Monday, October 19, 2020

Mechanics Roundup: Acquisition (Cards)

I use action categories to help me plug in mechanisms around my core idea in order to flesh out a game and make it functional. Most often, I have idea for what players will do with components once they acquire them. It's the acquisition of resources that trips me up. Recently, while yet again testing different ways to acquire cards, I started a list of every way I could think of to acquire cards. Maybe it will help someone else as well. 

Card Acquisition

  • Drafting: 
    • pick-and-pass (ex: LRL; snake draft)
    • from a pool, any card is free (flushable, sometimes)
    • from a pool, cards slide down, place resources to skip a card
    • I Cut; You Choose (hidden information, sometimes)
    • Coloretto-style draw-or-draft
  • Market:
    • random pool (flushable, usually)
    • from a pool, cards slide down to get cheaper
    • from a pool, "I price; You Choose"
    • complete information, all cards used
    • complete information, market grows as cards are unlocked
  • Personal player cards
    • personal deck (pairs with a market for deck building; reset mechanism, sometimes)
    • personal hand (reset mechanism, frequently)
  • Drawing off a shared deck
    • dealing a hand, all players get same number of cards (pairs with most things)
    • draw n cards blind, into hand or otherwise 
    • discard to draw
    • pay to draw
    • draw from discard pile
    • search deck/discard pile
  • Auctions/bidding (see BGG for types)
  • Exchange between players
    • trading
    • negotiation/bribery
  • Fulfill requirements
    • turn in resources to get a card
    • spend cards to get a card
    • fail to fulfill requirements (ex: having cards is bad)
  • Take an action
    • action selection list ("take a card")
    • worker placement/rondel (put a pawn on a card space)
    • move token a number of spaces (land on a card space)
    • forego an action to take a card instead
  • Mancala-style set collection to claim cards
  • Defeat other players in a contest
    • trick-taking
    • rock, paper, scissors
    • other conflict resolution mechanisms
  • Inherit cards from eliminated players
  • Take that (steal a card from another player; included for completeness)
  • Dexterity
Common traits to pair with card acquisition
  • flushing 
  • blind/open
  • reset/ reclaim discards
  • following (take the same action at a lower power)
  • real-time
  • race to complete/ "be the first"
  • push your luck
  • simultaneous
  • variable costs
Obviously, I'm bound to be missing some. But I find having a list to go over when I'm stuck is helpful. 

Edit: This is something of a living list that I will add to as I think of things.             


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