Planning a Set Design and Playtest

(Inspired by this here thread.)

What is this?

I'm looking for people who would want to work together on designing and play testing a card set. This would take place over a long while, and design and playtesting would likely begin in this upcoming summer (June because I'm in the northern hemisphere). I'm recruiting now, as hopefully I'll have time for discussion and planning to begin soon and continue over the next few months.

What will the set be?

No idea! Absolutely none! Zero! Zilch! That would be part of the process. The set will not be an un-set, though, if this goes well, I'd love to do that at some point.

How do I join?

Drop a comment!

Rough plan.

Discord will be required for this. An invite link will be dropped to your messages once I set it up.

My tentative plan is to put together a Discord that will make design run smoothly. The first step will be drafting a plane (or deciding to use an existing plane), followed by the plot, followed by key events, etc. Ideally, these steps will move fluidly and Discord channels will be open and closed as needed. If that design fails, we'll use Discord for discussion and use Monday or Trello to keep track of planning. We'll have to figure that out if and when this gets rolling!
«1

Comments

  • I'm in.

    (Well, relative to what happens in my real life, of course.)
  • Sounds fun! My discord is spotty so I’d have to get it working but I'm interested in joining!
  • edited October 2019
    @SammySammyson

    Definitely yee! How about a Return to Kamig!...

    *PLEASE STAND BY*

    Return to Shadowm!...

    *BEEEEEEEEP*

    Return to Kaladesh! (When it comes to artifact sets, fourth time's the charm! Hopefully!)
  • @HeroKP

    Regardless of Sarcasm, I'm going to oppose doing an artifact set unless the group majority overrules me in the end. I've done two artifact sets already and I'm getting a bit sick on them.

    More seriously, though, I was going to push for Return to Lorwyn personally.
  • @Arceus8523

    WAIT, people actually want that?

    I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!

    @SammySammyson Put two Lorwyn Votes into the ballot box!
  • As for homebrew planes, I, of course, have a few, but I'm going to brainstorm ideas for some new ones to share on the eventual discord.
  • I'll help so long as there's world building, because set design is boring.
  • I’ll down to help.
  • edited October 2019
    I wasn't expecting five people to be down so quickly. Pinging @Blazin_Biscuit @IzItTru so they see this too.

    I'll hopefully get the Discord at least up within the next couple of hours. In the meantime, here are some things to know/answers to y'all:

    - @HeroKP as much as I love artifacts, they for some reason always manage to break. But we'll have to see what we work on together, and also consider @Arceus8523 there.

    - @KorandAngels world building is a necessity! If we don't make a new plane, we still need to design everything that'll be happening on the plane, which is an essential part of world building (something I've done recreationally...about a decade now).

    - Final card designing will be overseen by me. For formatting purposes. Mostly because I have anxiety and things that are supposed to be together, but that don't match in layout, really stress me out. And I want them to look like.

    - Overall, I hope this whole thing will be fairly democratic. I don't plan to throw an "iron fist" of any kind down. Otherwise, most things will probably be a discussion followed by a vote. However, I do reserve the right to make final cuts to cards and such (though I don't plan to do that much until the card is tested).

    - I may be appointing positions (with the consent of whoever I'd be placing in them). i.e. I know @HeroKP is heckin' great at design and wording, so they may be a lead for that. @KorandAngels is pretty awesome when it comes to flavor, and since you also like worldbuilding, I may ask you to be put into a head for flavor stuff. I'm not sure on this, as I'd prefer things to work more "equally," however leaders for certain aspects will likely be useful, as each of us has certain strengths that can be emphasized. We may also elect these or something.

    - If any of you can do digital art, that would be amazing. But remember that they'd be for this set and not commissioned, as we're doing this together and voluntarily. I wouldn't ask you not to use it elsewhere -- it's yours. (I may have a surprise for everyone if and when we finish this though...)

    - This may or may not become time consuming. I say that because it will be, but you aren't obligated to spend a certain amount of time helping. You can pop in and out whenever convenient. We will be using untap.in in order to play test. If for some reason any of y'all happen to live in Maine, we may be able to do some play testing together in paper with proxies!

    - That's it. @ me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. I'll post the Discord link and @ all of you once it's up. I think I'll make it first, invite you all, then work on building it (so that way we can communicate more easily).
  • Message if you need someone to make unique mechanics for the set!

    Myself would love to help, if you like. :)
  • Then, I'm In!
  • I would love to help, however, it sounds like you may have enough people and I would be unable to playtest, as I have no access to untap.in.
  • @TigerFang8 all ya need for untap is a laptop. D'ya cardsmith on mobile?
  • edited October 2019
    Not sure if I can playtest but I can 100% develop, have a lot of ideas.
  • edited October 2019
    I might be able to do art, but probably 1 max because it'll take me a while to make anything serviceable.
  • @SammySammyson I do now. I used to have access, but not anymore.
  • @SammySammyson Thank you very much! I'm definitely in! :D

    The problem I usually have with sets is that I lack the determination to push them through design walls, but with such a team as this, I think it's going to work!
  • I think this might be the team. Anyone else want to join?
  • edited October 2019
    @everyone

    Looks like this is who volunteered. Should we get started?

    EDIT: I have a few ideas for the set, I think putting them down might get everyone's creative engines running.
    - This one is obvious: An existing plane, but set in the future. I've been thinking of Ravnica because it's Magic's most iconic plane but the last Ravnica set was pretty recent, so that might not be the best choice. Ixalan would be insane but impossible to find art for, same with Eldraine, and that one's far too recent.
    - Kaos, the Wandering Plane. This one is more creative and my own invention, though I'm still in the extreme early stages of concept. So... this is a land-matters set, where you have the terrain shifting all the time and covering up ancient secrets that are later uncovered when it shifts again. The people are all nomadic, moving with the land that never rests. This obviously sounds like Zendikar but it's less chaotic, and had a focus on bards (very important creature types), stories (sagas/verse counters/something else, I'm not sure.) It has a very solemn/meditative outlook and will be a very wacky set it it ever gets off the ground, it'll have less "landfall" effects and more replacing lands/switching basic land type shenanigans and crazy combos. If this sounds too much like Zendikar it's fine, I just want to help make something cool no matter what.
  • @SteampunkDragon are you on the discord?
  • Yep, they're. We're waiting on more people to join the discord. And to have sammy online.
  • I really want to help, but I am not on discord so there's not anything I can do.
  • @KorandAngels
    We're using discord since the chat is live updated and more speedy to use between multiple channels. Apologies if that prevents you or others from participating.

    It wasn't the intention to exclude.
  • @Blazin_Biscuit I don't have discord at all, but I can get it. How do I find this specific one?
  • @SteampunkDragon @SammySammyson can steampunk get a link to the discord server please
  • Oh sorry, thought you were someone else, @SteampunkDragon.
  • @Steampunk Dragon
    An existing plane set in the future, you say?
    http://www.planesculptors.net/set/kaladesh-20#cards
  • Doing a Sci-fi set would be cool but i think we already determined that artifact matter sets are a no-go
This discussion has been closed.