The Shining Source

For some time now I've been toying with making a card game using a modified rules set of the old Decipher Star Wars CCG. I was planning on using an original setting but then I kept thinking of Shining Force and how I wanted to do some sort of fan work for it. So there it is, I am going to start a project to create a card game based on the Shining Force world.

The game consists of two players each with a deck of roughly 60 cards. One side plays for the forces of light and the other the forces of darkness. Each player starts by selecting a location card from their deck. These locations will be generic places such as: a cave, a mountain, or a desert or specific places both old and new from the Shining universe like Bedoe or Arc Valley. Each location will grant one or both sides with an amount of force that they can draw on. Once the locations are placed by both players in the center of the playing area. Each player draws their opening hand of 8 cards and the forces of darkness take their first turn.

Force
The player moves any force from his used pile to bottom of his deck(not applicable on the first turn)
The player then moves force from the top of his deck to his force pile equal to the amount of force they draw from locations plus 1.

Deployment
The player may place any locations they have in their hand for free.
The player may deploy any characters, weapons, items, events, or tactics if they have enough force to do so. This may be limited by text of location or other cards already played.

Battle
The player may initiate a battle at any location that is occupied by both his and his opponents units by paying 1 force per battle.
The players then take turns resolving any item and weapon effects(if applicable)
The players then total the power of the units particiapting in the battle and draw a card from the deck and add it's destiny score to it.
The player with the highest total wins and the loser must forfeit a character with a forfeit score equal to or higher than the difference in totals or lose force from their deck, force pile, used pile, or hand. Cards lost this way are placed in the lost pile.

Movement
The player may move each of his units by paying one force per character. Each character may move only once per turn unless stated otherwise.

Draw
The player may draw any remaining cards in their force pile.
The player then ends their turn.

Card Types:
Locations: These are the various fields of battle where the forces of light and darkness battle one another. They will be generic sites and famous landmarks from the Shining World.

Characters: These will make up the forces that the two use to battle one another. Each side will have unique characters while nuetral characters may appear on both sides. These will be a mix of generic(Granseal Solider) and famous charactersfrom past games(Max, Adam, etc) as well as new original characters.

Weapons and Items: These will be things that can be equipped on characters to gives them a special ability or to improve their stats.

Tactics and Events: Players will use these cards to turn the tide of battle in their favor. Things like making it easier to deploy units or making it harder for your opponent to do so for example.

 That's the rough outline of it. I have roughly 8 hours of time to devote to it Monday through Friday while I'm at work. I'm seeking both people who have a good knowledge of the Shining World as well as talented artists to create artwork for the cards. If we can get a decent set created there are pre-existing programs such as ccgworkshop and the gatlingEngine that we can use to host the set. Post your comments, concerns, and suggestions please.

Update: Here is an example character card

 

As you can see, I will need an artist who can create the various symbols for things such as the card alignment, card set, and class, attributes. I also need someone who can do the art pieces for the image section.

Welcome to YoB Malgamus!

I don't play any collectible card games, so I'm not sure of common mechanics or anything. Your idea sounds interesting though, and I'd certainly play it once I figured it all out.

You mention each location gives the player a set amount of force. Is the amount of "force" the player receives affected by the character they choose? In other words, is Land Effect simulated?

Will there be any spells, or is combat just based on melee weapons?

As far as art goes, I'd highly recommend using existing Shining art to help speed things up. It would definitely be cool to have custom art for all the cards, but it would be a tonne of work. The best plan would be to use old art to start with until the whole system is refined, and then move on to grabbing some artists to spruce things up.

Don't think of locations like the tiles of the battle maps in the games. They are key places in the game world like Granseal or Bedoe for example. Each place generates force for one or both light and darkness. Think of it like this. Bedoe would generate 3 light force and 0 dark. But a place like The Ancient Tower would be 3 dark and 0 light. Other places might be more in the middle and generate force for both sides. In addition to giving you more resources, a player can't deploy a card to a location they have no force at unless they have a unit there already. This can be done by moving a unit to the location.

I'm not sure how I will add spells, perhaps as a seperate card that can be equiped on a caster like a weapon on a melee character. But the more mundane items/spells won't be done like that. It is for more higher end equipment and abilities like the force sword for example.