Aliens Predator CCG: Card Design Part 1

Aliens Predator Card Designs

A problem with all the cards is the font used in the name. It has readability issues and could be improved. Second, the Resources and Restrictions listed along the left side of the cards are printed vertically. That's hard to read without turning the cards or craning your head, and this text is often required to tell if you can play a card or not.

Locations form the 'map' where the game takes place. Characters move between adjacent locations, and can search them for equipment and supporting characters. I like the graphic card frame and the prominence of the image. 

Main Characters are under the direct control of the players. They move, attack, and search for supporting characters and items. These frames look interesting, but the flavor text overlaps some of the graphic elements making it harder to read.

Supporting Characters are found by main characters and are used by the different factions to win the game. The contrast on the card is nice - they look really plain, and wildly different than the other character cards for easy distinction.

Events are played for temporary buffs or penalties. I like the design but the texture under the effect text makes it harder to read than necessary.

Items are used by the Humans and the Predators. The Human Item frame is very solid. I like the graphics and the texture doesn't interfere with the Effect Text and the Flavor Text. The Predator frame has wasted Effect Text space, and the texture underlays the Name and Flavor Text entirely.

These cards were redesigned with the release of the Resurrection expansion, and to match the Terminator CCG which used the same rule system.

Aliens Predator CCG 1: A peculiar gem

An Aliens Predator card back, with the name of the game over a dark purple background.

I first found this game as a child in my local card game store - Dave's Doug Out, on San Pablo Avenue. It was bigger and brighter than the other card store, Cosmic Cards and Comics on Solano, so I spent more time at Dave's.
It was 1997 and I saw a display that said Aliens Predator on it. At this point I hadn't seen any of the movies, but delighted on stories from friends who had, and the wildly unrestrained Kenner line of toys.
My first experience with either franchise were the toys, which came with mini comics. They were colorful and action packed, so I loved them and had no context to put them in. That laid the foundation for my love of both series - an unrestrained universe full of color, creativity, dynamism, and pulp styling.
So I bought two starter decks on name recognition alone. I got the Marine and Alien starter set, because I heard a lot more about Aliens than Predator. This was at a time where I would buy starter decks and not actually learn the game - usually because no one else would pick up the game, and I didn't understand the rules enough to teach it to my friends. Other games that followed this example: Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Pokemon.

I got super excited about Aliens Predator because it had pictures that looked exciting and a tense atmosphere - Aliens were out there! They were gonna get ya!
But the rules were very complicated for my kiddo self. I remember gushing about the game to a friend, and they asked how to win, and I *had no idea* because that was at the end of the rulebook in a tiny chapter that says to refer to the scenario being played for victory conditions. I didn't even know there were scenarios!

The game is wildly different from the other CCGs I've experienced because it operates much more like a tactical board game than like Magic: The Gathering or Yu Gi Oh!. Players lay out Location cards and move characters between them, searching for equipment or weapons or victims. Lots of the cards have specific context requirements to play rather than a cost system or limited plays like other games. And most different, the game does not work without a Scenario governing the rules of the game.

All of these combined to make the game difficult to learn, and more difficult to teach. I ended up not playing the game until 20 years later when this revival project started with Dune. I got three starter decks off of Ebay, and I still have my rulebook from 1997. I've played two matches so far using the 'Contact' scenario, and the problems we ran into indicate that this one is going to take a lot more work than Dune will to get table-ready.

I'm excited :)

CCG Regeneration: Card Back Designs

I've finished transcribing all the Dune CCG cards and developed templates for new printings:

Image of a card with a blue background, a light blue geometric pattern, with a gold geometric pattern in the foreground. The card is labelled 'House'.

Image of a card with a purple background, a light blue geometric pattern, with a gold geometric pattern in the foreground. The card is labelled 'imperial'.

I wanted the card backs to be very distinct in color, but have a matching design to reinforce the relationship between the House Deck, which represent an individual House's resources, and the Imperial Deck, which represents unique assistance from other forces within the galaxy at large.

