[CARD][IN DEVELOMENT] - Mecha TCG: MantiCORE

[GrooveMan.exe]

With the basic designs of the game straightened out by Chad, Theou Aegis and I - we can now nicely jump into making cards!

So what's been made so far?
If you want to look at the full rules (although they need a slight update); look no further than here. Or here.

That's too much reading! Summarise it!
MantiCORE is a card game where you play as a faction in a small-scale skirmish; trying to destroy a rival's Headquarters as they do the same to you. Assisting you is a giant Mecha (the titular MantiCORE, or just CORE for short), who you can customise with new parts and upgrades. There are also Support Units who are weaker (like your regular tanks, infantry and battleships), but can be brought out in force.

MantiCORE takes a few cues from a couple of card games, but the main theme is to UPGRADE AND CUSTOMISE.
You have a Headquarters card with Health that you must defend. It also gives you a minimum number of resources. You spend these resources to play cards.

At the start of the game, your Mech is just a Main Core, which like the HQ is on the field before play starts. You must fully build the mech by attaching Parts before you can attack with it. Support Units are less powerful than the Mech, but they do more varied things, and can defend your Base for you (Mechs can attack, but can't defend your Base).

Combat normally plays out similar to Magic: the Gathering (deciding attackers and blockers); but if your Mech targets the Rival Mech, there's a separate round of CORE Combat where they go one-on-one. You can't target the Main Core of a Mech directly until its other parts have been destroyed. Blowing up the Core puts it entirely out of action; and you have to spend some hefty resources to 'repair' the Core and let you attach Parts again.

The game area looks like this:


So what are the Factions we play as?
There are 5 factions so far, each devoted to different strategies, and with affinity for different kinds of terrain.

First, there's the Earth Government faction. They're the best at controlling Air-type Units. They became a unified government because so many people have decided to embrace space travel, so Earth is an economic husk. They've taken people into very standardised, almost oppresively uniform shelters to both keep them alive and happy, and to keep them away from those pesky Renegades.

The Earth Renegades, DELETE, are actually spearheaded by a group of underground hackers who have ties with some millitary; and they tend to get funding in trading in information. A lot of the produced parts are re-engineered parts with quirky effects - the designers have an odd sense of humour. Most of the units are Infantry and city-based, but they've managed to get hold of stray satellites. It would be terrorism, if they didn't find that kind of venture unprofitable.

A colony of super-rich Ex-Earthlings live on the Moon, known collectively as the Moon Millionaires. They don't have much in the way of combat experience; but building giant war machines is a fun hobby - and maybe they can use them to claim some of the Earth for themselves. The specialise in Rugged Terrain, Land-based combat. The two major companies, Kawaii!! Technologies and Starr Corp produce weapons of death designed by a 12 year old spoiled genius, and a hot-blooded man constantly showing off his virility; respectively.

Fourth, there's the Space Colony faction. They operate from a gigantic space station that orbits Earth. They have many space academys for both general and piloting/warfare education set up for the space colonies they watch after. They began as a sort of quasi-government akin to state governments, but for space colonies. They watched over a section of colonies in deep space and were aware of the oncoming war peeping over the horizon and used their massive funds from both earth and their profitable academies to join the war as a neutral patron, if only to protect their own planet dedicated to resource production.

The last Faction, The Stewards, are Eco Terrorists on Earth who want the Earth Government and Renegades gone, so they can reshape and repopulate the Earth their way. Inspired by The Matron, a defector from the opriginal MantiCORE design teams, they embrace more animalisic traits in their Unit design, hardened by the pressure of the ocean; they've been living in an Underwater colony for decades.

So about designing cards...
So far we do have some designs for the layout style of Pilot cards and CORE Part cards:

Spoiler

These are just rough designs and are subject to some tweaking, but we love this style. Each Faction will probably have their own colour-scheme and style take on these layouts.

[GrooveMan.exe]

Card Lists and Style Tips

Each on the 5 factions obviously handles themselves differently - and that shows in the kind of units they have, and the style of the things they produce. If you want to help design a card or write lore, this info should help you out.

Earth Governernment
These guys specialise in Air-type units. Jets, Helicopters, Jet-type Leg Parts, etc.
Their forces are entirely drawn from those who are sheltered with their care. Their almost Paranoia-esque level of dictatorship is only to keep the citizens safe.
These guys are big on Recycling. Units destroyed on the field don't entirely go to waste, and the Junkyard is just as useful as drawing new cards.
So far, the Earth Government lacks lore, a proper name, and a second strategy.

