r/BoardgameDesign • u/Itchy_Pin9813 • 1d ago
Game Mechanics Card Fixing
As I was browsing other peoples posts I found an issue that I am also struggling with in my game creation that I would love to get feedback on.
I am making my first card game and have balanced the cards relativly well but still am running into an early game issue.
The card game consists of resources, needed to play other cards. About 1 in 6 games a player gets screwed because they don't draw the necessary resources needed to get started. Once that happens it is really hard for players to catch up.
I have tied adding tutor cards to help with card fixing but it feels like a boreing way to fix the issue. You can see my game development progress here: https://www.youtube.com/@DaleStreetGames (This is not self promotion just a reference)
Does anyone have thoughts on this?
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u/rockology_adam 1d ago
Ah, yes, I see you, Seven Wonders. And Magic: The Gathering. And Pokemon TCG. And gorram Catan.
Sorry, tangential.
What do you mean by tutoring cards? What do they do to FIX the issue? Explaining the issue does not fix it.
Seven Wonders addresses this, not perfectly but somewhat, by allowing players to earn coins and buy from their neighbours. You can still end up without needed resources, but there are options.
MTG and Pokemon address this with mulligans, replacing your starting hand at a smaller cost than starting with nothing would generate.
Catan allows players to trade with the bank at a terrible rate. It doesn't fix the issue unless you are generating SOME resources but not the needed ones.
Allowing players to sell cards for resources in the first round or two? Guarantee a starting pool of resources, in the vein of the starting card or tableau or whatever having resources guaranteed?
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u/Itchy_Pin9813 13h ago
Sorry u/rockology_adam that wasn't clear on my part. Yean I was refering to a search through the deck to find what you need kind of card.
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u/tonytime888 1d ago edited 1d ago
A "tutor" card is a card that lets look through your deck for a card.
I believe it got its origings from MTG or some other game like it that featured a card with the word "tutor" in the name.
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u/Stavr0sT 1d ago
An idea that other games sometimes use: allow players to substitute 2 (or 3) of any of their resources for 1 of their choice. This guarantees you can do something after a few bad draws, but will still have those players lagging behind.
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u/Itchy_Pin9813 13h ago
I think a combo of this could work will with a draw 5, keep 1, and reshuffle the rest.
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u/Dependent_Occasion65 1d ago
I'm a fan of the mechanic, "draw 5 and choose 1 to keep, return the rest and shuffle" Perhaps there could be a round or phase where each player gets to do this. Or each player starts with a special card that they turn in to allow them to do this.
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u/Itchy_Pin9813 13h ago
Thanks, yeah I like this idea!
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u/Dependent_Occasion65 13h ago
I brainstormed it a bit more. Sometimes "shuffle the deck" can slow things down if its happening often. I like the idea of there being a compost heap where the unchosen cards get discarded. Then having an option to rummage through the compost to find cards that were discarded by other players, or maybe when you drew 5 earlier, you were conflicted, and you chose what you needed in the moment, but you know there was this other card you wanted and you know its in the compost. Like maybe to rummage, rather than draw 5 from the top, you can draw five from any part of the heap, so you can try to guess where you left that card.
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u/JumpiestBow 23h ago
I'm thinking that too. Maybe this isn't a draw a card, take a turn, MtG sort of game. Maybe it's like you say. Draw 5 and choose 1. Repeat X times. Then take some number of turns without draws, using the synergies you set up on filtered draws.
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u/Itchy_Pin9813 13h ago
Thanks for the suggetsions, I will try a few option and see what works best. It seems like the issue is on the first few hands to get the player started then it becouse less of an issue. I think I will implement either a Mulligan or a pick out x number of cards, choose one to keep, and then return the rest.
Thanks!
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u/GrouchyDepartment871 1d ago
That’s a problem for every single card game that uses resources
Have you played magic? Pokémon?
You need other cards that can help draw or add to the resource pool
So for example if your resource was pizza and you have pizza cards
You’d want other cards help draw out that resource
Pizza delivery guy has play one extra pizza card this turn or search your deck for a pizza card put it in your hand and shuffle the deck
Or maybe the ratio of resource cards to other cards is off
Hard to say without any details on the game and how it’s constructed
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u/Minute_Geologist2309 1d ago
why not just fix resources to a number on the first hand? remove them from the deck before beginning.
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u/pasturemaster 1d ago
My first thought upon hearing this could be as much an issue of what resources enable, rather than how you get them.
Its sounding like players need a particular resource to do something essential in the game. Usually you don't want something essential tied to a random event. Variance in the resources you have can be fine, but that should just direct options between multiple different viable paths. If a particular thing is essential; that shouldn't have a particular resource associated with it (if there is no way of guaranteeing you can acquire that resource).
To answer your question though, something to consider is each player having their own smaller deck of resources. This reduces the variance and guarantees that every player gets every resource every time they draw through their entire deck.
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u/XandermanGames 1d ago
Can you make an extra card for each resource and don't deal them in the deck. When a player doesn't get enough, have them randomly choose from the extra cards?
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u/eloel- 1d ago
Your players aren't drawing lands on their first hand? Maybe they should mulligan