TV Tropes Trading Card Game

I'd have it as this:

• Invoke: play the trope card.
• Defy: Put trope back into player's hand
• Justify a Trope: Play an appropriate cost for the trope card.
• Lampshaded: Remove casting cost, Partially Lampshaded: Casting cost is halved, rounded down.
• Deconstructed: Removed from play
• Inverted Trope: Put back into your deck
• Subvert a Trope: Counter trope card
• Avert a Trope: Discard from your hand

Green: Fantasy
Blue: Sci-fi
White: Slice of Life
Red: Action/Adventure
Yellow: Tragedy
Purple: Romance
Black: Horror
Brown?: Comedy\\

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:19:07 by [AOD]

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That looks nice and solid.

Now we just have to decide on a win condition.

• The nominees are:
  • Three Tropers, they die, you lose.
  • Plot Points. Gotta Catch 'Em All!

If you have an idea, nominate it!

I prefer Plot Points more — I'm rather averse to making Tropers that integral to the game.

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:26:13 by [AOD]

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Another idea: the invocation cost of a trope card is the minimum number of Plot Points that the card must possess in order to remain in play. If at any time the number of points falls below this value (e.g, if it is damaged enough by the opponent), then the card is discarded and the Plot Points given to whoever destroyed it. Although, this would require the rather unwieldy setup of tokens piled on top of cards. It may be more trouble than it's worth.

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I mostly like the three Tropers idea. I like games with "Leader" types, I guess. I just think that Tropers will give decks massive flexibility and stuff, or even more than they already have....

-*whooooooosh* Nin nin! [1]◊

Should we even bother with keeping track of how much damage each card has accumulated? It seems unwieldy — I'd prefer it if after each turn all damage returned to zero, and only damage => N would "destroy" a card.

The reason why I prefer Plot Points is that, thematically, it seems to make sense to me. You get stuck when you run out of things to say, i.e. when you run into a dead end with your plot!

Oh man, then Writer's Block could be a card, that would directly reduce your Plot Points by some number.

So essentially, a Twist is an Instant, a Development is a Sorcery, and an Arc is an Enchantment that lasts a set number of turns. I like it.

EDIT:

Got an idea! It revolves around the concept of "Tweaking" (for lack of a better term). When you Tweak, you essentially stop that plot element or trope card from doing what it would normally do that turn. Now, most every trope card can create Plot Points when Tweaked. Furthermore, at the end of every turn cycle — meaning your moves and then your opponent's moves — everyone's Plot Points are reduced to zero. At the beginning of the next turn, you need to Tweak some of your plot elements and tropes in order to produce Plot Points, which are used both as your source for invoking new tropes and doing various actions, as well as your "life".

For example, say you have three Horror Movie Settings, two Haunted Castle Plot Elements, and maybe an Action Girl and a Badass Longcoat. Let's say a Horror Movie produces twelve Plot Points each, and a Haunted Castle increases the number of Plot Points that a Horror setting produces by two, and that the Action Girl and Badass Longcoat both produce one Plot Point when tweaked.

Say Badass Longcoat has an ability, like Power Walk or something, that allows him to ignore damage from Action/Adventure for a turn, but it costs one Plot Point to do it. Action Girl has Waif-Fu that does X damage (damage will reduce a player's Plot Points if the player takes it directly, but the defending player may block with a Character) where X is the number of Plot Points you use for her.

Okay, so you start your turn. This is the Upkeep portion. You have zero Plot Points right now, so you'd better Tweak those Horror Movies! You Tweak all of them, producing 1 x 3 = 3 + 2 x 5 = 13 for this turn. Now it comes to the action part.

If you want to supercharge Badass Longcoat with his Power Walk ability, you may spend one point. If you want to get Action Girl to use Waif-Fu, you can spend X Plot Points, but be careful! Don't spend them all unless you think you can win this turn!