Code:

EARTH GOVERNMENT CARDS

Airstrike --- Tactics Card [Common]
Resource Cost: 1
Deals 2 damage to target unit or base.

Salvage Scraps --- Tactics [Common]
Resource Cost: 5
Remove Junkyard from game, gain 1 Resource for every card removed this way.
"Here at Gaia Corporation, we recycle everything, to give you, the customers, the best saving we can."

Tactical Helicopter---Support Unit [Rare]
Air Type
Resource: 3
Health: 5
Attack: 2
Instead of paying Tactical Helicopter's resource cost, you may discard a card form your hand.
When Tactical Helicopter comes into play, search your discard pile for a Tactics card and put it into your hand.

Air Drop Squad---Support Unit [Common]
Infantry Type
Resource: 2
Health: 3
Attack 1
This Unit cannot be Piloted.
If you control a Piloted Air type Unit, Air Drop Squad's Resource cost is 0.

Riot Police---Support Unit [Uncommon]
Infantry Type
Resource: 2
Health: 3
Attack: 1
Riot Police takes no damage form other Infantry type units.

Gamma Base, "Scrap Haven" --- Headquarters [RARE]

Health: 21
Energy (resources per turn): 7

Once per game, during your turn, you may discard two cards from your hand and shuffle the rest of your hand into your deck and then draw six cards.

Upgrade cards cost 1 less resource to play. Costs cannot be reduced to less than 1 this way.

Moon Millionaire Colony - Kawaii! Technology & Starr Corps
The rich folks on the Moon are the best with Land-type units (If it's a tank, has treads, or deals with rugget terrain, it's all them).
There are two rival companies that produce bright sparkly units (Ktech) and overly manly, sometimes phallic bragging-rights units (Starr). They are the Hello Kitty and Ferrari of space warfare.
Neither company is particularly cheap and have design flaws - but both can be total powerhouses with the right setup.

Code:

MOON MILLIONAIRE CARDS

K!Tech Kero-Kero --- CORE-Upgrade [Common]
Resource: 7
K!Tech Kero Kero can only be Equipped if a Legs Part is Installed. Equipped MantiCORE's Speed increases by 3.
Scrap K!Tech Kero Kero turing CORE Combat to have Target CORE skip their attack. Your CORE may not participate in CORE Combat next turn.
"The Kero-Kero is a beautiful pastel green or pink attachment for the legs that adds an amazing amount of evasive capabilities. A mix of extra suspension and rockets means you can evade a lot of what's coming at you. There are two problems. One, it's expensive. you're not gonna like the price tag. Two, you don't want it touched, the Kero upgrade might as well be held up by fucking tape, but you can use that to your advantage. If you want to make sure you evade EVERYTHING? You can leap and use it as ballast, and whilst you will never be able to salvage it back, you'll survive another day. and that's what matters."

K!Tech Turtle --- Unique Base-Upgrade [Uncommon]
Resource: 8
Health: 15
If a Unit deals damage to your Base, deal 1 damage to that Unit. K!Tech Turtle takes 1 damage every time an opponent plays a Tactics card.
"The Ktech Turtle? It's fucking amazing in three ways. It's something that Ktech made that's useful, for one. Secondly, it does not come in pink. Thirdly, it gives your base one fucking hell of a defensive upgrade. The turtle is basically a system of defensive turrets and shields that fucking works on any base, space, sea, land. It'll help you survive an all out attack, but you want to keep your ass safe, because the main problem with it is that it's easily hacked. Keep an eye on it, and you'll be safe."

K!Tech Butterfly --- Support-Unit [Common]
Air Type
Resource: 5
Health: 2
Attack: 1
As long as K!Tech Butterfly is Piloted, its Health and Attack become 5.
The Butteflies are the only Ktech stuff that's cheap and cheerful. Emphasis on the cheerful. Have you seen those things? They offend the eye and blind you more than the S7a Space Jammers. They distract and make okay support units, but you put a *good* pilot, and you'll have fantastic support. (low attack, low health, When piloted, Mid-high attack, mid-high health, allows pilot to use ability twice in a turn?)

K!Tech Gaze of Love --- Core Upgrade
Resource: 5
Gaze of Love can only be Equipped if a Ktech Head Part is Installed. During your Attack Phase, if the Ktech Head Part destroys a Support Unit, Rival Base takes 2 Damage.
"The Gaze of Love is a high-powered laser installation designed only to work with Kawaii! Tech CORE equipment. Why? Because Sei-Sei doesn't like it when you aren't playing with her toys. A lot of development time went into making sure the lasers fired just the right shade of Hot Pink."

