Hired Swords card game

[Dave]

I'm designing a card game called Hired Swords. I'm not sure how far I'll get with it, or if it'll be any fun, but I'm about a day away from having a working prototype.

I got inspired to create a card game for a contest being held at Board Game Geek. I liked their design restrictions and came up with a theme that I thought would work.

The idea is pretty simple: You control a small group of mercenaries and bodyguards hired to protect a client from bandits.

At this point I'm designing it to work best as a solo card game, but I'm hoping the rules for multiple players will come about organically. If not, that's fine.

As time goes on I'll post some development notes and preliminary card designs. It's easier to show you than tell you.

[Dave]

Here's what I posted over at BBG this morning (and it's all true!):

Hired Swords is a print-and-play solo card game that I'm designing with the intention of entering it into this contest:
boardgamegeek.com/thread/613474/quick-print-and-play-design-challenge-rulesdiscu

The theme is inspired by the movies Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven, in which a motley group of warriors is hired by a client for protection against bandits. I've chosen a medieval setting for Hired Swords.

Gameplay is centered on the moment when the bandits attack. The player commands their hired swords during the raid, and the goal is to prevent the bandits from inflicting lethal damage to the client. When all of the bandits have been repelled, the game is won.

Components needed (so far):
-About 4 sheets of cardstock to print on and cut into standard-sized playing cards (2.5" x 3").
-Four small tokens or counters to track the current readiness and injury status of the hired swords.
-A regular six-sided die (or scratch paper) to use as an indicator of the client's current health.

My intention is to create a challenging game for one player that can be completed in 20 or 30 minutes. I'm also expecting that rules for two or more players will come about organically, but I'll be happy if it plays well as a solo game only.

There are three card types used in the game, and these are kept in separate piles.

The Client cards set up the conditions for each game session. One client card is chosen at random and placed in the center of the playing area.

The Hired Sword cards are your intrepid defenders deployed around the client for this particular assignment. The number of hired swords you can deploy is determined by the client, but may be up to four. There are (so far) six hired swords to choose from, each with a unique set of abilities.

The Bandit cards are your opposition. The Client card determines the number of Bandit cards that are used.

The game is played in an area with 9 zones, set up in a 3-by-3 grid. The Client card is placed in the middle. A certain number of Bandit cards are placed faced-down in the North, East, South and West zones on the grid. The Hired Swords are deployed in the Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast zones.

Round-by-round gameplay begins by choosing any one face-down Bandit card and turning it face-up. Then, starting at the North position and proceeding clockwise, each Bandit advances toward the client. If no Hired Sword steps in to intercept the bandit, it will do a certain amount of damage to the client this turn. (The client's "Health" has a flexible meaning, and could represent valuables in a wagon train, village inhabitants, their crops, or the physical condition of an individual client.)

After all of the face-up bandit cards have acted, any hired swords that were not used to intercept can now take action. Those actions include:

Melee attack - Pit your hired sword's Melee ranking against an adjacent bandit card's Melee ranking (or their Armor ranking if they have no Melee ranking).

Missile attack - Pit your hired sword's Missiles ranking against an adjacent bandit card's Armor ranking.

Recover - If your hired sword is currently Injured or Recovering, you can move its condition one space toward Ready (the default status).

Foil - Your hired sword can use their wits to spoil a bandit's attack plan, and turn their face-up card face-down. It's a delaying tactic. To do this, pit your Awareness ranking against your opponent's highest-ranked ability.

Change location - Your hired sword can be moved to another zone, so long as it is not diagonal to its current zone.

Each hired sword has three possible states it can be in: Ready, Recovering or Injured. All hired swords begin in the Ready condition. A counter is used to indicate the current status. After a hired sword acts, their status degrades by one step. The hired sword's abilities will be different in each state. Generally, the characters will perform poorly as their status degrades, but there may be some flavorful exceptions.

If a hired sword is used to intercept a bandit attack and the necessary ranking is less than the bandit's, that hired sword becomes injured. The next step down from injured is death, but it may be necessary (or just wise) to sacrifice a hired sword if it saves the client.

Once a bandit or hired sword has acted, its card is turned at a 45 degree angle as a reminder that it can't be used again until the next round. At the beginning of each round, all of the cards are returned to their original positions.

Later today I'll get some images posted up here to illustrate all of this stuff, and begin explaining the finer points about how the hired swords and bandits interact. I'm fairly happy with my initial design in this respect, but there are balance issues that need to be worked out, and I can see room for several neat abilities that I haven't yet implemented.

I ran my first playtest last night and found plenty of bugs in need of squashing. But I would consider it a successful first run, and I was able to play a complete game without anything breaking. I lost by a narrow margin, which is great since I want the game to kick my butt more often than not.

