Submitted by Relentless96 on Mon, 2007-05-14 23:21.
First and foremost, thankyou very much for taking the time to respond so thoroughly, this is exactly the feedback I needed. I have been tossing and turning about how I would word the way the system works, your responses are showing me what I am "assuming" players will know (which now means I can describe it properly).
First and foremost, Momentum was changed slightly for the purpose of a) the Character Sheet RPG and b) playtesting. Previously, if you played to Momentum on your Turn and lost having the highest Momentum, your Turn ended and was continued when your Turn came up later in the Round. As you can see, it takes a little bit of explanation and examples (which I didn't have room for), so I set the order of Turns in a Round (Momentum counted next Round).
In regards to not having a Move Action and using Momentum purely for this purpose, the thought never occurred to me. I like the idea, I will have to playtest it (this would also prevent using a Move and a Boost to sprint across a Stage). The reason behind allowing for lower cards is due to a high card bottleneck that occurs. If it is only high cards, players will end up playing the Kings and Aces to Momentum and they would just sit there, breaking up some of the regularity of the probability. I wanted to make playing low to Momentum a viable and favourable option. Maybe another kind of Boost? That is an idea I will think about.
To comment on the idea of Tokens, I think it is a brilliant idea. I have tried many different "character creation" models to make players different, yet each time it was somehow unbalanced. The brilliance of your idea is that it allows for more options with Fighter Cards. "When using this card, gain two Strike Tokens". Or even having a Token cost for even more powerful effects. I am happy you were so bold as to comment, as you may have helped me turn a corner to make MACE even more strategic and nailbiting. Thankyou very much for this idea!
I have thought about what you have just described with keeping the starting letters matching. If you look at the Life Skills model for skills I posted on my blog, I did tie them together (Occupation for Diamonds (close), Hobby for Hearts, Sport for Spades and Class for Clubs). I am just used to the suites I have used all these years for the different Actions, it just made sense personally, but for others sake I will eventually convert it around.
Finally, the idea with Charge was to balance Blast and other energy effects. Sure you can attack from a distance, but you have to spend an Action to gather that energy. I also realised I missed a important rule - if a players character takes Damage, they must discard one of their face down Charge cards. This also helps balance the power Blast's have.
I would comment more (plus there are other great games to comment on), but my break is up and I am about to go to work. Thanks for the great critical responses Jeff, especially the Token idea (I love it)!!!
Seeya
"The world is your arena now, Sagat, not the street!"
M. Bison, Street Fighter: The Animated Movie
(Flexing Fingers) Ok, Answers
First and foremost, thankyou very much for taking the time to respond so thoroughly, this is exactly the feedback I needed. I have been tossing and turning about how I would word the way the system works, your responses are showing me what I am "assuming" players will know (which now means I can describe it properly).
First and foremost, Momentum was changed slightly for the purpose of a) the Character Sheet RPG and b) playtesting. Previously, if you played to Momentum on your Turn and lost having the highest Momentum, your Turn ended and was continued when your Turn came up later in the Round. As you can see, it takes a little bit of explanation and examples (which I didn't have room for), so I set the order of Turns in a Round (Momentum counted next Round).
In regards to not having a Move Action and using Momentum purely for this purpose, the thought never occurred to me. I like the idea, I will have to playtest it (this would also prevent using a Move and a Boost to sprint across a Stage). The reason behind allowing for lower cards is due to a high card bottleneck that occurs. If it is only high cards, players will end up playing the Kings and Aces to Momentum and they would just sit there, breaking up some of the regularity of the probability. I wanted to make playing low to Momentum a viable and favourable option. Maybe another kind of Boost? That is an idea I will think about.
To comment on the idea of Tokens, I think it is a brilliant idea. I have tried many different "character creation" models to make players different, yet each time it was somehow unbalanced. The brilliance of your idea is that it allows for more options with Fighter Cards. "When using this card, gain two Strike Tokens". Or even having a Token cost for even more powerful effects. I am happy you were so bold as to comment, as you may have helped me turn a corner to make MACE even more strategic and nailbiting. Thankyou very much for this idea!
I have thought about what you have just described with keeping the starting letters matching. If you look at the Life Skills model for skills I posted on my blog, I did tie them together (Occupation for Diamonds (close), Hobby for Hearts, Sport for Spades and Class for Clubs). I am just used to the suites I have used all these years for the different Actions, it just made sense personally, but for others sake I will eventually convert it around.
Finally, the idea with Charge was to balance Blast and other energy effects. Sure you can attack from a distance, but you have to spend an Action to gather that energy. I also realised I missed a important rule - if a players character takes Damage, they must discard one of their face down Charge cards. This also helps balance the power Blast's have.
I would comment more (plus there are other great games to comment on), but my break is up and I am about to go to work. Thanks for the great critical responses Jeff, especially the Token idea (I love it)!!!
Seeya
"The world is your arena now, Sagat, not the street!"
M. Bison, Street Fighter: The Animated Movie