ELEMENTAL @elemental-ccg - Tumblr Blog

Elemental on Isola Illyon

ELEMENTAL was featured in the Isola Illyon (an italian online fantasy magazine) Card Games column! Interviewed by Pasquale Palma, I explored some behind the scenes of ELEMENTAL creation process, with stories and tips for aspiring game designers. (Article is in italian).

ELEMENTAL è apparso sulle pagine di Isola Illyon (famoso portale italiano del fantasy) nella sezione Giochi di Carte! Intervistato da Pasquale Palma, ho esplorato i retroscena del processo creativo di ELEMENTAL, con aneddoti e consigli per aspiranti game designer.

Elemental, la magia che non vuole darsi regole!

#Interview #Isola Illyon

Italian localization of rules

Being ELEMENTAL an italian game, this was mandatory. Now you can download Elemental Rules Booklet and Basic Rules Quick Start Card in italian language from the Downloads page!

Essendo ELEMENTAL un gioco italiano, era ovvio che prima o poi dovesse succedere. È ora possibile scaricare il Libretto delle regole e la Carta di referenza regole base in italiano dalla pagina Downloads!

Buon divertimento!

#Italian #localization

Element's characteristic: water

Focus after the magic reflux.

Water element's characteristic is a great way to have another chance of getting the element you need. Normally you could do that in your turn, but the action of focusing will prevent you from using any attack spell that turn.

With the water elements's characteristic you can focus without losing the opportunity to attack during your turn!

By repeatedly using water as a characteristic in your spells, you will be able to focus multiple times before your turn comes, so that you end up with a much better hand to attack your opponents.

#advanced rules #characterization #water element

Advanced rules: element of spells

The game is called ELEMENTAL right? So obviously there is a rule for elemental weaknesses and strengths!

Here is the classic weakness/strength cycle:

water is strong against fire and weak to earth

fire is strong against air and weak to water

air is strong against earth and weak to fire

earth is strong against water and weak to air

And here is how you can use that at you own advantage: if a player plays a spell with a base element that is weak against the base element of the opposing spell, that player cannot use that element during his next turn. This effect still apply even if the spell with the strong base element is neutralized or reflected.

Eg:

Attack:

Base

Trigger

Defense:

Base

Trigger

In this case water is strong against fire. The attack spell is neutralized and the attacking player will not be able to use the fire element during his next turn.

That's a huge incentive to use a base element for a spell that is strong against the base element of the opposing spell because you will know that that player is not going to use a particular element during his next turn. Obviously there is always a downside and a choice to be made: maybe if you use an element as a base because of his elemental strength you will not be able to defend against all damage of a spell, or maybe you will not be able to characterize your spell with that element. It's up to you to decide what will benefit you the most!

#advanced rules #element of spells

I LOVE the design. Very cool, streamlined.

Geekdom! Games

Game variant: power sink

If you want to slow down the pace of the spells hitting you, and think again if your best choice is to risk a big hit or play safe, power sink game variant is for you!

In this game variant, players draw up to 2 cards for the magic reflux effect.

When playing basic spells this won't be a problem, but try to add power levels or characterizations, and you will end up with few cards in your hand to battle your opponents!

You only have a couple of try to score a big hit with an enhanced spell before you find yourself holding just two cards in your hand. Of course you can add custom extra elements with an effect that refills a player's hand, but other than that your choices matter a lot in this game variant.

#game variant #power sink

Your game is BEAUTIFUL!

Tavis (The Game Crafter user)

Element's characteristic: air

Remove one characterization of the opposing spell.

Air element's characteristic allows you to play safely and remove one characteristic from the opposing spell. Since you cannot stack a characteristic of a element more than once on a spell, you have to choose carefully which opposing spell's characteristic to remove, if there is more then one on that spell.

If both attack and defense spells have an air characterization, they neutralize each other.

Air element it also essential to avoid the sneaky damage of the fire's characterization which could otherwise kill you.

For when you want to avoid unwanted surprises. Air element. It got your back.

#advanced rules #characterization #air element

Some suggestions for custom elements

Here is a list of some characteristics you could give to your custom elements. Some are balanced, some will break the game and let you throw the deck in your opponents' faces. Use at your own risk!