[Dave]

Here are some of the cards I'm using for playtesting...

EDIT: These pictures were too big and they were screwing up the webpage. And they're now terribly out of date. So I've removed them.

[onemonkeybeau]

Hey Dave!

This looks really cool.

My only comment on the cards (I understand these are just early mockups...) would be instead of using '0' for a place holder on the second to last set of cards, I think it might look more aesthetically pleasing to use a '-' or something similar.

Can't wait to see how this plays out.

onemonkeybeau

[Dave]

If anybody's been wondering what I'm up to, this is it. I've been developing this little card game and trying to get it into a fully playtestable form. I'm just about there.

[Dave]

For the setting, I'm trying to do something different from just a generic medieval-type thing. I'm almost sure to go with some kind of dark fantasy -- but there's a lot of room there.

So far, there's no magic, and nothing supernatural at all. I think I want to keep it that way. It's humans-only, and I'll probably want to keep it that way, too.

What I'm kind of leaning toward is a Middle Eastern crossroads kind of thing, maybe with hints of steampunkiness. I prefer an electrical/chemical sort of steampunk, rather than mechanical or actual steam. I've been using the term "flashlock" to describe a kind of missile weapon -- possibly just an ordinary gunpowder weapon, or maybe something a little funkier. I'm kind of envisioning something that fires bolts of lightning.

For costuming, I kind of like the desert-dweller's swaddled/draped look -- some mixture of Bedouin and traditional Indian styles of dress.

Instead of medieval forests, I'll probably go with wind-swept wastelands and rocky mountains. I'll be driving through the US southwest next week, so I'm sure I'll get some inspiration for that sort of thing.

I'll keep thinking on this. I don't want to go too far in the direction of Arabic fantasy or steampunk, and I don't want to throw things in there just for the sake of looking cool. If they really can create "lightning guns," that technology could be applied elsewhere, and it suggests that there's a level of technology (or just experimentation) that should have an influence throughout the setting.

You guys are always great at suggesting stuff. How about some ideas?

[sharanac]

Like it! And since it is solo, count me as preordering

[Dave]

Thanks for the encouragement, sharanac! I've been working hard on this and I'm pretty happy with it so far as a solo game. I haven't even attempted a cooperative or head-to-head match, and I won't be worrying about those until I know the solo game is working perfectly (or close to it).

I don't have too much longer to work on this before the contest ends, and I want to get some outside playtesters to try it out. I'm hoping to prepare a playtest version by next week. If you'd like to try it out and give me some feedback, you're more than welcome. (That goes for everybody!)

I won't have enough time to create any decorative artwork, so I'm going to enter my game design on the strengths of its gameplay alone. It'll probably hurt my chances for a decent final placement, but the experience has been totally worthwhile.

I love designing models, but I really love designing games. This is giving me a lot of practice and confidence.

[Dave]

I'll be on the road and away from my computer for the next few days, so I'm frantically preparing all of my Hired Swords stuff so I'll be able to work on it while I'm traveling.

I'm excited about how the game is shaping up, and especially pleased that the theme and the mechanics seem to be in harmony. It has some unmistakable roleplay qualities, and a large dose of luck, but also many layers of strategy. The card list is pretty tidy (about 60 cards in all) and it'll allow for many replays before you run out of things to explore. This is definitely the kind of card game I'd want to play, and that's about the best that I can expect to achieve.

I'll try to post up my card sheets here before I need to pack up and head out the door.

[Dave]

Here's a peek at the current state of the cards. All of my Tactics cards are still just hand-written, but this is a pretty good look at the Contracts, Mercenaries, Opposition, and the Map.

These are playtest-quality graphics, meaning that they're very temporary. And I'm still experimenting with different approaches to selecting Opposition cards (which is why they're all XXXXX on the Contract sheets).

HIRED SWORDS PROTOTYPE CARDS PDF:
www.davesgames.net/hs/pdf/pro-cards-01.pdf

[Vermin King]

Wow, you've really put some prep time into this. Just reading through, it has a lot of promise.

[Dave]

Thanks, verminking!

I just got back from a little trip out of state, and while I was away I wrote up some new stuff for the game that I'm excited to test out.

This week I'm going to try to put together a playtest pack and get it out to all of my volunteers. And while they're testing the game, I'm going to get back to designing a model or two. I need to get some new stuff in the shop.

[Dave]

All of my cards are now set up at "playtest quality" and now I'm starting to write up the playtest pack. I'm hoping to have this ready in a couple of days, so those of you who volunteered to test Hired Swords should be able to get on that this weekend.

[Dave]

Playtesting like a madman today. Lots of revisions and stuff. I wanted to have an open playtest pack available sooner, but it really needs these tweaks just to run smoothly. So it'll be another day or two... give or take.

