Elite01

I think its akin to forging a bond with animals. If you were a shepherd and your family watched over a flock for generations then the sheep could act differently for you than for other people. Like maybe some sailors have windspren that power their boat, things like that would be possible but like animals wouldn't always be consistent. Its tough to say now but my main theory is there will be spren farmers/herders who cultivate groups of spren to get them to help with certain tasks.

I'm rereading SA5 and got to a section where Dalinar is in the spiritual realms seeing possible versions of himself. I think the section is interesting and I'm wondering if we can track down what city it is the blackthorn is attacking. - has a wall - the planet has a moon (eliminating scadrial as a potential planet) So while it could be any walled city my money is it being on Elantris. So this would be crazy for Brandon to foreshadow a Roshar invasion of Elantris. Also the blackthorn might be using a gun of some kind. Thoughts?

Finding ways to raise deepest ones is clever. The more consistent solution would be to have platforms nearby for your army to use. Such as having archers on stone walls, then when deepest ones show up hit the "Deepest one protocol" button to activate fabrials to raise them and get them out of danger. Not as damaging to the deepest ones but easier to control and execute. I wonder if there is a way to take advantage of the husked ones when they leave a body, could you trap that in a gem? or a aluminum box? I was also wondering about playing the noise of anti-light. Raboniel and Rlain just said it felt wrong and uncomfortable, so anything to put your enemy off their game is helpful but I wonder if husked ones are more in the cognitive realm while they are ribbons of light so maybe the noise would affect them more? Magnified ones - projectiles or shrapnel might slow down their healing/growth. Like how one would fight a bloodmaker in mistborn. Weapons with hooks might slow them down, siver and aluminum would be a plus.

I think Brandon also foreshadowed that adolin incorporates his injuries into himself pretty quickly. I can’t remember which part but in SA5 Adolin mention he still has a scar because even after a radiant healed him he had thought about the wound too much and how it would scar. so I think even if there was regrowth a month after Adolin would have already started to see himself as missing a leg. The day it happens to him it’s already affecting his mindset pretty negatively. I feel safe saying he would think about it near constantly for the next month.

That would be a good one or a trip wire of some kind would be a good way to stop them

When Adolin is defending Azir, the archers use something called the "Heavenly One protocol." Where the heavenly ones attacking the archers had been doused in oil and shot with flaming arrows. Mainly so the fire and light would disorient them as they flew. This reminded me of Hazekiller countermeasures from Mistborn so here is the question. What is the best way to counter each Brand of Fused without using a radiant? And I know anti-light would work on all of the Fused but besides that what protocols could armies use. The brands are Deepest ones (Cohesion)- maybe some kind of net that is harder for them to phase through? We at least know aluminum can be used to prevent them from popping out. Devastating ones (divison) Flowing ones (abrasion) Magnified ones (Progression) Masked ones (Illumination) - I think some kind of alerter fabrial could help armies detect Fused spies Altered ones (Transformation) Husked ones (Transportation) Focused ones (Tension) But I don't have any ideas for countermeasures right now, any ideas?

I think its pretty likely but its anyones guess if we will see it on screen

As far as the Blackthorn getting surges how would that work? I figured that in order for Fused and radiants to get surges they had to have cracks in their spiritweb and they would be filled to access power right? If Blackthorn is a spren would he have cracks in his spiritweb? I don't really have an answer but my best bet is no. So he could have things like plate and blade and unmade assisting him but it would be more like magical equipment then the blackthorn himself having powers.

Hmm that would be interesting you could have a “mine shaft” land that amasses metal every turn… could be interesting but it would be similar to just using treasures and using a dice to keep track of them. If does have the cool flavor of “amass wealth” if that was the keyword for savants isn’t there a level up mechanic or something like new Frodo coats where it changes over time? Spook could easily do this or you could just have different cards for different parts of his life or even make it a double sided card. And random tangent it would be interesting to try and put each metal into a mana color, is pewter always green? Would tin be white? Would steel be white blue? Probably a topic for a different thread but it’s interesting

Good point it could just be mana ability. Could also be energy from kaldesh but that probably doesn't fit as well... Plus at least blood and food tokens can do something on their own instead of just being an alternative to mana. Its trying to capture the vibe of mistborns keeping track of their vials and reloading when a metal is low right? Does that need to be in the set or could it be passed over?

I love stuff like this, I agree that metal tokens seem like a good idea, something along the lines of sacrifice X metal tokens to deal X damage for example, but I'm not sure if it should be like blood tokens or if it should be like oil tokens the phyrexians have... Really not sure. Not sure on the whole set structure but some random ideas I have lurcher - pay X metal tokens to unequip target artifact with X mana value from target creature. (because Lurchers main role was to play support and take vials from enemies) Coinshot/Mistborn - they gain flying if an enemy controls an artifact (or maybe you can sacrifice a metal token) Coppercloud - hexproof or gives the player hexproof Seeking - some kind of scry mechanic Pewterarm - trample or haste Tineye - vigilance Atium - first strike or double strike Duralium - activate target activated ability twice for the same mana cost Some kind of cumulative upkeep mechanic would be interesting, like if ash was falling every turn and it had to be dealt with or something bad would happen... Its probably not worth it but you could have a "snapping mechanic" like enrage where if a creature is dealt damage it transforms at the end step. Green white could be terris or feruchemy cause they kind of have a similar vibe to Selesynia, with a focus on community and patience. No clue how you would translate feruchemy into MTG... Like an opposite of exert? "tap this creature, it gains +2/+2 on your next turn" Mistwraiths could also be included in green for variety.

