Jumping the Curve

I was going to name this one Gleaming the Cube, but I think that might be a bit more pop culture than I was really gunning for.

Today I was also planning to begin my really lame category of ?CCG? by putting ?CCG ?? in front of these post titles. This way, in case you don?t care, you don?t have to bother reading. Matter of fact, it would be easier for you to just use the Technorati blog search, which I?ve implemented on the right. Looking for my CCG posts? Just search for CCG in that box. Simple as that. Family, same thing. I don?t get fancy with lingo, I have no need for it.

Today I?m going to talk about The Power Curve in terms of CCGs. Here is a rough, off-the-cuff description of what The Curve is in terms of CCGs:

The CCG Power Curve is the relative power level of a card based on how many resources it requires in contrast to the earliest time/turn it can be played.

For example, a big hoopla was made regarding Magic card that is a 2/2 for one mana that was release in their latest set, Champions of Kamigawa. That card is named Hound of Konda. Now that one mana means that you could play it on turn 1, as your resource limit of one land per turn would provide you with as much. Remember when I said Magic has no real secondary win condition? Well, this goes a long way toward that.

Magic is a game of taking the other player from 20 Life Points to 0. The developers have recognized that the game, based on its own now decade-old rules (even with a mid-lifecycle update via 6th edition rules) is a game of Smash Face. This card Jumps the Curve generally set down by the game.

In the past, any card that has 2 attack power for one mana has been given special attention, particularly because these Jump the Curve and suddenly put your opponent on a 10 turn clock (of course, you?d rather that clock be smaller, but that?s what other curve-jumpers are for).

In the world of Magic, you?re usually going to pay two mana for 2 attack. However, in a game like VS, a 2 attack creature on the first turn isn?t unheard of, nor does it Jump the Curve in the terms of what we?re speaking of today. The reason is that VS. gives you 50 Endurance points, ie Life Points. This means that two damage on turn 1 isn?t that big of a deal. 25 Turn clock? Don?t make me laugh.

So each game is different in terms of power curves. Generally, your win conditions define your power curve. In terms of my CCG, I envisioned a ?winning number? for my winning condition and then designed cards around those restrictions. As someone much smarter than myself said, Boundaries Encourage Creativity. The ability to work inside the boundaries you set for yourself is one of the most important jobs a game designer can have, particularly of the CCG variety. There is little else that is more important than knowing when something is Broken and when something is Garbage.

Each time I sit down to look at my game, whether it be trial games amongst myself or a testing partner, I pay close attention to the characters in play and whether they Jump the Curve. And if they do, is there a significant drawback to them? That?s the secret to Jumping the Curve: You want whatever does so to have a significant drawback to where those cards aren?t automatically included in every deck. That 2/2 for one mana I mentioned above is a Legendary Creature. Only one player may have one copy of that creature in play. If you play another, all of those in play (in addition to the one you just played), are instantly destroyed.

This doesn?t just apply to characters of course. Any type of major game change, such as cards which destroy other cards, have to be correctly priced to produce the desired effect. While Rares by their very nature are more powerful and intricate than a Commons, you also have to be very careful not to make all of the good cards rare, and if you do make a great card rare it better be worthy of its own deck, or its own style. Few things are as frustrating than a very powerful, useful, and versatile card regulated to world of one-per-box (or less?as there is only 36 packs to a box, so that equals 36 rares out of as set that normally includes 70+). The first example that comes to mind in terms of Magic is a card called Birds of Paradise. This is a turn 1 card (ie, one mana), that you may use to produce any color of mana for the rest of the game.

While this sounds trivial, these guys fit in just about any deck that has the mana base to support them. They are useful and excellent in almost every situation. They provide both acceleration and the ability to play many different colors of cards easily. And they are Rare. Average price? ?Bout $10?$15 a piece, give or take (usually, its give). Far too powerful and useful to be in a Rare slot, but since they?ve been around now for a decade, Wizards of the Coast are pretty much stuck with them. While they could design other cards which do similar things (and they do), there is nothing as simple, elegant, and useful as Birds of Paradise. And so players just have to deal with that.

To sum up this discussion, I think that Jumping the Curve is an interesting concept that can be applied to all sorts of systems of games, such as RTS games which lean toward a certain style or unit, or FPS games which lean toward a certain weapon. When things are out of balance, or something radically changes a gaming situation too early or too drastically, then something Jumped the Curve. Look for it the next time you?re kicking ass with the elves in Warcraft 3, or grabbing that Rocket Launcher in Quake.