Friday, May 25, 2007

Andrew's YouTUBE

Andrew (Bitshuffler) on YouTUBE.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Just passing by ...

Last Friday was Music Trivia and Karaoke night for youth. Joseph made up some questions for the trivia which included some Rolf Harris songs, so now I have bits of Rolf popping into my head. All I have to say that the boys who put the powder on the noses of the faces of the ladies of the court of King Caractacus were just passing by ...

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

RPG card game

Latest update: 7/12/09

Version Info:
version 0.8 - Simultaneous play. Deck to 10 cards total. Challenge dungeon has battles on the way out. Treasure changes
version 0.7 - Fleshed out the rules for the game a little more in a walk along the beach with Sandy. Mainly the play rules and deck construction.

RPG CARD GAME CONCEPT
- A game for 2 players with 2 decks of cards inspired by computer role playing games.
- One player plays the "Hero" the other plays the monsters, villians etc. One deck of cards is for the character, one for the generation of the opponents.
- Cards from the hearts suit represent life points, cards from the clubs suit represent attacking moves, cards from the spades suit represent defensive moves, cards from the diamonds suit represent treasure.
- The hero and the various monsters and villians are defined by a specific combination of cards from their respective pack of cards. The character definition is made up of 3 hearts cards and a play deck of 7 cards of clubs and spades. Monsters also include a treasure pile of 3 cards. The character level is the average of all cards that make up a deck.
- Players take turns attacking and defending simultaneously until one player is reduced to zero life.
- If the hero wins, a treasure card is drawn from the treasure pile. This card can eventually be converted into a card of equivalent rank in either hearts, spades or clubs to improve the character for the next adventure.
- Battles continue until the hero is defeated, or the hero beats the final 'boss'

STARTING PLAY
- The initial character definition of the hero includes 2,3,4 of hearts, Ace,2,3,4 of clubs and 2,3,4 of spades. Since the average value of all cards is 2.8, therefore the hero starts as a level 2 character (almost level 3).
Updated to here: 7/12/09
- The opposing player can then choose a monster to play. If playing a scenario, the scenario chart tells the opposing player what monster to play next. If playing a challenge, the opposing player can construct a character definition so that the monster's level is one below the hero's. At the start the monster may need to include blank cards (jokers or diamonds) in the play deck to reduce the level of the deck below 3.
- Place all hearts cards (that represent current life total) in the character definition in front of the player. Place all remaining hearts cards from the deck in an upside down pile to the side. These will be used later on to swap in or out when the hero or monster gets damaged so that the sum of all hearts cards in play is equivalent to the current life total.
- Players then shuffle all attack cards and defense cards (and dummy cards) into a deck.
- Draw the top card to see who goes first. The player with the highest rank card starts. If the rank is the same, the player with the attack card goes first. If both are attack cards, shuffle and redraw. Draw another 3 cards and place them all into your starting hand.

BATTLE PHASE
- The attacking player starts their turn by drawing cards from their deck until they have a hand of 4 cards.
- The defender plays first and can play any defensive card. If there are no defensive cards available, you may play any other card in your hand (attack or dummy cards) face down for a defense of 1.
- The attacker can then play any attacking card in their hand. If there are no attacking cards available, you may play any other card in your hand (defense or dummy cards) face down for a defense of 1.
- Any amount of attack above the defensive value is applied as health damage. The defender reorganises his health cards (hearts) to represent the new value. EG: Defender plays a 2 of spades, attacker plays a 5 of clubs, 3 damage is applied to health.
- If the defender's health is reduced to zero or below, the battle ends. If the hero wins, progress to the treasure drawing phase. If the monster wins the game is over.
- If the defender is still alive, the players start another turn with defender as the attacker and the attacker as a defender.
- Any cards played this turn are placed at the bottom of their respective decks.

