Some notes on the game rules from the stream about the new Love Live TCG ("Love Live! Official Card Game", LoveCa for short)! There's some similarities to SIC, but it generally seems like a more refined and faster-paced version of it.
Of course, this is not a complete rulebook, there's a lot of situations that didn't come up in the stream, but for those who want to follow the games the seiyuu played, here's an overview:
Your deck has 72 cards:
12 Energy cards, 48 Member cards, 12 Live Show card
You need to win 3 rounds to win the game
Also playable with a "half deck": 12 Energy / 24 Member / 6 Live Show - 2 rounds to win (the second stream game was just played to the first round)
You have two draw piles: Energy cards are a seperate pile, Member cards and Live Show cards are shuffled together in the "main pile"
The main area of the play space has three rows: There is a front row (for sideways cards) and a middle row (called the "Stage", for upright cards) with three slots each, plus a back row where you will keep the Energy cards you draw
Other places on the mat: the discard pile called the "Waiting Room", and a stack where you keep Live Show cards after you win rounds as a point counter
A Member card has:
Energy cost, ticket in the top right - how much it costs to bring this Member onto the Stage
Penlight icons in the top left - if this Member is on Stage when attempting a Live Show, you can draw this many cards from your deck as Support
Hearts (top left, normal orientation, below Penlights) - the hearts this Member contributes to Live Shows when on Stage. These come in six types based on the attribute colours from SIF All Stars
Support Heart (top left, sideways, above Penlights) - the heart this Member contributes if pulled as a Support
Any number of Skills - we haven't seen them in action during the stream, but they seem to have similar triggers as SIC cards
A Live Show card has:
Requirement, the hearts on the note staff - you need this many hearts to successfully clear this Live Show
Score, top right - a difficulty rating for this Live Show card's requirement, used to decide rounds where both players clear a Live Show
Support Effect (bottom left) - comes into effect when drawn as a Support, can be an extra heart or increase score
Preparing the game:
Start with 6 cards on your hand, drawn from the main pile
Redraw as many as you want, shuffle unwanted cards back into the deck
Start with three Energy cards in your Energy row
Initial player order decided by Rock-Paper-Scissors, winner gets to choose
Rounds:
Each round has two phases: Main Phase and Live Phase
Use the Main Phase to bring Members onto your Stage, then bet on what Live Shows you can clear for the Live Phase
Perform a higher scoring Live Show than your opponent to win the round!
Main Phase:
Turn all your inactive Energy (sideways) to active position (upright)
Draw one Energy from your Energy pile into your Energy row. That means that every turn, you'll have one more Energy available naturally, to enter stronger and stronger Member cards
Also, draw one card from your main pile to your hand (if the draw pile runs out at any point, shuffle your Waiting Room and make that your new main pile)
Then, in any order and as many times as you like:
a) Enter a Member card onto the Stage from your hand using your drawn Energy - mark the amount of Energy cards needed inactive (by turning them sideways)
b) Use Activatable Skills (light blue) from Members you have entered
You may not want to use all of your Energy to enter Members, as there are some Skills that you can only activate by paying Energy
You can also do a Baton Pass: move a Member cards already on the Stage (for at least one turn) to the Waiting Room. This allows you to enter a more expensive Member card, by reducing its Energy cost by the Energy cost of the removed Member
Once Player 1 is done with their Main Phase, Player 2 plays through their Main Phase, then go to the Live Phase
Live Phase:
Unlike the Main Phase, the Live Phase is played step by step between the two players
Step 1: Put as many cards from your hand as you want face-down in the front row of the Stage, and draw as many cards as you put down from the main pile. They don't have to be Live Show cards
Step 2: After both players put their cards down, they reveal them at the same time, and move all non-Live Show cards to their Waiting Room
(Members discarded this way have no effect - it's just a chance to discard and redraw cards in your hand, or to trick your opponent into thinking you're playing multiple Live cards)
Players who have Live cards in their front row after this go to Step 3, otherwise skip it
Live Phase, Step 3 - The Performance:
Attempt the Live Show you set up by fulfilling the Heart requirements of the leftover cards
First, for each Penlight on your Member cards on the Stage, draw a Support card from your main pile. If they have Support Hearts or Effects, they can be used for the Performance
Match the Heart requirements on the Live Show cards with those on the Member cards on the Stage and the Support cards you drew
If the required Hearts are colored and have symbols, only that type of Heart can match the requirement
Some Support Hearts say "ALL" - they are wildcards and can match any requirement
Some Live Show cards have grey, symbol-less Heart requirements - they can be matched with any kind of Heart
If you can meet all the Hearts requirement of all your Live Show cards in the front row, the Performance is successful!
Member cards on the Stage are not discarded after the Live Phase, but any cards drawn as Support are moved to the Waiting Room
Scoring:
If only one player has successfully cleared their Live Shows, they automatically win the round
If both player cleared their Live Shows, sum up the scores of the Live cards, the player with the higher score wins the round
If the players were successful, but tied in score, both get a point - unless you are one away from winning. You must score your final point with a clean win, not a tie!
The winner(s) move(s) a Live Show card into their point counter stack. If they have reached the required amount of points, they have won the game!
Otherwise, a new round begins back at the Main Phase. If the last round was not a tie, the winner of the last round goes first this time.
If you notice something off in the stream compared to these rules, or don't understand something, let me know and I'll check it out!
Since as I said there is a lot of similarities to SIC, I think I can spin off a new version of the SIC Translation Site, and make it a LoveCa database - depending on how complete the card list on the official site will be. If you are interested in checking out or playing the TCG when it comes out in February, throw me a message, maybe we can make a little group and get some English info about the game out there together :)
I posted this on twitter a while back but I”m still having feelings about it so.
and I got McDonalds AND the loveca. #treatyoself #dontoverthinkhavefun
