RPG Additions/Changes.

[Carthain]

Okay -- first off, I'm not expecting this for our current run. I'm just brainstorming ideas of what to add/change if we do another run.

Here's how I'm classifying things (or: "Here's a bone Simon.")

Flavor: This idea is sparked on the idea of it being Flavorful. I see this variation as being very flavorful, as it picks up on the flavor of the magic game, and builds more upon it (each player being an actual planeswalker, and building up their power base in different ways.) If we can find more ways to enhance the flavor inherent in the magic game -- cool! ^_^
Variation: This idea should allow for more variation in the game. Now, there's lots of variation around, but there may be some forced conformity where it isn't really needed.
Power: This idea will likely add more power to the decks -- as I can see it likely to be used.

1) Separate starting planes. (Flavor, Variation)
Okay, so supposedly we're planeswalkers -- and we are all starting from the same position as far as spells go (limited to standard, unless you buy memory -- or limited to all commons if not using that stat.). But wouldn't it be a bit more interesting if the opposing planeswalkers were from differing planes?

So instead, have everyone choose a block in which they are starting from. Then they have access to all commons from that block. And to increase the card pool a bit at the beginning -- we'll just call Dominaria the battlegrounds area, and give everyone access to all commons if they were in a core set.

That applies the flavor of differing planeswalkers more, as well as the flavor of Dominaria being the main gathering place for planeswalkers to duel.

2) Ability: Home Turf Advantage (Flavor, Power)
This ties in with the previous change, as it assumes that everyone has a starting plane, and that it isn't going to be the same for everyone.

This is pretty simple. Put a point into this ability, and choose a set from your home plane (starting block). You now gain access to all rares from one set of your choice from that block. Put a second point in, and you gain access to all rares from that block.

.... Depending on how the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks end up, this may treat them as separate blocks (as they are their own blocks, and not done together in limited), or as one large super-block (MaRo calls it an "über-block" and constructed will treat it as a single block.) Considering how everything seems to feel with the RPG, as it feels more constructed than limited -- I think treating it as a single block would be best.

Now, this *will* make things more powerful, as this is probably the best way in the game to gain access to the cards. So it would likely be best to either increase the number of points required for this (1+1 seems pretty damn cheap) -- or put level limits on the abilities -- or give them out automatically at specific levels (see next thought.)

3) Specific Bonus Abilities at specific levels. (Power)
Rob brought this one up, and it's definitely got potential, and flexibility on how it is implemented.

Rob's idea is that every 3 or 4 levels, you automatically get a talent (or a bonus point that is only for talents.) That's pretty simple & straight forward. The only potential problem I see with this, is that (assuming a bonus talent every 3 levels) it creates a much larger rift between planeswalkers of levels 3 & 4, than planeswalkers of levels 2 & 3.

Another option I could see with this as I touched on in the previous enumeration -- is that at set levels, you get specific benefits. So, incorporating the previous ideas, we could say that at level 3, you automatically gain access to all the rares from one set in your starting block. And then at level 6, you gain access to all the other rares. We just need to determine if anything special should happen if you bought cards through another ability that overlaps this (would you get the points back? Or would that be a 'cost' of accessing them earlier?)

Another option could be to set aside X abilities, and only allow those to be taken at the levels when you get this "bonus" ability.

4) Create Paths (Flavor)
This would be to kind of create a 'path' that your planeswalker follows -- and you can only get various powers/talents by being on the path (btw, this is totally just "thinking out loud" here -- no idea if this would actually be a good idea or not ^_^)

Basically -- you could have a couple paths ("Summoner", "Abjurer", "Enchanter", "Artificer", "Prismatic", etc.) Each one of those paths would have benefits at certain levels (or, if we can manage it, at all levels.) It'd be nice if one could swap back and forth between the paths (kinda like multi-classing if you will ^_^) and be able to combine the abilities a bit.

Here's a sample of what I'm thinking.
Artificer:
1: You may play creatures with converted casting cost of X or less with colourless mana, where X is equal to the number of Artificer Path abilities you have [current Artificer ability, but with auto-growth if you stick to the path]
2: You gain access to all common & uncommon Artificer cards (based on creature type.)
3: You gain access to all Urza's Lands (based on land type - this is currently the Urza-tron + Urza's Factory)
4: {4}: Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to
5: You gain access to Mishra's Factory + Mishra's Workshop
6: Your non-creature artifacts cost {1} less to cast [cloudkey]
7: You gain access to all rare Artificer cards (based on creature type.)
8: All permanents in play are artifacts in addition to they're other types
9: [Mishra, Artificer Prodigy Ability]
10: {5}: Gain control of target artifact.

So, it gives abilities that build off each other -- but someone on a different path may want to dip into (gaining access to the urza-tron in one go? Sure, why not!)

.... and now it's time to go home, so I'll put up more ideas later ^_^

[sclocke]

Separate Starting Planes:
I really like this idea. I say we implement this when we start up our next RPG.

Home Turf Advantage:
Gaining access to allrares from a single set seems like a bit much, especially for one power point. Perhaps choosing three rares from across the block for 1 point would be more balanced? I like the idea--gaining access to more than one rare at a time while keeping in line with the planes flavour--but it definitely needs some tweaking.

Specific Abilities at Specific Levels:
The idea I like better is putting level requirements on some of the abilities. For example, that ability that gains you access to all Time Spiral Timeshifted cards can only cost 1 point, but you need to be at least Level 5 to take it. (Alternatively, for that ability, we could make it cost 3 points, which denies that pool of cards until Level 4.)

Create Paths:
This is definitely interesting, but would require a lot of work and a lot of tweaking so that we can create several paths that are more-or-less balanced with each other. I must confess, though, that multi-classing paths seems like way too much fun.