Realmcasters
A Collectible Card Game designed & developed by MTGEmperor

Realmcasters is a strategy-based card game where you use cards to develop magic and summon allies. The ultimate goal of this game is to reduce your opponents hit points of 50 down to zero before they do the same to you.

Some of the basic cards that a deck should have are:
• Allies
• Spells
• Effigies
• Terra

Each of these four basic card types has sub-types. Some Spells are Interrupts and some Artifacts are Gear.

The Character card has some special abilities within the text box (these will be discussed later). This is the Main Character; you. Notice the three numbers on top of three symbols on the bottom right corner of the card. They are:
• Attack Strength – the power that your character can deal to your opponents.
• Shield Strength – the armor of your character.
• Magic Level – the level of magic your character can perform. This level is constant, but can be raised due to Field Spells and Interrupts.
However, there are some character cards called Allies and they must be paid by Terra cards to play them. These Allies have their “three-number-score” but are the only character cards that have a Terra cost.

The Spell cards are important. These spells increase your character’s strength, decrease your opponent’s strength, and other special effects. They can even counter spells from ever hitting the playing field and even permanently increase your character’s effects and numbers. They are three sub-types of spell cards:
• Interrupts – spells that can be played anytime
• Sorceries – spells that can be played only during the main phase
• Enchantments – spells that add effects to characters, your side of the field, and even the entire duel
Spell cards are displayed by level on the bottom right portion of the card. You cannot play a spell if the level of the card is higher than your character’s Magic Level.

The Terra cards are very important; these cards help bring out spells and bring out allies to help you fight. These cards are represented by different land types which are symbolized by color.

The Effigy cards are pretty simple. They are brought by paying the Terra cost but unlike regular spell cards, they have no level and no color even though they have a colored border. That means a player can have as many artifacts they want in their deck.

Deck Construction Rules
Decks have a minimum of 60 cards and cannot have any more than 4 copies of any one card, with the exception of Terra cards. Players can have as many Terra cards as they want but should be able to have spells, allies, and artifacts. The deck can be larger than 60 but you have to be able to shuffle the deck without help.

In a deck, players can have any number of colors within it. So don’t exclude a “rainbow” deck as thought because it is legal. But some cards will be able to boost the power of the spells if they are the same color as the main character.

Rule #1: A player can only have 1 main character card in play.

Basic Game-play
At the beginning of each duel, a choosing method to determine who goes first will be implemented. So flipping a coin, Rock-Paper-Scissors, or rolling a die are some ways to do this.
When the first player is determined, both players show their main character and place it on the table. After placing the main character card on the field, both players draw seven cards. The first player does not get to draw a card on his first turn. The maximum hand size is 8 cards. Here is the basic game-play turn for one player:
Unpump – Upkeep – Draw – Main Phase – Battle Phase – 2nd Main Phase – End

At the beginning of every turn, the player gets to unpump their cards, if they are pumped. Again, to pump, turn the card 90 degrees. To unpump, just turn the card right-side up. However, there are a few cards within the game in which you can Double Pump. Double Pump means you can pump the Terra twice for one spell; that is, pumping it 180 degrees. However, during the unpump step, you can unpump it once. So it takes two turns to turn the Terra card right side up as opposed to one turn.

Some Enchantment spells will have a special effect during the Upkeep stage. The effects will be written on the cards themselves.

The Draw stage is pretty important. During this phase, a player gets to draw an additional card to their hand. During this stage, a player can automatically play a Terra card. A player can only play 1 Terra card per turn.

The Main Phase is pretty important. This is the phase when the player in turn can activate Sorcery cards. The same can be said of the Enchantments, Ally summons, and Effigy summons. However, some will have the special ability of Sudden Play. Sudden Play can be played any time; just like Interrupts. To play a spell, a player must pump their Terra to get the energy out to play the spell.

During the Battle Phase, there is a lot going on. When attacking, the player must pump to attack. Remember, when attacking your opponent, you are really attacking his character. Each player has 50 hit points. The ultimate goal is to reduce your opponents hit points down to zero. Damage calculation goes as such.

