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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogs"Domain: Lords of Ether" a Tabletop Card Game by A Jolly Corpse
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Author Topic: "Domain: Lords of Ether" a Tabletop Card Game by A Jolly Corpse  (Read 1916 times)
Jesse
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« on: March 25, 2013, 02:51:35 PM »


Domain: Lords of Ether is on Kickstarter now! Check out some videos of it below, where myself and Rick from Box of Delights go through some of the basics and show some gameplay!



All the cards for the first volume have been completed (at least tentatively) and we're currently in the middle of our alpha test with local Colorado gamers. But we're interested in getting some people from TIGS involved too! So we've uploaded a


This PDF contains the full rules (which are a bit ugly to look at right now, but will be prettied up!) as well as a full set of cards for you to print out. The rules are approaching completion, but there are still a few issues we're working on addressing.

We've also "finished" nearly all the art. I use quotes because we've only been able to spend a few hours on each piece thus far. We'd love to double or quadruple that amount of time in the coming months to make the cards look super pro. We'd also love to find some other interested artists to contribute! Here's some more samples:





Lastly, we've started a website at LordsofEther.com which, while a tad sparse at the moment, will soon be home to loads of info about the game!


You might notice a counter at the bottom... that'd be our schedule for launching a Kickstarter for the project! We're planning to launch the campaign in June, and we hope to have all your help!



Hi all! Jesse from A Jolly Corpse here :D

Beau and I have been working on a tabletop card game, and I wanted to show you guys. Video games are our one true passion of course, but hey, if all goes well this could get a digital version too! Thus I bring you "Domain: Lords of Ether"!

Pictures!

Because you want to see what it looks like before you read a wall of text, right? Here are some WIP shots of some of our card designs so far:

We've been spending 4-8 hours on art per card so far, but if there's enough interest in the game we hope to be able to spend much more

Background

Domain is sort of a mix of Magic: The Gathering and Risk played with cards, one 6-sided die, and tokens (like poker chips). It takes place in the dark, fantasy world of Abhaddon, a realm where the prosperity of humans and other industrious species is constantly undermined by the warring of the greedy and powerful Ether Lords. These mystical beings take the form of tyrannical wizards, ancient deities, giant creatures, and legendary spirits. They vary vastly, but what they share is that they wield control over a magical energy called Ether, which has the power not only to give life, but also to take it away.

This energy originates in the ethereal plane - a mysterious “second universe” that exists in tandem with the material plane but operates under its own natural laws. The ether plane is home to impossibly massive clusters of swirling ether energy in the form of billions of souls. Anything living in the material plane has a matching soul in the ether plane, but there exist millions upon millions of souls beyond that. A soul’s ether can be manipulated by a skilled user of magic to exercise dominion over a monster or cast a hex. These energies bleed into Abhaddon through places of strong connection called Soul Wells.


Objective

You control one of these powerful ether lords, and they serve as your leader and movement piece. Each lord worships one of five Domains - Faith, Order, Deception, Chaos, or Gloom. They also have a base Ether Pool from which to conjure monsters, hexes, and traps. The objective of the game is to be the first player to expand her lord’s ether pool to 20 by conquering the soul wells scattered about the world - a world which the players build themselves.

The v.0.0.0.1 alpha! And beautiful Beau.

On each turn you draw and play a world card, which currently is either a road or a soul well (we’d love to have more types of location in the future). Roads must connect, and soul wells can be connected to any road. You then roll to move your ether lord and attempt to claim an unowned soul well or invade a claimed one. To do this, you’ll need to arm yourself with three different types of conjure:

Conjures

Monsters: These creatures serve to guard your soul wells and invade others. They each have an ether cost and a power rating, which is used to determine the outcome of battles. In many cases they have abilities, which are used automatically during combat, or sometimes at other points in the game. Unlike hexes and traps, monsters require constant upkeep, using their value in ether at the end of every turn. Monsters may be sent to the Abyss to recover this value at any time, or may be placed back into your hand if on the same tile as your lord. Monsters can only be played on your turn.


Hexes: Hexes have instant effects and can be cast at any time - even when it’s not your turn - provided you have the reserve ether necessary to cast them. This ether is spent instantly, and replenished at the start of your next turn. Hexes can be stacked, and resolve last to first. So if one player casts an offensive hex, and the target player then casts a cancel hex, and the first player casts another hex reducing the second player’s ether low enough they couldn’t have cast the cancel hex, the original offensive hex also succeeds. Spent hexes go to the Abyss (graveyard), whether or not their effects succeeded.

Traps: As a player moves along the roads they may choose to set a trap on any of the tiles they pass over (provided they have enough reserve ether to set it). Traps may not be placed in soul wells. Traps are activated when a player passes over the tile and fails a roll (rolls 3 or under). If a trap is passed over by the lord who set it, that player may decide whether or not to spring the trap. Traps are not persistent. Once sprung, they go to the Abyss, like used hexes and dead monsters.

The current card backs

I suppose that’s enough info to read for now! I'll talk more about the domains, about combat, and about the ether lords themselves in future updates.

Our goal with the project is to make something competitive and fantastical that CCG geeks will love, but that’s still easy enough to learn that it provides fun for more casual board game lovers as well. We’re moving along quickly, and have already ordered our first alpha decks from The Game Crafters. We’re super excited to get them so we can start real testing, and start shooting tutorial and test videos.

And though there's no digital version for you to play, we plan to create some instant printable decks in PDF form. If people are interested in helping us test the game, we’d love to make them available here!

