Sometimes Woodstars get a little over-ambitious. There are a lot of rules and lore to fill in to the document, so here’s a neat thing as consolation. I made a mock-up of what a Bear card will roughly look like. Let me know what you think:
Woodstar has the day off tomorrow. He’s actually going to get something done. Here’s a teaser.
Just giving everyone who has been keeping an eye on the blog a heads up: my fleshed-out rules doc is in progress, but won’t be ready for a couple days. I said it’d be done this weekend, but things came up that needed to be taken care of.
See y’all soon.
Now that I’ve got your attention… Ahem. I’ve been gone for a long time. I feel like I should explain.
The incarnation of BEAR GAME that I described in earlier blog posts was BG Mk.II. After some brainstorming sessions, I decided to expand upon it in several ways, including a move to an all-digital format. I was pretty excited about the way things Mk. III were going and was gearing up for execution. However, I decided to do some preliminary research on existing and upcoming card games, especially those with a digital format. I happened across Mojang’s Scrolls. Much to my dismay, gameplay was not simply identical to Mk. III, but looked superior to what I had planned.
Cue Woodstar’s discouraged face.
So I brooded and brumbled for a couple months, thinking about other projects, but always keeping BEAR GAME simmering on the back burner. All I had to go on were a few fundamentals. First, BEAR GAME’s premise is SO GODDAMNED COOL. Even the name itself draws attention and makes people want to know more. Second, I knew that I wanted the mechanics to be primarily card-based. Third, my idea for expanded lore on every card in the game appears to be unique. My hope is that people will want to use individual cards, not just because they’re the best and most powerful, but because they feel a REAL connection with the character and their struggle in the on-going plot. This is one thing that Pokemon does exceptionally well. There is arguably no objectively “best” Pokemon, only a subjective “coolest” or “my favorite“.
Keeping those things in mind, I took a leap. Inspired partially by Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game by Jason Hill, I began developing a 3-on-1 objective-based board game where a team of adventurers would endeavor to bolster their defenses before a Bear sabotages their efforts. This would have allowed for lots of modularity and opened the doors for home-brewed adventures, but the simple fact was that it didn’t fit the tone of the universe at all, and played on a much smaller scale than I wanted. Thus did the book of BG Mk. IV come to an end.
A couple of weeks passed, the game once again on the back burner up in my noggin. But then I was nodding off in my car on my lunchbreak, when a bajillion little ideas started smacking me in the face like so many angry slapping bees. Pieces began falling into place. I realized that so much of what I had was great, I just hadn’t organized it in the right way. Lore is good, but shouldn’t be central. Cards are awesome, but over-done and hard to make unique. The addition of the game board threw another completely fresh dimension into the mix, and it’s one that I’ve latched onto. So here’s what I’ve got so far for BEAR GAME Mk. V:
- Bears are still the primary focus. I lost sight of that in Mk. IV
- 100% of cards in your deck will be either Adventurers or Equipment, each one with a unique story.
- Once played on the field, Adventurers will be able to move around on the board and attack each other.
- Equips can be used both by Adventurers and Bears. Obviously, Bears will be able to use them to greater effect.
- Adventurers that are killed by a Bear may be “Festooned” on one of its 3 available slots. Benefits vary from buffs to one-shot burn damage to board control, etc.
- Special Adventurers known as Heroes will lock a Bear into a state of Hibernation for a given number of turns, but may then be Festooned to gain massive buffs.
- The board will be comprised of modular, hexagonal tiles that players will take turns placing on the table at the beginning of play.
- Among different kinds of terrain, two special tiles will be placed: Towns, which are the only tiles that may spawn adventurers, and Lairs, which amplify the Bears’ Aura and Legacy abilities
- A new win condition has been introduced to cater to more defensive play styles. Lairs can be captured and held. Holding a certain number of Lairs will give you dominion over the board, winning you the game.
There’s one other mechanic upon which I should expand is the new stat system I’m toying with. When I’m building a rule for a game, the phrase I keep in mind is, “Elegance at all costs”. This does not mean sacrificing depth for ease of play. This means altering the mechanic, boiling it down, so that it retains a distilled depth, but becomes a simple concept that can be explained in one or two sentences.