Hurry Production --- Tactics
Resource: 1
In addition to the Resorce Cost of Hurry Production, you may discard up to 3 cards. You gain 2 Resources for every card discarded this way.
"I. WANT. IT. NOW!!!" - Sei-Sei, Kawaii! Technology Designer & Junior CEO, age 12.

Starr Corp 91Kx Cannon --- CORE-Upgrade [Rare]
Resource: 10
91Kx Cannon can only be Equipped if a Starr Corp Arm Part is Installed. During your turn, you may skip attacking with your CORE. If you do, put a counter on 91Kx Cannon.
Remove 5 Counters: Scrap target CORE Part Installed to Rival CORE.
"The Starr Corporation 91Kx Cannon Upgrade is the biggest, baddest boys in the gun show. Capable of releasing 5'000 missiles in the time it takes the standard TIZONA v1 to release and reload 1, this is for when you need to bring out the big guns. Space, Sea, Sky or Land, the 91Kx surpasses all other competitors in the market. The 91Kx is the for the Elite. For the cream of the crop, and if you need to ask us for the price, we're sorry, but you won't be able to afford this. Starr Corporation 91Kx Cannon Upgrade. The biggest gun in space.
Starr Corporation. Quality you can trust."

Renegade Earth Hackers - DELETE
The city-dwellers on Earth who rejected the Government reigime naturally specialise in Infantry and Urban Warfare (Bipedal COREs tend to function best in Cities).
The entire operation is run from behind the scenes, no one really knows the hackers, nor where they're based; but they're just great at mobilising people into action and taking control of machines that don't answer their call. They have a very eclectic look (Think "Jet Set Radio: Modern Warfare")
Their two main strategies involve putting-forth and retreating Units and Parts at speed; and using Viruses and sabbotage to ruin the setup of the opposition.

Code:

DELETE CARDS

Accelerando --- CORE Arm Part
Resources: 4
Health: 7
Attack: 3
During CORE Combat, Accelerando's Attack increases by 1 for for every point of Speed higher than your Rival CORE.

Ritenuto --- CORE Arm Part
Resources: 5
Health: 9
Attack: 3
During CORE Combat, Ritenuto's Attack increases by 1 for every point of Speed lower than your Rival CORE.

Lead Waltz --- CORE Legs Part
Treads, Land-Type
Resources: 6
Health: 14
Speed: 3
Lead Waltz must be targeted by Rival CORE during CORE Combat.

Tin Two Step --- CORE Legs Part
Bipedal, Infantry-Type
Resources: 5
Health: 5
Speed: 8
Spend 4 Resource: Halve the damage of a CORE Combat attack you recieve this turn, rounded down.

Steel Symphony --- Main CORE Part
Health: 8
Steel Symphony's Health increases by 2 for every Support Unit you control.

Metal Minuet --- Main CORE Part
Health: 15
The Recource Cost for Scrapping CORE Parts decreases by 1 for every Infantry-type Unit you Control

GrooveMan, Playful Hacker --- Unique Pilot
Resource: 5
You may once per turn, redirect one attack to Piloted Unit. If Unit is destroyed, shuffle GrooveMan back into your deck

Radio Host --- Pilot
Resource: 3
Other Infantry-type Support Units cost 1 less Resource to play.

===Support Units===
(S7a 3-Lx) "Space Jammer" - Space Jammer is a small Space-Type support unit designed to for defense and tactical manouvers. It's main capabilities is to allow evasion or to halt attackers by blinding them (jamming their radar, etc). It has some offensive capabilities but it's very weak. It is, however, fairly fast and well built. Not for offensive pilots. (Mid-High Health, Low Attack. Can stop a unit from attacking or defending)

(S7a 4-Is) - "Four Eyes" are fast Infantry-type recon units which can outmanouver many of the different support units. They have hacking capabilities and can easily go into enemy lines to disrupt their base and workshop. (Mid Health, Mid Attack, Can swap attack to look at top two opponents Workshop and put one on the junkyard and the other back on top)

===Base Upgrades===
Reverse Engineering Plant - During your Begin Phase you may pay 3 Resources. If you do, you do not pay Compatability Costs for CORE Parts this turn.

