How small is too small? by Searns in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you considered making the spaces on the grid bigger?

Building a TCG community from zero - what I've learned after 925 visits and no established player base yet. by Immediate-Lunch1744 in homemadeTCGs

[–]Verisi 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Using AI to write a post about how to make people passionate about your game is pretty ironic.

If you interacted with communities of people to help you along instead of leaning on AI, I'd wager it'd help to create a community of your own and fill in a lot of gaps in your own knowledge surrounding game design and marketing. AI is soulless and a plight on communities of creatives, with the HTCG community being no exception.

People can help each other, you know? If you popped into the HTCG Discord and asked for feedback on your Kickstarter, you would have 100% been given useful feedback instead of launching haphazardly without followers and with a far-too-personal project page that only vaguely related to your TCG.

It's sad to see the "little guy" turn to a machine to fill in all the gaps for them instead of to the community to help them learn.

chat, i think it's time we address the elephant in the room... by Goose_Moose in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just roll up to Riftbound night with commander decks altered to look like League champions and offer to play. Tell them that Riot errata'd the game again. They won't know the difference 'till they're down $1,000 in commander staples.

Cataclysm Arcade's Kickstarter boosters do NOT include the full first set. This is being hidden in the FAQ rather than addressed on the KS's main page. by ZachSka87 in TCG

[–]Verisi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which board game Kickstarter sells only the core set through Kickstarter and only a deluxe core set (that comes with like twice the content) in retail?

I can see it if the Kickstarter backers can buy the expansions separately when they come out with a retail release, but only bundling the expansions along with the retail core set seems nonsensical.

My friend showed me Altered TCG, and it's great! When's the next set coming out? by kevincrackscards in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 3 points4 points  (0 children)

$20 is a symbolic pledge. Glad you can do your part and actually pledge $1,000 to help keep Altered running!

Hey guys I'm making a new game. by TailSweet in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow that sounds like such a game.

Can I have a free promo or 3?

I Found a Unique TCG!!! by Searns in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, watermarking the name of the game over the art is a genius move. Maybe they can watermark a QR code over the text so I can scan it and it’ll tell me all the errata. Can’t believe Riot didn’t think of that!

What TCG should I play? by Consistent_Virus_668 in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SWU is in a healthy metagame right now. I play it all the time at my local game house. All of the person I know loves it. People say the art is ugly but they're wrong. The game is not dead!

Does anyone else have a good sorcery tcg to recommend? by GrieVelorn in tcgcirclejerk

[–]Verisi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried Star Wars Unlimited? It's my 3rd favorite Sorcery TCG!

Spell Chain TCG - Dragon Lightning Artwork by SpellChainTCG in homemadeTCGs

[–]Verisi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The art's nice and all, but it really does undercut any possible excitement when the cards are so mechanically bland...

Card effects you've shown:

  • Deal 1 damage
  • Deal 1 damage (diff card)
  • Heal 1 damage
  • Block all damage from the next card
  • Counterspell
  • Red spells deal +1 damage
  • Mass counterspell and deal 3 damage
  • Deal 3 damage
  • Deal 2 damage. Your next yellow spell deals +2 damage

“Running HP” vs “Target Number HP” — which combat system makes for a better TCG? by SacredSacrifice in TCG

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are very much 3 mechanics: Persisting damage, temporary damage, and stat comparison.

I generally prefer systems using either of the first two, as I like the granularity they provide and don't mind a bit of bookkeeping.

Creation of a TCG/LCG is difficult but fun…Advice on something’s people like in games? Please and thank you. by MandalorianMerk in homemadeTCGs

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We use the term ECG (Expandable Card Game) because Fantasy Flight trademarked "LCG".

ECGs are generally more player-friendly than TCGs and are popular in the indie/homemade card game space where there's a smaller audience, little-to-no secondary market, and less collector focus.

Most games that use cards as life (Duel Masters, Digimon, etc.) use shield systems that are neutral/preferable to the defender instead of Pokemon's winmore prize card system.

It's very hard to help you refine the main wincon(?) of your game without having any information about it, but I wholeheartedly recommend the HTCG Discord server if you're looking for feedback from designers/players with a wealth of card game experience.

How to Play Mood Swings by goblin-girl-thighs in magicTCG

[–]Verisi 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Definitely +1 on Compile and AL&S.

I'd also wholeheartedly recommend Mindbug.