In game design, mechanics which require players to do large amounts of arithmetic and keep track of stats are decidedly inelegant. Even with a calculator or scratch paper, having to add and subtract ALWAYS slows down the pace of the game. In BEAR GAME Mk. II, I had you controlling 3 Bears with 5 unique stats apiece. If I let that carry over to BG Mk. V, you’d have 3 Bears with 5 stats, plus up to 5 Adventurers on the field with active and passive modifiers and it would have been a mess.
So here’s what I’ve done:
- To match the Hexagonal theme, bears have a stat tile with six sides. Each side represents a side of the Bear token that moves around on the board.
- Each of the sides relate to an attack, defense, or support stat.
- Bears now have 3 attacks, one attack, one defense, and one support.
- You may attack, defend, or support from any tile, but you get a -1 modifier to that action when doing so.
That being said, here’s how the numbers are factored in:
- RAGE TOKENS RAR
- Each Bear starts with 3 rage tokens. They act as both attack power and hit points.
- Each Rage Token is assigned to one of the six stat segments.
- Each stat segment can fit 2 rage tokens
- When two or more segments with the same type are adjacent, the stat total for all of those segments are cumulative of all the rage tokens contained within. For example, if 3 attack segments are adjacent, and you have 1 token in the first, 0 in the second and 2 in the third, the effective power of every one of those segments is equal to 3.
- When a Bear chooses to attack, it compares the number of attack action tokens to the number of defending action tokens and deals the remainder to the defending Bear.
- To clarify, damage is dealt in Rage Tokens. When a Bear takes 2 damage, it removes 2 Rage Tokens of its owner’s choice from its card.
- Each attack deals a minimum of 1 point of damage to each Bear involved in the sortie.
- Additional Rage Tokens can be gained in several ways, like sieging towns.
- A bear is killed by any damaging attack while it no longer has any Rage Tokens.
The reason I think this is an elegant solution is that it combines so many of my previous ideas into one fluid mechanic while maintaining the original depth. Attack, defense, auras, legacies, movement speed and HP will all be determined with one stat wheel.
Wow. That was a massive post. I really want to type more, but your eyes are probably tired. I’d like to thank everyone who’s been with me since this idea crawled from the betentacled primordial goop that is my imagination. BEAR GAME is going to happen, and soon. I just had to get my head out of my ass and get excited about it again.
tl;dr: BEAR GAME is back, and it’s better than ever.
P.S. A huge shout-out to Gabriel, the new admin on the facebook page. He single-handedly gave the page 600% more views than it had ever seen since I started it. I’m so glad to have him aboard.
Stay patient, Bearmasters. I’ll talk to you soon.
Hi Bearmasters!
It’s been months and months since I’ve updated either the devblog or the facebook page, but rest assured, I am still trucking along on development. Starting today, I’m going to be detailing individual cards, along with any lore or rules implications that are tied in. I’m gonna start out by spotlighting each bear, and then I may do other cards individually or in clumps, depending on levels of importance.
So! Today, we’re going to go over the first of five bears that are going to be in the initial set: the BRUTAL MAESTRO!
Brutal Maestro
HP: 10
Atk: 2
Def: 2
Sp. Atk: 2
Sp. Def: 2
Legacy: Forbidden Harmonies – Brutal Maestro receives a -1 to its three lowest modified stats. If there’s a tie, you may choose which one to increase.
Aura: Emboldening Chord – Bears in Brutal Maestro’s Domain get +2 to their highest base stat. If two stats are tied, you may choose which one to increase.
Bearblast: Clarion Call – 3 BP – Draw a Card
I will have to explain a couple new concepts here. First, all Bears will start with 10 HP, to even the playing field. They will also begin with a stat total of 8-9, with no individual stat higher than 4. This allows plenty of variety while still keeping initial power levels down.