Be back with more soon!
« Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 04:40:14 PM by Jesse » Logged

Jesse
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« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2013, 12:08:43 PM »

Hi all! Have added a bunch of new info in the first post! So be sure to check that out. And just for fun, here's some more pics:



















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Connor
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« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2013, 01:46:18 PM »

interesting... if i may be allowed to ask, how does one play?
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Firearrow games
www.firearrowgames.net

blitzkampfer:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=52009.msg1280646#msg1280646

too bad eggybooms ents are actually men in paper mache suits and they NEED to be agile
happymonster
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« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2013, 01:59:36 PM »

Beautiful card designs there.  Kiss
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Jesse
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« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2013, 06:40:18 PM »

interesting... if i may be allowed to ask, how does one play?
Of course! The very abbreviated version is this:

To start:

1. All players pick the Ether Lord they wish to play for the game. Each Lord has special abilities and an amount of starting ether to use to conjure monsters, hexes, and traps.
2. Place the "Start" card at the center of all players, place player movement tokens here, and roll for order.
3. First player draws a "World" card and plays it, followed by the next person, continuing until a soul well has been drawn for each player. This constructs the initial world.
4. Each player draws 5 "Conjures" and play can begin.

Objective:

The object of the game is to conquer the soul wells and take control of their ether. As your ether pool increases, you can conjure more monsters and traps and cast more hexes. The first player to reach 20 total ether wins!

Each turn:

1. Draw a world card and play it, then draw a conjure card.
2. Roll the die for movement. You can move any amount up to what you roll. Move around the world, attempting to conquer the soul wells. You can lay a trap at any point during your movement on a road that you travel by paying its ether cost.
3. For an open soul well, simply move into it to claim it. You can then defend it by placing monsters face down on it, with their cost placed in chips on top. If the soul well is being defended by another player, combat starts. You can battle with monsters up the the amount of ether you have.
4. Hexes are spells with instant effects that can change the game. They can be cast at any time, even when it's not your turn, so it's a good idea to leave some ether open for them if you can.
5. After movement and combat are finished, pass your turn.

Combat:

Cards are laid face down in the order you wish them to fight, then each player flips their first monster. Any abilities the monsters have in their descriptions are activated. After abilities, damage is assigned to each monster based on the opponent's power. Power acts as both attack and hit points. When one dies, the next in line moves to replace it and is flipped. When combat is finished any surviving monsters remain in the soul well and their power regenerates.


That's the gist of it! Hopefully between that and the above images you can get an idea of play! I'll probably whip up some quick videos soon based on this very description, so thanks for asking Wink If you have any questions, please ask those too!

There are also comprehensive rules in that pdf, if you're looking for some reading material Wink

Beautiful card designs there.  Kiss
Thank you! :D
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fylth
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« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2013, 03:41:54 AM »

Wow, very pretty looking card game you have there, definitely considering backing you once your kickstarter is up.

As someone who has also had plans for creating a card/board game at some point, would you mind me asking how much it cost to get the prototype cards you're using in the video printed?
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Jesse
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« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2013, 11:54:44 AM »

Wow, very pretty looking card game you have there, definitely considering backing you once your kickstarter is up.

As someone who has also had plans for creating a card/board game at some point, would you mind me asking how much it cost to get the prototype cards you're using in the video printed?
Awesome! Will keep this page up to date as we come up to it :D

And yes, we used The Game Crafter for our prototypes and have been very pleased. The original alpha decks were just $15 (including two tuck boxes we no longer use - without these it's something like $9 for 100 cards), and the second prototypes with pawns, chits, and 140 cards were $18. Our full beta box will probably be around $25 as we've added some more components. They have bulk pricing available, but it's still much too high to use for actual production. Their website's very powerful and you can build your entire game right on the site, and production time is about 2 weeks. Shipping's a bit pricy unfortunately, averaging about 15-20% of our orders so far, but it's fast and you get tracking at least.

Highly recommended for prototypes!
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Beau
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« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2013, 05:23:56 AM »

Hey all! I am working with Jesse on this project and I wanted to announce that the Kickstarter for Domain is now live! We'd love any support you can muster.

The link is: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/331328470/domain-lords-of-ether-tabletop-strategy-and-card-c?ref=activity

Jesse had a busy weekend at ComicCon Denver where Wyv and Keep, Smashbox and Domain were shown to nearly thousands of anxious viewers! Here are some photos:




We'll continue to update this page with more info, but check out the kickstarter and see if you'd be interested in supporting us! If nothing else, spread the word!
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Connor
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« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2013, 09:26:32 AM »

alright, i think ive gotten the gist of it, thanks! hoping to see this released commercially :O
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Firearrow games
www.firearrowgames.net

blitzkampfer:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=52009.msg1280646#msg1280646

too bad eggybooms ents are actually men in paper mache suits and they NEED to be agile
Jesse
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« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2013, 04:32:17 PM »

Hey guys! We've got two more movies about Domain for you! The first is a short video of myself explaining a bit more about the basics of set-up, combat, and using Lord abilities.


And the second an in-depth look at the game by our friend Rick from Box of Delights! He goes into set-up, spending ether, different types of bluffing including apparitions, and explores traps and hexes!


The Kickstarter's almost halfway through and is making a slow climb, and we need your help!

Thanks all, and more soon! Grin
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Jay Tholen
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« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2013, 05:29:00 AM »

Backed.  Cool

This game looks like a blast.
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Dropsy!

Hypnospace Outlaw - You're a cop/moderator of the future-internet, which looks suspiciously like Geocities. Also you have a sweet car.
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