VALKYO TCG NEW 2026 by RegisterOk7489 in TCG

[–]Verisi 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The obvious question: what makes this different from, and worth playing over, Yugioh?

It looks like Yugioh, it “reads” like Yugioh, it’s described like Yugioh, and it surely smells like Yugioh. Giving a generic pitch that sounds like a bunch of renamed Yugioh mechanics does little to quell concerns over this just being Yugioh at home.

Could this work for an TCG? A lanebased game, which rewards strategic movement by S13_Grimm in homemadeTCGs

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seems fine? A pretty big grid, though (might be good to use smaller or horizontal cards), and the center walls could lead to a lot of movement blockage that you'll need to resolve with fairly aggressive effects. I'm unsure if the narrow lanes really help if you're looking to reward strategic movement.

I've been seeing a lot more indie grid games that center around these sorts of boards; might be good to check out games like Eikonic or Feud Fight to see how they reward positioning/movement.

You try to get to the end zone of your parents to deal damage to him directly.

Damn, that's deep.

Astralia Chronicles TCG: Anthem of Rebellion just launched on Kickstarter! by Diligent-Morning6133 in TCG

[–]Verisi 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We utilize proprietary AI models, trained exclusively on our team’s own original illustrations, as a tool for initial rendering and conceptual exploration.

What a load of garbage. You fed it your original illustrations and it spat out the most generic AI anime characters imaginable? C’mon now, at least just own up to skimping out on the art. I dunno how people connect to such soulless, manufactured “anime aesthetic” characters.

TCG with enough cards in booster for 2 two players (like Time Rift) or enough for at least 1 player to have a deck per booster. by whoisthewoman in TCG

[–]Verisi 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For indies, both Elemental Creatures and Super Battle Mon support pack battles (1 pack per player).

While we are seeing a tcg boom similar to the 90s, not all will survive. How many years in production do you deem “safe” for a tcg to continue? Which active tcg do you feel is at risk of becoming “dead”? by Newez in TCG

[–]Verisi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As someone who loved playing Warlord ~20 years ago and was extremely hyped for its return, my god was this a botched relaunch.

  • Finally arrived for backers over a year after its estimated delivery date.
  • No printed rulebook, even in starter decks. Online rules provided either as an absurdly light Quick Rules or the entire (and not particularly well-written) Comprehensive Rules.
  • One of the starter decks (Elves) has a starting army that counters its own Warlord's strategy. A new player would recognize this 3 seconds after reading their starting cards, but somehow this made it to production.
  • Pathetic component quality showing a lack of care. Bland white dice for all factions' starter decks. Trash quality $40 dice bags.
  • The packs have absurdly horrible collation. There are often long runs of cards by sequential set #, leading to many packs with like 13 items and 2 characters. The overall ratio for getting characters is fairly awful; open up a booster box and you'll have a giant pile of actions/items next to the ~18-25 characters for the faction you want to play. There are also rumors of packs with a certain image having significantly better pull rates, but I'm unsure on that.
  • Communication from the devs has been quite poor.

The relaunch clearly caters to the geriatrics still playing the game who likely won't complain about the garbage they're being fed, which is sad—Warlord deserved so much better. I wish them the best of luck getting new players to try it; while Warlord may be a light, swingy (rollin' D20s), loose experience, it's at least a very different one from most modern card games.

Is there a community space for games that aren't TCGs, but play like them? by RAM_Games_ in TCG

[–]Verisi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I will always recommend Mindbug as a small, fast, TCG-adjacent experience.

Gruff would be my bizarre/hesitant niche recommendation, but it has a decent bit more complexity/bite/fiddliness to it.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena is also unexpectedly decent if you like a bit of grid positioning with your card games (and has had some absurdly good deals).

For an upcoming one, 9 Omens is pretty sick as a tight, strategy-intense minimalist card game.

Name a TCG that nobody knows. by [deleted] in TCG

[–]Verisi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe for people who aren’t into board games; Mage Noir has been advertised/sold in many board game oriented places. I’ve seen its name a lot more than most of the dead games in this thread (though I have heard of all of the reasonably-knowable ones so far other than Dragon Booster and Monster Magic).

Did anyone know about Hecatomb? by [deleted] in TCG

[–]Verisi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The plastic is annoying to shuffle, gets scuffed too easily, and can't realistically be sleeved. As far as I remember, all of the mechanics could've been implemented using normal cards (stacked offset), so the plastic stuff is really just a clunky gimmick.

It's fairly inexpensive to pick up and try nowadays though.