Second, besides the Aura and Bearblast, the two special abilities that I detailed in previous posts, I’ve included a new layer to the Bear cards. While the magical Aura and almighty Bearblast abilities provide beneficial effects in the Great Bear War, they also have the effect of sowing fear in the realm of humans. While all Bears have special abilities that set them apart from others, this ultimately comes with a trademark weakness as well. This is the Bear’s Legacy.
Third, I mentioned before that I was going to include an adjacency mechanic in the game. This is represented by the term “Domain”. Using this example, all Bears that are physically placed adjacent to Brutal Maestro are considered to be within its Domain, and are granted the boon from its Aura ability.
So! Back to Mr. Maestro. As you can see here, the Brutal Maestro is a Bard of sorts. He sacrifices his own combat ability in order to bolster his allies. This may not be a card that you’ll want to spend ability buffs on, since his own Legacy will immediately negate many of them. However, if you place him in between two bears who specialize in one particular stat, you can use him as a standard bearer in your struggle against the evil opposing forces.
Alternatively, placing two Brutal Maestros on the outside slots with a heavy attacker in the center will bolster your attack power the moment the game starts, making you a dangerous force.
A third, and entirely viable possibility is to have three Brutal Maestros. They’ll nerf three of their own stats, but be buffed by their neighbors. This gives you ultimate stat versatility, allowing you to build everything from a team of glass cannons, to a bunch of full defenders and everything in between.
Last, but not least, we have its Bearblast, Clarion Call. This ability takes up all of your BP for your turn, but it allows you to add new lifeblood to your hand and keep the game moving.
That’s it for the Brutal Maestro. Please leave comments and critiques in the comments section. I’d love to hear what kind of input you have, though I know it’s difficult when you don’t have any other cards to compare it to.
Catch ya next time, Bearmasters!
Dear Bearmasters,
The concept of this game is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. Bears? I mean, come on. Who the heck would suspend their disbelief so far as to accept that hundreds of god-powered bears are plaguing humanity and are tearing them limb from limb to gain their powers? So since this is so far beyond the realm of belief, I might as well make it a little silly. And what else could be sillier than bears with class levels?
“Gwuh?” you may sputter. “Isn’t the primal power of bears enough without letting them learn our ways?” The answer is no. No f-word-ing way. “Why?” you query, your voice laden with incredulity. I respond succinctly: because it’s cool.
Yeah. Bears gain class levels. These will likely be the only cards in your deck that are not Adventurers. Each class will have three different levels of power, ascending in ability. The first class in a tree will likely be more of a nature than a class. For example, the first level of the BarBEARian class tree might be called “Ill-Tempered”. This would be followed by BarBEARian, and finally Berserker (I am trying my hardest to avoid puns, as those will rapidly grow tiresome). Each class level will provide stat boosts and additional or improved skills.
Each class will have a prerequisite Body Count cost. Unlike with Adventurer cards , which do not remove cards from the Body Count, leveling up your class will actually expend cards in the Count, removing them from the game. Thus you will need to balance your class leveling with your Adventurer usage. Multiclassing is also an option. The Berserker class might sharply boost your attack power, but slightly lower your defense and special defense, but if you take a level in a class that increases those deficit stats, you can balance your Bear out that much more. Other classes might have synergies. For example, a Defender Tree class could normally have a high physical defense but be lacking in attack power. But using a special ability called Phalanx on your level 2-3 Defender might boost the attack of all Bears with levels in that tree.
The neat thing is, in my opinion, is that you don’t need to rely on both Classes and Adventurers to win the game. Each player can pick their preferential play style and card ratio and still have the same odds.
Aaaaand that just about wraps up the core rules. Next on the to-do list is to organize my ramblings into a succinct, coherent document that outlines them. Apart from that, I’ve just got to start pumping out different cards. After that is just far too many hours of Alpha testing. I’m hoping to get Alpha out of the way and get a Kickstarter funding drive started by early to late summer. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the progress. Most everything from here on out will likely be spotlights on individual card ideas or themes.
Until next time, Bearmasters!
What the heck is up, BEARMASTERS?
