We desperately need a new multiplayer PvP LCG!

By gdotbat, in Living Card Games

I love AGoT, and LoTR is great (although not PvP)! But we desperately need something different in the multiplayer PvP arena, preferably something in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

Maybe it will be the new Start Wars LCG since they seem to have gone back to the drawing board on that one, but my guess is that it will remain co-op.

There are plenty of good theme ideas being thrown around here, Warhammer 40k (YES, PLEASE!!), V:TES (one if my all-time favorite CCGs), whatever! Maybe something Pirate themed would be cool too!?

Just something focused on multiplayer (with 2 player options of course) but PvP , no more co-op please!!!

We've messed around with Warhammer Invasion in 3 and 4 player formats borrowing some rules from Magic and it is a lot of fun.

Kaine82 said:

We've messed around with Warhammer Invasion in 3 and 4 player formats borrowing some rules from Magic and it is a lot of fun.

I have to, but what it needs is something to really glue the multiplayer play all together. The Roles in AGoT are a perfect example. The roles not only give you bonuses, but decide who you can attack, who you cannot attack, who you can support and who you get bonuses for attacking. Simply brilliant!

I've only played A Game of Thrones a couple of times. A friend and I asked a couple of guys at GenCon last year to teach us. They had just learned how to play themselves, but had left out the roles(something about they though one of them were broken).

If you say that is one of the highlights I'm definitely going to have to go back and give it a whirl.

Kaine82 said:

I've only played A Game of Thrones a couple of times. A friend and I asked a couple of guys at GenCon last year to teach us. They had just learned how to play themselves, but had left out the roles(something about they though one of them were broken).

If you say that is one of the highlights I'm definitely going to have to go back and give it a whirl.

I don’t think any of them are broken at all, they are all fairly well balanced. Each role can be very beneficial depending on your strategy, and towards the end of a game choosing the role can either mean nothing much at all or it can mean the game.

They aren’t used in Joust (1v1) at all, but if you’re playing melee (multiplayer) you must play with them!

my problem with thrones is that it is such an epic game. I am not sure why I have this bias but I can play a board game like say arkhem horror for example that goes for hours fine.. but for some reason a card game that goes for ages I just can not handle. aGoT is a long game, and unlike a board it is very hard to put a basket over the board so your cat don't knock it down and go to work and meet up on the next Thursday to play it.

I have heard good things about the warhammer game though... I would give it a try but it comes down again to co-op vs pvp and the simple fact is that I know zero people that would buy the games if I didn't. co-op and solo are the only real options and my wife is much easier to get on board a co-op game than a pvp

gdotbat said:

I love AGoT, and LoTR is great (although not PvP)! But we desperately need something different in the multiplayer PvP arena, preferably something in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

Maybe it will be the new Start Wars LCG since they seem to have gone back to the drawing board on that one, but my guess is that it will remain co-op.

There are plenty of good theme ideas being thrown around here, Warhammer 40k (YES, PLEASE!!), V:TES (one if my all-time favorite CCGs), whatever! Maybe something Pirate themed would be cool too!?

Just something focused on multiplayer (with 2 player options of course) but PvP , no more co-op please!!!

New SW game will most likely *not* be co-op. It is now strictly for 2 players only which to me seems like 1-vs-1 PvP.

Well - with FFG picking up old CCG licenses, why not look into what is considered by many the best mutliplayer CCG ever made - Vampire: The Eternal Struggle? It has a pretty passionate playerbase, especially in Europe and the Midwest US.

Bah, who needs Vampire now that we'll get Netrunner? This was simply the best CCG ever!

It will be interesting to see how FFG implements the different factions.

Darke said:

Well - with FFG picking up old CCG licenses, why not look into what is considered by many the best mutliplayer CCG ever made - Vampire: The Eternal Struggle? It has a pretty passionate playerbase, especially in Europe and the Midwest US.

I support this. It could use some retooling, but V:TES would make a fine addition to FFG's repertoire. Would it be set in NWoD, though?

Vampire woulb be a very good addition. It's not like any LCG they have so far. The theme is great. All of the different clans are ripe for an LCG.

Star Wars will likely be either co-op, 1v1, or both. An all-encompassing Star Wars game, which I expect/hope the FFG design team is striving to design at present, simply would not lend itself well to multiplayer PvP from a thematic standpoint.

Perhaps an LCG set in the Twilight Imperium universe would satisfy this, as it is a space opera property, as opposed to A Game of Thrones ' medieval setting.

Well Dune ccg was nice scifi themed multiplayer card game that got finalized because WOTC buy it of from the market so that it would not compete with Magic… They newer did't release anything to it after they bought it. It is/was very challenging game with many factions and very gruel game play (Nice ;-)

My hope would be Dune lcg. Babylon 5 is another, but there is limit where to go because you need those pictures. Dune is better known and IMHO scales better with players. B5 is ultimately 4 player game and it is good in that, but Dune scales better from two players to 5. Thoutgh best with 3-4 players.

I would enjoy seeing Dune appear. I'm not a fan of the books, but I have a friend who is, and I am sure he would enjoy playing. I remember my father finding someone's old Dune CCG collection at a garage sale, which I later gave to this same friend as a gift, knowing his fondness for the mythos of Dune. I only hope it's not too difficult for him to learn -- I looked over the rules briefly at his house once and they seemed pretty complicated. Being an L5R player this did not bother me, but I only intend to play it if he's willing to get into it.