For example, in a basic character battle (character versus character), two numbers are taken into account; the Attack Strength and the Shield Strength. If the Attack Strength of your character is lower than your opponents Shield Strength, damage is calculated by the difference to you. If the Attack Strength is equal to your opponents Shield Strength, a stalemate will occur and no damage to either party. If the Attack Strength of your character is greater than your opponents Shield Strength, the difference is calculated into your opponents hit points.
Reminder: when your character’s Shield Strength has been penetrated (reduced to 0), he is not destroyed. His Shield Strength will be regenerated at the end of the turn.

If a character uses an Interrupt to increase their characters Shield Strength, damage calculation is calculated like normal.

The Golden Rule of Battle
When a player attacks, the player is attacking the main character. The opposing player can defend by using their allies, if they choose to. Unlike the main character, once the ally’s Shield Strength is reduced to zero, they are destroyed.
A player can defend with two allies. But the Attack Strength is taken into consideration when attacking two allies. If the opponent defends with two allies, the attacking player can decide how much damage is given to the allies of the opponent.

When a character attacks, they cannot activate an ability the character possesses. Once the character is pumped, the effects cannot be played unless it is a battle ability. For example, Double Swing lowers the defending character’s Shield Strength by 2.

The Golden Rule of Game-Play
Like many card games out there, if a card has an effect that contradicts the rules, the card takes precedence. This comes in handy especially with Interrupts and some Enchantments.
 
Colors of Cards
Blue – the color of knowledge. Alchemy and sorcery are your greatest weapons.
Black – the color of death. Necromancy and mind control is your ultimate goal.
Red – the color of power. Destruction is the name of your game.
White – the color of strength. Protection of your citizens gives you your strength.
Green – the color of nature. Protecting nature and druidism gives you vitality.
Brown – the color of artifice. Crafting metallic creatures and artifact is your trade.

Special Static Effects of Characters
Double Swing – Reduces attacked character’s Shield Strength by 2
Duplication – Doubles the level of character if spell card is the same color and spell effect is doubled
Fierce – Increases attacking character’s Attack Strength by 3 if no spell was played
Intellect – Reduces Terra cost by one specified Terra card (e.g. Rivers Intellect)
Protector – Increases defending character’s Shield Strength by 3

Special Effects of Spell Cards and Ally Cards
Double Pump – Pump one land to get two out but cannot use Terra card until it is fully unpumped.
Sudden Play – Play card as though it were an Interrupt
Elevate – Increase magic level range of a Spell
 
Color Description by Spells, Allies, and Artifact Bonuses
Let’s start talking about the individual colors by discussing the types of bonuses a character gets when a player plays certain spells and artifacts. Let us begin with Blue.

Blue, as mentioned earlier, is the color of knowledge. The Terra card associated with Blue energy is Rivers. Now blue energy is all about controlling the field to keep it clean and use the knowledge of your opponent’s past to get a one-up on them.
Many of the allies that blue characters have are usually called Illusions. These allies have no shape nor form so they can gain special battle abilities from your old allies whom have been sent to the graveyard. The most common static ability that blue characters have is Duplication. Because blue is the color of knowledge, if a player plays a blue spell alongside a blue character, the effect of the spell is doubled as well as the magic level of your character. Because of this, a blue character can constantly overpower your opponent’s mind with many blue spell cards.

Now black is the color of death and violence. Unlike most of the other colors, black has two associated Terra cards: Bogs and Alleys. Because of the duo-land association, there are many different methods to use the black energy efficiently. One of their special traits they share is reducing the strength of a spell or the strength of a character.
Many of the allies associated with Alley Blacks are called Goons. These allies are hired mercenaries from gangs so they can serve their leader and character . . . for a price, of course. The spells associated with Alley Black characters are mainly force and “putting your eye out for both of your opponents”. The most common allies associated with Bog Blacks are Zombies. Bog Black uses necromancy and curses to get gain an advantage over on your opponent.