It’s been several weeks since I’ve posted, but I have been working on SO MANY THINGS. Bear Game is still rolling like an unstoppable hairy truck. Keeping up with a daily posting schedule was a bit too ambitions because I’m a lazybones, but the gears never stop turning. So on that note, let’s skip the awkward, “Why didn’t you call me for month after the third date?” conversation and just pick up where we left off last time.
Kay. I mentioned in the previous post that some cards would have an AP cost, whether it’s mandatory or an optional “kicker” to borrow a term from another popular card game. This will not appear on every card, as AP is too valuable a resource to expend so frequently. There will be, however, a prerequisite cost for most cards in the form of…
BODY COUNT! WOOP WOOP!
It works like this: every card you play on your bears goes into the discard pile. Picture if you will, three all-powerful, godlike bears and the waves of daring adventurers that try their damndest to stab them. Though the bears may swat them away effortlessly and steal their items and limbs to perpetuate the Great Bear War, their stinking magical corpses must pile up somewhere. And the more heroes that meet their grizzly fate at the paws of your Bears, the more widespread the tales of their bravery spread, causing stronger champions to seek the honor and glory of slaying the Bears.
Tl;dr, the more cards you use, the more powerful cards you can use.
So when you’re building your Army, you’ll want to throw in several 0-Count Adventurers to get your curve rolling and work your way up to more powerful dudes. Using cards with Count Costs do not expend your body count.
Hopefully I will be writing more tonight and wrapping up the core rules, so keep your eyes open for it. Feel free to ask any questions if something needs clarification. All those sorts of things helps refine ideas in my mind.
Greetings, Bearmasters!
Yesterday we talked about bears. Today we’re not going to talk about bears. Please do not be disappointed, for although they are not the topic of today’s discussion, the whole entire blog is bear themed. So if you need a fix of ursine goodness, just close your eyes, place your hand on the screen, and drink in the bear-scented atmosphere.
Today we’re going to talk about the source of the Bears’ power. With so many powerful and deadly Bears in the world, there are bound to be many adventurers who seek to slay these monsters. And the adventurers would undoubtedly prepare themselves by equipping powerful magic items. Little do these intrepid men and women know, the only thing that can slay a Bear is another Bear. As the waves of warriors wash upon the Bears’ deadly paws, their enchanted weapons are gnashed away and thrown aside. The Bears, infinite in their might and knowledge, take up these legendary arms when engaging in the true conflict, the Great Bear War.
So translated into the terms of game mechanics, the majority of the cards in a deck are actually human adventurers that are trying to slaughter your bears. There are going to be two different types of adventurers (More bullets!):
- Equips
- Attacks
I will come up with creative names for ‘em later, but for now, let’s just focus on how they work. Equips are Adventurers that have magic items that the bear can pick up and use. These cards stay attached to your Bear and permanently increase its stats or grant special abilities. There are three types of Equips, and your bear can only wield one of each:
- Weapons
- Armor
- Accoutrements
Examples:
“Amulet of the Three-Armed Warrior (Accoutrement): Your Bear may attack one additional time each round.”
“Cleric’s Wand (Weapon) : Equipped Bear may sacrifice one attack each round to instead heal target bear by 5HP. [1AP cost]”
Equips can only be used on your turn.
The attacks are not always physical. There will be both aggressive and passive attack spells. They are also one-time use cards. They are usually cost fewer resources and have less of a long-term payoff, but they can be used at any time in a round, including your opponent’s turn.
Examples:
“Ancestral Horn: Target Bearmaster draws three cards”
“Dance of Madness: one target Bears cannot attack or use Bear Blasts on their controller’s next turn. [2AP} three target bears cannot attack or use Bear Blasts on their controller’s next turn.”
“Mage Armor: Increase one Bear’s Defense stat by 6 until the end of the round”
As you’ve seen, some cards have a prerequisite AP cost, while some have an optional increased cost to increase the magnitude of the effect. There is also another material cost for these cards which we will go over in Monday’s post.
Friday will from this day forth become LORE FRIDAY!. Every Friday I’ll be filling in the fictional world of BEAR GAME with history and flavor! Look forward to it.
BEARMASTERS ASSEMBLE!
