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Renaissance Set — Creative Design
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1) Renascence {cost} ({cost}: This becomes an enchantment. Change its text by replacing all instances of its name by "target creature". Use only as a sorcery.)
2) Renascence {cost} ({cost}: This becomes an enchantment. Creatures you control have all its abilities except Renascence. Use only as a sorcery.)
It's based on a mechanic called Glorious I designed a while ago, I just shortened the reminder text to a strict minimum:
Woud you like this version maybe? (I tried to shorten the "it loses all its other types" to make it 22 words.)
Renascence {cost} ({cost}: This becomes an enchantment instead of a creature. Creatures you control have all its abilities except Renascence. Use only as a sorcery.)
- It doesn't fit the flavour as well if we can't use the name Immortalize.
- It's a complicated mechanic, and we kind of need a simple one at this point.
- I'm not sure there's that much design space here anyways.
- There's a memory issue because nothings marks it as Reborn.
I got a *small* impediment yesterday (as-in *my house almost burn down*, thankfully "almost" being the important part here, I think I may have lost my mail box but that's about it) but I'll try to get back to it now ^^
Based on the different mechanics we have and what people like or not, here's the elements that should be considered:
- The name MUST be Renaissace-themed.
- It should have a midrange feel (Virtuoso being aggroish and Discover Controllish.)
- It should be simple and short (Discover takes all our length points and psylian life our complexity points.)
- Flavour seems to be a strong driving factor for people to like a mechanic or not.
Meanwhile, maybe we can discuss the story again, so let's say Renaissce = Return of the Muses. How do that translate in the story? I picture the first story spotlight as some sort of ceremony, a celebration for the return of the Muses?
Then for the rest, coud we try to make the set so optimistic there's no real antagonism? We could show emotions without being twisted, just as an inspirational force, and the plot would be goal-driven, they're trying to accomplish something positive?
I immediately got reminded of this video when you said "optimistic world". This "Inside R&D" series could also be like a guide for any points that you're struggling with for worldbuilding/setbuilding
This next video could help you if you would like to go down a less optimistic path later on in the story. Hoping there would be some bigger conflict though later on in the story!
What do you think? It could probably help us convey the Renaissance set by trying to focus on an optimistic feel. Kaladesh main story was simply that there was a big inventor's fair. Could we find something similar based on constructivism instead of antagonism?
One option for it is, if we're having the muses leave and return on a cyclical cycle, is to have it be a large festival, done as a tradition to celebrate the return of the muses. Instead of a contest, people get to chance to demonstrate their newly found inspiration through whatever methods they'd like, whether it be through song, dance, painting, sculpting, or even with written stories and acting. Instead of a competition to see who's better, it's a chance for everyone to show their passion.
Of course, not everyone feels this way. Some people want to prove themselves better, and will resort to thievery, vandalism, and even murder to deal with what they perceive to be their competition.
I'm still wondering what the final goal would be. The set needs some sort of quest, and I don't think it would be fitting to follow a thief in his quest to steal something XD Maybe they're trying to impress the Muses? (Ok that may be too close to Amonkhet trials.) Are they trying to accomplish something? Maybe their art is a fuel for something bigger to this world? Maybe they're trying to find the Muses (it does link Art and Exploration)?
Trying to find the Muses seems reasonable, especially since it helps us link all of our mechanics together. Although you may want to get second opinions on the festival idea and the searching for the muses thing. I'd be more than happy to write a story about the festival, and I'm sure @MagicChess wouldn't mind on the story, either.
Meanwhile, I've made a concept card.
On Story:
How about this: The quest is to *TOUCH* the muse to gain ultimate inspiration! x)
On the concept card:
Very clever way to push the player to attack with the token, it's really cool!
But, anyway, that's me going on a little bit of a tangent. What I came here to show was my idea for a mid-range mechanic, Eureka
Eureka (When you cast this card, target creature becomes all colors and is an Art creature in addition to its other creature types until end of turn.)
Here are some test cards/examples. I apologize for any balancing issues, these cards were mostly made to sort of show how Eureka might play out in game.
The mechanic revolves around the sub-theme of art tokens and art-centralized value, with the process of having art-type creatures on the table usually aiding your gameplay and use of cards with Eureka. It adds a little bit of "Art matters" theme to the table, but does not require a whole tribal skeleton to work. I tried to make Eureka into a mechanic that is very simple but enables some fun cards to be made around it, bringing a versatility that mid-range would be happy to have.
Of course, if you have any critiques on the mechanic, I would be more than happy to hear them. If you don't see it working in your current set situation, that's also fine too. I really like this custom set concept, and I would love to help with the development of it. Let me hear your feedback, and thanks.
It would add character development to the muses if they held a contest since logically the point of the contest would be to get people to find inspiration themselves so most of their job is down for them. i am STILL voting for an episodic mystery adventure. A probably planeswalking artist(Who is known for his paintings of bizarre worlds) and police chief could run down people being crooked in the contest and misc monsters while the planeswalker tries to get out of an ironic artist block to actually be competitive in the contest.
@Terramorphic @brcien OOoooh the idea that if you touch a Muse you get a spark is so cool! Knowing about the multiverse makes your horizon bigger and you can represent things form other worlds effortlessly in your art. It sounds really nice to me and a great plot twist!
My only bemol would be that I don't like the idea of the Muses having a goal and creating a contest themselves (because it sound like Gods, in my opinion). I was picturing more alien beings that we don't know if they really have a goal. They just happen to be here and the inhabitants of the plane are just happy for their return because their presence inspire them.
