u/CowIslandP

If you had to take a TCG/CCG that you love and reduce it down do it is just one set of cards per player, what would that list look like?

I’m thinking less mtg here as I reckon it’s impossible, but more the old Star Wars / Star Trek ccgs from decipher or One piece or DBZ - if you weren’t fussed about collecting what would be the most fun decks to play with.

I’m way out of actual gaming practice with all of these but interested if people have thought about this.

In finalising the rules for my Roman themed strategic card game, Consul of Rome, two elements are still giving me a bit of pause - these are a couple of in round catch up mechanics (see a link to a dev diary post I made on the topic). I’ve played around with a few different variations and would appreciate feedback.

The cards

80 card deck:
- 11 Senator cards (10 votes each)
- 52 legion cards (between 1-5 votes each)
- 13 rank specific legion wild cards (between 1-5 votes each)
- 4 wild cards (0 votes)

Super basic overview of scoring/victory conditions

Consul of Rome is a set collection/meld making game where the aim is to have the most votes (denoted by numbers on the cards) at the end of a round in quick play or first to 100 votes in a longer campaign mode.

Catch up mechanics

I’ve created two catch up mechanics - bribery and assassination - which can only be used when you are 10 votes behind the leader (ie they likely have an extra senator). You can only use each one once a round.

Bribery: you can steal one of the leaders cards by discarding one of your melds. The meld has to have 2x aggregate rank of the votes you’re trying to steal (if you’re stealing a senator your meld has to have at least 20 aggregate rank). Only rule is that you can’t break a senator pair meld (for context you can open with a single Senator).

Assassination: you can discard one card from your opponents tableau (no restrictions) in exchange for sacrificing an officer card from your hand (a legion card with at least 2 votes).

Feedback questions

1. Do these sound like they’ll make play more interesting? I want there to be done jeopardy in bring the leader and also feel like you can come back in game.

2. Do any of the restrictions/conditions sound too convoluted? I don’t want them to hold up play.

3. Does bribery feel too easy since it’s a leapfrog mechanic, not just a catch up?

4. Should there be a condition on how far behind you are or let people do it when closer to the leader? There’s a situation where you then use it too early - more tension in when/how to use your one go at each.

5. Anything else you want to share?

Thanks in advance! I have an online version if you want to try these mechanics out before commenting,

Been working on a physical version of this for about a year. Fed the original artwork and rulebook into Claude code and with a number of refinements, this is the result.