MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
New Set Idea, Need some help with wording
So I have this idea for a new set.
The theme is this plane, where most of the free world has been taken over by a horde of monsters, led by this one orc chief. There is one free city left, made up of elves, dwarves, humans, etc. that have survived by building defences, and hiding their city with magic.
The story is that there is a traitor in the council, who gives the location to the chief of the horde, who then siege the city. I haven't fully fleshed out the story yet, because I am focusing first on the mechanics.
The main mechanic in this set is based around buildings, which is a new card type, which is able to be attacked, just like players and planeswalkers. They have 'Health Tokens' which work very similar to planeswalkers loyalty, but they tend to have more static abilities.
There will be two returning mechanics, the rally mechanic for the last city, and the bloodthirst mechanic for the horde.
There will also be at least one new keyword, Barricade. This can go on buildings, planeswalkers or even players. If you are or you control something with barricade, things without barricade cannot be attacked.
The problem I have is with the wording of Barricade, I am trying to think of a word that could describe planeswalkers, players and buildings, but I cannot think of one.
Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
The theme is this plane, where most of the free world has been taken over by a horde of monsters, led by this one orc chief. There is one free city left, made up of elves, dwarves, humans, etc. that have survived by building defences, and hiding their city with magic.
The story is that there is a traitor in the council, who gives the location to the chief of the horde, who then siege the city. I haven't fully fleshed out the story yet, because I am focusing first on the mechanics.
The main mechanic in this set is based around buildings, which is a new card type, which is able to be attacked, just like players and planeswalkers. They have 'Health Tokens' which work very similar to planeswalkers loyalty, but they tend to have more static abilities.
There will be two returning mechanics, the rally mechanic for the last city, and the bloodthirst mechanic for the horde.
There will also be at least one new keyword, Barricade. This can go on buildings, planeswalkers or even players. If you are or you control something with barricade, things without barricade cannot be attacked.
The problem I have is with the wording of Barricade, I am trying to think of a word that could describe planeswalkers, players and buildings, but I cannot think of one.
Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
First, I don't know if you heard about it but the idea of buildings that you can attack was pitched by Richard Garfield himself for original Ravnica! They were called structures and eventually gave birth to the planeswalker card type. You can read a little bit about it here if you're interested: LINK. If you salvage the name "Structure", some players may recognise the mechanic ^^
For the word to describe planeswalkers, players and buildings, what do you intend to do with it? I'm asking because it's basically batching, the technology that was introduced in the set Dominaria with the keyword Historic. This means that using a term to say "buildings, players and planeswalkers" will be attached to a reminder text. It can be cool, but a bit awkward if the only use of this word is to be part of a reminder text itself.
For instance, this:
Barricade (Attach this to target player, planeswalker or building.)
Might be much cleaner than this:
Barricade (Attach this to target entity. Players, planeswalker and buildings are entities.)
Unless you have other uses planned for the batching word you've just introduced.
__
If you still think a word is needed to batch those three things together, Here's a quick brainstorming: entities, bodies, beings, characters, members, participants, objectives, contestants, mark, foe and/or ally...
Thank you for your feedback. I will definitely use the word structure.
I was thinking the text would go more like this
Barricade (No players, planeswalkers or structures without barricade can be attacked if you have a player, planeswalker of structure with barricade.)
I am trying to think of a way to make that less wordy, but I can't think of one. I only want to batch them so that I don't have to say it twice every time I write the rules text for barricade, and i would probably use it on other cards as well.
Also thank you for the name ideas, I like the word entities the most probably, but most of the other ones look good. I am definitely not going to use ally, as the creature type ally and the rally mechanic are going to be returning, so I don't want confusion.
Thank you again
Barricade (You and permanents you control can't be attacked unless they have barricade.)
With a batching word:
Barricade (Your entities without barricade can't be attacked. Players, planeswalkers and structures are entities.)
EDIT: This message was edited, for clarity, I think the first message proposed something like "Players and permanents with Barricade must be attacked first.)
That's sounds good, but 'attacked first' seems a little ambiguous. That could suggest that you could attack the building with one creature, then attack something without barricade with another creature, because you attacked the building 'first'.
What do you think?
Thank you again
That sounds good, I think I will probably use that. Thank you. With that wording, I probably won't need a batching word.
Thank you again