SotM Event #4 - So You Want To Be A Designer?

Nothing from this contest will be published, made, or created by GtG. This is only for fun.

This week's event is a contest. Take a look at this picture:


This will be the picture for a new card in Legacy's deck. Your job is to create that card. You will need to provide the following information:

1) The title

2) The type

3) The full game text

4) The flavor text

GtG will be pick the winner based on how well the card feels and sounds like an SotM card, and how well it fits into Legacy's deck.

In addition to bragging rights, the winner will get to have a 10 minute Google Hangout with the GtG team. This will happen in early December, and the winner will be notified on how to set it up.

Please keep all discussions about this event in this thread, and post all submissions into this thread.

Results due by Monday, November 18, 8:00 AM CST.

Nothing from this contest will be published, made, or created by GtG. This is only for fun.

Looks like a lot of fun Pydro! Can't wait to see everyones submissions!

Clarification Question:  Are we assuming this would be in addittion to all the other cards in Legacy's deck or replacing a card?

Do we get multiple submissions, or just one.

Great contest by the way.

Hmmmm....good question. Assume in addition to unless GtG says otherwise.

Just one, sorry.

I also wanted to say thank you to GtG for providing me with the pic.

Foote, I have to say your card is awesome and very reminiscent of some of the effects I was thinking of but hadn't fleshed out (back to the drawing board)

Thanks! The others are excellent as well!

I really like Phantaskippy's team discard for heals. The flavor text brings that card together thematically nicely.

I second this for the mechanical part of the card. I have to admit that I like my flavor quote better.

This is a great initiative - thanks for setting this up!

If anybody wants to model their card into an image, I have put up the powerpoint document that I used to create mine on my dropbox account:

https://www.dropbox.com/home?select=SOTM%20Legacy%20card.pptx

You will need to have the crashlandingBB and redstatebluestate fonts installed as well as access to Powerpoint. It's a bit of a bodge job but looks cool when you can see it laid out as if it were a real card!

I think we've got a great start going, lot's of good card ideas.

grysqrl, I absolutely love your submission, I frequently think of ridiculous solutions to comic book style problems, and that was a great use of the image.

I would like to participate, but must recuse myself on the basis that I would not be technically able to receive the prize.

Nothing is stoping you from posting your idea regardless though. Recuse yourself from the contest if need be, but no need to not participate  . You may join the fun as well!

A question for the moderator/GtG crew --

I'd like to show this to my 8-year-old and have him come up with something, if he can. Permission to post his entry, if he comes up with one?

Sure.

Hey, this is a really cool idea for a contest :D. I've submitted an entry. Legacy wouldn't be my first choice of decks for which to design a new card (I don't play him too often) but I managed to come up with something ;).

Thought something up before looking at the other submissions.  Kind of weak, but I like that the theme of Legacy doing something for the team is in most of the submitted entries so far. 

It's Legacy's main thing, really, though, isn't it? Helping the rest of the team, I mean. That and punching stuff ;).

I don't think the Grasshopper's going to get around to coming up with something - the week's been too busy, although I've checked in with him on it a couple times. His first reaction to seeing the art, though, was "I want that."

I have my pick made for the winner, although I know it's only the GtG guys who actually get to vote. (My pick isn't my own card, although I still like it.) After they make an announcement, I'll call whether I picked it, with a PM being sent to Pydro now so there's verification.

Just a reminder, all submissions need to be in by tomorrow morning.

A simple but kind of mindbending idea I had which I didn't go with:

COHESIVE UNIT (Ongoing, limited)

H is reduced by 1.

It's a little game-breaking in certain situations, but so are quite a few other cards (next evolution versus certain opponents, say, or twist the ether versus single-source villains when teamed with Ra or AZ). It's a solid enough card that it's probably worth a drawback if I were to fully flesh out the idea, but I just dig how the mechanic fits into the theme: that of Legacy leading them as a well-knit team who can work more closely together than another team with similar numbers.