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:12:53 by [AOD]

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It's very thematically appropriate that we stop troping when there are no more tropers to trope... buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it's not my decision.

Also, I am rather terrified of Writer's Block evolving from an abstract concept into a deadly CARD!!!

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:05:21 by Hikari no Kaze

-*whooooooosh* Nin nin! [1]◊

What do you mean by this? Could you give an example?

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How about we have the deck (or draw pile) be the equivalent of someone's life points? An unblocked attack deals damage to your deck by making you discard the top X cards from it, and when you run out of cards (ideas) to draw, you lose.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Good idea! That could be justified if we think of it as an argument between two tropers, and one troper's cutting riposte makes the other go scrambling for ideas and things to justify their position!

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Yeah, I like it too.

Example: With three different "Leaders", we gain a chance to customise our decks with several constant effects that will aid us in different ways. It's like choosing three different fortesses with different durabilities, locations, special features.... and you'll have to adapt to the irritating enemy effects. They are protected by your character cards, etc.... Their "Troper Abilities" and Fetish/Nightmare Fuels make the decks more diverse... or perhaps less diverse, if certain cards are too gamebreaking....

EDIT: Just giving an example to the person who asked for one...

Those other posts weren't there!

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:39:12 by Hikari no Kaze

-*whooooooosh* Nin nin! [1]◊

One of the Star Wars TC Gs had something like that.

FYI, I'm attempting to make some comprehensive rules at the moment. I've already found a way to integrate Plot Points and Troper Cards so that the latter are technically optional, but drastically alter the game. However, using the cards to represent life totals could be interesting and more flavorful depending on the goal of the game. I can even try to find a way to integrate all three.

In the mean time, does anyone have something they really want to see (or not want to see) in the rules?

I'm trying to make the mechanics somewhat unique, so I'll be disregarding things like "make it more like Magic: The Gathering".

Once I have the rules ready, we can pick it apart.

Right now, we really need to decide on the means to victory, though (as that informs everything else):

• Players fight to control the narrative by getting their hands on as many plot points as possible. The number of plot points is fixed at the start of the game. One of the key disadvantages of this system is that the first few turns will probably make the game, as the player who has more plot points can spend more...so on and so forth.
• Players control a certain number of Tropers (default: 3). Each of these tropers have an independent life total, and is removed from play if that total reaches 0. Players loose when they run out of tropers. This system can avoid some of the "win more" problems by giving players ways to protect individual tropers while leaving the others more vulnerable. The main argument against this system is that the "troper" is the person playing the game, not a piece (albeit a key one) in that game
• Damage is dealt to players via loss of cards from their deck. Has a "knocking the ideas out of you" feel. Except in card-drawing-based decks, the amount of cards still in the deck doesn't matter so much, and thus the "win more" issue doesn't come up. On the other hand, it's not so clear what the gameplay would be in this setup
• Plot Cards: players race to be the first to collect 3 (or some other number) plot cards by satisfying the conditions on those cards.
  • The Plot cards are tailored to the deck. Each player inserts a number of plot cards into their deck and specifically builds around finishing those plots. Players do not compete for plots, but rather try to prevent their opponent from reaching his/her plot conditions.
  • The Plot cards are general. Players either directly compete for the plot cards and do not include them in their decks
  • Some hybridization of the above.
• Hybrid Plot Points and Tropers: Plot points also count for troper life. Introduces the interesting tactical decision of whether or not to make your tropers weaker in order to invoke more tropes.
• Something else entirely

Edit: 3+ other posts in the time it took me to write that.

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:53:22 by Ironeye

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

ok, so, if we're saying that the game is an argument between tropers, what is the function of tropes?

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

An argument as to who can make the best story?

ok, so we go with that. Do we try to keep plot points or troper cards?

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

I say Troper Cards. Plot Points seem to cumbersome to me.

I never liked games where your health doubles as your mana.

