Building HP Vs Building Damage

When players level up in Aethermon, they get 5 XG to spend on a 1 to 5 cost Battle Card (combat move). They also receive 1 MaxHP for every XG not spent learning a battle card. As a result, players are tasked with a decision between building HP, or Battle cards...

Making Special Characters More Special

One final post on the changes made to Aethermon to accelerate the player’s adventure.Special Characters were originally balanced at around 1XG per round, equal to an easy battle, but the player wouldn’t lose moves or HP. This figure has been moved to about...

Pushing Players Forward (Cont) – Free Stuff

Everyone likes free stuff, but unfortunately stuff tends to cost money. In games this creates interesting decisions, everything you buy comes at the opportunity cost of something else: if you only have one gold and you buy a 1 gold elixir, you can no longer buy a 1...

Pushing Players Forward – Playtime

At the core of Aethermon’s experience is a journey that includes the growth of the player’s character’s: Players begin their adventure battling the lowest of opponents; by the end of 1st chapter they are challenging for the junior championship; by the end of the 2nd...

Balancing Philosophy

I once heard a school of thought described as the SNK philosophy of game balance (as contrasted to the capcom approach) – “Balance is boring”. Making characters perfectly balanced, strips them of makes them mechanically interesting. Instead make every character...

More on Simultaneous Turns

When landing on a generic square while playing Aethermon, you draw an encounter card – there are 5 for each area. 4 of these cards lead to a battle, the last one instructs the player to draw a special encounter card.  At the end of each round, all used...