I'm out. The combat is a convoluted mess with rules that change each time we try to do something. There's no freedom like in dnd combat and it's not following the rules of mtg.
I had hoped this campaign was about creating cards for different challenges that lay ahead rather than back and forth messaging as we try to beat a common snail for a week.
If some people here, and that includes you, would react faster instead of waiting 3 days before writing a short reply, this wouldnt take that long.
Before your "im out", your last reply was 3 days ago. Is it that hard to look into this thread once a day and spend 5 minutes or so, just saying: "my character will attack / My character will cast spell /Ability on character xxx".
"DerfauleHelmut" was last active in this thread at june 23, six days ago, which i think is very unfair for those that look into this thread more often. If people dont have the time to look into this at least every second day, be so fair as to not be part of this RPG Campaign. Making others wait is frustrating and takes away a lot of fun.
But back to the RPG.
During the Adventurers turn, before the attack:
The snail, realizing that its looking quite grim and that the adventurers will probably beat it very soon, trys in a last desperate attempt to beat the adventurers and casts:
Where once the Preyfinder and the Goblin were, there is now only a short rift that closes fast. And then ... nothing. They are gone forever. But the remaining adventurers feel a surge of strength rush through them. Thalia shakes off her unconsciousness and is ready to continue fighting. The villagers look quite baffled and somehow confused as the snail annihilates two adventurers "Thats strange, it never did that before. Maybe it gained a level up while fighting the adventurers?"
The remaining character stats are until this fight ends:
I'm not the type of person to interject into these types of situations, but some of us have lives. People have jobs to work, families they live with, personal projects to complete, and all that before even taking into account unexpected delays. Expecting someone to be able to keep up with something on a daily basis is insane, and part of what killed the original Stitia Saga I ran a few years back. Please, I recommend you take a step back and think about other people before you speak, and possibly before ever running a Saga again.
I'm going to side with @LvB here. We have a friendly community member who has never organized a major discussion until this point. LvB's idea is insanely good and put together, and all they ask is for a little more interactive participation to make it work better instead of backing out of the saga.
But hey - i get everyone else's remarks and side with those thoughts, too... LvB... keep this saga going, but maybe adjust the method of interaction to make it work with who we have in it so that we can come and go and jump in anywhere in the process we may be.
I dont expect people to look into this every day, but spending 5 minutes here to write a short sentence within 48-72 hours (2-3 days) is totally possible for everyone. Everyone has a smartphone and even if people have superimportant stuff to do , if one is inerested in this, you will always find the time. But if not, people should be so fair as to not be part of this so that others with more time can have fun here.
Cause in the end thats what its about: Fun. But having to wait endlessly for others to reply takes a lot of fun away.
@LvB - I'm sorry if my inactivity took the fun away from you. I'm not active enough to check the daily comments of the forums, since I don't visit this place at all on some days. If I had known early in this discussion that there would be such combat system, I wouldn't have troubled you by entering.
All I wanted was to create cards for the nice challenges you had presented. I had fun designing them and I would've certainly kept playing if this was all about card creation challenges. This combat system is just not for my taste, but don't let my opinion stop you. I wish you and all the current and future participants a good time as you work together on this campaign!
I'm unfortunately not going to let my foot up if that's the kind of stance you're taking. Treating members of the community as though they're ruining the fun for people just because something comes up is toxic behavior. Some of us come on here after long, busy, stressful streaks to have fun. People like me have points where they have literal hours on end to spend on Sagas, but have four to five days in a week we're basically unable to touch the site. If you're going to gatekeep against people who can't constantly respond, perhaps you don't deserve the wonderful long-time members of the community to participate. On that note, I will rest.
Ok, thx for the feedback. Next time i do a saga / RPG campaign i will write in the first posting / description how much estimated time it will probably take and what the activity requirements are, so that everyone who decides to join knows what to expect.
The
Torchbearer, buffed by the Dragonspeaker, is ready to attack. Thalia,
back from being unconscious, could attack too ( @jpastor will Thalia
attack? ) which would probably be the end for the tutorisnail.
The crowd starts booing again as they witness how undecided Thalia is. Or is it maybe only a trick to lure the snail into a false feeling of security ?
But on the other side, the crowd seems to enjoy the drumming of the Dragonspeaker. The Question is, how long will it last until the crowd turns into a mob and forces the adventurers to fight the snail ?
@jpastor if Thalia doesnt do anything i'll decide how this fight ends.
And so Thalias turn passes. Seems like she decided to just watch the fight.
The Torchbearer, buffed by the Dragonspeaker, to a 4/4 creature attacks the Tutorisnail and deal 4 firststrike damage, reducing the Snail down to 1/3. The Snails House shows some cracks and her flesh smells kinda tasty as it is brutally hit and burnt by the torchbearers torch. In a desperate attempt the snail slowly hits the Torchbearer for 1 damage, but the lifelink heals the damage almost instantly.
