Less is more

One of the big things in making a tabletop game is how small it has to be. For many game’s that’s not a problem, but we are trying to capture the epic feel of JRPG’s that tend to have ultimate moves that deal 50 bajillion damage. We can’t do 50 bajillion damage in a...

“Take-that mechanics”

“Take-that mechanics” Some players love them, other’s won’t touch them. Take-that mechanics refer to rules or options that allow one player to negatively affect the progress of another player – think “Draw 2” in Uno. These rules can create memorable moments on a...

Speed (ii)

Last week we detailed a failed attempt to completely remove speed from Aethermon’s mechanics. This endeavour resulted in a complicated system where each move neatly fit into one of six priority tiers:  6. NPC (Q)uick moves  5. Player (Q)uick moves  4....

To Speed or not to Speed

The last few weeks we have not posted a blog but instead shared gameplay videos over on our facebook page. While most of those mechanics remain current, there has since been one significant revision. Speed. The core design philosophy of Aethermon has been to recreate...

Protecting players from themselves part 3

Okay so this is following up a post from… 3 weeks ago… which was following up a post from 3 weeks before that… We were discussing situations where I had poorly designed some high value battle cards (moves) from Aethermon so that they were only valuable as part of a...

Protecting Players from themselves II

Last week we pointed out the potential problems created when an Aethermon’s most powerful moves are exclusively useful as part of a combo. We’ll highlight 2 examples of when I made this error and how the situation has been resolved. === Sparkitty/Matchka/Harquat Our...