I used purple for the Imperial background color to reference the Imperial Deck's higher status, and I used blue to indicate that the House Deck is still of 'nobility' but to a lesser degree.
Both card backs use patterns to add texture to the background color. I chose different patterns to further subtly differentiate the cards from each other.
Both cards use a

"Purple was the color worn by Roman magistrates; it became the imperial color worn by the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, and later by Roman Catholic bishops. Similarly in Japan, the color is traditionally associated with the emperor and aristocracy.^{[7]" - Wikipedia}

"Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the eighth century Chinese artists used cobalt blue to colour fine blue and white porcelain. In the Middle Ages, European artists used it in the windows of cathedrals. Europeans wore clothing coloured with the vegetable dye woad until it was replaced by the finer indigo from America. In the 19th century, synthetic blue dyes and pigments gradually replaced mineral pigments and synthetic dyes. Dark blue became a common colour for military uniforms and later, in the late 20th century, for business suits. Because blue has commonly been associated with harmony, it was chosen as the colour of the flags of the United Nations and the European Union.^{[2]" - Wikipedia}

CCG Regeneration 2: Road Map

These are the steps I will follow when investigating old Customizable Card Games for conversion into boxed card games.

Acquire the Game
First step first. Acquiring the game includes finding potential abandoned candidates, collecting rules errata, and obtaining what card information is available in case additional sets are required. Then I order some starter decks or find a Tabletop Simulator module so I can try the game.

Learn the Rules
I read through the rules a couple of times to familiarize myself with the new game. Lots of these games were abandoned because of how complex they are relative to Magic: The Gathering, so I need to be diligent to make sure I understand how it works before bringing it to the table.

Play the Game
I get out the cards and play a few dummy rounds against myself. Even though I have perfect information, this is a very important step in figuring out how the game flows at the table. Any places I run into friction indicate a place in the rules I need to clarify.
This preparation helps me

Record the Cards
I use online scans (or a rare physical collection) to fill a spreadsheet with the card information. Ideally I can get a complete record. Lots of time is spent researching in this stage. I make small changes like incorporating errata and rulings on early cards to reduce the later workload.

Determine if the Game is suitable for conversion
With playtesting, I hope to find if the core game functions without the collectible aspect. I'll work to adapt the game if it is still fun without the excitement and risk of buying randomized packs, the engagement of active support and competitive scene, and the prospect of new sets being released regularly.

Change Rules
With an understanding of the game I can change the rules and cards to better fit the single-box model. Trash tier cards with low utility are re-worked or eliminated, deck construction rules are streamlined, and different formats like Draft and Constructed are formalized. The conversion's structure will take form here - how many different sets of cards, whether expansions in the original game will have to be separated from the 1st edition cards, and so on.

Play Game with new Rules
New rules, new playtests! This step will take the longest. The synergies and interactions in CCGs are very complex and most can't be anticipated outside of playtesting.

Repeat until satisfied, or the game is deemed unsuitable.
And then we're done!

New Project: CCG Regeneration, or reviving out-of-print CCGs by converting them into Single Box, non collectible Card / Board games

Short Shrift:


While researching the Dune 4x game concept, I came across information about a discontinued Dune card game. I dug deeper, remembering an advertisement in the InQuest magazine I used to read. It featured Paul Atreides, in an ornithopter cockpit:

On the surface, the game appeared to be a clone the popular card game Magic: The Gathering, which had popularized the selling of randomized packs of cards to be used on a competitive game. But the details distinguished Dune from it's antecedent.

The rules of Dune are much more specific and layered than in Magic - as an example, each card tells you the exact phase and conditions where you can play it, even down to the step of the turn and how long the card's effect will last. 

The game is built to support more than 2 players, and has a two-tiered win condition of gathering enough spice and enough political favor - conquest and destruction are a means to an end, but not an end of themselves.

This started me on a journey of discovery and seeded the idea of converting old, out of print Customisable Card Games (CCG) into single box, complete card games. 

Buried Games:
Dune CCG
Aliens Predator CCG
Terminator CCG
Star Trek 1st / 2nd Edition CCG

Tabletop Spaceship Wargame Design Part 10, Researching Firestorm Armada v2

Firestorm Armada is a fleet system that is as complex as Battlefleet Gothic but using different mechanics to accomplish dynamics.