Okay I finally had a chance to take a look at my book and found some other nuggets “You can look at your hand, and deploy cards as armies on the table. Maneuver your troops, change their capacities according to the armies you deploy next to them. “ - interesting part is you can change the capacity of a card based on its allies “May finished with more points than yanagawn” -this is during the three person game and it appears there is some kind of point system

Looks good, I’m not as good at specific rules but it seems pretty solid. I was reading through the rules and had some random thoughts - why is the game called towers? Would be interesting if the deck you drew from was in the battlfield and was your armies “tower” maybe one win condition could be destroying your enemies tower or deck somehow? Like if it suffers 3 “attacks” you can’t draw anymore. Heavy conjecture but would be interesting to have the deck be something the pieces can interact with…

Good point, adolin even says random chance can affect victory right? so maybe there could be some card draw that wasn’t described… we can just spend the next couple years asking Brandon haha, I would assume don’t have your shardbearer in hand but I think there would need to be some kind of king or flag to have a consistent goal.

It would be crazy if Navani could accept oaths even in a coma and yeah I think syl accepted one of kaladins oaths so maybe the spren can do it themselves

Hmm I know we don’t know much but from what we got I assumed there wasn’t much card draw in this game. I kind of imagined each player starts with a king or flag or something they are defending. They have all the cards/troops in their hand and can decide if they want to field a large number off troops or just a few. We see something like this when Gawx loses the three way game because he “started too strong” if you alternated placing troops you could could choose a few strategies -spend time deploying troops (if you have a limit to how many you can do at once) -rush, a small number of troops but trying to get the flag quick -harrying force, recognize your opponent is commiting a large number of troops and focus on defeating troops while losing the round I’m sure there’s more, just spitballing

Oustide of where mercy stands I have a few thoughts - I think that the shards generally don't like to team up but will be forced to in the war. If they are fighting a double shard the main way to beat it would be through teaming up(or becoming a double shard but that seems like it would take a long time). I think Retribution will have the least allies but could still have some people encouraging him. -I'm thinking Autonomy will be all over the place with avatars. Generally I think they will be against all double shards because that's against the intent of the shard. So she could have avatars on both sides manipulating them to fight each other, weakening them for a chance to strike. Spoilers from Isle of the Emberdark/the preview chapter Brandon has read a few times

Hmm I’m not sure if there is a mechanical advantage to flanking. I am leaning towards the game being pretty simple. Technically you can flank in chess so maybe it just takes your opponent by surprise? or maybe some cards can only be captured by flanking? but as far as orientation goes our cards have long sides so it’s not to tough to tell if your card is facing an opponent head on or if it’s being attacked on the side

So I’m really not sure, he is one of the few who have no rhythms right? Is it possible that he isn’t part of any of the brands?

1. If I remember right its best of three. Adolin teachs Gawx its better to lose an early round to have more troops to win later rounds 2. It sounds like once they are lost they are gone for the rest of the game.

I think a 10x10 board just to stick to theme For terrain I could see the 11-13 cards put in a pile, shuffled then the top card is revealed to indicate what kind of terrain? Like if the jack of spades is revealed that means there’s a chasm through the middle? Not 100% sure on it you could have each player draw a terrain card and they are allowed to play it? So one could place a chasm and one could place high ground then troop deployment occurs.

Okay so begging the question, will more Spren be enlightened? It seems like the popular answer is yes but do you think Retribution approves of enlightening spren? We know Rayse didn’t. I’m curious if Taravangian won’t want an umade working independently from him so maybe he will personally enlightening them? and I don’t think we will see new radiant orders because Brandon seems to be saving stoneward and dustrbingers for later but maybe we could see new fused? Or enemy radiants? like a parshendi who has access to both illumination and gravitation but don’t swear oaths?

If it’s from the poem which takes place on Roshar it’s most likely the change dawn shard. We have not seen Rysn do much with it yet. Maybe they can bind/force people to change? Seems like kind of a stretch though

Hmm so probably not towers then cause adolin doesn’t mention much about kings. also I have think the goal is to make the game playable with our decks of cards with 13 in suit but I wouldn’t be suprised if the Rosharian deck of cards had 10 in a suit instead. Which is why I like what @NotLiamRoss has so far with 1-10 being troops and 11-13 being terrain if 11-13 were more of a shared deck for terrain that would give you more options cause you would have 12 terrains cards 3 spade 3 clubs 3 hearts 3 diamonds If we needed them. Could included rivers or snow. other cards could be support staff like a healers tent, or “heavy infantry” with hammers that might be the best to counter shardbearers supply lines could also be included. If there is a shattered plains variant you could have bridge crews. and when they added a third player did they still just use one deck of cards? Just curious