Thoughts on Reclamation

I'm not sure I've ever had multiple blog posts in one day. That's just crazy. But, alas.

I have been doing some Reclamation: CCG brainstorming. This post will undoubtedly bore and confuse anyone not familiar with the game. If that's you, I won't be hurt if you don't read it. :)

As I've mentioned previously, I was trying to figure out a way to add a certain amount of randomness to the game; or, more exactly, a certain amount of the unknown. Sometimes, in some games, when you attack an opponent, you already know the result of that battle, because there are no unknown effects. I am playing around with the idea of adding something called a blessings pile (name subject to change). This is a quick explanation of how it could work.

In addition to the normal game deck and area pile, each deck includes a blessings pile. This pile includes only cards of the blessings card type (and blessings cards can not be included in any other deck or pile). Blessings cards are used to affect conflicts throughout the game.

At the beginning of each conflict, each player draws the top card of his or her blessings pile and follows what it says. Each player only has one blessings pile, and thus all battles he or she participates in (whether playing Hell or Heaven at the time) use the same blessings pile. Each blessing card, in addition to game text, will contain a number (possibly referred to as the devotion number) that will be referred to on some cards.

Most of the blessings cards do not affect a particular player; instead, they usually affect characters that match certain criteria. For instance:

Each fighting character of mind > 3 is might +1.
Each fighting character carrying a weapon is might +1.
Each fighting character carrying a card of the opposite allegiance is might -1.
Each Hell character is might +1.

Other blessings cards will take effect at the end of that conflict:

The winner of this conflict may immediately draw 4 cards.
The loser of this conflict must immediately discard his or her hand.
The winner of this conflict may immediately discard an act from play.

And there will certainly be some unique blessings cards:

Reveal the next blessings card; X = that card's devotion number. Each fighting character with mind > X is might +X.
Wound each character in a front row.
Suspend the row penalty for this conflict.
Double the row penalty for this conflict.
Heal each character in a front row.

There will certainly be cards to manipulate the blessings pile. Some of the strategy with this pile will be trying to build a blessings pile that mostly helps both your Hell and Heaven sides. There will always be the potential for your blessings cards to help your opponent's characters more than your own in a particular conflict. In a battle (which is made up of multiple conflicts), each individual conflict would have blessings cards drawn that (usually) affect only those characters fighting in the current conflict.

In my head, this idea has already gone through a few phases. Originally, I had contemplated using "place holder" cards - cards that go face down in each spot in both of a player's character grids. So, every character in play would have a place holder card underneath it that may affect that character in some way. (Could kind of be looked at like that character's hidden issues or something... who knows.) The main problem with that, though, is that I current have wound cards going underneath each character. And that would just get too crowded.

Does this seem like a good or a bad idea? It may take playtesting to truly determine its playability, but I am curious if any of you have initial thoughts on this concept.