CCG Mechanics Gone Bad
I can?t help myself. This was just too much not to comment on:
Allegiance: War of Factions
I?m not even going to touch on the layout problems (Go here for that), or the Debate mechanic (whatever that is), but the Investigate mechanic needs some work. Here is how it was explained on the Allegiance homepage:
?Inspector Crowther has the ability Investigate, which can be used to stop a crime in process. Whenever a criminal ability is used, an Investigation can be called. You take the crime strength (the number following the crime on the card), and subtract that from the total Investigate strength, with the minimum being 1. The Investigating lord then rolls a die, and if the result is equal to or less than the required number, the criminal is caught, which results in the crime being negated and the criminal going to the discard pile.? ? (Additional bolding for emphasis.)
Okay, so the idea is to have investigators hanging around to stop crimes and kill crooks. Fair enough. But here?s where it goes right off the rails: This card has Investigate +4. He just said that you take the crime number and subtract it from the Investigate total. So I subtract X from +4? What, are we going to have -4 Investigate for the really clueless sleuths?
Wow guys, that?s just fucking brilliant. No reminder text and the mechanic holds no logic in how it is written on the card.
Dear Allegiance devs: Please know that Reminder Text doesn?t suck and helps your game. Oh, and can I get some more stats per card? I think we need a few more (hopefully color-coded too). Thanks.
1 Comments:
Hi, I was going to email you but I didn't see a link off hand. Anyhow, a few things about Allegiance and that card.
First, the game layout appears complex, there's no doubt, but the functionality if you've played is extremely well planned out and quite simple. I've shown people who swore they couldn't play anything harder than blackjack who've picked the game up in minutes. It's more a case of people being used to something like Pokemon realizing that you can have something better. A LOT better. I noticed in another posting that you mentioned you hadn't played Allegiance so I credit you for at least being fair that you don't really have a solid reference point other than just looking at the cards and not having a clue. That all aside...
If a player calls for an investigate it always begins with a strength of one so this cards ability to add +4 makes complete sense. I'm sure everyone can admit that 1+4 isn't that hard to figure out. Now just subtract the strength of the crime from that. It's actually quite eloquent. As a note, every review that Allegiance has had (Scrye, Undefeated etc.) has been full of praise for the game mechanics etc.
As for the overall complexity Allegiance isn't a game for kids. The youngest I've seen who taught themselves by just reading the rules were 9. Another girl I saw was 8, but her Dad showed her how to play.
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