[Dave]

I've made lots of revisions, and I'm ready for a new batch of printed cards. Most of my changes have been in an attempt to make the difficulty for each job scale with the number of mercenaries you deploy on that mission.

The only way to know if these changes are having the desired effect is to actually run a career from the beginning, and run it nearly to completion. I haven't been able to run a career that far yet without things getting too hard to too easy too quickly, which is why I've needed to make revisions.

I've also tried to make the mercenaries more useful, without making them too powerful.

I have a complete game now, but it's all about finding a balance. I want it to be tough enough that it beats you about as often as you beat it. This is a pretty fun stage of game design, because it's just about fine-tuning what's there, rather than having to create lots of stuff from scratch.

Maybe I shouldn't make predictions, but I think I'll have an outside-playtest version of this game ready by the end of the day. I'll post it up here so you can try it out.

[Vermin King]

Balance is the key. I personally think that slightly skewed in favor of the player is best 60/40, but that's just me.

I remember going to a video game store with my son. We found a game that looked cool, so we were both playing it. 15 minutes later, we were trying to figure out how to get to the next level, only to find out we'd both beaten the whole game. Needless to say we didn't buy it. Too easy is every bit as bad as too hard.

I appreciate the effort that you've put into this. I'm sure the game will be very good when it is released.

[Dave]

Today's the day! Right now I'm prepping the cards and rules for outside playtests. I've also set up a ProBoard forum for playtesting and development. I'll post everything here later on today.

And then I need to make some models. For real. This game design gig has gone on way too long.

[sharanac]

I can almost feel it in my hands

[Dave]

I'm working on the rules right now. Should be ready in a few hours. Everything takes longer than I expect.

[labrat]

I'm looking forward to giving this a shot Dave. It sounds very interesting.

[Dave]

Playtest 1.1 Cards and Rules:
www.outworld-studio.com/hiredswords/pdf/Hired-Swords-Rules-v11.pdf
www.outworld-studio.com/hiredswords/pdf/Hired-Swords-Cards-v11.pdf

I think this version is tidy enough for a thorough test. If you want to give it a shot, I'd love to know how it went.

There's a time issue, though. I'm designing this game for a contest that ends on March 13th. I'll need to get your feedback with a least a couple of days to consider them and implement them into the "final" version that I'll be submitting for the contest.

[nikloveland]

Wow! Playtest rules with a glossary! Now that's just over-achievement.

[Vermin King]

Gonna try to get a small group together Saturday to do some testing. Weather permitting.

[Dave]

You don't need a group -- these are solo rules only!

[Vermin King]

My thinking was that if three of us were playing solo games, and we had questions, we could ask each other. Also having 3 perspectives would be beneficial. The one friend is not much on games but wants to learn. The other likes to play all kinds of games and would probably be the one answering questions for me and Friend #1.

[Parduz]

I'm writing while i start playing, and i'll list all thing that i notice:

1) If you don’t like the contract, you may pay 1 gold to draw again... then i read until this point to find how much gold i have at the beginning.... which is not written. I suppose is 0.

2) What happens when an opponent attack an exhausted Mercenary?
3) If a mercenary moves, does it go to the next "corner" of the contract card, or to the "neighboring" zone (which is one of the starting zones of opponents)? It's the wording of the rule that is confusing me... i'd go straight to the next corner
4) I don't understand how much i will gain at the end of a contract:if bonus says "x3" and Budget "20", do it means that i gain 60 when successfull?
5) Caves of Dimora (Caves x2)... so the caves are 2 times the number of mercenary?
6) To understand: can you explain how Kirzash and Nizar can beat the Traitor?
7) Observing: the "highest-ranked" ability as written or bonus included (so, when observed Nizar will have a "defense" of 5 or 3 ?)

[Dave]

I've just uploaded a new version of the playtest rules and cards. The download links are the same as before.

All of the changes/corrections are listed in red, so you can find them easily in the rulebook. For the cards, there are only a couple of changes (also in red) and you should be able to write those changes in by hand. There's no need to print up a new set of cards.

Mar 3, 2011 13:09:07 GMT -9 Parduz said:

1) If you don’t like the contract, you may pay 1 gold to draw again... then i read until this point to find how much gold i have at the beginning.... which is not written. I suppose is 0.

That's right, you begin the game with 0 gold. I'll add that to the next update.

2) What happens when an opponent attack an exhausted Mercenary?

By the book, it shouldn't matter if a defending mercenary is exhausted or not.

But sharanac also asked me about this, and so I've made this rules change:

Double Exhaustion: If a character is already exhausted and they become the target of another attack or action that results in exhaustion, the defender takes 1 damage. This is enough damage to defeat an opposition card.