Today I’m gonna talk about the core of every army and the objects of our desire: BEARS. All players start with three of them. I will probably start out the first couple sets with real-live bear species, but I will undoubtedly run out after the first three or four expansions. After this I will begin to create fantastic and magical bearbeasts.
All Bears will have five stats:
• HP
• Attack
• Defense
• Magic
• Magic Defense
And two special abilities:
• BEAR BLAST
• Aura
The five stats are pretty self explanatory. HP is a measure of how squishy and vulnerable your Bear is. Attack is your physical power, Defense is your ability to avoid damage, and Magic is your Bear’s natural aptitude for channeling the forces of nature against your opponent. Magic Defense, conversely, is your Bear’s resistance to said forces.
Normal attacks are the primary method of dealing damage. They are carried out by simply subtracting your offensive stat from the opponent’s corresponding defensive stat, and subtracting the difference from the defending Bear’s HP. Each Bear may only make one standard attack per round.
The BEAR BLAST is a more powerful way of wrecking your opponent’s shit. These abilities are usually offensive in nature. BEAR BLASTS expend resources known as AP. Each player gets 3AP per round. Any given BEAR BLAST can consume anywhere from 1 to 3 AP. A simple example of a BEAR BLAST might be, “HOLY SHIT MAGIC BEAR MISSILE 2AP: Deal damage to target Bear equal to your MAG” This attack bypasses the opponent’s defenses and hits for the full amount of the stat. You may use as many BEAR BLASTS as you can afford. You can also use BEAR BLASTS on your opponent’s turn.
Auras are neat. Because of the mystical, powerful nature of the majestic heroes of the Great Bear War, each one exudes a magical Aura. These Auras remain active for as long as the Bear is alive, and affect many things. They are usually passive, defensive or strategic abilities. Some possible examples might be “Ursine Alacrity: Bearmaster gains 1 extra AP to expend per round”. “Savage Phalanx: All allied Bears gain 1 DEF”. “Two-Paw Style: This Bear may make an extra attack per round” The concept is far from balanced or playtested at the moment, but it’ll get there.
That’s all today. Tune in tomorrow for “Human Fodder, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Slaughter Human Adventurers for their Powerups”
BYE!
Welcome back, Bearmasters
I’m working on the business plan surrounding the financial aspects of BEAR GAME. I have decided on a couple of things. First, all cards and packaging will be printed on recycled material. It would be unfortunate if any acual bears or bear habitats were harmed in the making of this card game. We certainly don’t want any lumberjacks to meet a sad fate at the wrong end of a bear claw. Actually, I’m not sure there is a RIGHT end of a bear claw. They’re all deadly. Unless we’re talking about the doughnut variety, in which case, all roads lead to delicious.
I digress.
The other thing I have decided is that a sizable percentage of profits (I’m thinking the range of 30-50% sounds about right) are going to go toward a charity (BEARity) that will be established concurrently with the launch of the game. This BEARity will provide homes and food to underprivileged bears without a nature reserve. I’m thinking I want to buy up land a square inch at a time and donate it to a nature preserve what bears live in. Perhaps if revenue increases, I’d like to implement a BEAR OF THE MONTH program, where we focus on awareness of endangered species of bear. Although there is a chance that they’re not really endangered and are likely hiding underground and massing their numbers, I feel as though we should all curry as much favor as we can for now so that perhaps they will kill us mercifully quickly when the Great Bear War comes.
The OTHER other thing I have decided: There will be a digital version of Bear Game. At first I might just set it up through software like OCTGN or something like that and eventually have my own program designed. The program itself will be free, unlimited use, not a demo, etc. Each new expansion of cards will be made available at the same time as the physical cards. The only cost for these sets will be a donation of your choice to BEARity. You will have to make a donation for every set your purchase. I’m considering making a $1 minimum, but given the success of the Humble Bundle and sites like Band Camp that often let buyers set their own prices, there very well may be a minimum donation of a penny. I shall have to do more research on this.
I may post some mechanics stuff tonight, unless I get lazy.
EDIT: HAHAHAHA Just kidding. Mass Effect 3 came out. AND THEN A SKELETON POPPED OUT
beargame 