Marvel CCG due out "this summer". . .

[abraxis]

. . .according to Scrye magazine in a one paragraph blurb.

Has anyone here read anything else about this? Who is putting it out?
ReCharge fizzled and died, and the article made it clear that this was not a RC expansion nor a return to OverPower.

I wonder if a good superhero CCG is possible. Sci-Fi games like Star Wars and Star Trek have great appeal. . .could Marvel?

ABRAXIS

[Hippopotamus Rex]

Upper Deck is producing this game. The last I heard it was a Fall release, sometime around October.

I have seen some of the proposed card art, and it looks pretty good. But nothing on the mechanics of the game. I guess UD is still working on that aspect.

[DavidStallard]

Originally posted by abraxis
I wonder if a good superhero CCG is possible.

It's possible, and it's been done before. It was called Wildstorms. Great CCG based on Wildstorm Comics, but you don't need to know the comics to enjoy the game (although it does give you a better background). Later they did an Image Universe expansion which included other non-Wildstorm Image characters like Savage Dragon, Spawn, Youngblood, and so on.

I had played Powercardz and Marvel Overpower and thought both were lacking, especially Overpower. Wildstorms got superheroes right, though. Very cool.

Plus, you can play Wildstorms (and other CCGs) online for free at this link:

http://www.ccgworkshop.com

[johnnype]

I've heard of this "CCG workshop" before but I've never been able to wrap my mind around what is needed to actually play the games they support. Can you explain it to us in layman terms?

[DavidStallard]

You don't need anything to play on CCG Workshop--you don't need to own a single card, and for most (if not all) games a rulebook is available online so you don't need that either. For each supported game, a "complete set" of cards is available. To make a deck, all you have to do is pick cards off a list. So there's no collecting or anything, and the various rarities are not an issue. It will download all of the card art to your machine, which takes a while, or you can opt not to download the art or download it on a case-by-case basis as needed.

For many games, they have several pre-made decks so you can jump right in and learn how to play, then later you can venture into deck building. Wildstorms has quite a few pre-made decks for you to try.

All you have to do is download their software. Then you have instant access to all the cards in all the games they support...and they are continually adding new games.

CCG Workshop may become a pay-for-play site in the future, but so far (and for well over a year) it has been free.

[Almafeta]

Originally posted by DavidStallard
CCG Workshop may become a pay-for-play site in the future, but so far (and for well over a year) it has been free.

It says in the FAQ that certain licensed games cost 25c/pop.

-- Shanya Almafeta

[DavidStallard]

Oh, I wasn't aware that they were charging for any of the games yet. But still, I think most of the games there are not licensed. I know Wildstorms is not, at least.

[johnnype]

I just wanted to post again to say I've downloaded the software and must say that I'm quite impressed. I'm not sure I'd try it on a computer with a slow connection, i'd take too long to download the images, but other than that it's rather amazing.

Getting back to the original question I am curious to see what this new CCG is like. I'm a sucker for good artwork and Marvel could make a spectacular looking game if they wanted to. Ultimately though, a CCG is defined by the mechanics. If they don't live up to expectation, license or no, it will fail.

[SMASH!!!]

Originally posted by DavidStallard
Plus, you can play Wildstorms (and other CCGs) online for free at this link:

http://www.ccgworkshop.com
Dang, I got all excited about this, and then I discovered Apple users are excluded from the fun. HULK SMASH!!!

[DavidStallard]

I think there are some Mac people playing via some Windows emulator? I'm not a Mac person so I'm not exactly sure....

[Tanuki]

I played it at GenCon. I didn't like it. Here's what I recall:

You have two ranks of characters. The front rank blocks for the second rank - that is, your second line characters can't be attacked if they are defended by another character. Your second line characters can attack your opponent's characters.

Combat is Yu-Gi-Oh: If you have more attacking strength than your opponent, you win. No twists, no surprises (well, the demo people said there would be in the full set, but there were none in the demo decks - all attacking power was fully known beforehand.) Since the attacker chooses who defends, this made the combat segment boring.

There's only a high arbitrary limit to the total "cost" of cards you can put into play - no other limit to prevent you from stacking your deck with all the powerful cards and playing them as fast as you draw them.

There were some interactions on the cards - teammates grant each other a bonus in combat, etc.

I found the whole experience completely underwhelming. But, consider that we were only playing with a subset of the cards, so the released game might be significantly better...

[Deathlok]

There are cards to act as surprises during combat, but they're underwhelming, as well.

There are a few interactions with teams, but not really enough to be interesting.

The "sacrifice" strikes were a little interesting, but once you learn to play to them, they cease to be an issue (eg: always stay slightly below your opponent in life points until you hit 500).

I would have included all this in a playtest report, but they weren't looking for game design issues: it was just a play balance playtest. *sigh*

[offworlder]

Originally posted by Tanuki
I played it at GenCon. I didn't like it. Here's what I recall:

You have two ranks of characters. The front rank blocks for the second rank - that is, your second line characters can't be attacked if they are defended by another character. Your second line characters can attack your opponent's characters.

Combat is Yu-Gi-Oh: If you have more attacking strength than your opponent, you win. No twists, no surprises (well, the demo people said there would be in the full set, but there were none in the demo decks - all attacking power was fully known beforehand.) Since the attacker chooses who defends, this made the combat segment boring.

There's only a high arbitrary limit to the total "cost" of cards you can put into play - no other limit to prevent you from stacking your deck with all the powerful cards and playing them as fast as you draw them.

There were some interactions on the cards - teammates grant each other a bonus in combat, etc.

I found the whole experience completely underwhelming. But, consider that we were only playing with a subset of the cards, so the released game might be significantly better...

I so want this game to not be a missed opportunity. Nothing could be cooler than a suphero ccg that works. This doesn't sound like it will succeed.