Red, as mentioned before, is the color of power and chaos. Just like blue Terra, red has only one Terra card associated: Mountains. Red energy is all about direct damage with strength enhancing with power.
Most of the allies within the color of red have many different types. However, one of the few types is Beasts. They are often called Pets due to their protective nature towards their master. Because of this many red “pets” have Protector as a static ability. These Beasts also have a Paid Ability to add Protector to their master. The spells within the color of red are all about direct damage and enhancing their strength through energy and force.

White is the color of order and peace. It, like black, has two Terra card associated with white energy; those are Meadows and Fields. These two Terra function the same way but have special Allies and spells associated with the different two.
Meadow White Allies are often called Officers. Think of them as the police of the roads. Most of the Officers have a paid Protector cost. Some Officers have special Protector powers, such as Character Protector. This means they can only gain Protector Improvements if they protect the Main Character. The Fields White Allies are usually Pets. There are a few Beasts and special animal types. Due to their nature as pets, most of them have Protector. White is all about protecting the master and keeping a sense of order.

Green is the color of growth and nature. There is only one Terra card associated with green and that is Woods. Green energy is all about strengthening up Allies and keeping them strong, using the trees and beasts.
Woods Allies are often beast-types but there are a few humanoid creature races. However, the humanoid creature races such as the Quirions are druids and therefore can use Woods Intellect to pump up the spells for the beast allies.

Brown is the color of construction. The Terra card associated with Brown energy is Cliffs.
Brown cards rely on building artifacts and creating Automatons, the Brown Allies. There are still a few beast types in there and even some humanoid races. One of the primary humanoids are the Swards. Swards are a culture devoted to building the best automatons and creating brand new magic spells. Brown spells help create more Allies and bring out artifacts.
 
Magic Levels
As aforementioned, every Ally and Character card has a magic level. Allies typically have their Magic level much lower than the Main Character card, but there are times when an Ally has a high magic level than the Main Character card either statically or through the effects of certain Interrupts and/or Enchantments.
During normal play, players cannot play Spells that are of a higher level than their Main Character card. This can be avoided by having an Ally with a higher magic level but with a static ability of Elevate. Elevate can extend the range of a magic level. However, there are certain rules to be considered in order of what happened.

If an Ally is destroyed through the effect of an Interrupt before you played a spell higher than the magic level of your Main Character card, the spell does not take effect because the Ally was destroyed first.
If the Ally was destroyed after you played the spell, the spell is still in effect.

There are a group of cards called Ally Spells, in which they can perform spells that are higher than the Main Character cards.

...I've never really played any sort of CCG, myself. Watched, yes... Listened to others talk, yes... Gawked at the artwork on the cards, abso-friggin-lutely!

That said, I know there are a good number of Innmates that are total CCG geeks and could provide you with more helpful input on this than I ever could, MTG... Sooooo, Innmates o' mine, how about it? Any of you CCG fiends (or f(r)iends *cough* Pit *cough* got any words of wisdom for our mate, here?


P.S. Despite never having played, reading your post, there, has definitely made all the times I've watched make more sense... Good stuff, MTG! Thanks for sharing with us! +1

The first thing that comes to mind is depending on the amount of damage one is capable of dealing to someone's main character at a time, this could be a potentially insanely long game.

I would actually have to sit and play a couple games before I think I could really grasp the gameplay too firmly but since it borrows rules from MTG and I'm guessing just a little bit from L5R I think I can piece together enough to say from what you have here it seems like it would be fun to play.

I am going to tease a bit and say I don't think you need to point out what is and what isn't important. If it isn't an important step, you probably can exclude it entirely, unless it's a munchkin game then you have to have all the extra steps no matter how useless.

Just going to throw this request out here for the sake of girl gamers everywhere. If you ever start making real cards for this. HAVE HOT MALE CHARACTERS!!!

This will take a little time to digest, but kudos for the ambitious idea, MTGEmporer!

Male characters will obviously be in there, whether they are hot or not is up to the artists.

There is no limit to how much damage can be inflicted onto a character. As long as you deal 50 points of damage either through combat or through spells, there is no limit.