Weapons roll pools of six sided dice to determine how effective the shots are at damaging the target.

Weapons have a profile that describes how many dice they roll at each range. These dice are rolled and compared to
Dice that turn up as a 6 'explode' and add another die to the pool.  Instead of each success dealing a point of damage, the total number of successes are compared to the target's armor. If successes >= Armor, the ship takes a hit.

After testing out the game I found the exploding dice to be untenable. It resulted in lots of unfun situations, either impossible comebacks or annihilating any chance of a comeback.
The armor system also generates situations where a ship's turn results in nothing if they don't score enough hits. For me that doesn't fly. My target is a few ships, so each activation should be impactful. With the armor system, perfect tactics can be denied an effect due heavily to dice rolls.

Tabletop Spaceship Wargame Part 10, Researching A Call To Arms

Analysis of the Call to Arms system

Core Gameplay
Call to Arms uses a base movement system, attack system, and special actions ships can use to alter their performance.

Players roll for initiative every round.
Loser activates one of their ships first, then players take turns activating ships until every unit has been moved.

In Babylon 5, units must move half their Move rating forward every activation. After that they may make their first turn according to their turn rating. If they have multiple turns, they must move 2" after the previous turn before turning again.

In Star Trek all units can move up to 12", they may stay stationary or go in reverse. A ship's Movement Rating is how many inches forward the ship must travel before turning. Therefore, a ship with a turn rating of 6 can turn twice if it moves 12" - the first turn at 6", and the second at 12".

After moving, the activated ship chooses which special action to make and performs the necessary test. Special Actions alter how ships operate or provide additional abilities. Each advantage comes with a trade off or restriction and some have a chance of failure. If a special action requires a test and is failed, the ship acts as normal and it's special action has been wasted.

Once all capital ships have been moved, auxiliary craft are moved.

========================================================================

Attack Phase
Players may measure distance at any time.

The player that won initiative picks a capital ship unit and activates it. They then choose which weapons will attack which targets, and then resolve these weapon attacks one at a time. Weapons have a maximum range, a fire arc they can shoot out of, the number of dice they roll to attack, and special properties that alter the weapon's effect on the base mechanic.

The attack dice are rolled and successes score damage against the target.

In Babylon 5, the target has a hull rating that determines what rolls hurt the target.
In Star Trek, all targets are hit on a 4+ by default. Range, ship and weapon traits can alter these results.

The number of hits that surpass the defenses then roll again to determine their effect. 1 deals no damage, 2-5 deals 1 damage, and 6 deals 1 damage and causes a critical effect. Weapon traits can alter these results.

Each critical result rolls a die on the critical chart to determine the system hit.

In Babylon 5, any crit could generate any severity of result.
In Star Trek, each crit to a location inflicts an increasingly severe effect.

Damage is recorded. Below a certain threshold, ships become Crippled. This severely weakens the ship and limits it's capabilities.

After a ship resolves all of it's attacks, the other player activates a capital ship and play repeats until all capital ships have fired.

Once all capital ships have attacked, auxiliary craft have their chance to attack. In Babylon 5, If they are contacting other auxiliary craft, they attack using Dogfight rules.

========================================================================

The rules play well after the initial learning curve. The use of dice pools to resolve weapon attacks allows reliable estimation of a weapon's expected performance. Ships are capable and have statistics that make fleet construction interesting. Their interactions fit the theme of each fiction they seek to model and resolve rapidly.

The exception based ruleset is difficult to learn at first due to the variability of conditions and sequencing. The lack of reference components makes checking the rules taxing. The high amount of ship hit points is a chore to track without component assistance. Critical Hits take a lot of rolls to determine and referencing the chart and effects takes time. Tracking the effects of Critical hits across a battle is difficult without component assistance. The rules are written in an unclear manner.

The game has had balance issues since publication for Babylon 5 more than four editions ago. Lots of testing will be required to ensure as much fairness as possible when using these mechanics.

