Spellcasting Basics!

Great combinations for Invoke! 

I know that I have not even posted the print and play version of the game and I am already posting strategies .. That is because I want the resorces to be out there early and read for when you start playing. This is not the instructions on how to play but just the key concepts in creating spells (the full instructions will have they own page on Spellbook Page ) 

Invoke Key concepts!

Make a sentence!! 

So unlike other spell dulling games Invoke requires you to design your own spell on the fly. (For those who play D&D consider Invoke more of a sorcerer vs a wizard.) This means that the game provides the parts and the frameworks for the spells all you have to do is make the combination make sence. The best analogy I have is a sentence. 

Target + Action + Modifier = spell 

Let's talk about targets 

So most spells are going to require a target. It's safe to assume that if you want to move or destroy something you must have a target card. This would be like "target lifestones" or "Target creature" . So to attack a creature you would need the following cards

Target creature + sling + fire = a fireball that will kill most creatures. 

So if someone has a nasty book that is filled with cards and this is starting I cause problems for you. You would need a target object card to effect them. 

It's important to note that many action cards have built in target cards. Such as sling (a card that may be renamed to cast) 

Thaumaturgy 

This is the clasifacation for  Invoke cards that do something more direct.

For example "Sling + earth = flying bolder" . 

These are the most common combinations played. When playing these cards it is assumed you don't have much accuracy. So the previous mentioned bolder can stike any player but cannot choose what lifestone gets destroyed nore can they attack objects , creatures or sustained spells. 

• Sling : built in target any player 
• Move left , move right : built in target any object you possess. To move someone else's item it will require a target card. 
• Shield.  There is going to be entire blog post dedicated to the shield card and how you need to play that early! 

Objects ,Creatures ,Elements 

Object are Books , Wands and Rings. These can be played by themselves ..and stay in play for the rest of the game until they are distorted. lucky for you other players cannot effect your items without a target card. 

Creatures : These are cards that can be very powerful. read the description of the creatures.. These are effectively the same as Objects. 

Elements : This is the building block for most spells .. the ammo for Slings .. and the structure of shields.. .. More on elements in another post 

Modifier cards 

These are the cards that can really change the game. These cards will change how long a spell lasts to its power. It's recommended to try new ways of placing these cards . 

Example 

Target lifestone + move left = moves the lifestone chosen to the player on their left 

Target lifestone (with power +1 over it ) + move left = moves two life stones left one player 

Target lifestone + move left (with power +1over it) = will move that stone two places to the left. 

The point is to be creative with the ways you place those modifier cards.

How many combinations are possible in Invoke? 

So I have a good buddy of mine who teaches programming and Bio Informatics for a local university.. he's crunching the numbers for me because Its way beyond me! So suffice to say ... a lot of combinations are possible ! 

Trying to explain Invoke to someone who speaks English as a second language.

Some things that you never think about till you have to explain it to someone who English is not their first lanugage.

So I have a very good friend of mine from Japan named Maaya. Later on when we start working on more video you will see more of her. (Well you are going to see a lot of her work... she does video editing) .. So we were talking about the video project today and she had asked to play Invoke because it will give her a better idea how she wants to set up the various shots. We started to play..  I want to mention that her English is really good.. But there are some words and phrases that slip through the cracks now and then.. So explaining a game like Invoke can be a bit of a challenge. During the process, I started to have to really think about how I explained the game. I really had to take a step by step and explain the "Why" you do something and not so much if the how you do it. Then I started to think, at what point is this different from having to explain to someone who has never played before.. What is a better way of expressing the concepts of the game... So I took some notes

• The why you do something is harder to explain then how to do something 
• Clearer and constant terms are needed .. such as subject vs target .
• Colours of the cards are a huge help. 
• Images on the cards are priceless. 
• A well written manual is helpful no matter how good you are at explaining a game. 
• Playing through 4-5 hands showing all the possibilities with out actually competing is also helpful . 
• Sometimes its better to have a group so they can watch the others play. 

So it was not long before she started to understand some of the more complex parts of the game. Once i described the game as a sentence it started to make sense. (Though the use of target cards needed some better explanation on my part) 

So there you have it.. what I learned from trying to teach someone how to play Invoke. 

Yes this means Invoke will be translated into Japanese soon ! (once the english version is working correctly) 

Things only play testing will tell you.

The things that only playtesting will tell you.
So one of the key things about playtesting is to look at things in actual game play.. Sometimes you have an idea of "Hey this would be an awesome card... there should be three of them in the deck" . What happens during playtesting is that you find that the card you thought should have been 3 in every deck really should be only one because it changes the game play.

So yesterday my good buddy Mike came over to pay test Invoke. We must have played 6 games.. Something that we discovered was that the deck was too small with 108 cards. Mainly because those 108 cards have been split up into the three decks. The result was that we had to shuffle the discard pile often. Now that is not too bad, but when you consider that the game is best played with 3-5 players each with 7 cards in their hands.. With additional 2-30 cards in play at any given moment. That does not leave a lot in decks... and that is only one round.. Sp I am going to have to make more cards types.. And increase the number of the cards.

From a game design point of view what this does be making the game harder to ship mainly because it's larger.. The printing cost also goes up. ... So it's all about testing different amounts of cards and comparing the price.

