PDF TCGs???

[malladin]

I was wondering if it was possible to produce a TCG over pdf??

Any thoughts on whether this is possible or not?

I noticed one product that kind of does this (a pdf 'collector card game' based on radio stations), but was wondering how you could manage getting the varied cards in the packs, etc.

One idea I had was to have a website set up which stored all the cards in a database and have RPGNow give the buyer a random code. this code could then be automatically converted into a random selection from the database which could then be converted on the website to pdfs for printing. You could even have a user logon that stored away all your cards and you could design a deck online and print out the cards you needed as and when.

Also, does anyone know the legal stuff about TCGs, I seem to remember hearing something about Richard Garfield patenting the core concepts so that he gets money from every TCG made. Is this true? if so how do people usually get around it or arrange licencing??

cheerio,

Ben

 

[Cergorach]

*makes a cross with his fingers*

Go back you foul creature!

;-)

TCGs how foul!

You can dynamically generate PDFs, and thus randomly fill your pdf.

 

[Heyoka_James]

I have no idea if such a thing would fly or not nor could I speak about Garfield's royalties (assuming that is true). However, I will admitt that I find your idea fascinating.

The only real stumbling blocks that you face (and anyone who makes PDF card games) is that the buyer will have to make their own cards. They'll have to find at least one other person to play against (unless you design it for solo play) and they'll need a large number of cards for variety in play.

You can get around the card requirements by just making large amounts of cards and a buyer gets a large pull of randomized cards per purchase (at least twenty or more). Making it solo play helps cut down in the need to find players but really can hurt the fun of smack talking a opponent

The biggest is still the need to have to make your own cards which can be a real pain with some printers. Also, and I can't speak from experience, sales of PDF card games have been pretty low.

I'd be very interested to see how your idea goes if you choose to pursue it.

 

[jmucchiello]

The only real stumbling blocks that you face (and anyone who makes PDF card games) is that the buyer will have to make their own cards. They'll have to find at least one other person to play against (unless you design it for solo play) and they'll need a large number of cards for variety in play.

And that is a big stumbling block to anything collectable. Also, PDF card games don't really sell.

Of course if you make the cards really big (page size), you can just put each card in a PDF by itself and zip up the random collection of PDFs. Thus you don't need a PDF generator on the website, just access to a zip program.

You are probably better off programming a website to play a TCG live (like meaningful dungeon dudes) then bothering with an actual card game.

 

[jmucchiello]

Also, does anyone know the legal stuff about TCGs, I seem to remember hearing something about Richard Garfield patenting the core concepts so that he gets money from every TCG made. Is this true? if so how do people usually get around it or arrange licencing??

I believe (and again I could be offbase) the only patent Garfield owns in the TCG arena is that of "tapping" cards: rotating a card 90 degrees to indicate it is no longer active. Lots of other TCGs get around this by flipping cards, moving cards and many other synonyms for indicating the card is out of play for the turn.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

I actually developed a product along these lines back around 1996 or so. However, it was no a PDF-based system, but something that was going to be distributed via web

First thing I did was dispose of the traditional sense of collectibility. There were no commons, uncommons, or rares; just cards that were printed as needed (and with the rules I wrote, one could need quite a few). The collectibility was to come in the form of limited edition cards featuring alternate artwork by someone famous in one art world or another. The limited edition card would be sold a fixed number of times then become unavailable. By doing this, I also greatly reduced the influence of a wallet on the final outcome.

Anyway, what I wrote was a card-based, boardless scifi wargame set in an interstellar conflict between two waring species of life. Players broke into two teams, each team representing a different species. Players then assembled their decks as they saw fit based upon point values assigned to the cards. Last step was to roll some dice, create an area of space to fight over, and start the game. Each player would represent a planetary garrison, space fleet, or invading force, as the team decided.

As the game progresses, each player uses resources made available to create more resources, military units, or even advantageous situations in the game, which requires either recycling the cards in the grave yard or printing out new cards.

As playtesting continued, three levels of rules eventually developed, skirmish, battle, and campaign levels, ranging from a two-player game fighting over a city, up to a two team multiplayer game fighting over entire star spanning empires. In the final playtest game, we had 42 people playing a campaign level game, consuming 3500 square feet of office space, in a game that took three weeks to conclude and ended up with over 47,000 cards put into play...

Unfortunately, I never did manage to round up any decent art for the cards (everyone interested in doing artwork submitted dark goth nonsense far better suited for VtM than any scifi game), so the game faded into the obscurity of the countless games never published for mass consumption.