I hadn't thought of that. This effect could be minimized by making sure that the initial number of Plot Points is several times greater than the invocation cost of any trope card, so players don't start running into budget constraints until later in the game, after a longer period of time makes it more likely that skill rather than luck will determine the outcome. I'm hesitant to incorporate some sort of Rubber-Band A.I. system, since this would be inelegant and would cause the game to go on for a very long time.

I like this idea. It can also be combined with Kyler Thatch's "face down cards as Plot Points" idea. If the players are willing to mix their cards together during the game and painstakingly sort them out later, then we could apply my earlier idea, where you could actually gain Plot Points/cards by defeating the opponent's tropes. Otherwise, we could make it so that the defeat of one of your tropes causes it and the invocation cost associated with it to be simply discarded rather than transferred to the other player.

Another idea to complicate things: you don't have to actually pay the invocation cost when you play a trope card. All you have to do is keep the Plot Point count above zero for each card in play. However, if the card is destroyed, then you must pay the opponent the full invocation cost, either out of your own reserves, or by sacrificing other trope cards of your own. This means that you can play more cards than you have Plot Points to back up, but such a situation is precarious in that the destruction of a significant number of your cards could force you to sacrifice even more cards in order to pay the invocation costs, resulting in the loss of all your Plot Points and hence the loss of the game.

EDIT:

Why not, might I ask? But it's your game and your decision, ultimately.

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:38:50 by Eio

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I like casting spells.

I don't like getting damaged.

Thus if a game uses your HP as a mana pool as well I just can't play that.

I like defense, and having your HP as a mana pool is not very conducive to defense.

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:44:19 by Matrix

Rapid-fire questions:

Are the two sides both trying to control the same story, or is each building its own independent story? "Decking" your opponent is clearly the standard win, but are there other roads to success? Is it possible to win by eliminating all of the opposing tropers? How about by finishing your story / ending the story your way (depending on whether or not both sides are working on the same story)?

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:44:46 by Ironeye

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

I think all of those would be viable. It would make for more varied strategies.

And that's a good thing, despite my sucking at strategy.

Well, in my proposal you don't actually lose any Plot Points unless a card is defeated, and you don't have to use up Plot Points to make a card do something once it is in play.

You could think of it as committing a certain amount of your "life force" into the tropes you invoke. Just like how Sauron wasn't weakened when he created The Ring, only when it was destroyed.

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I like the idea of having Plot Points being your main valve with regards to mana, but I like the idea of your deck being your life. This has a drawback, though, since you'll be drawing your life off with every card you take out!

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Ah, I see. Well that sounds a lot better than before.

How about each of your Troper Cards have Plot Points instead of Life like Character Cards?

That was one of the things you suggested, wasn't it, Ironeye?

EDIT: Oh, and I would consider your hand as part of your deck, to avoid what AOD just speculated. So if your deck is gone but you still have a hand, you're still alive, but pretty much screwed. Sort of like at the end of a Mortal Kombat match when the announcer says FINISH HIM!

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:56:05 by Matrix

Okay - idea synthesis:

Every trope card has a redemption cost (RC). For example, a Red Shirt might have an RC of 8, and a particularly Badass Longcoat might have an RC of 20.

When you play ("invoke") a trope, you also must play 1 or more face-down cards along with it. These represent the trope's vitality. Various attacks cause these face-down cards to be discarded. If an in-play card runs out of face-down cards, then it is discarded, and you must also discard a number of cards from your deck or hand equal to the RC of the defeated trope. For example, suppose your Badass Longcoat has 3 face-down cards underneath it. Your opponent's Tsun Dere uses a Waif-Fu attack on the Badass Longcoat, dealing 4 damage. The Badass Longcoat is discarded, and you must discard an additional 20 cards to "redeem" it.

If you cannot pay from your deck or hand, you must take face-down cards from the other tropes that are already in play.

If you run out of cards, you lose.

edited Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:07:44 by Eio

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