===Tactics===
Ambidextrous Virus -- (For this round of CORE Combat, choose one: Rival CORE must attack with Left Arm; Rival CORE must attack with Right Arm [The card cannot be played/resolves with no effect if both Left and Right arms of Rival CORE are destroyed])

Product Recall -- (Choose one non-Pilot card in play. All instances of this card are returned to their owner's hands.)

Stocktaking Spyware -- (Name a card. Opponent reveals his or her hand, and discards 2 cards for every instance of the named card.)

Space Station Warmongers
Obviously, these guys love Space-Type Units.
It's a space station full of hardened veterans and top Research & Development scientists. They have many space academys for both general and piloting/warfare education set up for the space colonies they watch after. Stylistically, they're gritty and serious - but with that heroic glow of grandeur.
The Parts they construct are rather average by themselves, but it's a whole other story when they work in tandem with eachother. They specialize in high quality pilot cards and their units benefit form equipment the most.

Code:

SPACE WARMONGER CARDS

(RCU-g50v1) TIZONA v1---Main Core [RARE]
If TIZONA is a Space type unit (i.e. has Space Travel legs), you may play a Deployable Mini-Turret token with one health and one attack in play whenever you play a Tactics card.

(RCU-x03) BURTGANG Dual---Main Core [RARE]
Remove one damage counter from BURTGANG during your draw phase, ignore this effect if BURTGANG is not equipped with a MantiCORE Head.
BURTGANG takes two less damage from Sea type units.

Military Rations---Tactics Card [Common]
Resource Cost: 1
Remove two damage counters from target Support Unit.

Eco-Terrorist Cult - The Stewards
A real reclusive Faction. They've been sitting in an underwater colody for decades, and have fully mastered Sea-type units.
Following a slightly skewed mythology about Dr. Moramanti's protege, Dr. Keiko Kobiyashi, they intend to use a perfect balance of nature and technology to reclaim Earth the right way. They might be a bit nuts, but what they're capable of building is definitely scary.
Their two strategies revolve around building weak, fast units that have the ability to repair themselves (and others); and large, bulky units with intimidating defenses.

Code:

THE STEWARDS CARDS

PERSEPHONE - A repurposed exploration vessel designed for extended dives into the Mariana Trench. Its main feature is a projected energy shield which can protect its more delicate modules from the pressures present in the deep sea. Additionally, its structure is capable of bearing enormous amounts pressure, well beyond any naturally present. At the onset of war, these were some of the first cores put to work on the front lines. (High health core that provides damage resistance to attached parts)

[water dog]

Code:

Tactical Helicopter---Support Unit [RARE]

Air Type
Resource: 3
Health: 5
Attack: 2
Pilot: 1

Instead of paying Tactical Helicopter's resource cost, you may discard a card form your hand.

When Tactical Helicopter comes into play, search your discard pile for a Tactics card and put it into your hand.

________

Air Drop Squad---Supposrt Unit [COMMON]

Infantry Type
Resource: 2
Health: 3
Attack 1
Pilot: 0

If you control a piloted air type unit, Air Drop Squad's resource cost is reduced to 0.

_________

Riot Police---Support Unit [UNCOMMON]

Infantry Type
Resource: 2
Health: 3
Attack: 1
Pilot: 1

Riot Police takes no damage form other Infantry type units.

The unified military needs some love.

Also the direction I'm heading with the space faction will be more of an academic as opposed to brutish faction. They have many space academys for both general and piloting/warfare education set up for the space colonies they watch after. They began as a sort of quasi-government akin to state governments, but for space colonies. They watched over a section of colonies in deep space and were aware of the oncoming war peeping over the horizon and used thier massive funds from both earth and their profitable academies to join the war as a neutral patron, if only to protect their own planet dedicated to resource production (undecided of that kinda shit). Basically they specialize in high quality pilot cards and their units benefit form equipment the most.

---

Code:

[I don't have a name yet]---Headquarters [RARE] (It's an earth government base)

Health: 21
Energy (resources per turn): 7 (low on purpose, I imagine the average would be like 9 or somehting IDK)

Once per game, during your turn, you may discard two cards from your hand and shuffle the rest of your hand into your deck and then draw six cards.

Upgrade cards cost 1 less resource to play.

One more

[GrooveMan.exe]

If it's assumed that Units may only have a single pilot attached to it unless otherwise stated, you can save some space on the card~

All of that added. I need to make another thread on /tg/ about this; they were pretty helpful with development advice. The formatting on suff already posted needs to be unified too~

[water dog]

I thought we were going with Theou's pilot system where a unit could have multiple pilots which may or may not unlock effects on cards?