SPECIAL CARDS
- The Ace and picture cards have special rules for their play.
- Ace: The ace of clubs is a dart, and will cause 1 point of damage regardless of what defense card is raised. [Rule for Ace of clubs]
- King: the Kings are not played like other cards, but are placed in front of the player during their turn IN ADDITION to a defensive or attacking card being played. The king in play add an additional point to defense or attack (depending on the king) for each subsequent card played. EG: playing a 9 clubs with a king of clubs in play will now be 10 points of damage
- [Jack, Queen rules]

TREASURE PHASE
- If the hero wins the battle, the monster shuffles the treasure cards in their character definition and the hero chooses one.
- The the hero can then convert the treasure card drawn to any other card of equivalent rank that is not currently in their character definition. EG: 5 of diamonds is drawn, the hero can convert this to a 5 of hearts, 5 of clubs or 5 of spades if they do not already have that card.
- If the treasure is converted, the player may then remove any card from their character definition to keep the number of hearts to 3 and the total attack and defense cards to 10.
- The hero may also hold onto the treasure card (or be forced to if they have all cards of that rank). Find the equivalent diamond card in the hero's deck and add it to the character definition. This card can then be used in subsequent treasure phases to combine with other treasure cards to give a higher rank to convert from. If the hero already has the same treasure card in thier character definition already, they cannot choose to take the card as treasure. The card may be used in conversion or aggregated onto another treasure card to make a treasure card of a rank that you do not have.
- Note that treasure cards in the character definition still add to the character level. Sum up all card ranks in the character definition including treasure and divide by 13 [possibly change deck size to make it divisible by 10?]

CHALLENGE MODE
[flesh out]

SENARIO MODE
Instead of playing a challenge where the monsters are on average a level below the hero, you can play a scenario where the monsters and rooms are laid out on paper and can be played like a choose-your-own-adventure

[more to come]

Monday, May 07, 2007

New card game

I've been thinking about creating another card game that plays like an RPG but uses a standard deck of cards. Obviously it'll have to use come creative interpretation, but I think it's possible. At first I was thinking it would turn out like an SMS game I was working on with a rock-scissors-paper type army listing, but recently I've been looking at a more involved one with scenarios and individual battles.

The current thinking is to have hearts represent current life points, clubs to represent damage, spades to represent shields or armour and diamonds for treasure. There would be an assortment of monster definitions which had a combination of cards to give an approximate strength, so a lightweight critter could possibly have 2,3,5 of clubs, 1,2 of spades, a 2 &3 of hearts and a treasure chest of 1,2,3. Hearts start on the table as life points, clubs and spades are combined into a deck and are drawn and played as the main part of the game, and one card from the treasure chest is randomly chosen if the monster is defeated. The treasure can then be converted into a card of equivalent cost in either hearts, spades or clubs to advance the character.

Last night I had a dream of a different type of game that played like a How to host a murder mystery crossed with liar, liar . Players are randomly dealt a card which sets their "character". Players then mingle and chat in character to determine who is the killer (the person with the highest card). It was more of a theatrical event in my dream which probably wouldn't play that way, so I'll leave it as that.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Happy Birfday too mee!

Another birthday is coming up so a convenient party was thrown together for this weekend. Sandy made a great cake in the shape of a computer with 5 jellybabies holding toothpicks on screen attacking a yellow licorice allsort blob. Suffice to say it was an apt representation of some of our latest WoW dungeon crawls by the Bowes clan. Might see if I can dig up a pic of it ..

Went and got a new chair today as a Mum & Dad present thing. Saw one that looked like an areon for $650, but there was only one left (the floor stock) and it .. err .. broke .. while I was fiddling with some knobs on the back. Sitting in a rather comfy black leather high-back exec chair that was 1/4 the price at $139. Feels about 90% as good as the 'galaxy', but a bargain at that price. I'll still keep a look out for an areon or the like as I'm needing a good quality chair to 'look after' my back. This one's a good placeholder and much better than my older chair which had a sunken seat that slid you out.

Other birthday gifts included a lunchbox, marsbars everywhere and some licorice allsorts. :9