Also, some of these may appear in future ELEMENTAL's expansions!

The player targeted by the spell skips his or her next turn. You lose 1 life point.

Reverse the turn order.

The player targeted by the spell shows you his hand after the magic reflux.

Exchange your hand with the hand of the player targeted by the spell after the magic reflux.

Double the healing of the next healing spell you cast.

Switch your life points with those of the player targeted by the spell after the magic reflux.

Before the magic reflux, search the deck for any element and put it in your hand.

All players show their hand. The player with the highest number of cards of X element wins the game. Yes you got it right.

All the damage of this spell is dealt to all the players. BOOM.

What other elements' characteristics did you come up with?

#characterization #effects

Game variant: magic streak

This game variant is for the players who like to think about every move, but can be very entertaining also to those who don't like to worry about life points and just want to go full out with their attack spells.

In the magic streak game variant, players don't have life points. The winning condition is met when a player (or a team) reaches 10 victory points. One victory point is awarded to a player for each point of damage that player deals or defends.

This means that being able to reflect a spell is a highly efficient way to reach victory, because in that case a damage is defended and a damage is dealt, awarding the defending player with 2 victory points by using only one spell.

One can play with a low profile, focusing every turn to have a higher chance to reflect attacks, or can go on an attack frenzy, hoping that the non-stop assault will pay off.

Slowly gain your points to the victory, or place a huge score with a massive spell? Your choice!

#game variant #magic streak

Element's characteristic: fire

The spell always deals at least one damage.

So you're telling me my defense is useless?

Not really. Fire element's characteristic allows you to deal at least one damage, even if the defender neutralized or reflected all the damage of the attack spell. The defense is not useless, it's just less effective.

Fire's characteristic is especially useful when trying to finish off an opponent with a single life point. His only chance to survive is to remove the fire characterization by using the air element's characteristic (or another characteristic of an extra element you could have created).

Pro Tip: fire's characteristic can be applied to defense spells too, for a unpredictable strike!

#advanced rules #characterization #fire element

Advanced rules: characterization

Each element has its own specific characteristic in ELEMENTAL. It's an effect that can be added to any spell.

Damaging the opponent is fine, but wouldn't it be nice if he were to discard a card or couldn't attack for a turn?

You can do that by adding an element to your spell as a characteristic. Elements played as a characteristic are played face-down on attack spells, and are revealed after the attacked players play their spells.

Characteristics can be added also to healing spells, but be careful not to hurt yourself or your allies!

Characteristics are found at the bottom part of each element's card.

A spell can have any number of characteristics, but it can't be characterized with the same element more than once.

Normally you would be able to add up to 2 characteristics per spell, because the limit of cards in hand is 4 and you need at least 2 elements to cast a spell, but if you play with the team variant or with the overcharge variant of the game, you could be able to add all of the characteristics to a spell. It would be unstoppable!

Because characteristics effects still apply even if the spell is neutralized or reflected, characterization is a great way to twist the game flow, to break opponents' defenses and add a lot of tactical options to your gameplay.

#advanced rules #characterization

A roundup of all the artworks for the ELEMENTAL cards.

Make a poster for your games room!

#card game #illustration

Game variant: team

In the team game variant, players split up in two teams, and sit alternating each other with players from the opposite team. Each team's goal is to kill all the members of the opposing team.

Anytime there is a odd number of players in game, the players in the smallest team have a limit of cards in hand of 5, up from 4, and therefore they draw the number of cards needed to have 5 cards in hand for the magic reflux effect.

The team game variant is all about helping other teammates by making their attack or defense spells stronger. Whenever a teammate casts a spell (attack or defense), every teammate can add one single element to that spell, as a power level or as a characteristic. In this way spells can deal or defend much more damage, and spell effects can stack in order to harm the opponent even more.

There is a downside though: only the player who cast the spell draws the cards from the magic reflux effect. Any teammate who used a element card to empower the spell does not draw any card because he didn't cast a spell. Teammates can find themselves out of cards to defend or attack if they use too many cards to empower other teammates' spells!

Work together to build a massive spell or preserve every team mate for maximum versatility? It's up to you!

#game variant #team #collaboration