MoonShadow and AlexChurchill picked up starter packs for this CCG at AyaCon. The mechanics are refreshingly novel, in MoonShadow's opinion, and there appears to be some depth to it.
Note that, according to a game shop local to Kazuhiko, it is not actually available in the UK and they have no confirmation that it will be released here! He only had one starter pack and two boosters on a promotional basis (and wasn't prepared to sell them! :) )
Hmmm. The official site will ship to the UK, but P&P is $15 on any order. There may be other sellers online cheaper. Hmm. --AC
The [Sheffield Space Centre] sells it (currently under What's New->Anime & Manga), at Starter Deck £7.99/deck, £86.00/box, Booster Packs £2.25/pack, £60/box. For those in the US, the official site sells decks and boosters by mail order, for roughly the same numerical value but in dollars :)
AlexChurchill has bought 3 boosters during his time in Washington, and is thus now up for trading some cards and modifying his deck. Did you get those boosters over the holiday from the Sheffield Space Centre, MoonShadow? Or shall we get them to post us some? --AC (this comment can be deleted once I've read the reply)
I didn't get a chance, no. I'm probably gonna look for some in LA. - MoonShadow
Probably not all that useful at the moment, since MoonShadow is coming over here anyway, but I can always buy and post stuff like this over to you. We'd need to work out a good method of money transfer and you would have to be prepared to trust the US postal service (and me, for that matter ^^;;) but I'm quite happy to do things like that. --K
http://www.dothackenemy.com/ contains PDFs of the rulebook, and two 40-card starter decks intended for people to print out in colour and put into card sleeves. Those who know AlexChurchill are welcome to borrow his 60-card starter deck to try a game against someone else with a deck.
Looks moderately interesting from the PDFs... Although I haven't read the main rules yet so I believe I am missing a couple of sections. One thing I couldn't get from the sample rules though: What happens when you play something other than an action as a hidden card? --Kazuhiko
You can't play it, turn it face up or do other things to it unless you come across another card that explicitly lets you. I've seen several monsters that have rewards that let you do things with hidden non-action cards. - MoonShadow
Thanks - I'll probably give this a go some time. From the rules page though it sounds very very much like the mechanics from their StarWars game. I guess this shouldn't be surprising. But that game had a fundamental flaw that both players chased their own strategy and rarely interfered with each other. How does this game avoid that flaw? --Vitenka
Having only played a couple of games, and not experimented with deckbuilding yet, I can't really speak with any degree of detail. But it seems like there's quite some degree of interaction. Your monsters attack the other player, blocked by their PCs. You play PCs to block the other player's monsters. You'll want to build your deck with ways to keep your PCs alive and help them win fights, because otherwise every monster of your opponent's will score, and 7 scores wins the game. --AC
Oh, and MoonShadow: one subtlety of the rules which we missed earlier: each player can only have one of each PC in play. So if I play my [Natsume] (kawaii!), then you can play Natsume as well, but I can't play another unless I sacrifice the first one. I can play a healthy Natsume to replace a wounded one though. --AC
Alex has been experimenting with cloning CuteAnimeGirls? again? --K
Now that's just a blatant attempt to get quoted. --Vitenka
0:) Does it or does it not sound like something Alex would be doing if he could? --K
Have just bought a starter deck and a booster (from some thoroughly, though pleasantly, insane people: "Oooo! You're English!"), does anyone want to attempt an online game? :) Absolute trust would, of course, be required. We could do it on the wiki, which would eliminate time zone problems, but it could take weeks... Alternatively an IRC / messenger program might work. :) --K
I'm up for giving it a go, on the wiki or over the toothychat or on ICQ :) Wiki might be the best bet, actually, because it would make it easier to keep track of the desktop's state. Uh.. what's the time difference? - MoonShadow
8 hours... I'd start a game up on a subpage but I don't have my cards with me and I've not played before :) Will set up tomorrow and we'll see how long it takes... Hmm, first question: How many cards do you have in a deck? Second question: Is this a card reference anyone knows of online or are we going to have to copy full card text to the Wiki? --K
If instructed to 'sacrifice two cards', where must those cards come from? Your hand, your 'in-play' cards, your deck?
"Discard" means from hand, and "sacrifice" means from in play. In play doesn't include your discard pile, but includes everything else face-up. Notably, this includes your score pile: you can sacrifice scored creatures as part of an effect, and they may be destroyed similarly. --AC
OK, that makes sense. What about hidden cards though? Can they be 'sacrificed'? --K
Mph. They can be destroyed (I've seen card text that says "destroy a hidden card"). I don't remember seeing card text that says "sacrifice a hidden card", but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some - I'll look through the card lists later.. - MoonShadow
IIRC the rulings are that you can sacrifice them to anything which wants you to sacrifice a "card" or a "hidden card". But not to, eg, "sacrifice a Goblin", even if they are actually a Goblin, because that knowledge isn't public. Or something like that. --AC
If, during a fight, your PC is instructed to 'draw 1 fewer destiny' does this mean drawing one fewer destiny card (which would mean simply not drawing a destiny card??) or does it mean that your 'destiny' is one less than the destiny on the card you draw?
I'm pretty sure it means one fewer destiny card, which will be rather harsh unless you also have something letting them draw "one extra destiny" card. Such cards exist, but I don't think any are in the starter packs... oh, except Kite now I think of it. Basically, Ginkan is good cause of his base strength 2, but don't let him fight more than one enemy. --AC
One fewer strength would put Ginkan back at the same base level as everyone else against multiple enemies, one fewer destiny renders him almost useless. I guess you are probably right but it is a very odd way of phrasing it --K
It's standard decipher wording - draw n destiny means 'draw n cards for their destiny' whereas destiny of n means 'has a value of n for destiny'. It is, indeed, an evil disadvantage. --Vitenka
Having now played it, I'd just like to say that it is better balanced than I expected, and several of the more obvious problems have been avoided. The basic mechanic is the 'one card a turn' thing - expect anything that allows you to get cards into play faster than this to have a very high strategic advantage. It is an odd mechanic that you win as monsters - the PCs are purely defensive. I mean, it's just the same from a gameplay pov, merely unintuitive that you are the game and are attempting to win rather than playing a (group of) PC(s). Aaanyway. One thing that I thought of as a quick 'is my deck a complete crock or not' check: I play first and play a strength two monster every turn. I always attack if I can wound your PC or do better (given an equal destiny draw) otherwise I store until I can overwhelm you. Can you not-lose against this? --Vitenka (Odd how the PCs inevitably eventually lose, isn't it? Monsters stack indefinately whereas you can only have about +9 on a PC at most.)
It is funny that as the monsters' numbers keep growing, the PCs get more and more likely to be wounded. Of course, in the right deck, PCs can be healed from those wounds without losing all their equipment, and some attackers can be returned to owner's hands before they get to fight, and things. But yes - it seems more realistic than most fantasy RPGs, which is rather funny given this is the one game specifically not trying to break the cliches of fantasy RPGs, due to being set inside one :) --AC
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