Snails turn:
The snail, down to 1/3, is trying to retreat very slowly into its house, but doesnt attack because she still has defender.
Adventurers turn:
Dragonspeaker, Thalia and Torchbearer pls say what your character does.
And so, the torchbearer, who is really eager to end this fight, attacks the Tutorisnail one last time. With a great swing of his torch he deals 3 damage to the Tutorisnail, reducing it down to 0 toughness. You hear a loud "crack" as the house of the tutorisnail is breaking. The Tutorisnail is lying unconscious on the ground. The villagers start to applaud, only the villages healer rushes towards the snail to safe it from dying, shaking its head and mumbling something very angry.
As soon as the healer has stabilized the snail, it starts to snail away into an empty barn, where it retreats into its house, leaving behind a trail of slime and blood. Youre not quite sure, but you think you hear a silent aching and sobbing coming out of the barn.
Congratulations, brave adventurers you did beat your first enemy, the Tutorisnail!
Your characters may now use the Title of "Snailbasher" in cards you create. You dont have to, but you can, if you want.
Your characters also got a level up!
Thalia, the Dragonspeaker and the Torchbearer are now level 2!
What does a level up do? This level up increases all your characters to level 2. Now how does that work? Very easy, do this Quest:
New Quest: Level Up to level 2!
- Create the level 2 version of your character by taking the existing character and increasing either power or toughness by one! Create a common card that represents your level 2 character. If your character doesnt have a name yet, give it a name.
- Create a level 2 spell card for your character. A level 2 spell is a common spell that costs 2 mana and it should fit to your character.
- As a level 2 character, your total mana increases to 4 and you get another action. Your characters may now perform 2 actions during your turn, but it must be diffrent actions.
- After leveling up, your characters should now have one level 1 spell and one level 2 spell. If they dont have it, create the missing spell card.
One new adventurer may join the adventurers party now as a level 2 character, increasing the partys size to 4 !
Will it be a villager of Lastwood that decides to join the adventurers life? Or maybe someone who was wandering the country and is now here by pure coincidence?
Are there any restrictions regarding adding, removing, and/or strengthening our characters' abilities? What about mana cost modifications? (Assuming it's still justifiable as a common in each case.)
Right now, you may only increase the power or the toughness of your existing character by one.
For the Dragonspeaker this means, you can make him 1/3 or 0/4 and he keeps his ability that dragon spells cost 1 less.
In the future there will be "greater level ups", where your character can learn new abilities or improve or exchange existing abilities, but thats for later.
? Alright then, here's my level 2 character and his spell.
The name above is his clan name, as he doesn't feel close enough to the others to tell them his given name just yet. The art for Sundering Sonata is one of the dragons he often tells stories of. (At some point I'll go back and change the art for Rousing Round to fit this theme.)
Veil of Shadows represents Thalia Shadowheart, Bloodstalker's ability to shroud her enemies in darkness and exploit their vulnerabilities. It is a level 2 spell that costs 2 mana and provides a temporary debuff to a target creature, weakening it by -2/-2 until end of turn. Additionally, it allows you to draw a card, symbolizing the knowledge gained from exploiting the shadows.
As the brave adventurers are learning and testing their new skills/spells in the village of Lastwood, it becomes darker and darker and the so called first "short night" falls. The village, surrounded by a wall of spiked wood, closes its gate and the villagers retreat into their houses and lock their doors. Luckily the villages tavern has enough room for the adventurers and the host allows the adventurers to stay for free in exchange for some news from the city of Luxeria. He even has some bottles of blood prepared for vampiric guests, which he says, are quite common now, since the magical desaster turned the world into a state of permanent twilight or darkness. And as long as the vampires are civilized and dont start to kill everyone he says, he's fine with it.
But soon everyone becomes tired and so you decide to rest. Though the village has no fires burning near the wall or on the wall, the host assures you that no night monsters have attacked this village in the last years and that everyone here should be quite safe.
And so it is. You rest for some hours and then the next day begins, bringing the world some more gloomy twilight.
Feeling refreshed, the adventurers prepare the ox card and are now ready to leave the village of Lastwood towards the Gloomwood Forest.
Reminder:
Optional Quest: One more player may join the party now as a level 2 character. (How that works is described in the thread. If you have questions, feel free to ask).
The party looks like this now:
A Dragon Bard:
A Vampire Assassin:
A Human Cleric:
Optional Quest: Party leader.
If you want, you may chose one character to be the party leader. You dont need a party leader, but it can be useful. You can change the party leader anytime you want or you may chose to have no party leader at all.
