Dreamer Cards

February 22, 2009 by Adam in Dragon Age

Though I can't talk about any beta stuff, I can talk about my plans and things that I create that involve public content. This includes one of the projects I'd like to include in the Dreamer Campaigns, something I'm currently calling Dreamer Cards.

It's in the same style as Demon Cards for NWN1 and Pirate Cards for NWN2. Essentially it's a collectible card game played in real-time against NPC opponents. The plan is for it to be an optional add-on to the campaign, as well as a stand-alone game people can play.

For those unfamiliar with the game, here's an image of the playing card. I created it using the Magic Set Editor, using information and screenshots from the Dragon Age site.

Each turn, the player can play one Lyrium card, which creates one source of manna. This manna is used up when you cast a spell or summon a creature, but is refreshed each turn. That way you can cast increasingly powerful cards or cast multiple cards at once.

For example, this Fanged Skeleton card has a casting cost of one, has an attack power of one (the first number), and a toughness of one (the second number). The type of the creature is a Demon, which is important when mixed with other cards. The moon in the corner is the symbol, black indicating that it is a common card. Finally, it has a special ability of being resistant to magic.

Playing the card summons a skeleton which will try to kill your opponent's creatures, or your opponent's avatar. If your opponent's avatar falls, you've won the game.

I'll try to show off more cards on a regular basis. They're still all in flux, and it's likely I'll make changes when playtesting. There are still many months until the game is released, so I'm not sure how often you'll see them. The current plan is for roughly a hundred cards, which should be plenty of variety.