3) If a mercenary moves, does it go to the next "corner" of the contract card, or to the "neighboring" zone (which is one of the starting zones of opponents)? It's the wording of the rule that is confusing me... i'd go straight to the next corner

I use two distinct terms for this. Mercenaries always stay at the corners, which are called positions. Opposition cards always stay in the zones which are directly to the north/south/east/west of the contract card.

4) I don't understand how much i will gain at the end of a contract:if bonus says "x3" and Budget "20", do it means that i gain 60 when successfull?

The budget and bonus are unrelated.

The budget is how much someone else is offering to fund the job. You can use the budget to hire freelancers or tactics for the job, but if you don't spend the full budget before the contract begins, you don't get to keep the extra gold. (I'll try to clarify this in the rules.)

If you complete a contract successfully, you receive the bonus at the end of that job.

5) Caves of Dimora (Caves x2)... so the caves are 2 times the number of mercenary?

Yes.

[Parduz]

Thanks for the fast answer.... pls note that i've edited my previous post... maybe while you were writing your answers. Sorry for the confusion.

Mar 3, 2011 13:51:36 GMT -9 Dave said:

The budget and bonus are unrelated.
The budget is how much someone else is offering to fund the job. You can use the budget to hire freelancers or tactics for the job, but if you don't spend the full budget before the contract begins, you don't get to keep the extra gold. (I'll try to clarify this in the rules.)
If you complete a contract successfully, you receive the bonus at the end of that job.

So the bonus "x3" means "# of mercenary x3"?

Suggestion:
I don't know how the final mercs cards will be... but since on the card there's already a token, why not making a space for the "Exausted" status? I feel it more instinctive to move the token than to half-tapping the card. I see that for the enemies there's no tokens and so they still have to be "tapped"... but they're small cards... i see why using the same mechanic for the same meaning, but i played by moving the token up and down to mark the exhausted mercs.

I'll try it again with the new files.

[Dave]

Great questions. You're really helping me find the holes in the rules. I'm patching them up and making them clearer as I go along. Expect to see another update of the rules in the next few hours.

6) To understand: can you explain how Kirzash and Nizar can beat the Traitor?

If Kirzash is "ready" he can defeat the Traitor with a missile attack. (Missiles vs. Armor.)

On his own, Nizar is useless against the Traitor. But Nizar could assist with a neighboring mercenary's melee attack, which might be enough to exhaust or defeat the Traitor. (Kirzash sucks at hand-to-hand fighting, so even Nizar's help wouldn't be enough to deal with the Traitor.)

Even if your mercenaries can't kill the Traitor, if they can keep the Traitor exhausted every round until all of the other opposition cards are defeated, they can win that way.

7) Observing: the "highest-ranked" ability as written or bonus included (so, when observed Nizar will have a "defense" of 5 or 3 ?)

Yes, when Nizar is the defending, he gains +2 Melee. That would make his highest-ranked ability 5, because he is the defender when another character is trying to observe him.

I've added a note to the assist rules to make it clear that a mercenary may assist any other mercenary that is attacking, observing or defending (including blocking).

[Dave]

Mar 3, 2011 14:18:08 GMT -9 Parduz said:

So the bonus "x3" means "# of mercenary x3"?

Yes. "x3" means "the number of mercenaries deployed for this contract, multiplied by three." This is mentioned in "The Matter of Scale" section. I'll made this section more prominent in the next update.

It's the same idea as when you are placing opposition cards in their zones around the contract. If you see +1 it means "the number of mercenaries you're deploying on this mission, plus one." If you see "M" it means "the same as the number of mercenaries deployed on this mission."

This is what I was talking about in the prison-break game thread about looking for ways to make the challenge keep up with the heroes. In this game, I only have to worry about scaling the challenges for 2, 3 or 4 players.

It doesn't have to scale perfectly. If some contracts are easier for 2 mercenaries than 4 mercenaries, that's kind of interesting to me.

I don't know how the final mercs cards will be... but since on the card there's already a token, why not making a space for the "Exausted" status? I feel it more instinctive to move the token than to half-tapping the card. I see that for the enemies there's no tokens and so they still have to be "tapped"... but they're small cards... i see why using the same mechanic for the same meaning, but i played by moving the token up and down to mark the exhausted mercs.

So when you exhausted a mecenary that was at full health (ready), you just moved the coin down over its stats (swords, bows, shields, eyes)? That's a good idea, and I'll add that to the glossary as an optional way to indicate that a mercenary is exhausted.

I'd like to include your name to my thank-yous and playtesters. How would you like your name to appear? (PM me or email if you don't want to post it here.)