Hello everyone! Since the last few days, I decided I'd try http://www.staredit.net/topic/13782/ and see how it worked and how it looked like. Doing so reminded me of an I idea I was going to post on here, but never did, due to the fact that I didn't know how it could be possible. Yesterday, I went by train to the NFB in Toronto. As always, I brought a couple decks of cards with me; I do magic tricks to people all the time. Anyways...

I started to think about that idea that I had in my head since so long... And I finally found a solution! Of course, there are still a lot of things to consider before it will work out perfectly, but here is how it goes:

• Each player needs a full deck of normal cards.
  
• To make a monster, you need a spade and a hearth. The spade card is the ATK and the hearth card is the HP. [x♠ x♥]
  
• Each monster possibility can have a specific name with specific ability. [1♠ 1♥] could be a gnome for example
  
• To be allowed to place a monster, there could be a money system (Quanta?). (A sheet of paper could help process all the data.)
  
• Spells can be diamond cards. [x♦]
  
• Special objects can be clubs. [x♣]
  
• To make even more diversity, a player could say he has a fire deck, which would be completely different from a water deck. They would both have different advantages and disadvantages. [1♠ 1♥] in a fire deck could be a flame with the ability to burn the other player's monsters each turn,
  
• The goal of the game would be to destroy the opponents by making their HP reach 0. (The player's HP and a monster's HP are two completely different things.)
  

As you can see, the idea can easily be expanded. In total there would be 41 usable cards. (13+13+13+2) Spades and Hearth count as one card but they could possibly be used as shields and weapons for the players.

Playing with a regular deck has the advantage of costing less than real card games and allows someone to make modifications to the rules in real time.

As of now, I haven't thought of anything more specific. The basic idea is there, if someone has anything to propose, please do so. Feedbacks? Comments?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 17 2011, 9:44 pm by Apos. Reason: NFB was pointing to the French site

This could be epic. I want to help you.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 17 2011, 9:59 pm by K_A.

IDEAS!
-Players start with 50 life. running out of life or cards makes you lose.
-draw 1 card at the beginning of your turn, and one at the end. (to make up for the double monster cards. Draw 2 cards at the beginning of each turn.
-tapping a card would make it attack and defending player chooses target like (mtg)
-a monster heals every turn, obviously.
-diamonds could be the money system since they are diamonds, you can play 1 per turn (free).
-each money could either be worth 1 point, or the face value depending on prices.
-prices for monsters could either be the added value of the two cards (face value money) or the added value divided by 2 rounded down (flat money value)
-prices for spells (clubs) would be the face value, and have abilties that match their value.

The hardest part would be the spell and monster effects. You will probably need a reference, and coming up with abilties for every element would be even harder.

EDIT: I just tried out the idea for prices. Face value money works a lot better.

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on May 18 2011, 11:45 pm by K_A.

Thanks a lot, that seems like a very good list! It would certainly simplify a lot of the rules.

I did a bit of searching and found these links:
List of Mythical Creatures
List of Spells
Spell generator (This is a software)
Spell Cards With color coding (PDF)
Dungeons and Dragons Database

Edit: I wonder if someone has already thought about that (Probably) and if anything was done.

It would also help early on to decide how many elements you want and what each element would be.
No element can be better than another, they would just have different strategies.
ie
Slow defensive turtle strategy.
Fast offensive rush strategy.
Make other person run out of cards.

Since it's not going to be sold, I guess some cards can be based on element's cards? They can be found here.

With the exception of other, Those elements would work perfect.
Another thing I just thought of.
Since the cards for monsters are 1-13 most monsters in the game will be in the area of total value of 8-18
Since monsters level 2-7 are rare and fragile, they should also get good abilties, abilities that counter the use of monsters with high levels (19-26)

Here are a few statistics with more ideas:

• Using cards from 1 - 13 spade and hearth, you can get a total of 169 different monsters. That means that most of the monsters won't be specific cards, they can be a range of cards. [1 - 5♠, 2 - 5♥] (Doing so will also allow the player to have multiple monsters that are the same.)
  
• To generate money, instead of using diamonds, we can use cards that are flipped (The back of the cards). Before the game begins, each player can set up their deck. The cards they don't need can be flipped upside down and will be used as 'money pillars'.
  
• Some spell cards can be added to the monsters — some are permanents, others last a certain amount of turns.
  
• Some objects can be shields, weapons, player attributes, etc...
  

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 19 2011, 7:25 pm by Apos. Reason: I messed up 149 with 169... (13x13)

I like the flipped card idea, would they be in the deck upside down or already in play when the game starts?

I had another idea for monster combinations since there are so many combos.
.even though there are a ton of combos, you can only play up to 13 monsters in a game, if it even lasts that long.
-Instead of having each combination of cards be a different monster, each card could have it's own abilities and attributes, but when combined to form a monster, the (lower or higher I'm not sure which would be more balanced) card goes on top, and the monster has the attributes of that card. If the cards are of the same value, the player would choose which card they want on top.

-Some spell cards can be used as substitutes for spades/hearts?

They are in placed upside down in the deck at the start of the game. When the cards are shuffled they stay upside down, when they are played, they stay upside down. The value on an upside down card is not considered.

That's smart, it would make it be easier to play, but I guess it would depend on the element. Fire could be a range of cards while water could have an attribute for each cards from 1 - 13.

Some of the spells can be placed on a monster, it would make a 3 card monster. Some monsters could even have a couple spells added to them.

Edit: Also, I guess that some people could even have a custom deck of cards: 10 aces, 4 jokers, 20 kings... It would require that person to buy a couple deck of cards and mix them together.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 19 2011, 8:46 pm by Apos. Reason: My word error was quoted ^^

Exactly, there would be 26, or so abilities for each element. No need to have 179 completely different combinations x 12 elements would be rediculous.
I was thinking more along the lines of a specific deck where all the cards of clubs or diamonds have an effect like, "use this as a substitute for either a hearts or a spade with value equal to this cards value, this card is placed on top, regardless of it's value." This deck would have less spells and monster effects, but more monsters to fight with.
I think it would be better to be able to play with an ordinary deck of cards. Wasn't that part of the original idea? There would be enough customization simply by choosing which cards you want to put face down in your deck wouldn't there?