The party leader may decide for other characters what the other character does, but only if the other character doesnt respond to a quest or a fight within a reasonable amount of time, lets say 3-4 days. The party leader may not create cards for other characters.
Very nice, you just created cards that cause a problem
Ignaeus Knight: Its ETB will never trigger, cause he is always there when a fight starts. The X does nothing because you will never cast the knight. He's either there or unconscious/dead.
Unquenchable Blade: Its ETB will (almost) never trigger, cause its already there when a fight starts. Paying Phyrexian mana in life is a problem because there is no player with 20 life behind the character, but the character is the player.
Explosive Strike: Way to strong for a common level 1 spell. And its overload ability can kill the whole party.
Forge the Flames: Since you dont have a hand that holds a montain you will never be able to pay the additional cost. Paying life is also problematic.
Additional costs are problematic because you dont really have a hand that holds cards which you could discard, also there is no player with 20 life behind the character who could pay life for spells, but you as player are the character. Discarding a mountain is a problem, because you dont have a hand with cards in it, that you could discard. So better rework the cards.
Instead of the hand that holds cards, your character has its mana and its spells/abilities that it can cast as long as the character has enough mana.
"Enter the battlefield" effects on your character also cause a problem, because the character is always on the battlefield. It will never trigger, cause the character isnt cast, but already there when a fight begins. "Enter the battlefield" makes sense on summoning spells. Lets say for example, your knight learns a level 4 spell that cost 4 mana and allows him to summon a 0/0 fire elemental with "fire elemental enters the battlefield with four +1/+1 counters on it."
For paying life i already thought of something that might work. Instead of a player paying life, the character could use blood tokens to pay for life. That would be a workaround. You will of course have to aquire them somehow, but that wont be really hard.
Its easiest if you create cards without special costs like discarding or sacrificing or paying life. If you want a card with an extra effect, better make one that allows you to chose between two things, for example "deal 2 damage to any target or 1 damage to all creatures". Or use kicker to increase mana cost instead of an additional cost like discard/sacrifice/pay life.
Heres something that would have almost the same effect but wouldnt cause problem:
Ignaeus Knight, Creature 1/2
Haste, Prowess
Pay 1 Red mana: +1/+1 until end of turn
Unqunchable blade:
Equipped creature gets +1/+1
If equipped creature would lose +1/+1 counters, it only loses half of them, rounded up.
Explosive strike:
Cost 1 red:
kicker: 1 red
Explosive strike deals 2 damage to any target
if explosive strikes kicker cost was paid it also deals 1 damage to all creatures
Except Forge the flames that would be useless, you may use this:
For the “X” effect of the creature you could say this: You start each combat with the ETB and start with X=1. You can pay extra mana to get more to the X. The last ability is basically prowess, so you could change it to prowess.
For the equipment, I see it good. The ETB functions at the beginning of the combat.
For the explosive strike, I would change it so a normal cast don’t make you to sacrifice an artifact but the overload cost is to sacrifice an artifact.
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I seem to have misinterpreted the rules then...
I had hoped this campaign was about creating cards for different challenges that lay ahead rather than back and forth messaging as we try to beat a common snail for a week.
But hey - i get everyone else's remarks and side with those thoughts, too... LvB... keep this saga going, but maybe adjust the method of interaction to make it work with who we have in it so that we can come and go and jump in anywhere in the process we may be.
All I wanted was to create cards for the nice challenges you had presented. I had fun designing them and I would've certainly kept playing if this was all about card creation challenges. This combat system is just not for my taste, but don't let my opinion stop you. I wish you and all the current and future participants a good time as you work together on this campaign!
The name above is his clan name, as he doesn't feel close enough to the others to tell them his given name just yet. The art for Sundering Sonata is one of the dragons he often tells stories of. (At some point I'll go back and change the art for Rousing Round to fit this theme.)
Thalia Bloodstalker by jpastor | MTG Cardsmith
Veil of Shadows by jpastor | MTG Cardsmith
Veil of Shadows represents Thalia Shadowheart, Bloodstalker's ability to shroud her enemies in darkness and exploit their vulnerabilities. It is a level 2 spell that costs 2 mana and provides a temporary debuff to a target creature, weakening it by -2/-2 until end of turn. Additionally, it allows you to draw a card, symbolizing the knowledge gained from exploiting the shadows.
Well I tried lol. I unfortunately don't have the drive to make another character or another set of cards for them.
For the “X” effect of the creature you could say this: You start each combat with the ETB and start with X=1. You can pay extra mana to get more to the X. The last ability is basically prowess, so you could change it to prowess.
For the equipment, I see it good. The ETB functions at the beginning of the combat.
For the explosive strike, I would change it so a normal cast don’t make you to sacrifice an artifact but the overload cost is to sacrifice an artifact.
As I said above, forge the flames need a rework.