I dislike the idea of a contest, because it sounds both too close to Kaladesh plot (we need to put some distance between those two sets so they feel different enough) and too close to Amonkhet's trials (once again, if we coud try to feel different from Theros and Amonkhet's Gods it woud be better for the set identity I think.) So I'd rather stick with just a festival with no involvment of the Muses themselves.
Then the main protagonist just get the idea that since the closer you are to the Muses, the more inspired you get, maybe if you touch them you get extra-inspired or something? Maybe he heard a rumor that's what the Da Vinci of the plane (who is secretly a planeswalker) did during the last Muse cycle?
About Eureka, I like the name but it doesn't fit the needs we have right now for the set (the name Eureka won't make you think "hey, is this a Renaissance set") and more importantly the mechanic has no effect by itself which is something players tend to dislike a lot (see Devoid which got severely backlashed in the market polls.)
I do like the idea of a festival, but I'd just really like to know where you are going with this Muse idea, and how this first "scene" could afftect the entire story
The reason I proposed a festival was simply because, unlike a contest that inherently breeds conflict, the festival wouldn't. It's a chance for everyone to demonstrate what they can do without being compared. It just seems to be more optimistic and happy, which I think is something we all want to convey with this theme.
As for @ManaChrome 's question, the festival doesn't happen until after the muses have already returned. It's difficult to hold a good festival if no one even feels emotion (with the exception of children), even more so if people can't be inspired to make any works of art. I don't think they're even expecting for muses to show up to the festival, it's just a celebration. During Dias de los Muertos, they don't expect the dead to literally return. They're just all demonstrating their passion and what they feel.
I think a festival would be good as a starting point, as well, but once it dissolves our characters are really put into action to find and touch a muse (perhaps having been inspired by the festival). My questions are,
what's the process going to be like of finding a mysterious, enigmatic being that may not even show itself?
How many muses are there? And how do they present themselves on a material plane? Or do they just inhabit the plane like life-force energy, giving people inspiration and emotion instead of life?
The interesting question is how it would affect the story yes ^^ Something probably happens here, we just have to find what.
@Lujikul I like the comparison with Dias de los Muertos XD
@Terramorphic For your questions:
- The process is the real tough question, yes. If we can find a good ending to this question, we can probably write good adventures about it ^^ To be honest I'm bad at writing plots, so if anyone has some experience in writing it would be very helpful. But even without experience we'll be fine, we all know the basics I think.
- About the nature of the Muses, we touched the subject a bit earlier. There are several ways to do it so nothing is set in stone, but we liked the idea of having plenty of little muses everywhere, and 5 big muses. Whatever happens, they must be something that can be showed on cards and more specifically give us a legendary mythic rare cycle of cards, that's our only restriction.
@Terramorphic, remember that this is a team effort, so I'm sure nobody would want to take over and gain control of a certain part of the design.
As for the festival: I think that to not encroach on Kaladesh territory, it needs to be as un-contest-like as possible; and so as not to be too similar to the Amonkhet trials, we need to keep the Muses from seeming too much like gods, and do away with "impressing" them. Rather, it is a gathering where the greatest artists showcase their artwork, and a certain number (I think either one, or five (one per color)) "touch" the Muses to gain ultimate inspiration.
So, another proposal has been that "touching" the Muses grants a Planeswalker spark. I think that this is an interesting proposal, and gives us great story ground: The five (or one) inspired artists become 'walkers. However, I think that the denizens of this plane should not know about the Multiverse. Instead, the chosen five have no idea what has happened.
Now we need to decide if we are going to have a planar threat, or have it be a mystery or antagonist-less storyline. In the case of a concrete evil, the chosen five would have to defend the plane, and this would be part of the cycle: When the Muses return, so does this threat, so every festival five are chosen to defend the plane. Then they die, the Mues leave after a while, and a few generations later, the Muses and the threat come back and the cycle starts anew.
In the first few story articles/episodes, we should follow five characters (one for each color) that will end up chosen: A black-colored art thief/plagiarist, a red artist, a green poet, a blue sculptor, and a white... something else, I'm not sure XD. The blue one should probably be our Da Vinci - styled character, though in reality he wasn't limited only to sculpture.
Anyways, I agree that the festival should be as Dia de Los Muertos as possible, only being a true-to-heart celebration so that we don't overlap with either the flavor of Kaladesh or Amonkhet. However, I feel like the "chosen" five in your concrete-evil scenario would be a lot too much like Amonkhet. Rather, I would go with our five main protagonists being thrown into the mixture just because of hap-stance, a twist of fate you'd say.
However, @ningyounk has already specified that the Muses do not have motives, and are just things floating about mortals and indirectly influencing them. If we were to have a concrete, malicious presence, I would say that its appearance would rouse the Muses not because they are a planar defense force, but instead they just naturally react to that kind of "cosmic" energy. Thus, they rise because they feel another force. Furthermore, they move about, and they in turn cause human-kind to move around and react to their presence. So, it would sort of be like a domino effect, one creature's existence rousing the others'.
(Also, I would love to help write an article as well. I don't have too much of the time to really devote myself to a lore-piece, but I would love to help with the brainstorming and creative-writing process if you guys need a little bit of help. ^^)
As for the "chosen" thing, I agree. I think my wording was maybe not the best in that case; what I meant was not that the Muses instigated the festival to obtain these five champions, but instead as a natural result of their return, the five most inspired artists gain a planeswalker spark and are therefore kind of obligated because of the power they have to defend the plane. Though a cool thing could be that (in this scenario) one of the five "bails out" (so to speak; there really isn't any obligation aside from self-imposed responsibility), creating an imbalance in the colors.
So I'll have to look over some comments until I'm back up to speed.
Is this a balanced version of Grapeshot XD?