Well Dune rules are guite complicated and they were guite baddly writen… The new editions were better in that sense, but they allso added new components like programs, that were not very well balanced… But the gameplay is very good! There is a lot of interaction between players and you can make very different kind of decks! All very good points! I even managed to make reasonable good deck without any characters or personel at all! It was fun, but vulnerable to mass attacks!

http://duneccg.com/

Is a good plase to find more easier rules!

http://duneccg.com/ qstart.htm

Im also on board for a V:TES lcg it would be amazing and so much fun. I miss the late night gaming and beer nights!

I know how much people would love to see Vampire translated to the LCG format, but you likely never will just because of the stranglehold White Wolf has on the entire franchise. They don't play well with other companies, and likely the intellectual property will only become accessible to FFG if White Wolf is cut loose from the EvE Online guys and they need a new company to buy them out.

Likely if you're ever going to see a new LCG from Fantasy Flight that will have multiplayer conflict, it's going to be with one of their in-house properties, the license they have for Warhammer 40k, or something they can acquire through their relationship with Wizards. So where would that leave us?

Fireborn - Not likely as an LCG in my opinion, as the setting and story focus is not on factions or defined conflicts. Would like to see this property see some new life, however.

Grimm (not the same as the NBC show) - Could actually be really interesting, as this one-book RPG does a good job of showing a world with different kingdoms and the re-imagined fairytale concept is trending nicely right now. Also the twisted fairytales vs. children concept could make for a very unique visual style and identity.

Twilight Imperium - This is what I think is most likely for what you would be wanting. They just made the Rex board game, have shown they have a real dedication to the setting, and there's the old RPG material and collectable tactics game from wayyyyy back in the day for inspirations. It also has defined factions that would convert really nicely into strategy styles and deck formats, as well as an established setting where alliances can happen. I would see it as some sort of "Location Control" mechanic that's present in a lot of the existing games, as well as down and dirty fighting.

Tannhauser - Alternate History Deiselpunk vs. Magic. What's not to love? Likely would max out at 4 players battle royale.

I'm sure there are other possibilities, but that's what I can think of right now.

So looking at the two newest LCGs and seeing that they are two-player only, I'm kind of wondering where FFG seems to be going with this LCG format? I mean who are these games targeted at if they can't even support multi-player? Maybe it's just my play environment, but multi-player is pretty much the rule around here. 2 player games are generally what you play while waiting for the rest of your friends to show up. Hence a two-player only game is generally not going to get a lot of play. As such it's kind of hard to justify the investment in an LCG if you're not going to get a lot of chances to play it with your friends.

I'm not entirely certain if you need a whole new multi-player franchise or if you just need to re-examine the two-player limitation on some of your current franchises. I've heard of multi-player variant for some of them, maybe they just need to be officially supported? Although if you want a new (old) franchise, I would point out that Shadowfist had some of the best multi-player I've seen in a CCG. Just sayin'. :)

KEM said:

Although if you want a new (old) franchise, I would point out that Shadowfist had some of the best multi-player I've seen in a CCG. Just sayin'. :)

Shadowfist is still around and in production. It is already changing now to a non collectible format with non randomized 50 card packs for future expansions after the new starters come out. There is no way it would be a LCG too.

Toqtamish said:

KEM said:

Although if you want a new (old) franchise, I would point out that Shadowfist had some of the best multi-player I've seen in a CCG. Just sayin'. :)

Shadowfist is still around and in production. It is already changing now to a non collectible format with non randomized 50 card packs for future expansions after the new starters come out. There is no way it would be a LCG too.

Toqtamish said:

Shadowfist is still around and in production. It is already changing now to a non collectible format with non randomized 50 card packs for future expansions after the new starters come out. There is no way it would be a LCG too.

I need to find out more about this.

skwizzle said:

Toqtamish said:

Shadowfist is still around and in production. It is already changing now to a non collectible format with non randomized 50 card packs for future expansions after the new starters come out. There is no way it would be a LCG too.

I need to find out more about this.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113976333/shadowfist-combat-in-kowloon-card-game

What's next for Shadowfist

Future expansions will be released as non-randomized packs of 50 cards featuring all six factions delving into new themes and conflicts within the game storyline. Existing cards for Shadowfist will always be welcome in open formats, and players are free to engage the new environment in the non-collectable model at their leisure.

Hannibal_pjv said:

Well Dune ccg was nice scifi themed multiplayer card game that got finalized because WOTC buy it of from the market so that it would not compete with Magic… They newer did't release anything to it after they bought it. It is/was very challenging game with many factions and very gruel game play (Nice ;-)

My hope would be Dune lcg. Babylon 5 is another, but there is limit where to go because you need those pictures. Dune is better known and IMHO scales better with players. B5 is ultimately 4 player game and it is good in that, but Dune scales better from two players to 5. Thoutgh best with 3-4 players.

This, a thousand times this!

Just to add, we've tried the Cenacle 3p variant for Call of Cthulhu and it works pretty well. They have a 4p variant as well and it seems to work similarly but honestly we'd typically rather just have two 2p games so we haven't tried it.

I'm OK if another LCG comes out with multiplayer rules so long as it includes 2p rules as well.

I think card games, especially ones which wish to have a competitive enviroment need to be designed inherently for a 1v1 game situation. However, after playing star wars and also my experience with AGoT and TCG's like wow and magic, multiplayer formats are a great way to mix it up and add some fresh play ideas to a game.

I have been told that star wars is going to get a 4 player mode where 3 players are rebels trying to take down a much more powerful empire player, similar to the wow raid decks.