[GrooveMan.exe]

We are. But cards which benefit from that say so directly (I'm assuming it's an uncommon trait, and cards which do get special effects from additional pilots have that as their 'ability' for sake of balance). Units which have other special effects or are just plain vanilla stick with a single Pilot.

Basically all it means is that some cards will say:
"You can equip 1 extra Pilot to this Unit. X gets +1 Attack for every Pilot."

[water dog]

Ooooooooooooooooooooh okaay I get it. You were just saying it is implied 1 pilot on a card, any thing extra would be an effect. B)

[GrooveMan.exe]

DING DING DING

And Chad wins the star prize!

[TheouAegis]

Astro Strike

For each pilot you return to your hand, your air units gain +1 Attack.

(not going to look at your wording/format cuz i'm tired these days. this would only work if the format is where you cannot play pilots after combat phase. it has the benefit of recycling pilots but the drawback of crippling either the MantiCORE or the support units.)

[Maxpphire]

I am quite litterally typing up a whole bunch of cards as we speak.

Hi, I have a huge imagination, just let me let it throw up all over notepad and I'll post what I get from it.

Don't care if this is a bump, it is a productive bump, eat a fuc

---

It is what I have so far. Feel free to add anything that people need to do to unlock the effects; the only one I ask you don't touch at all is Ryan Stiles.

EG= Earth Goverment
MM= Moon Milionairs
RE= Renegade Earth
SS= Space Station
ET= Eco-Terrorists

Type: Pilot
Name: Ryan Stiles
Faction: None
Effects: Wins the game
Rarity: Legend (Basically it has only been spoken of and never seen type of rare)

Type: Pilot
Name: Jenna Quinn
Faction: EG
Effects: Can repair a Mech part with a destroied support unit already in the junkyard
Rarity: Normal

Type: Pilot
Name: James Wankerfeild
Faction: MM
Effects: Everytime you destroy a support unit, all your stat go up by one for 3 turns
Rarity: Normal

Type: Pilot
Name: Nicolas Anders
Faction: RE
Effects: Switches the controls on the Mechs (The legs become the arms, the arms becomes the legs, core and head are also switched up)
Rarity: Normal

Type: Pilot
Name: Edmund Westonburg
Faction: MM
Effects: Makes all ground support units on the other side support his side for a turn.
Rarity: a little rare

Type: Pilot
Name: Johnny Livet
Faction: SS
Effects: Can easily adapt to any situation but getting a peak of 1 card in the other players hand
Rarity: normal

[GrooveMan.exe]

Necroposting with the legitimate intent to resurrect this idea, with a few tweaks.

After talking about it with Chad, a notion came up that the overarching 'plot' for the game was too serious. Instead of having a Post-Apocalyptic Space Opera, the concept now focuses on a new planet being discovered in a fictional solar system. This planet has almost endless resources and the perfect conditions for colonising and building upon. The 5 Factions now have small skirmishes to compete for territory on this planet (Think like the kind of battles in the Advance Wars series, Dark Conflict notwithstanding). Instead of defining the groups of cards by colour (like Magic) or elemental type (like Pokémon), the card styles reflect the colony they belong to.

The Unified Governent want to turn the planet into a perfect safe-haven for everyone, constantly monitored and controlled to ensure maximum safety and happiness of all involved (free will does not apply). Their cards have a monochromatic, iPod-sleek scheme.

The Urban Renegades want to turn the planet into an intergalactic-strength pirate radio station, peppered with clubs and sports parks. The only laws are the ones telling you to CHILL THE FUCK OUT. Their cards have a bright, but grungy, urban motif.

The Millionaires want to turn the planet into an expensive luxury resort with the works; a bunch of city-sized theme parks, a shopping mall the size of a continent, and more spas and golf courses to keep rich parents busy for years. Their cards look shiny and bourgeois.

The Stewards are now more like Space Pirates (in the 'Treasure Planet' sense, not the 'Metroid' sense), rather than out-and-out terrorists. They want to turn the Planet into one big swashbuckling adventure. Caves full of treasure, dense jungles full of wild animals, and more salty inns and armouries than you can shake a flagon of grog at. Their cards naturally look verdant, with rich wooden tones.

Chad is largely responsible for the Space Colony design, and I don't want to overstep. Kat, some of those designs work (although they'd need some serious fleshing-out and balancing, but others kind of don't make sense. 'Switching mech controls' especially.