but you could put for example a soulcaster in the back of your army and it will not be able to attack, there's no problem with that.

4- You can do all the attacks you want in a turn. Using the example of answer 2, theres already 2 attacks in there. Now let's suppose that in the same match, after that, you move your scout next to a squire, and you have a knight adjacent to that squire too, then you will have 3 attacks in a turn, and remember you can also soulcast at the beggining of the turn. Testing the game, i've managed myself to capture up to 4 cards in a row, and they could be more. Also, theres no limit of attacks that a card can make in the same turn, if you put a king in the middle of two squires, they are both captured.

I hope this helps

Edited December 9, 2018 by Graulas

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

Draws, draws???? Do you mean that my barracks is a stack of my cards, and I draw the top one and place it down, or do you mean I choose a card from my hand and put it down?

Here is what I did on my turn.

First, I soulcast if I could. Second, I chose a card from my hand and placed it adjacent (not diagonally) to a one of my cards or one of my opponent's cards. Third, Scout movement. Fourth, I make attacks.

Let's say I have my general fighting two knights. Neither of them can kill each other. Does nothing happen? Also, can two or more cards team up on one?

Also, two question about scouts.

1. Is this (the separation of a group of cards or a card (by the movement of a scout) vertically and horizonatly), but connected diagonally) legal?

2. Is this (the complete separation of a group (by the movement of a scout)) legal?

1. Scout moves 1

IMG_0926.MOV

2. Scout moves 2

IMG_0927.MOV

Edited December 9, 2018 by Rashek of Bridge Four

[+Ark1002]

When this is done, including the rulebook, I'm so getting it made.

[Graulas]

22 hours ago, Rashek of Bridge Four said:

I thought you just held you cards in your hand and put them down instead of drawing, or am I confused?

Im very very sorry! i thought that they were synonyms, my bad. English is not my native language, i'm very sorry, i will edit it right now. You are right, i was referring to throwing cards, not drawing them.

I've made this, is a small A5 printed in both sides, just to know how the game goes.

rulebook.pdf

Hope it helps! and sorry again for the misunderstanding.

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

I have played the game with homemade cards that aren't that fancy, and the game is great! Thank you for making the rulebook and the cool cards? I am going to print them out! 

Question: I must play cards next to one of my cards. If I place a card next to AND ONLY next to a CAPTURED card of MINE, is it legal)? 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Rashek of Bridge Four

[Graulas]

Hi! i'm very glad you liked it, i enjoyed playing it too before i remade it.

No, once your card is captured, you turn it down because of this. You can't use that space and you can't use that card to play another one. A little trick is to put your scout next to the cards that you can lose, so if this happens, you can continue to expand in that area with the scout.

[parchmentEngineer]

This looks storming amazing! Thank you for making the cards and rulebook for this game. I originally choose the glyphs based on the glyphic alphabet, but I like your version a lot better.

I've also been thinking about the structure of the game, and there's a few things that I feel could be improved. Notably, I've since found a game called Hive, which coincidentally uses some of the same rules. I'm probably going to use that to clear up some of the edge cases in the rules, such as the separation of groups by a scout's movement. I'll post back when I have some more.

[Graulas]

Hi! i'm glad you liked it!

I took the glyphs from a glyph list in the coppermind, and i didn't found any of yours. So i just looked for some cool ones that had some sort of relation with the card.

I'll be waiting to see what do you have in mind!

Well, i'm editing because i had a little idea, and wanted to share it with you.

We all know that what makes the game so limited (such as separating your forces after moving a scout) is the impossibility (idk if i wrote that well) of moving cards. But that is whay i loved of this game in the first place, i mean, if i wanted a long-term strategy game i would be playing chess (what i actually do). But the essence of this game is the short-term strategy, you have to think before every card you throw, because you won't be able to move it.

So, what if we patched this "limited action" with optional expansions? You know, like making something more for people who want battles longer than 5min. When i was first designing these cards, i thouhgt "why isn't the shardbearer here?" and i thought that a reasonable answer was that shardbearers were considered some sort of myhtology in vorin nations, and other countries didn't even had idea of them. Not to talk about radiants or singers.

But what if we experiment with extra units as an optional expansion? the original game would remain the same, the one alethi played before the battle of narak and probably before the war of reckoning. But we would have an extra resource to compensate the shortness of this game, along with the fact that it has't got too much action (some cards get stucked away without even capturing something).

Thinking a bit more (my mind blows away when i have ideas) i was thinking of an archer (that could attack cards within a 2 range, but with low attack power), and a catapult (that could attack everything, but with almost no attack or life). That would be fit to the realistic civil-wars of the alethi. And we can make something great with shardbearers (maybe replacing the space of a card if they capture it on their own?)

Please tell me what you think.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Graulas

[Graulas]

Expansion 1 created!

This expansion adds 4 more cards: archer, catapult, semi-shard and shardbearer. It's objective is to compensate the lack of captures due to cards being unable to move.

The back side remains the same, obviously. I just attached it so you can have it in hand.

rulebook expansion 1.pdf

Read the rulebook to clear any doubt about the cards. Remember that this is an optional expansion, main rules remain the same.

Please ask if you still have questions.

 

 

[ShaAn the Kandra]

So, when are you launching this on Kickstarter?

[stormlyte]

Hey everyone! I went digging around for any info on this game and found this thread, which has been so helpful. I took this brilliant idea and had PrintPlay Games print and cut the game. I used most of y'all's ideas, so HUGE thank you to @Graulas and @parchmentEngineer!!! 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by stormlyte

[ShaAn the Kandra]

Have you sent up the game to Dragonsteel? And how do we get our own made?

[Rashek of Bridge Four]

On 8/27/2020 at 2:03 AM, ShaAn the Kandra said:

Have you sent up the game to Dragonsteel? And how do we get our own made?

You know, I haven't been on this site in a year (a real shame). I come here, and people are recommending sending this game to Dragonsteel. Not sure what the heck happened over the time I have been gone, but I love it. It would be amazing if this game would be published, especially by Dragonsteel.I would love to be able to recommend this game to others without having to go on some fandom website. I didn't even really help make the game, but as one of the first people to have played it, I support you every step of the way. If there is anything you need done to help get this published, I am willing to help.

[ShaAn the Kandra]

OK, for whatever reason, they didn't post here, but stormlyte made the pnp files available here with instructions: 

 

I just ordered 5 copies of the game. I actually used the full back side sheets for the incomplete fronts to have extra blanks for expansions and whatnot. Also, I plan to pass on a copy to Skar, so he can show Brandon and see what he thinks of it.

[ShaAn the Kandra]

If Brandon asks, whose contact info do I pass along as the primary designer of the game? There was a lot of collaboration and what not, so I am not sure who to properly credit and have them contact if they care.

[ShaAn the Kandra]

My copies of the game arrived today and I will pass one on to Skar tomorrow to show Brandon. 

[ShaAn the Kandra]

Ok, I played a game and it made no sense. The entire game was one big stalemate of nothing happening, minus 1 capture each and one soul cast each. Here is a picture of the battlefield. Can you explain what We did wrong?