Tabletop Spaceship Game Part 3, Foundation

The Atomic approach

Utilizing a reductive method to start from the smallest elements of a game, and after identifying and understanding each, combining them into stable molecules and compounds to support the original intent.

Designing Board Wargames by George Phillies

This lecture series on Youtube proved a good place to start for me to understand wargames from a longer and wider perspective than my own. I'm incorporating pieces of these lectures in addition to Mark LeBlanc's work to create a solid foundation that I can reference when creating mechanics further in the design process.

I will utilize material covered in this video:

Introduction, Features of All Games

Representation

What you see in front of you when you look at the game.

The game is represented by the various miniatures or tokens arrayed on a [gridded/open ] play map with reference cards for each faction set to the side. Several colors of dice will be available and a track marking victory progress for each player. Templates and measuring aids will be available as well, with a rules reference sheet and full rulebook out of the play area.

Mechanics

Mechanics are things you assemble to get a game - mechanisms that execute to make the game function.

Mechanisms slated in the game at this point are to remain mostly undefined to fit my atomic approach.

Confirmed mechanics:

Player Turns

Dice Rolling

Modular Board

Variable Player Powers

Capture / Eliminate

Movement

Resource Management

Risk & Reward

Game Modes

Piece Elimination

Victory Points

Loss Avoidance

Possible mechanics:

Reference Cards

Force Construction

Factions|Open Purchase

Catch Up

Secret Unit Deployment

Time Track

Action Point system (Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander)

Rock Paper Scissors

2+ players

Team play

Player Elimination

Cooperative Scenarios

Wagering resources / Press your Luck

Campaign Play

Route Building

Card Driven Battle / Campaign

Deck / Pool Building

Point to Point movement

Simultaneous Action Selection

Action Programming / Pencil and Paper, recording orders

Variable Unit Command / 'Chit-pull system'

Grid Movement

Memory

Area Control / Influence

Pick up and Deliver

Style

emphasis of a specific mechanic, what mechanic the game relies on.

This will have to be rather light at this point, because so little of the game is established picking mechanics to emphasize is premature.

Theme

What is the game about

The game is about fleets of spaceships fighting.

Components

What falls out of the box when overturned

Play Surface

Dice

Tokens

Chit Counters

Reference Cards, Sheets, Rules

Rulebook

Miniatures

Templates

Ruler

Terrain tiles

'Shape'

Term from Japanese game Go, Thin and elegant or Thick and clumsy

How much space the game uses in a player's life

The target for this game is to have a very thin presence for play and setup, and ideally a thick space in overall time playing.

Voice

I / We / First Person

You / You / Second Person

*He/She / They / 3rd Person*

The player's actions reflect the decisions and participation of hundreds or even thousands of imaginary officers and crew.

Content

Subject of the game

What are the resources?

This overlaps quite a bit with Theme, and so far isn't well defined with the current rules (or lack thereof) at this time. Content is what distinguishes this game from others like it.

As the game goes through iterative design, I'm going to revisit these elements and fill them in.

New project! Tabletop Starship Wargame, Part 1

Hey there. After playing Star Wars Armada and X Wing miniatures, it stoked the fire of an old desire to create my own table top wargame system with spaceships.

Each game I've played in that genre has left me with some issue or another, and I've experienced enough different systems that I've got a good idea of what I want in and what I want left out.

I'll start with the elements from the games I have experienced that ended up being sticking points that have lead to me creating my own system.

I have played Call to Arms: Babylon 5, Call to Arms: Star Fleet, Battlefleet Gothic, Star Wars: Armada, Star Wars: X Wing, and am familiar with Halo: Fleet Battles, Firestorm: Armada, Federation Commander and Star Fleet Battles.

The goals for this game system are as follows:

1. It should play fast.

2. It is Capital Ship Fleet scale

3. Fighter Craft play a role

Ideally, here are some additional preferences:

A. Construction rules will be provided so players can create profiles for their own imagined ships

B. The ruleset should be flexible enough to represent a wide variety of ships.

C. The game should scale up in a reasonable fashion.

With these thoughts in mind, we begin.