(Maybe something like: "If a hero ongoing would be destroyed by anything other than itself, destroy Cohesive Unit instead" or something, so it's more vulnerable to ongoing destruction? Or just "At the start of Legacy's turn, you must either skip your play phase, skip your power phase, or destroy this card." to represent his effort coordinating the battle.)

Wrong thread Ben himself. Discussion about the contest is in a different thread from the submissions. If you look at the forum you will see a thread with the same name but with Submissions next to it in capital letters.

Yeah. That's not a submission, it's a discussion about a potential submission I ended up not going with but that I still thought was worth sharing. My actual submission is in the correct thread! I'm still pretty pleased with it.

Okay, my bad. Good to know.

Reducing H to 2 makes the game go pear-shaped.  No good.

You could perhaps add a clause that H-2 effects would still give 1? That would still give it some use while not borking up lots of cards...

Well, discussing mechanics is probably good practice for imaginary designers, so let's look at it this way.

In cases where you're being dealt H-based damage, Cohesive Unit will block one of that damage. Some times, yes, that'll be going from 1 to 0, but that's not exactly unheard of. Cohesive Unit can totally block the Matriach's H-2 retaliation damage when H=3, but so can Twist the Ether, or that one vat in Pike Industrial Complex, or any of the cards like Fortitude when the hero in question is the one with the highest HP. I mean, Legacy alone, whose deck it would be going in, has at least 3 ways he could block the Matriach's retaliation damage at H=3 (Fortidue while being the highest, heroic intervention while not being the highest, or lead from the front and next evolution at any time, which would also work at any H too). So, blocking one damage: not exactly game breaking, right?

Other times, Cohesive Unit might save a person from taking damage (if an effect hits H-1 or H-2 targets), or stop a card from being played (if an effect looks for H cards of a specific type), or possibly being played (if an effect looks at the top H cards of the villain deck and plays all of a specific type), or stop an ongoing or equipment from being destroyed (yada yada). These are all handy! But there's just as many times when it won't do anything at all: there's plenty of bad guy plays that don't involve H at all, and you might be sitting there wishing you had spent your turn playing a Heroic Intervention or Take Down instead, even if those just last for a single round.

Which, leading things back to more general hypothetical-designer talk if I may, is a good thing. It's important (at least in my humble opinion) for new cards to create new and interesting choices: something that's always better than an existing option in every situation  or good enough in general that it's an obvious must-play the second you draw it, removes choices, instead.

I think the card could work well if there was a cost.  Having it just an ongoing makes it potentially too powerful as there is no maintenance cost.

Discarding a card each round to keep it out, or even a rule 15 damage clause would balance it.  Fortitude needs Legacy to be highest HP or lead from the front to work, and then only vs. villains.  Next Evolution costs a power each round, and again lead from the front or Legacy being the only one targetted.

(H)-1 gives a lot of benefit to the whole team, and it requires no other cards to work well, and as written no cost to keep the effect.

I would go with the discard each round, or maybe a clause that if the villain does not deal damage for an entire round the card is destroyed.

As for the contest, do we have any idea when the winner will be announced?

So who won? Has the G+ hangout been done yet? Was it recorded? What was asked? Who will answer my questions?

Don't know. Perhaps. No idea. Stuff. I just did.

Can anybody with more image know-how than I quickly have tell me whether the image in this thread would print well as an 11 by 14?

The image is 816x1056 pixels. At 11 by 14, that would be 74 pixels per inch. That would be noticeably grainy, but doable.

hm. Minor drat, then.

The Grasshopper (age 8) is getting a framed print of AZ's character card, done with Christopher's blessing and assistance. It came in under budget, and I was contemplating a second one.

Follow-up: how many pixels per inch to not look grainy?

I'm not quite sure. This page on image resolution suggests 240 or 300 ppi. I'm not sure how it would vary for line art as opposed to a photo.