The Print-N-Play version 

So the Print & Play version of Invoke is still on its way. I'm thinking that I want to get that out as soon as possible. With the understanding that the rules are going to be located on the website. (make the printing of the rules option) because there are going to be lots of changes over the next few months. I have also decided that I'm going to wait a bit longer for the kickstarter.. Though I have had some success with the cards so far I and really wanting to have more momentum in the social media area first.

Drawing from three Decks: Invoke !

You come up with some of the most interesting Realization when you are playtesting.. It also helps that when you are playtesting that you have people that who are willing to make suggestions. So this other week we were playtesting the old paper version of Invoke (still called spellslinger at the time) and one of the major things we noted was that we kept having turns where we had absolutely no actions. For a game, this is a major problem.. I can understand having one round where you have no actions at all..But 4 in a row.. It became very clear to me there was something very wrong with the game.. So my good buddy Mike who is also a game designer (Check back to this blog because I will feature his games here) suggests that we change it from one deck system to a three deck system.. The idea was having all the actions in one deck.. All the objects and creatures in a second deck and the third would be all the cards that would modify an existing spell.. At first, I did not like the idea because I was too attached to my own concepts but after some thinking I figured not only was it a good idea but in true Mike form.. Brilliant. So here is how the three deck system works now.. .

Each Player at the beginning of their turn (and only at the beginning of their turn) draws up to seven cards. They may draw as much as three cards from any of the three decks. I have named the decks after magical skills in legends.

The Three Decks 

Thaumaturgy : The act of doing something... this deck is going to have your actions.. Moving left, moving right.. Sling (The card that makes fireballs... but I'm thining of a new name for that card) and the all important Sheild card.. This deck is what you draw from if you want to DO something..

Apportation : The act of summoning something.. This is your objects.. This will most likely be an element as in earth, air, fire & water (there are other elements in the mix for later expansions). There will also be objects like wands, Books, and rings (From expansions) and if you are really lucky there may even be a creature to help you in your quest to win the game. This deck you will draw from if you need ammo or for a spell you have yet to cast

Alteration: This deck allows you to modify or target something . So this where you draw when you have a spell but you would like to have a little more control or have some cool special effect added to it... say.. A fireball that can strike a wand or that burns the opponent for 3 turns.

So I wanted to test the three deck system.. I drew 9 hands.. Before it was possible to have as many as 4 hands where you had no actions possible... not even bad ideas. White of the three deck system all but one of the hands had at least one or two actions (not saying those actions were good ideas ....but at least they were an option) 

So what I learned was good ideas come from your best friends and don't get too attached to an idea! Don't be afraid to make some major changes during the play testing stage of a game.

What is Invoke all about?

So here is the story about why I designed Invoke ..

A long time ago there was this new game called Magic the Gathering. I have to say that I really enjoyed playing with my friends deck and decided that at some point I was going to get my own deck. Well what happened was that I got the basic deck and two booster packs because that was all that I could afford .. I had a blast making a deck of Orcs and Goblins and it was a lot of fun.

Example of the Earth Card 

Well one of the guys who always comes to our game group was not really the sharpest tool in the shed. In most games we spent more time arguing with him because he did not understand the rules then anything else. Well once I saw the game ... he had to have it .. so he spent an obscene amount of money on the cards.

This is when I noted something ... "Mark" started winning ... A Lot!  Mark who was never a good player at any of the other games started winning at Magic a lot ... I mean all the time (not that he was a gracious winner either) . Mostly because he had a deck for every situation. A deck vs White, A Deck Vs Blue ... and every single rare card in the book. And he won almost every game.. Not with strategy but deep pocket power. It got annoying really fast .. and I was not the only player who felt that way. Just because you have the most money you should not be the best player ... At what point is this equal footing. Some of the best players I know got slammed by Mark because he happen to have one of those Ultra Rare cards that totally destroyed their strategies. But what do you expect when you spend $30 on a single card.  (I think my total deck was $25 or something)

So here I am ... this guy who was working two jobs just to make ends meet and all I had was one Ork & Goblin deck that really got trashed. Now you loose a game one , twice , 4 times and that is ok .. but with everyone else with disposable incomes vs a guy who felt guilty because I got an extra hamburger for lunch (Big splurge) you start to loose interest in playing. After all the playing field was not level. So my deck started to gather dust. I ended up giving my deck to someone ... I don't remember who.

So here I am many years later .. I'm working in a high end software company doing tech support. one of the software that I supported was a drag and drop  programming software. By Dragging components into an area you could make this software automate an action... Hummmm wait a second .. how could would it be to make a game out of that?

now wanting to be as far from work as possible when I design something like this I chose to have a Magical theme..

It works like this ..
Each Player on their turn draws up to 7 cards.. These cards then can make up a sentence

Fire + Sling = Fireball .. Attacking their target breaking on of the "Lifestones" 

What the players have to do is design the "Spell"  out of component cards provided.. The best part is that all players draw from the same cards .. so it becomes a game of wits and creative thinking not .. Who has the most expendable income. When a player gets a expansion pack .. all the players benefit from the investment.  I hope to have a print-n-play version of the game up soon .

I'm thinking this game is going to be good for people who want to teach logic to their children .. Hell adults are going to love this game.

I have deliberately not listed all the possible spells on this site .. though I am now and then going to be posting pages dedicated to one of the spells.  The idea is that I want you to come up with your own spells (and tell me about them) . I want this to be a game where creativity and thinking outside the box is the key to winning.